Suicide bombing, street gunbattles kill 16 people in Iraq

BAGHDAD, Iraq – A suicide bombing in the north and street battles hundreds of miles away in a Shiite holy city in the south claimed 16 lives Tuesday, demonstrating the tenuous security in Iraq as the U.S. focuses on curbing sectarian violence in Baghdad.

Nine people died in the suicide attack outside the regional party headquarters of Iraq’s president in the northern city of Mosul; seven were killed in the fighting between Iraqi forces and followers of an anti-American cleric in Karbala.

In Baghdad, meanwhile, the U.S. military said car bombs triggered deadly explosions in a Shiite neighborhood Sunday, backing away from assertions that the blasts were caused by an accidental gas leak.

The suicide driver detonated his vehicle at the Mosul office of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan party of President Jalal Talabani, killing five civilians and four security guards, police Col. Abdul-Kareem Ahmed al-Jibouri said. Forty-one people were wounded by the blast, which heavily damaged the one-story building and set 17 cars on fire, he said.

In Karbala, a Shiite holy city 270 miles south of Mosul, gunbattles broke out after police raided the office of Mahmoud al-Hassani, a Shiite cleric known for anti-American and anti-Iranian views. Police said they were searching for weapons.

Al-Hassani’s followers responded by attacking police stations and checkpoints in at least five areas of the city, residents and officials said. Gunmen in civilian clothing fired Kalashnikov rifles, machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades at Iraqi army patrols.

A regional health official said three Iraqi policemen and four gunmen were killed and 17 people were wounded in the clashes. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media.

Officials ordered an indefinite curfew on the city, which contains some of the world’s most sacred shrines for Shiite Muslims. But the curfew was widely ignored as gunmen roamed the streets, firing at police and soldiers.

“We have asked for extra forces from neighboring provinces to control the situation after clashes erupted between al-Hassani’s supporters and the security forces,” said Ghalib al-Daami, a member of Karbala’s provincial council.

Late Tuesday, residents said tensions were rising in another Shiite city, Nasiriyah, with al-Hassani’s followers brandishing weapons and blocking some streets.

Al-Hassani gained prominence for his nationalistic stand, calling for an Iraq free of influence from the Americans and Shiite-dominated Iran. Other key Shiite figures have sought to dampen his influence, which is mostly in Karbala and Basra, Iraq’s second-largest city.