Bombing Shows Fragility of Iraq's Security Gains

A medic attends to Abdullah Mohammed, 9, after he was injured in a suicide bombing in Baghdad. A spate of attacks in the capital has caused alarm, but the U.S. military says violence is still down from last year. (By Adil Al-khazali -- Associated Press)

Recently, the military began taking down a few barriers in once-dangerous parts of Baghdad, as part of reconciliation efforts it is encouraging among neighborhoods.

The message to residents is clear, Walker said: "A return to normalcy is right around the corner -- with their will and cooperation."

But there was no sign of normalcy Monday morning in the al-Kasrah district of northern Baghdad, which has a Shiite majority but many Sunni residents. A few hours after the blast, Karim, 38, the restaurant owner, was still tense and angry as he picked up chunks of rubble.

Most of the victims were minibus passengers, including three children and several women, he said. Two of his customers and one worker were killed when the explosions shattered windows and sent pieces of roof cascading onto diners eating breakfast, he said.

Col. John Hort, commander of the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, arrived at the scene after the blast and vowed to arrest those responsible. He also had a suggestion: adding more blast walls to the area.

In a later statement, Hort called the bombing "a despicable, cowardly act of terrorism." The U.S. military said in a news release that the Sunni extremist group al-Qaeda in Iraq was the likely culprit.

U.S. forces have been aggressively targeting bombing networks. On Monday, they captured a man who allegedly was involved in planning an Oct. 12 attack on a market in southern Baghdad that killed at least five people, according to a military statement.

The man, believed to be a member of al-Qaeda in Iraq, was seized in a house in western Baghdad where soldiers discovered numerous detonators and blasting caps, the release said.

Also Monday, in the central city of Baqubah, a female suicide bomber blew herself up at a checkpoint near the city market manned by U.S.-backed neighborhood guards known as Sons of Iraq, police said.

Four people were killed, including a local Sons of Iraq leader, said Col. Raghib al-Umairy, a spokesman for the provincial police. Among the 15 injured was a 13-year-old boy.

Faisal al-Shimmari, 33, a Sons of Iraq guard at the checkpoint, said a woman walked toward the leader, Ahmad al-Azzawi. "She was pretending to ask for help, and in moments she blew herself up and killed our commander," he said.

A Washington Post special correspondent in Baqubah contributed to this report.