Mortar Attack Kills 13 in East Baghdad

BAGHDAD, Aug. 5 -- At least 13 people were killed Sunday morning when mortar shells rained down on their east Baghdad neighborhood, police said.

At least three mortar rounds hit a major thoroughfare in Mashtal, a predominantly Shiite neighborhood on the eastern outskirts of the capital, according to police. Most of the victims were waiting in line for fuel, an officer said.

Gas station lines have increasingly been targeted in car bomb and mortar attacks because of the potential for a large number of victims. With severe fuel shortages, ever more cars on the streets and the growing popularity of generators, lines often stretch more than a mile. Drivers generally budget six to nine hours to fill their gas tanks.

At least 65 people were killed Thursday in car bomb attacks near two gas stations.

Also Sunday, Hazim al-Araji, a top aide to influential Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, survived an assassination attempt near Sadr's office in the Kadhimiyah neighborhood of Baghdad, police said. Gunmen attacked Araji's convoy as it left a mosque after noon prayers, an officer said.

The attack prompted members of the Mahdi Army, the militia group loyal to Sadr, to return fire. Some media outlets originally reported that the attackers were members of the Iraqi military, but police said they were insurgents. Five of Araji's bodyguards were injured in the clash, but he was unharmed.

Meanwhile, a U.S. military spokesman, Rear Adm. Mark I. Fox, said American forces killed a top member of al-Qaeda in Iraq near Samarra, north of Baghdad, on Thursday. The man, Haitham al-Badri, is believed to be responsible for two bombings of a revered Shiite shrine in Samarra that ignited a wave of sectarian killings.

Iraqi police told The Washington Post last week that they had arrested Badri, but Fox said relatives identified him as one of four suspected insurgents killed in a U.S. airstrike. Fox said U.S. forces had attacked the men when they saw them moving into "tactical fighting positions."

Also Sunday, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki publicly refused to accept the resignations of five cabinet members from the Iraqi Accordance Front, which announced last week that it would quit the government as a protest against Maliki. A statement from the Sunni group said the Accordance Front officials would leave the cabinet without Maliki's approval.

A statement from Iraqi Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi, a member of the Accordance Front who did not leave the government, said Maliki and other government leaders will meet Monday to discuss the group's list of demands.

The U.S. military announced Sunday that three soldiers were killed over the weekend in two incidents in Baghdad. One soldier was killed in combat in the western part of the capital, the military said, and two others were killed in combat in an unidentified location. None of the soldiers was identified.

Iraqi police said they found 60 unidentified bodies in Baqubah, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, the Reuters news agency reported late Sunday. The decomposed bodies were found dumped in a grassy area, the agency said.

Special correspondent Saad al-Izzi contributed to this report.