Iraq suicide bomber kills at least six

BAGHDAD — A suicide bomber edged his way into a crowd of Iraqi officials and U.S. forces gathered for a meeting north of Baghdad on Thursday, killing at least six people, including a U.S. soldier.

It was one of three attacks nationwide that shattered what had been the peaceful start of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, which began Wednesday for Sunni Muslims. Shiites begin celebrating today. The violence included the bombing of liquor stores in central Baghdad that police said killed three Iraqis.

The violence underscored what a U.S. official called the "great security threats" still looming in Iraq, illustrated by two recent discoveries. In Diyala province, north of Baghdad, Iraqi civilians tipped off U.S. forces to a torture chamber, complete with chains on the walls and ceilings and a bed on which victims apparently were chained and given electrical shocks.

And south of Baghdad, the U.S. military said it found an elaborate system of tunnels dug by insurgents along the Euphrates River. The extremists apparently used the tunnels as hiding places and as positions from which to fire on U.S. forces.

Troops came across the tunnel network Sunday during a search that also uncovered a cache of bomb-making equipment in Iskandariya, 25 miles south of Baghdad. The torture center was discovered in Muqdadiya, 60 miles northeast of Baghdad, after a tip.

The bloodiest attack Thursday occurred in Kanan, about 12 miles east of the Diyala provincial capital of Baqouba. The U.S. military said a bomber wearing an explosive vest approached a building in which a local council meeting was about to take place. Several U.S. soldiers were standing outside, according to a military statement.

It said one U.S. soldier and at least five Iraqi civilians were killed, and that 10 U.S. troops and an Iraqi military translator were injured. An unidentified Diyala police official indicated the dead included a "prominent leader" of the so-called Awakening council of local sheiks, who are working with U.S. and Iraqi troops against insurgents.

In Baghdad, police said three people died when a car bomb exploded on a shopping street outside a row of liquor stores.

After the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003, most liquor stores, under attack from religious extremists, closed. In recent months, some have reopenned.

Also

In western Anbar province, the stabbing death of an Iraqi policeman during a fight with a U.S. Marine on Monday threatened relations forged between U.S. forces and Sunni Muslims in the former insurgent stronghold. A police officer in Ramadi, the Anbar capital, said about 400 people protested the killing Thursday. They called for the Marine to be put on trial.