Attacks Belie Steps on Reconciliation

Men stand outside the Rasoul mosque in the New Baghdad neighborhood, where a teenager detonated explosives as Shiite worshipers left prayers, killing 10. (By Hadi Mizban -- Associated Press)

"That doesn't mean we will keep staying quiet," he vowed. "We may have to reply to them, at a time of our own choosing. This will be according to an order" from the Shiite religious leadership, he said.

The second suicide bombing occurred just a few miles away, near the Mohammad Rasoul Allah mosque in the Zafaraniya neighborhood. The driver of a white sedan detonated explosives at an Iraqi security forces checkpoint, blasting apart the Iraqi patrol's Humvee. Six people were killed and 23 injured, according to Maj. Gen. Qassim Atta, a spokesman for Iraqi military operations in Baghdad.

The incidents occurred as many Shiites began celebrating Eid al-Fitr, the holiday marking the end of Ramadan.

A counterpoint to the Baghdad bombings was the gesture of reconciliation in Samarra, where a Sunni-Shiite prayer service at the city's grand mosque Wednesday drew about 700 worshipers. In their speeches, clerics from each sect agreed on the need for tolerance -- and jointly blamed much of the sectarian war on the U.S.-led coalition forces.

Violence in Iraq has dropped markedly from last year, with 860 people killed in war-related incidents in September, down from 2,431 in the same period a year earlier, according to figures obtained from the Iraqi Interior and Health ministries.

The decline is attributed to several factors: the decision of many Sunni insurgent groups to ally themselves with the U.S. military to fight al-Qaeda in Iraq; a cease-fire declared by radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr; and the "surge" in U.S. troops who worked closely with Iraqi security forces in neighborhood units.

In addition, Iraq's security forces have become stronger. The U.S. military said the death toll in Thursday's bombings would have been far higher if the Iraqi security forces and mosque guards hadn't stopped the bombers at checkpoints down the street from the crowded halls of worship.

Although there was no assertion of responsibility for the attacks, they bore the hallmarks of al-Qaeda in Iraq and other extremist Sunni groups. Officials accuse the groups of trying to reignite the sectarian violence of recent years.

Some analysts say, though, that violence is more likely to erupt these days from political disputes than from a desire to avenge a bomb attack. One potential conflict involves the U.S. allies known as Sons of Iraq. The Shiite-led Iraqi government started taking control of them Wednesday, but it is clearly wary of the mostly Sunni armed groups.

There are numerous other flash points that could lead to violence, such as friction between Arabs and Kurds over how much area should fall under Kurdish control in northern Iraq. The country has still not decided how to divide its oil revenue among the different regions, and has made limited progress on reincorporating former low- and mid-ranking officials from Hussein's Baath Party.

Provincial elections expected early next year will be a major test of whether the minority Sunnis, who held a privileged position under Hussein but mostly boycotted the last round of voting, will be allowed to take a political role proportionate to their share of the population.

In addition to the sectarian attacks, extremists continued to target U.S. forces Thursday. A mortar shell or missile landed near the new U.S. Embassy in the Green Zone, after months of relative peace in the heavily guarded area. There were no reports of casualties.

Also Thursday, U.S. soldiers were attacked in Mansour, a district in western Baghdad, at approximately 11:45 a.m., a U.S. military spokesman said. Two soldiers were wounded in the attack, which appeared to have been carried out with a car bomb, Lt. Col. Steven Stover said in an e-mail.

Correspondent Ernesto Londoño and special correspondent Qais Mizher in Baghdad and a special correspondent in Salahuddin province contributed to this report.