U.S. deploys 10,000 troops in Iraq offensive

updated 9:32 p.m. ET June 19, 2007

BAGHDAD - The U.S. military deployed 10,000 soldiers backed by attack helicopters in a big offensive against al-Qaida north of Baghdad on Tuesday as a truck bomber struck in the capital, killing 75 people near a Shiite mosque.

The troops, under cover of attack helicopters, killed at least 22 insurgents in the offensive, the U.S. military said.

The thunderous explosion at the Khillani mosque in the capital’s commercial area of Sinak sent smoke billowing over concrete buildings. On Sunday, officials lifted a curfew aimed at preventing retaliatory violence after last week’s bombing of a Shiite mosque in Samarra.

Gunfire erupted shortly after the blast, which police said occurred in a parking lot near the mosque, causing the outer wall and a building just inside it to crumble.

A police officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of security concerns, said the car that exploded was parked in a lot near the mosque and it damaged the outer wall of the building.

Police and hospital officials said at least 75 people were killed and 204 were wounded, adding that the toll could rise as bodies were pulled from the debris.

''Sick souls'
The mosque’s imam, Sheik Saleh al-Haidari, said it was a truck bomb and the explosion hit worshippers as they were leaving afternoon prayers.

“This attack was planned and carried out by sick souls, damaging the mosque’s outer wall and collapsing my office and the room above it,” al-Haidari told The Associated Press by telephone.

“There are number of bodies being pulled from the rubble and a number of worshippers were killed or injured,” he said, adding that he was not inside the mosque when the blast occurred.

The Khillani mosque is named after a much-revered Shiite figure who, according to Shiite tradition, was one of four deputies anointed by the Imam Mohammed al-Mahdi, who disappeared in the 9th century and will return to restore justice to humanity.

AP Television News video showed a huge pile of rubble where the wall used to be, but its turquoise dome was intact.

The Imam Ali hospital in the Shiite district of Sadr City was packed with victims, many badly burned.

Karim Abdullah, the 35-year-old owner of a clothing store, said he was on his way to pray at the mosque when the explosion caused his motorcycle to wobble, forcing him to pull over.

“I stopped in shock as I saw the smoke and people on the ground. I saw two or three men in flames as they were getting out of their car,” he added.

Raids launched in darkness
The U.S. raids, dubbed “Operation Arrowhead Ripper,” took place in Baqouba, the capital of Diyala province, and involved air assaults under the cover of darkness, the military said. The operation was still in its opening stages, it said.

The commander of Iraqi military operations in Diyala, Maj. Gen. Abdul-Karim al-Rubaie, said handcuffs, swords and electricity cables — apparently used as torture implements — had been seized from militant safe houses in the area.

The operation was part of new U.S. and Iraqi attacks on Baghdad’s northern and southern flanks, which military officials said were aimed at clearing out Sunni insurgents, al-Qaida fighters and Shiite militiamen who had fled the capital and Anbar during a four-month-old security operation.

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