Iraq braces for sectarian attacks as major Shiite feast approaches

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Gunmen attacked a home northeast of Baghdad late Monday as the family was performing Shiite religious rituals, wounding six in violence ahead of this week's major Shiite feast. At least 11 other people died in scattered shootings and bombings, police said.

Among the wounded in the attack in Abu Sidaa, about 50 miles northeast of Baghdad, were three women and a 1-year-old boy, according to Dr. Ahmed Fouad of the hospital in nearby Baqouba.

Four U.S. Marines were killed by roadside bombings in western Iraq's volatile Anbar province, the military said today.

Three Marines were killed by a bomb blast Monday in Hit, 85 miles west of Baghdad, according to a military statement. The victims were assigned to the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit that has operated in Anbar province since mid-December with an Iraqi Army battalion.

Another Marine, attached to the 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, died from wounds caused by a bomb blast Sunday in an unspecified location within Anbar, which includes the cities of Fallujah and Ramadi.

Fouad said the family that was attacked Monday was performing Shiite rituals associated with Ashoura, the most important date in the Shiite calendar, which falls this year on Thursday. Shiites perform a number of rituals in the run-up to Ashoura, which commemorates the seventh century death in battle of Imam Hussein, grandson of Islam's Prophet Muhammad.

Sunni extremists have targeted the past two Ashoura festivals. Eight suicide bombers killed 55 Shiites last year. In 2004, at least 181 people died in bombings at shrines in Baghdad and Karbala.

About 8,000 Iraqi security troops will be in Karbala for this week's ceremonies, private vehicles will be banned in the city center, and food carts will be prohibited because they are often used as hiding places for bombs.

In Basra, police said they killed a man who fired on a group of Shiites performing Ashoura ceremonies and threw a hand grenade at police forces. Two civilians and two policemen were wounded in the clash.

An Iraqi soldier killed a member of the radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi militia, which was guarding Shiites taking part in an Ashoura procession in northwestern Baghdad, said police Capt. Qassim Hussein. It was unclear what sparked the incident.

Meanwhile, police found the bodies of two Sunni Arab brothers seized from their Baghdad home late Sunday by men claiming to be Interior Ministry commandos, said Lt. Maitham Abdul-Razzaq.

Sunni Arabs accuse Shiite-led security forces and militias of targeting their community. Sunni politicians over the weekend warned of civil war after the bullet-riddled bodies of 14 Sunni Arab men were found in Baghdad.

In the northern city of Kirkuk, an Iraqi policeman was killed and his brother, also a policeman, was wounded in an attack by armed men firing from a speeding car.

El Salvador to send another contingent

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador — The government said Monday it will send another contingent of 380 soldiers to Iraq, making it the country's sixth group to serve six-month rotations in the war-torn nation.

The Salvadorans are helping build water systems, rebuild schools and provide medical care in the Iraqi provincial city of Kut, about 100 miles southeast of Baghdad. El Salvador is the only Latin American nation with a military presence in Iraq.

— The Associated Press