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Deadly violence on new ambassador's first day

At least 178 people were killed or found dead in and around the Iraqi capital Thursday.

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published March 30, 2007

BAGHDAD - Five suicide bombers struck Shiite marketplaces in northeast Baghdad and a town north of the capital at nightfall Thursday, killing at least 122 people and wounding more than 150 in one of Iraq's deadliest days in years.

The savage attacks came as a new American ambassador began his first day on the job, and Senate Democrats ignored a veto threat and approved a bill to require President Bush to start withdrawing troops.

At least 178 people were killed or found dead Thursday, which marked the end of the seventh week of the latest U.S.-Iraqi military drive to curtail violence in Baghdad and surrounding regions.

The suicide bombers hit markets in the Shiite town of Khalis and the Shaab neighborhood in Baghdad during the busiest time of the day, timing that has become a trademark of what are believed to be Sunni insurgent or al-Qaida suicide attackers.

Three suicide vehicle bombs, including an explosives-packed ambulance, detonated in a market in Khalis, 50 miles north of the capital, which was especially crowded because government flour rations had just arrived for the first time in six months, local television stations reported.

At least 43 people were killed and 86 wounded, police said.

In the north Baghdad bombings, two suicide attackers wearing explosives vests blew themselves up in the Shalal market in the predominantly Shiite Shaab neighborhood. At least 79 people were killed and 81 wounded as they jammed the market to buy provisions on the eve of the Muslim day of rest and prayer.

Also Thursday, Gen. David Petraeus gave the first military confirmation that Shiite-dominated police forces were among the militants who went on a shooting rampage against Sunnis on Wednesday in Tal Afar. Iraqi officials said as many as 70 men were killed execution-style, apparently in retaliation for twin truck bombings that killed 80 people and wounded 185 there Tuesday, he said.

The carnage in Iraq cast a shadow over Ryan Crocker's first day as ambassador. He takes over in the midst of the U.S.-Iraqi security sweep, for which Bush committed nearly 30,000 additional troops to dampen what had become uncontrollable violence in the capital.

The Japanese foreign minister announced today that the Japanese Cabinet approved a two-year extension of its air force mission in Iraq after it expires in July.

Violence has increasingly erupted in towns and cities outside the capital in recent weeks, as insurgent fighters take their fight to regions where U.S. and Iraqi forces are thinly deployed. The U.S. military and its diplomats have voiced cautious optimism about the sweep and emphasized that the full American surge force would not be in place until June.

"All of this will be very hard. But if I thought it impossible I would not be standing here today. I pledge my full support to this mission and to the people of Iraq," Crocker said.

Fast Facts:

Ryan Crocker

- Replaced Zalmay Khalilzad as the U.S. ambassdor to Iraq on Thursday.

- Age 57.

- Speaks fluent Arabic.

- Ambassador to Pakistan since 2004.

- Has been ambassador to Lebanon, Syria and Kuwait.

- Worked in the Baghdad Embassy in 2003 under the Coalition Provisional Authority.

- "President Bush's (Iraq war) policy is the right one. There has been progress; there is also much more to be done," Crocker said Thursday.

[Last modified March 30, 2007, 01:26:38]