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11 Die In Suicide Bombing

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By BRADLEY BROOKS, The Associated Press

Published: January 7, 2008

BAGHDAD - Three Iraqi soldiers threw themselves on a suicide attacker wearing an explosives vest at an Army Day celebration Sunday - an act of heroism the United States said likely prevented many more deaths.
Iraqi police said at least 11 people were killed in the blast, the deadliest in a series of bombings in Baghdad.

One of the attacks in the capital killed an American soldier - one of two U.S. deaths announced Sunday.

Shortly before the bomber struck the Army Day festivities, about two dozen Iraqi soldiers were standing outside the offices of a local nongovernmental agency pushing for unity in Iraq. The troops chanted pro-army slogans and a common anti-insurgent taunt: "Where are the terrorists today?"

Associated Press photographer Hadi Mizban was about 5 yards away from the suicide attacker when he blew himself up.

"The blast happened as civilians were giving flowers to soldiers and sticking them in the muzzles of their guns," said Mizban, an Iraqi national. "It was a jubilant scene."

Afterward, he said, the street was littered with bodies, weapons and shoes. Dazed soldiers and policemen carried their bloodied colleagues to nearby pickups that whisked them to a hospital.

Among the dead were four police officers, three Iraqi soldiers and four civilians, a police officer said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to reporters. At least 17 people were injured.

A U.S. military statement said five people were killed. The discrepancy could not immediately be explained.

In the northern city of Mosul, meanwhile, three apparently coordinated explosions targeted two Christian churches and a convent, local officials and the U.S. military said. There were no deaths, but four people were wounded.

"They are cowards," a priest told The Associated Press, refusing to give his name because he feared for his safety. "We don't know what message they want to convey."
Violence in Iraq has fallen 60 percent in the past six months, according to the U.S. military. Al-Qaida fighters were driven northward from Baghdad and Anbar and Diyala provinces by angry Iraqi Sunni Muslims who joined American forces, who were bolstered by 30,000 additional troops last summer.

In other violence, a parked car bomb exploded and four mortars landed near a bus terminal in eastern Baghdad, killing a civilian, police said. In northeastern Baghdad, a parked car bomb exploded outside a popular restaurant, killing a policeman and two civilians, police said.

Earlier Sunday, a Shiite tribal sheik who was trying to set up a U.S.-backed group to combat militias was shot to death in Shaab, one of Baghdad's most dangerous neighborhoods and a center for outlaw Shiite fighters, a police officer said.

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