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Published: September 5, 2010
By STEVEN LEE MYERS and DURAID ADNAN
BAGHDAD — Insurgents mounted a coordinated attack on one of the main military commands in Baghdad on Sunday, briefly drawing fire from American soldiers, an event that underscored the ambiguity of the American military role in Iraq after the declared end of its combat operations.
The attack punctuated a sharp rise in violence as the United States declared an official end to its combat mission here effective Sept. 1.
A group of at least six armed men, some of them rigged with explosives, attacked a rear gate at the base, the headquarters of Iraq’s 11th Army Division, which houses the command responsible for security in the capital east of the Tigris River and a federal police brigade, as well American advisers and the soldiers who protect them.
The insurgents detonated a vehicle outside the base, killing the driver, while another suicide bomber detonated an explosive vest at a checkpoint. After an initial lull, as Iraqi forces collected the dead and wounded, the attack continued for three hours as two insurgents escaped into the building, firing automatic weapons and throwing grenades from an upper floor window.
At least 12 people were killed, at least four of them soldiers, officials said, and 36 others were wounded. None of the Americans were reported hurt. The Baghdad Operations Command said that all six insurgents had been killed.
A spokesman for the American military in Baghdad, Lt. Col. Eric Bloom, confirmed in a statement that American soldiers had joined the defense of the compound, providing “suppressive fire” while Iraqi Army troops counterattacked.
As has often been the case in attacks, the American military also had helicopters and unmanned aerial vehicles providing surveillance, and explosives experts took part in the forensic examination of the attack.
The attack was a reminder — unnecessary to Iraqis — that the shift in the American mission did not portend an end to insurgent violence. It also underscored the ambiguous and still-dangerous position for Americans in their role as advisers to Iraq’s beleaguered security forces, who face almost daily attacks from insurgents.
A civilian official who works in the command witnessed American troops inside briefly firing on the two insurgents who had entered the building, which includes the division’s budget office, and began firing on Iraqi and American soldiers and commanders, and throwing grenades.
Iraqi commanders ordered the American soldiers to stop and leave the final assault on the building to the Iraqi forces, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of standing orders from the Ministry of Defense not to speak to the news media.
The attack ended when one of the two insurgents inside the building detonated a vest of explosives as Iraqi soldiers closed in.
Only five days ago President Obama declared an official end to American combat in Iraq, even as the country’s security remained precarious and its politics deadlocked six months after an election widely expected to usher in a new period of democratic governance.
It was a measure of public distrust and unease that the civilian official inside the compound said that he thought a coup had started and that the acting government of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki had collapsed.
“We were struck inside the building for more than three hours,” said the official, who asked to be identified only by his honorific, Abu Ali. He was among those helping tend to the wounded before the gun battle began. “Everyone blamed the politicians for not forming a government.”
The attack struck the same headquarters where a suicide bomber had penetrated the heavily defended perimeter less than three weeks ago and detonated explosives amid a group of army recruits. The death toll in that attack eventually rose to 57, with dozens more wounded.
American military officials have recorded a significant increase this year compared with last in casualties during Ramadan, the holy Islamic month that began last month and ends later this week.
The Islamic State of Iraq, a front that includes Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, is believed to be trying to exploit the withdrawal of thousands of American troops over the summer to sow chaos after the election’s inconclusive result.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Sunday’s attack, but the Islamic State of Iraq has claimed to have carried out most attacks like it, including the one on recruits and a wave of car bombings, roadside mines and shootings 12 days ago that killed at least 56 in 13 towns and cities across the country.
At Medical City Hospital nearby, where the dead and wounded were taken Sunday, Qusay Abid, 27, searched for his father, a soldier from the base.
“Is he the one with green eyes?” a hospital worker asked, checking a list of 32 names, written in red ink.
His voice softened. “Sorry, but your father was killed.”
“Oh my God,” Mr. Abid shouted, dropping to his knees. “Just let me see him. Just show me his body. Why did he die like this? Why?”
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