March 2, 2006
(CBS/AP) U.S. officials tell
CBS News that intelligence has picked up reports that al Qaeda in Iraq is
planning what one source calls the "Big Bang," a spectacular
terrorist attack in Iraq against either a single high-profile target or
multiple targets simultaneously.
Last week's mosque bombing in city of Samarra that brought Iraq to the brink of
civil war was the work of terrorists, some U.S. officials have theorized. Abu
Musab al-Zarqawi seems to be betting that another big bang would push the
country over the brink, reports
CBS News correspondent David Martin. The bomb in one of the holiest
sites for Shiite Muslims set off violence all across the country that left
hundreds dead.
The Iraqi government has banned all private vehicles in Baghdad during daylight
hours Friday, the Muslim prayer day, just as it did last week. That kept car
bombs, what the military cars vehicle-born improvised explosive devices, off
the streets.
But Zarqawi just waited until the ban was lifted.
"The day the vehicle ban was lifted, all these VBIEDS that he had staged
he deployed in Iraq and detonated over the last three days," said Maj.
Gen. Rick Lynch, a U.S. military spokesman.
This week, the ban takes effect when the overnight curfew ends at 6 a.m. Friday
and will last until 4 p.m. Friday, according to a statement issued by the prime
minister's office. Police and army were instructed to seal off the capital and
seize any private vehicles that defy the ban.
Pentagon officials are also worried that a terrorist spectacular will undermine
administration claims about progress in Iraq and therefore weaken public
support for the war here at home, Martin reports.
Also Thursday, a bomb ripped through a vegetable market in a Shiite section of
Baghdad and a leading Sunni politician escaped an attack on his convoy as at
least 36 people were killed in unrelenting violence pushing Iraq toward civil
war.
As sectarian killing surged last week, the U.S. 2nd Brigade, 1st Armored
Division was put on alert in neighboring Kuwait for a possible move into Iraq, the
military said. But no orders were given for such a move.
The violence has complicated talks to form a broad-based government, which U.S.
officials consider essential to cut support for insurgents among the Sunni-Arab
minority so coalition forces can start drawing down later this year.
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