A member of an extremist cell believed to be behind a suicide attack that killed more than 20 people including three US Marines has been arrested, the US military said on Friday.
US spokesmen said it was unclear if the suspect, who was not identified, was directly involved in planning the attack on Thursday in the town of Karmah, Anbar Province, about 48km west of Baghdad.
A suicide bomber reportedly dressed in a police uniform detonated an explosive belt during a meeting of tribal sheiks opposed to al-Qaeda in Iraq. In addition to the Marines, two Iraqi interpreters, the local mayor and several key tribal figures were killed.
DELAYS
The attack occurred two days before US officials planned to formally hand over security responsibility for Anbar to the Iraqis, marking a major milestone in the transformation of a province that had been the most violent in Iraq.
US authorities said on Friday they were postponing a handover ceremony because of weather forecasts calling for high winds and sandstorms, which would ground aircraft and make it impossible for dignitaries to attend.
Lieutenant Colonel Chris Hughes, spokesman for US forces in Anbar, said the US had been planning to delay the ceremony based on weather forecasts before Thursday’s attack.
Anbar, which extends from the western outskirts of Baghdad to the borders of Jordan, Syria and Saudi Arabia, will be the 10th of Iraq’s 18 provinces to return to Iraqi security control. The other nine provinces are dominated by Shiites or Kurds.
DEPLOYMENTS
Meanwhile, the US Department of Defense said it was preparing to order about 30,000 troops to Iraq early next year in a move that would allow it to maintain 15 combat brigades in the country through next year.
The deployments would replace troops currently there. But the decisions could change depending on whether General David Petraeus, the top US commander in Iraq, should decide in the fall to further reduce troop levels in Iraq.
Several officials familiar with the deployments spoke on condition of anonymity because the orders have not yet been made public.
The officials said three active-duty Army brigade combat teams, one Army National Guard brigade and two Marine regimental combat teams, are being notified that they are being sent to Iraq early next year.
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