Suicide Bombers Strike, Killing At Least 78

Separately, Iraq officials claim capture of shadowy al-Qaida-linked leader

Shanoon Humoud, 70, sat weeping amid burned food packages scattered on the ground at the site of a suicide attack in Baghdad on Thursday, April 23, 2009. Her husband, son, and two grandchildren were killed in the blast. A suicide bomber blew himself up amid Iraqi policemen and Iraqi Red Crescent workers distributing humanitarian aid to displaced families, killing at least 31 people and wounding about 50, police and hospital officials said. (Photo credit: Ali Abbas / EPA)

April 23, 2009

BAGHDAD — Suicide bombers struck a humanitarian aid distribution point and a crowded restaurant in separate attacks Thursday in Iraq, killing at least 78 people in the deadliest day of violence to strike the country this year.

The attacks were the latest in a series of high-profile bombings that have raised concern of an uptick in violence as the U.S. military scales back its forces before a planned withdrawal by the end of 2011. …

Iranian pilgrims among the dead

In Thursday’s attacks, a suicide bomber killed 47 people, including Iranian pilgrims, in a crowded restaurant north of Baghdad, said Iraqi and U.S. military officials.

Military spokesman Derrick Cheng said 47 people were killed and about 69 were wounded when the suicide bomber detonated an explosives vest near Muqdadiyah, an insurgent hotbed about 60 miles northeast of Baghdad.

Iraqi police and hospital officials said the dead included 37 Iranian pilgrims.

In Baghdad itself, a suicide bomber struck a group of Iraqis collecting humanitarian aid in a mainly Shiite area, killing at least 31 people, the military said. …

It was not immediately clear who carried out the attack, but one witness said it appeared to be a woman. Women have been used in suicide bombings in Iraq, most recently during a Feb. 13 attack on Shiite pilgrims in Musayyib. …

Abbas Ibrahim, a 24-year-old college student, described pools of blood on the ground and the smell of burned flesh in the air.

“We regret that violence has come back to Baghdad,” he said.

Some police were among the dead and wounded, the military said.

Bomb-clearing soldiers head to Afghanistan

The Pentagon’s top Middle East adviser, Deputy Assistant Defense Secretary Colin Kahl, said Wednesday that insurgent attacks in Iraq will probably increase as U.S. forces start to leave, but that there’s no plan now to delay troop departures.

On Thursday, American soldiers who specialize in clearing bombs from roads boarded a plane from Iraq to the Taliban heartland in southern Afghanistan, part of the largest movement of personnel and equipment between the two war fronts. …

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Security Developments in Iraq

Following are security developments in Iraq on Thursday, April 23, 2009, as reported by Reuters.

BAGHDAD – A suicide bomber killed 28 people and wounded 50 when he, or she, targeted police helping to distribute relief supplies to displaced families in central Baghdad, police said.

MUQDADIYA – A suicide bomber killed at least 48 people and wounded 77, most of them Iranian Shi’ite Muslim pilgrims, in a restaurant near the town of Muqdadiya, 50 miles northeast of Baghdad, police said.

AL-UDHAIM – A roadside bomb killed three people and wounded three from a U.S.-backed Sunni Arab militia in the town of al-Udhaim, 60 miles north of Baghdad, police said. Police said one of the dead was Mubarak Humadi al-Ubaidi, a leader of the Sunni patrolmen, or “Sahwa,” in al-Udhaim.

MOSUL – A roadside bomb targeted an Iraqi army patrol, wounding two civilians, in eastern Mosul, 240 miles north of Baghdad, police said.

MOSUL – Four people were wounded by a roadside bomb in western Mosul, police said.