New violence hits Iraq after U.S. pullback

updated 4:57 p.m. ET June 30, 2009

BAGHDAD - Not a single American soldier was in sight. Gone, too, were the American helicopters whose buzz has for years defined Baghdad's background track.

Left alone to protect the capital Tuesday were thousands of Iraqi troops and police manning checkpoints, with army tanks deployed at potential trouble spots and convoys of pickup trucks with machine guns roaming the streets.

But it was elsewhere, 180 miles to the north, that militants delivered their first deadly challenge to Iraq's security forces on a highly symbolic day after the formal withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from cities at midnight.

A car bombing devastated a food market in the city of Kirkuk, killing at least 33 people and wounding 90. The early evening attack, which bore the hallmarks of Sunni extremist groups like al-Qaida in Iraq, was the second in the Kirkuk area since a truck bombing killed 82 people on June 20.

The latest blast was a deadly example of the violence many Iraqis fear will increase with the departure of U.S. troops from urban areas, despite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's confidence in Iraq's nascent security forces.

Dangers persist
The bombing came hours after U.S. military announced that four American soldiers were killed in combat shortly before the military completed their withdrawal from Iraq's cities on Monday. It was the deadliest attack on U.S. forces since May 21, when three soldiers were killed and nine wounded in a roadside bombing in Baghdad.

"It reminds me that there are still dangers out there," Gen. Ray Odierno, the top U.S. soldier in Iraq, said of the American deaths. "There are still people out there who do not want the government of Iraq to succeed."

The violence marred what otherwise was a festive occasion as Iraqis commemorated the newly declared National Sovereignty Day with military parades and marching bands in the capital.

Colorful paper balls and Iraqi flags were hoisted on blast walls at checkpoints as patriotic songs blared from loudspeakers on sidewalks.

Plastic flowers and streamers decorated police and army vehicles. One car had a red heart with the English word "Love" in the middle, as if for Valentine's Day.

Some policemen danced atop their vehicles as they moved in convoys across the capital. Traffic was light in Baghdad, but particularly thorough searches at some checkpoints meant long lines of waiting cars in parts of the city.

Slideshow   U.S. combat troops leave Iraqi cities Iraqis celebrate as the country's security forces take control of urban areas. more photos

No matter.

"I felt it was normal for an Iraqi soldier, rather than an American, to order me to stop for a search," said Ali Mohsen, a 30-year-old government employee from the mostly Shiite New Baghdad district. "The Americans' cowboy style was annoying," said Mohsen, recounting his car journey to his brother's home in eastern Baghdad.

"I hope our forces will be up to the task so we can return to normalcy," he said.

Celebrating the pullback
Any failure on their part could plunge the country into a new round of sectarian warfare that could seal Iraq's fate for years. Success would allow reconstruction projects to go ahead and give leaders of Iraq's rival ethnic and religious groups space to negotiate an enduring power-sharing formula.

Iraqi authorities welcomed the U.S. pullback with nationalist rhetoric and celebrations in what appeared to be an attempt by al-Maliki to rally the public behind his government and secure more support ahead of an election in January.

Al-Maliki, whose three years in office saw a dramatic decline in violence, used a nationally televised address to project an air of confidence.

"Those who think that Iraqis are incapable of protecting security in their country and that the withdrawal of foreign forces will leave a security vacuum which will be difficult for Iraqi forces to fill are making a grave mistake," the prime minister said.

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