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US blames Tal Afar blast on AQI

The US military blamed al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) on Saturday for a suicide car bombing in the northern Iraqi town of Tal Afar, while an Iraqi official said the death toll in the attack had risen to 25.

An Iraqi security official, meanwhile, said the attacker was a Sunni Turkoman who had been detained by the US military but was released four months ago under an Iraqi amnesty law.

The bomber may have avoided detection at a checkpoint leading to the busy market by having a man ride with him in the passenger seat, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. The passenger got off soon after the car passed the checkpoint, he added, citing witness reports and forensic tests.

Suicide car bombers are known to ride alone in most cases, so having a passenger next to them could help them avoid detection. Tal Afar, a frequent target of suicide bombings over the past five years, bans males from driving alone.

An indefinite curfew was imposed on the predominantly ethnic Turkoman town, the official said, adding the death toll had risen to 25 after four people died from their wounds.

Initial reports said the blast was caused by an explosives-laden car parked near a fruit and vegetable market. But Captain Charles Calio, a US military spokesman, said it was a suicide attack.

“One al-Qaeda in Iraq terrorist died when he detonated a vehicle-borne bomb,” Calio said in an e-mailed statement.

The blast occurred amid heightened tensions among ethnic groups throughout northern Iraq because of a dispute over control of the oil-rich city of Kirkuk. The city is claimed by the Kurds, who want to annex it to their self-ruled region, but its Arab and Turkomen residents want to remain under central government control.

The top US diplomat and military commander in Iraq condemned the attack in Tal Afar, 420km northwest of Baghdad.

Ambassador Ryan Crocker and General David Petraeus said in a joint statement on Saturday that the “senseless” attack would further unite Iraqis to reject al-Qaeda in Iraq and the “indiscriminate” violence it inflicts on civilians.

Northern Iraq has been suffering most from insurgent attacks while the rest of the country has seen the lowest levels of violence in four years. That improvement has been attributed to the dispatch of additional US troops last year, a cease-fire by a Shiite militia and a revolt by Sunni tribesmen and insurgents against the al-Qaeda in Iraq.

The deadly Tal Afar bombing was a grim reminder that al-Qaeda in Iraq and other militant groups remain capable of executing major attacks in Iraq despite the presence of about 145,000 troops and what is widely perceived as improving Iraqi security forces.

Also in northern Iraq, gunmen shot dead a 50-year-old woman outside her home in the al-Maamoun district in Mosul, 360km northwest of Baghdad.

Meanwhile in Baghdad, a roadside bomb killed a US soldier and wounded two others while their unit was on patrol, the US military said on Saturday.

The attack occurred on Friday evening in an undisclosed location in Baghdad, it said in a statement.

The latest death brought the number of US military killed since the March 2003 invasion of Iraq to 4,135.
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