Three U.S. Marines died in combat Saturday in Anbar province, the US military said, making October the deadliest month for American forces in Iraq this year. The deaths raised the October toll to 78, surpassing the previous high figure of 76 in April and making October.
Also Saturday, a dozen mortars rained down on an outdoor market crowded with holiday shoppers, killing at least 18 people in a Shiite-dominated city that was the scene of a deadly market assault earlier this year, police said.
The mortar attack in Mahmoudiyah came soon after bombs hidden in plastic bags left on five bicycles ripped through the market, which was crowded with shoppers ahead of the upcoming Eid al-Fitr holiday, said police Lt. Hayder Satar.
Earlier, four people died when a suicide bomber blew himself up in a bus carrying holiday shoppers from a market, security officials have said. The bus caught fire on the bridge leading from the Baghdad's vast Shorja market after a man triggered a bomb on board Saturday. According to AFP, 15 people were also injured.
This incident came as Iraq's religious leaders meeting in the holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia issued a call to stop the sectarian bloodletting gripping the country. At the meeting, organized by the 57-member Organization of the Islamic Conference, the 29 clerics from Iraq's religious divide signed a document stipulating that "spilling Muslim blood is forbidden".
The 10-point text, drafted by four clerics from two communities under OIC auspices, draws on verses of the Koran and sayings of the Prophet Mohammed.
It also calls for the safeguarding of the two communities' holy places, defending the unity and territorial integrity of Iraq and the release of "all innocent detainees."
