At least 46 people were killed in a surge in violence across
Iraq, including a roadside bomb attack on a bus carrying mourners
and day-long clashes between gunmen and US and Iraqi security
forces.
Violence had fallen across Iraq by 60 percent since last June, but
Tuesday's attacks underlined how fragile the security gains
are.
In the southern city of Kut, members of anti-US Shiite cleric
Moqtada al-Sadr's Mehdi Army fought US special forces and Iraqi
security forces backed by US warplanes in clashes in which 14
people died, security officials said.
Police at the general hospital in Nassiriya, 375km south of
Baghdad, said the casualties from the roadside bomb attack on a bus
included women and children.
Survivors said the bomb appeared to target a passing US military
convoy.
Police said the bus was carrying members of a family returning from
mourning rites for a dead relative in the holy Shiite city of Najaf
when it was hit about 60km south of Nassiriya.
"There was blood and human flesh in the bus and on the floor.
Shoes of men, women and children were everywhere," bus driver Zaji
Abdul Hussein said.
Rahman Shaker, 60, covered in blood after carrying his badly
wounded wife from the wreckage, said a US convoy had just passed on
the other side of the road when the bomb went off.
"I saw my wife covered in blood and took her out of the bus,"
Shaker said. "There were bodies covered in bloody blankets, and
people screaming."
Clashes
In Kut, 170km south-east of Baghdad, Mehdi Army gunmen fought Iraqi
security forces and US special forces despite Sadr having renewed a
six-month ceasefire last month.
The cleric issued a statement at the weekend, however, saying
they could defend themselves if attacked.
The commander of a quick reaction force in Kut, Lieutenant- Colonel
Majid al-Amara, said the fighting was triggered by an attempt to
arrest a Mehdi Army leader.
He said 14 people were killed, including four gunmen, three
children and a policemen.
The US military gave a different account in a statement late on
Tuesday.
It said special forces had come to the aid of an Iraqi security
patrol and come under attack by a large number of "suspected
criminal militia fighters".
"The US SF (special forces) returned fire, killing several enemy
fighter and destroying two vehicles carrying machine-guns," it
said, adding a warplane had also destroyed a van suspected of
transporting weapons and explosives.
Much of the fighting was reported to have died down by nightfall
although sporadic shooting could still be heard.
Mehdi Army fighters have chafed at the extension of the ceasefire,
complaining that it leaves them open to attack by US forces and
rival Shiite factions.
The US military says it only targets militiamen who are ignoring
the ceasefire.
In separate clashes north of the capital, police said four Iraqi
policemen, four gunmen and a civilian were killed in an attack on a
security checkpoint in Mosul, which the US military says is al
Qaeda's last major urban stronghold in Iraq.
In Dhuluiya, also north of Baghdad, a suicide car bomber killed
five people, including three members of a neighbourhood security
unit, and wounded 14 in an attack on a checkpoint, police
Lieutenant-Colonel Ibrahim al-Jubouri said.
