BAGHDAD — As many as 15 Iraqi policemen responding to an attack against U.S. bases were killed Tuesday when rockets, set to be launched from the back of a truck, exploded before the officers could defuse them, officials said.
Four U.S. soldiers were wounded when the initial rockets slammed into their outposts in the capital, the military said, the second rocket attack against American targets in as many days.
Nobody claimed responsibility for the anti-U.S. attacks, but in both cases the rockets apparently were launched from Shiite militia strongholds in the capital, raising concern about renewed activity ahead of a deadline for cleric Muqtada al-Sadr to renew a cease-fire order.
The U.S. military has expressed hope the radical cleric will extend the cease-fire, but insisted on continuing to target what it says are Iranian-backed breakaway factions in raids that have alienated his followers.
The American outposts that were hit were close to each other, and the attacks happened within five minutes, according to Sgt. Nicole Dykstra, a military spokeswoman. One soldier was wounded in the first attack, while three were wounded in the second strike before Iraqi police responded, she said.
The blast that killed the Iraqis took place after police, acting on a tip, discovered the rockets primed for firing in the back of a truck behind a deserted ice factory in the predominantly Shiite area of Obeidi in eastern Baghdad.
Explosives experts were trying to defuse the rockets when two of them detonated in quick succession, police said, adding that two rockets already had been fired from the truck.
At least 15 policemen were killed and 27 were wounded in the blast, according to officials with the Interior Ministry, local police and hospitals that received the wounded. All spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information.
The U.S. military gave a lower casualty toll, saying three civilians were killed and 17 wounded in the truck explosion.
On Monday, rockets slammed into an Iraqi housing complex near the Baghdad international airport and a nearby U.S. military base, killing at least five people and wounding 16, including two U.S. soldiers, officials said.
American troops arrested six Iraqi suspects in the vicinity of the apparent launching sites, the military said.
Police said those rockets were launched from the predominantly Shiite neighborhood of Amil, in southwestern Baghdad.
The attacks were among the most intense to strike the capital in weeks. Violence has declined sharply since the middle of last year with an influx of some 30,000 U.S. troops, a Sunni revolt against al-Qaida in Iraq and al-Sadr's cease-fire.
The cleric ordered his Mahdi Army militia last August to stand down for six months, but he recently warned that he may not extend the cease-fire if raids against his supporters persist.
A trial against two former Health Ministry officials linked to the Mahdi Army also has raised concern that it could unleash a backlash from the Sadrists.
Prosecution witnesses failed to appear Tuesday for the politically fraught trial of the two men, who are accused of letting Shiite death squads use hospitals and ambulances to kill and kidnap rivals. The start of the trial was delayed until March 2.
Lawyers for former Deputy Health Minister Hakim al-Zamili and Brig. Gen. Hameed al-Shimmari say the allegations are baseless and plan to call more than a dozen witnesses.
The case is seen as a test of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's willingness to crack down on Shiite extremists as well as Sunni insurgents. Al-Maliki is a Shiite who won office partly because of the support of al-Sadr's followers, though he has since fallen out of favor among them.