13 Iraqis Killed by Shells Fired at the Green Zone

By ERICA GOODE

BAGHDAD — As many as 20 mortar shells were fired Sunday at the heavily fortified Green Zone, one of the fiercest and most sustained attacks on the area in the last year.

The shelling sent thick plumes of dark gray smoke over central Baghdad and ignited a spectacular fire on the banks of the Tigris River. It ushered in a day of violence that claimed the lives of four American soldiers and at least 58 lraqis around the country.

American military officials said the soldiers were killed by a homemade bomb about 10 p.m. as they patrolled southern Baghdad in a vehicle, pushing the number of American service members killed in Iraq closer to 4,000. Another soldier was wounded in the attack.

The intensity of the violence added to the sense that insurgent and sectarian attacks had been on the rise in recent weeks.

Bush administration officials have said repeatedly that an increase in troop levels has reduced violence to the point that political and sectarian reconciliation is becoming a reality. The administration has withdrawn some of the reinforcements and is assessing the effect of that reduction before withdrawing additional troops, a decision expected in the next week.

Recent statistics compiled by the Pentagon suggest that after dropping significantly last fall, the number of daily attacks remained static from November through January, the last month for which official figures were available. And the relative calm has been pierced by a flare-up of violence in recent weeks.

No Americans were killed in the shelling on Sunday, officials said, but mortar shells that fell short of their target killed 13 Iraqis in neighborhoods east of the Green Zone. The first attack, about 6 a.m., sent thunderous booms echoing across the city, shaking buildings and rattling windows.

Although the source of the attacks could not be determined conclusively, two witnesses said the early-morning rounds were fired across the river from the Shiite-dominated Baladiyat neighborhood by militia men who the witnesses believed belonged to the Mahdi Army of the Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr.

American military officials have in the past blamed Shiite militia factions or “special groups” backed by Iran for such attacks. The factions are thought to be splinter groups of the Mahdi Army.

Last month, Mr. Sadr announced the extension of a cease-fire begun last year and said that he would not tolerate any violations. But in recent weeks, there have been clashes between Mahdi fighters and multinational forces in Kut, southeast of the capital, and Diyala Province, to the north.

The attack on Sunday morning sent early risers in the Green Zone running for shelter. Sirens went off, and loudspeakers blared: “Duck and cover! Duck and cover!”

Barrages of mortar fire continued through the day at four- to five-hour intervals, including a series of intense blasts just before 8:30 p.m. In that assault, one round landed just outside the Green Zone wall on the west bank of the Tigris, igniting a large brush fire. For hours afterward, the city was oddly silent, the helicopters that are a constant presence here nowhere in sight.

Philip T. Reeker, a spokesman for the American Embassy, said that the mortar attacks “caused no deaths or major injuries” within the Green Zone. He said that for security reasons, American officials do not release the details of such attacks.

But Iraq’s Interior Ministry said that some shells landed in residential neighborhoods, in one case crashing into a family’s house, killing a mother, a father and three children. Another landed in the Kamalia neighborhood of eastern Baghdad, killing five people and wounding eight others.

A third fell in Bab al-Sharji, where one person was killed and five wounded.

In the upscale Karada neighborhood, a mortar shell killed two people and wounded seven; another landed near the house of Vice President Adel Abdul Mahdi. The vice president was uninjured.

Not all of the violence in the capital on Sunday was directed at the Green Zone. In the Shuala neighborhood in western Baghdad, a bomb in a parked car exploded, killing six and wounding at least 10. The explosion tore through the neighborhood’s main street, lined with houses and shops.

“We were having our lunch inside the restaurant when we heard a big sound of an explosion that broke the front glass of the shop,” said Abbas Qasim, 38, the owner of a store on the street.

“I almost suffocated while I was eating, and when I got out I saw four cars burning,” he said. “One of them was a van carrying students who had just gotten back from the university. I rushed to help them with some local people, but five of them were already dead and riddled with shrapnel.”

Ali Mahmoud, 45, who lives on the street, said the explosion was the first in the neighborhood in two years.

“The American warplanes were shelling most of the area all last night because of the Madhi Army,” he said. It dominates the neighborhood, he said.

Attackers also struck in the Zafaraniya neighborhood, in southern Baghdad, where gunmen in three cars opened fire on pedestrians, killing seven and wounding 16.

In northern Iraq, a suicide bomber in a truck smashed through a barrier of armored vehicles in front of an Iraqi Army garrison in the Haramat neighborhood of Mosul. The bomb killed 12 soldiers and wounded 42 other soldiers and civilians.

About 100 miles southeast of Mosul, in the Hamrin Mountains, a roadside bomb exploded, killing four soldiers in an Iraqi Army convoy, including a lieutenant. Dr. Jawdat Abdul Waq Mahmoud, of the general hospital in Touz, said that the soldiers were from the Third Battalion, Second Brigade.

American forces on Sunday reported killing “12 terrorists” who had attacked ground troops east of Baquba. In a statement, the military said that American troops had ordered the occupants of a building to come outside.

“Some complied but others remained inside,” the statement said. “Coalition forces entered the building and were fired upon by several armed men.”

The statement said that assault weapons, grenades and “military-style assault vests” were found in the building.

A security official in Diyala who was informed of the fighting said that it had broken out between American forces and members of a family in a house in the village of Nahar Sabah. American warplanes then reportedly shelled the house, belonging to Khudhaier al-Salem, a prominent figure in the region. The official said 13 people, most of them members of the family, were killed and nine wounded, including neighbors.

Two children in Baquba, a 10-year-old and an 8-year-old, also died Sunday. They were playing in a street when a homemade bomb hidden under some garbage detonated, killing them instantly. When the authorities reached the scene, the security official said, all they found were pieces of the children’s bodies.

Reporting was contributed by Hoshan Hussein, Qais Mizher, Ahmed Fadam and Mudhafer al-Husaini from Baghdad and Iraqi employees of The New York Times from Mosul and Diyala.