Suicide bomber targets Turkish Embassy in Iraq

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Suicide car bombers struck in Baghdad for the third time in a week Tuesday, this time outside the Turkish Embassy in yet another blow against those who would help the U.S. occupation. Witnesses said the driver and a bystander were killed, and hospitals said at least 13 were wounded.\n"This is the act of those who want to turn Iraq into a terror paradise," said Turkish Ambassador Osman Paksut, whose government has offered peacekeeping troops to reinforce the U.S. military presence here, a move strongly opposed by Iraqis.\nJust who is behind the bombings remained a mystery, although Iraqis converging on the scene Tuesday began chanting pro-Saddam Hussein slogans.\nMuch of the blast was absorbed by concrete barriers outside the embassy, U.S. officials said. The bomber might have caught U.S. troops if he had struck last weekend, when they were deployed outside the mission in northwest Baghdad, apparently because of a threat.\n"About three days ago, we received indications that there might be increased danger on the Turkish Embassy," said Col. Peter Mansoor of the U.S. 1st Armored Division. "We revved up security measures based on those indications."\nHe said the FBI and Iraqi police were investigating. Similar investigations of seven other vehicle bombings, killing more than 140 people across Iraq beginning in August, have made no known breakthroughs.\nIn the southern city of Karbala, gunmen of rival Shiite Muslim factions clashed and witnesses said several people were killed or injured. It appeared to be part of a power struggle between forces of the firebrand cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and followers of religious leaders who take a more moderate stand toward the U.S. occupation.\nFarther south, at his headquarters in Najaf, al-Sadr demanded the Americans set a timetable for withdrawal. "Whoever cooperates with the occupation forces is not a Shiite. Indeed, they are not Muslims," he said.\nPentagon officials said the U.S. military is concerned about al-Sadr but is uncertain whether he poses a significant threat. The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said they remain committed to disarming militias but declined to say whether they planned to confront his followers.\nTuesday's attack was the third car bombing since Thursday, when a driver detonated his vehicle in a police station courtyard in Baghdad, killing himself and nine others. On Sunday, a suicide bombing killed eight near the Baghdad Hotel, home to U.S. and Iraqi officials.\nThe string of attacks began in August with bombings at the Jordanian Embassy and the U.N. headquarters. All the targets have been institutions perceived as cooperating with the U.S. occupation.\nThe Turkish Embassy blast happened at about 2:45 p.m. as traffic streamed by the compound in the quiet, middle-class Waziriyah district.\n"I was in a building across the street. I rushed over and saw that a car had exploded in front of the embassy," said Ahmed Hashim, 30, a graduate student at Mustansiryah University. He said the suicide driver's dismembered body was blown down the avenue, and a second person was also dead at the scene.\n"I know that because I helped carry him into the ambulance," Hashim said. This was not immediately confirmed by U.S. or Iraqi authorities, but a painting contractor at the scene, Salah Khadhim, also said he saw a passer-by killed.\nMansoor, the American colonel, reported only the driver killed and two embassy workers injured. But officials at two hospitals said they received at least 13 wounded from the blast, including three seriously injured.\nAfter the explosion, about 50 Iraqis gathered and chanted a pro-Saddam slogan -- "We sacrifice our blood and soul for you!" -- and waving Iraqi banknotes with the ousted dictator's portrait. Police fired in the air to disperse them, and detained several.\nPopular suspicions in the bombings have focused on Saddam supporters, also blamed for repeated attacks on American troops, or on al Qaeda adherents or other Muslim extremists.\nAsked whether the bombing was related to the issue of Turkish peacekeepers in Iraq, Mansoor said: "I think it has everything to do with that."\nThe Turkish parliament last week approved sending in peacekeeping troops in the coming months. Iraq's Governing Council has opposed the idea, because of the bitter legacy of centuries of Turkish colonial domination of the region.\nThe Turkish Foreign Ministry indicated the attack would not affect an eventual troop deployment. "Turkey will persevere with its efforts with determination," it said.