More than 20 bombs hit cities and towns across Iraq Thursday, killing at least 36 and wounding more than 100, police and hospital sources said, raising fears of sectarian strife in a country keen to show it can now maintain security. 

In Baghdad, three car bombs, two roadside bombs and one suicide car bomb hit mainly Shiite areas in what looked like coordinated attacks, killing 15 people and wounding 61, the sources said. 

---

 Two car bombs and three roadside bombs aimed at police and army patrols in the northern oil city of Kirkuk killed eight people and wounded 26, police and hospital sources said. 

"I was trying to stop traffic to let a police patrol pass. When it passed, a car bomb exploded and I fell on the ground and police took me to the hospital," a policeman wounded in the face and chest told Reuters as doctors tended his wounds. He declined to be named. 

Heightened tension between Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds in the fragile coalition government since U.S. troops withdrew in December has raised fears of a return to sectarian violence of the kind that pushed Iraq to the brink of civil war a few years ago. 

The country is less violent than at the height of that conflict in 2006-07, but bombings and killings still happen daily, often aimed at Shiite areas and local security forces. 

Kirkuk, home to Arabs, Kurds, Turkmen and others, is at the heart of a long-running dispute between the central government and the autonomous Kurdish region, which claims the city and the region's rich oil reserves. 

The rift between Baghdad and the Kurds recently worsened when the Kurdistan Regional Government said it was halting oil exports because the central government was not paying oil firms operating in the north. 

The government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki is anxious to show it can keep the country secure and attract investment following the withdrawal of U.S. troops. 

Baghdad hosted an Arab League summit last month, its first for 20 years, and it passed off relatively peacefully amid a massive security lockdown.

Attacks in Iraq are mostly blamed on Sunni Arab insurgents who have refused to lay down arms after the withdrawal of U.S. forces in December.

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BAGHDAD -- A video posted online Saturday purports to show the highest-ranking fugitive member of Saddam Hussein's ousted regime lashing out against Iraq's Shiite-led government.

It was not possible to verify the authenticity of the video or determine when it was made.

The man in the video, which was posted on a website linked to Saddam's now-outlawed Baath party, was introduced as Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri. He bore a striking physical resemblance to the former Saddam deputy. He noted that nine years had passed since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, suggesting the video was made recently.

---

The man resembling al-Douri sat in a Saddam-era uniform in front of the old Iraqi flag, flanked by a group of bodyguards, just as he did when delivering speeches in the past.

Al-Douri was the deputy head of Iraq's Revolutionary Command Council under Saddam, a Sunni who was toppled after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. He took over the Baath Party leadership after Saddam was executed in 2006.

'Sounds of danger'
The man criticized Iraq's Shiite-dominated government, led by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, and what he said was meddling by neighboring Shiite powerhouse Iran.

"Everyone can hear the sounds of danger echoing daily and threatening this country," he said during the hour-long address, adding that al-Maliki's Dawa Party "has announced Iraq as the Shiite capital, and called on all Arab leaders to surrender to this reality."

Al-Douri has been reported dead or captured more than once in the past. He has not been seen in public since the U.S.-led invasion, though audio tapes purporting to be from him have been released. His whereabouts are not known.

Archival video from 2005: Saddam top deputy al-Izzat dead?

Al-Douri is believed to have played a key role in financing Sunni insurgents seeking to undermine Iraq's post-Saddam government.

$10 million reward
After the invasion, al-Douri was ranked sixth on the U.S. military's list of 55 most wanted Iraqis and a $10 million reward was offered for his capture. He was the "king of clubs" in the deck of playing cards issued by the U.S. to help troops identify the most-wanted members of Saddam's regime.

Baathists were banned from politics after the 2003 invasion, but the government says many former party members have organized into insurgent groups resisting the rise to power of the Shiite majority following the fall of Saddam.

Maliki ordered the arrest of hundreds of former Baathists last year just before the last American troops left the country, causing a crisis that threatened to unravel a fragile power-sharing deal among Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish blocs.

Ali al-Moussawi, a media adviser for al-Maliki, said the tape is meant to "boost the morale of the terrorists."

"Al-Douri wants to spread terrorism and sectarian violence under the pretext of resistance," he said. "This will not affect the work of the government or the political process."

Al-Moussawi said al-Douri is still a wanted man, but that he doubts that al-Douri is still in Iraq because his need for extensive medical care in a well-equipped clinic would make it impossible to hide.

Wax museum spurs sticky situation in Iraq

Meanwhile, a bomb hidden in a plastic bag blew up on a minibus, killing two passengers and wounding nine in Baghdad's commercial heart of Karrada on Saturday, according to police and hospital officials. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media.

Deadly attacks have declined in Iraq in recent weeks, but dozens are still killed every month. March saw the lowest monthly toll for violent deaths since the 2003 U.S.-invasion.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

 

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NEWS ANALYSIS

"What is the purpose of the bayonet?
To kill, kill, kill with the cold blue steel!
What makes the green grass grow?
Blood, blood, bright red blood!"

It’s a beautiful summer morning at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., in 2003, and I’m screaming at the top of my lungs while stabbing a tire with a seven-inch bayonet.  Around me more than 200 other men and women are doing the same thing.

Bayonet training 101 -- just another way the U.S. Army teaches you how to kill.

Killing is what soldiers are trained to do.  And while nothing can excuse the actions that Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales is accused of committing in Afghanistan, anyone who thinks the Army doesn’t dehumanize you and others is kidding themselves. 

---

I’ve never met Bales, but we both enlisted in the Army in November, 2001. While he must have gone straight into basic training, I had 18 months of college to finish after joining up. 

By the time I’d graduated and finished my training as a combat medic, Bales was well into his first tour in Iraq with the 3rd Stryker Brigade in the Second Infantry Division.

In the summer of 2006, he was sent to Iraq again, this time to Mosul.  At the same time, I was deployed a little further south near the city of Bayji as part of the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne.

When I arrived in the Middle East I believed that I would be able to show the Iraqis that we were there to help, not harm, them.  That attitude lasted until someone I knew was killed. Then I felt – ‘the hell with these people, kill them all.’ 

Those feelings passed, but the anger never went away entirely.  It’s hard to reconcile the thought that the people you are trying to help may be the same ones out to kill you and your friends.  There were no uniforms in Iraq, no way to tell friend from enemy until the bombs went off.

How Staff Sgt. Bales' lawyers are fighting for his life

Courage to ask for help
Several months into our deployment a staff sergeant from the infantry platoon I was assigned to visited me. It was his third deployment, he was anxious, flashbacks made it hard to sleep and things were pretty tough back home. My four months of medical training didn’t cover much psychology but luckily we had a Combat Stress unit on our base. Well, I say unit -- in fact it was one major tucked away in a room on the far side of the base.

The staff sergeant agreed to speak to the major but didn’t want anyone else in the platoon to know. So I lied and said I was taking him to the aid station for back pain instead.

No matter what they say, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is looked down on in the Army. Soldiers still see it as a sign of weakness. I should know -- I had to give PowerPoint briefings about it while guys joked that it could never happen to them.

But PTSD does happen, and it eventually forced my staff sergeant off the front lines. It was one too many explosions, one too many bodies, and one too many friends gone.

His departure was huge loss to the platoon, but it was the right decision. It took an enormous amount of strength for that staff sergeant to reach out and ask for help. Not everyone supported the decision, and there were many who thought his stepping aside was quitting or worse – cowardly.

Unlike Bales, I never had to experience multiple deployments.  One 15-month tour in Iraq was enough for me. 

I now know that it takes enormous courage to make it through three deployments. If Bales was indeed behind the massacre of 16 Afghan civilians, what would have happened if he had shown enough courage to ask for help before it was too late?

Lynndie England, who became the face of U.S. military abuses overseas for her role in the Abu Ghraib scandal, says she doesn’t feel bad for detainees who were subjected to torture.

“Their lives are better. They got the better end of the deal,” England told The Daily, a news publication for the iPad, from her home in Fort Ashby, W. Va. “They weren’t innocent. They’re trying to kill us, and you want me to apologize to them? It’s like saying sorry to the enemy.”

England was sentenced to three years behind bars for her role in the abuse scandal.

---

She appeared in several of the best-known photos taken by U.S. guards at Abu Ghraib, including one image in which she held a naked prisoner on a leash; in others, she posed with a pyramid of naked detainees and pointed at one man’s genitals while a cigarette hung from the corner of her mouth.

At her trial, England said she appeared in the photos at the behest of Pvt. Charles Graner Jr., who she said took advantage of her love and trust while they were deployed in Iraq.

According to the Daily, England lives with her parents, is unemployed, has suffered from PTSD symptoms and is haunted by her past. She told the news publication that Graner has refused to acknowledge their 7-year-old son, even though his paternity was proved in 2009.

The 29-year-old added that she was troubled by the fear that her actions may have caused the death of members of the U.S. military. "That’s something that falls on my head,” she told The Daily. “I think about it all the time — indirect deaths that were my fault. Losing people on our side because of me coming out on a picture.”

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The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Updated at 3:18 p.m. ET: At least 52 people were killed and 250 wounded as car and roadside bombs exploded in at least 12 cities and towns across Iraq Tuesday, police and hospital sources said, extending a spate of violence ahead of next week's Arab League summit in Baghdad.

The meeting is seen as the country's debut on the regional stage following the withdrawal of U.S. troops in December and Iraq's government is anxious to show it can reinforce security to host its neighbors. Tuesday is the ninth anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion.

---

The AFP news agency reported that while violence in Iraq was down from the peak in 2006 and 2007, a total of 150 Iraqis were killed last month.

The deadliest attack on Tuesday occurred in the southern Shiite Muslim holy city of Kerbala, where twin explosions killed 13 people and wounded 48, according to Jamal Mahdi, a Kerbala health department spokesman.

"The second explosion caused the biggest destruction. I saw body parts, fingers, hands thrown on the road," 23-year-old shop owner Murtadha Ali Kadhim told Reuters.

"The security forces are stupid because they always gather at the site of an explosion and then a second explosion occurs. They become a target," he added.

Iraqis worried
Security forces are frequently targeted in Iraq, where bombings and shootings still occur on a daily basis and Sunni Muslim insurgents and Shiite militias are still capable of carrying out lethal attacks.

'American hostage' handed over to US embassy in Iraq

Many Iraqis worry whether their government has the wherewithal to impose security on the country.

American teacher shot dead by student in Iraq

In the northern city of Kirkuk, a car bomb exploded near a police headquarters, killing seven people and wounding 30, police and health sources said, while a suicide car bomber killed three and wounded 21 in central Baghdad.

Four hours of chaos: Dozens die as terrorists attack 12 cities in Iraq

A car bomb targeting a police patrol in Mahmudiya in the south killed three people and wounded 12, while a car bomb blast near a convoy carrying the governor of Anbar province killed one of his security men and wounded eight other people.

Blasts also occurred in Baiji, Samarra, Tuz Khurmato, Daquq and Dhuluiya, all north of Baghdad, and Hilla and Latifiya in the south. Police in the northeastern city of Baquba said they had also found and defused eight bombs.

The Arab League summit is due to be held in Baghdad on March 27-29, the first time Iraq will host the event in more than 20 years.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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An armed group loyal to anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr freed a man it said was an American citizen in Baghdad on Saturday after holding him captive for nine months, according to reports from the Iraqi capital.

The man, now confirmed as being in the custody of the U.S. Embassy, earlier appeared on Iraq’s Bagdadiya television flanked by lawmakers from the Shiite cleric's and described himself as a former member of the U.S. military who was seized in June 2011 after he returned to Iraq as a civilian, Reuters reported.

---

“I was taken inside Baghdad and have been kept in and around different locations within the city by al-Maoud," he said, wearing a military uniform without insignia. "It was explained to me that my release has been for humanitarian reasons and that there was no exchange involved.''

U.N. spokeswoman Radhia Achouri says the man was handed over Saturday night and was at the U.N. compound in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone.

"Deputy Speaker of the Council of Representatives, Mr. Quasay Al-Suhail and Member of Parliament, Mrs. Maha Al-Douri handed over... the American citizen whom they said has been in detention for about nine months by an Iraqi armed faction," Achouri said in a statement. The UN mission "is currently in contact with the US Embassy in Baghdad to follow up on the matter."

In an interview with The Associated Press, senior Sadrist official Abdul Hadi al-Mutairi said the man was a U.S. soldier who was captured June 18, but a U.S. military official told NBC News there are no remaining US military hostages in Iraq.

A spokesman for the U.S. embassy could not confirm the man's identity, AP reported.

NBC confirmed that the man has since been handed over to U.S. officials at the embassy.

Al-Mutairi said the man was released without any negotiation "as a goodwill initiative toward the American society and to (his) family," according the the AP report. He also told AP the man is married and has two sons, and was treated well during his captivity, despite his military past.

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NBC News chief Pentagon correspondent Jim Miklaszewski, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

 

BAGHDAD -- At least 14 youths have been stoned to death in Baghdad in the past three weeks in what appears to be a campaign by Shiite militants against youths wearing Western-style "emo" clothes and haircuts, security and hospital sources say.

Militants in Shiite neighborhoods where the stonings have taken place circulated lists on Saturday naming more youths targeted to be killed if they do not change the way they dress.

The killings have taken place since Iraq's interior ministry drew attention to the "emo" subculture last month, labeling it "Satanism" and ordering a community police force to stamp it out.

---

"Emo" is a genre of punk rock music that originated in the United States in the 1980s. Fans are known for their distinctive dress, often including tight jeans, T-shirts with logos and distinctive long or spiky haircuts.

At least 14 bodies of youths have been brought to three hospitals in eastern Baghdad bearing signs of having been beaten to death with rocks or bricks, security and hospital sources told Reuters under condition they not be identified because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Nine bodies were brought to hospitals in Sadr City, a vast, poor Shiite neighborhood, three were brought to East Baghdad's main al-Kindi hospital and two were brought to the central morgue, medical sources said.

Six other young people, including two girls, were wounded in beatings intended as warnings, the security sources said.

"Last week I signed the death certificates of three of those young people, and the reason for death I wrote in my own hand was severe skull fractures," a doctor at al-Kindi hospital told Reuters. "A very powerful blow to the head caused these fractures which totally smashed the skull of the victim."

Other sources put the"emo" death toll much higher. Hana al-Bayaty of Brussels Tribunal, a nongovernmental organization dealing with Iraqi issues, said the current figure ranges “between 90 and 100,” Arabic-language newspaper Al Arabiya reported on its website.

A leaflet distributed in the Shiite Bayaa district of east Baghdad seen by Reuters on Saturday had 24 names of youths targeted for killing.

"We strongly warn you, to all the obscene males and females, if you will not leave this filthy work within four days the punishment of God will descend upon you at the hand of the Mujahideen," the leaflet said.

Another leaflet in Sadr City bore 20 names. "We are the Brigades of Anger. We warn you, if you do not get back to sanity and the right path, you will be killed," it said.

In a statement last month the interior ministry said it was monitoring "the 'emo' phenomenon, or Satanism" which it said was spreading through schools, particularly among teenage girls.

"They wear tight clothes that bear paintings of skulls, they use school implements with skulls and wear rings in their noses and tongues as well as other weird appearances," it said.

After reports of the stonings circulated on Iraqi media, the interior ministry said this week that no murders on its files could be blamed on the reaction to "emo".

"Many media have reported fabricated news reports about the so-called 'emo' phenomenon -- stories about tens of young people killed in various ways, including stoning," the ministry said in a statement on Thursday.

"No murder case has been recorded with the interior ministry on so-called 'emo' grounds. All cases of murder recorded were for revenge, social and common criminal reasons."

Clerics denounce killings
Iraq's leading Shiite clerics have condemned the stonings.

Abdul-Raheem al-Rikabi, Baghdad representative for Iraq's most influential Shiite cleric, Ali al-Sistani, called the killings "terrorist attacks."

"Such a phenonomenon which has spread among young people should be tackled through dialogue and peaceful means and not through physical liquidation," Rikabi told Reuters.

In a response to questions on his website on Saturday, Muqtada al-Sadr, a Shiite cleric whose followers dominate Sadr City, described "emo" youths as "crazy and fools," but said they should be dealt with only through the law.

"They are a plague on Muslim society, and those responsible should eliminate them through legal means," he said.

Abu Ali al-Rubaie, a leading Sadr aide in Sadr City, said the cleric's followers had nothing to do with the killings.

"In this issue and in all such problems we always use peaceful and educational methods to correct any wrongdoings. We are not connected in any way to those groups allegedly responsibility for killing those young people."

Another revered Iraqi cleric, Ayatollah Mohammed al-Yakoubi, said in a statement on Friday that the killings of “emo” teens in the country was exaggerated and aimed at tarnishing the image of those who are religious and have problems with the current government. “Media outlets have published some news on the killing of 'Emo' teenagers in Baghdad and other provinces but did not confirm the authenticity or the correctness of neither the news nor the numbers mentioned,” he said, according to Al Arabiya.

In the years after the fall of Saddam Hussein, most of Baghdad's neighborhoods were under the firm grip of Sunni and Shiite religious militias which enforced strict dress codes.

Today, the militias have largely disappeared, Baghdad is far more peaceful and many youths experiment with Western styles, although much of Iraqi society remains conservative.

On the streets of Baghdad, people said they had heard of the killings through the media. Many expressed disapproval of the "emo" style, but said murder was no way to respond.

"I saw them a couple weeks ago ... a bunch of girls, high-school aged, walking together, dressed in black. They had long black eye makeup and bracelets with skulls and chains on their handbags with skulls," said Abdullah, 31.

"If they are close friends who have something in common, that's all right. If other things we hear about them are true, like sucking each other's blood or worshipping the devil, that is not accepted in our society. But I think this is just a trend to imitate the West."

Reuters and msnbc.com staff contributed to this story.

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Tens of thousands of Bahrainis demonstrated on Friday to demand democratic reforms, stepping up pressure on the U.S.-allied government with the biggest protest yet in a year of unrest.

They began marching along a highway near Manama in response to a call from leading Shiite cleric Sheikh Isa Qassim, who urged people to renew their calls for greater democracy.

---

A live blog showed images of the protesters carrying banners denouncing "dictatorship" and demanding the release of detainees.

"We are here for the sake of our just demands that we cannot make concessions over and we stick with them because we have sacrificed for them," Sheikh Isa Qassim said before the march in his weekly sermon in the Shiite village of Diraz.

Qassim and other Shiite clerics led the march.

"It is the biggest demonstration in the past year. I would say it could be over 100,000," said a Reuters photographer after protesters filled up the main Budaiya highway in the area of Diraz and Saar, west of Manama.

Security forces fired tear gas at a small group of protesters, but the rally was mostly peaceful, the BBC reported.

Activists had called for the biggest rally since the Bahraini authorities quelled a popular protest with help from Saudi troops more than a year ago.

Later, hundreds of protesters broke away from the march to walk down the main highway into Manama in an attempt to return to a traffic intersection that protesters occupied for a month during last year's uprising.

Activists said riot police blocking the road fired tear gas and the interior ministry said protesters threw stones.

The government, pressed by its Western allies to allow peaceful expression of dissent, has allowed more opposition protests in recent months.

The BBC reported some protesters chanted "Down, down Hamad," referring to King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa.

A statement from the royal court praised a small Friday rally of several hundred government loyalists under the name "Fateh Gathering", and the Qassim march, as signs of democratic maturity.

"The events at the Fateh Gathering as well as the gathering in the Northern Governorate are a source of pride for Bahrainis as a model of correct democratic behavior," state news agency BNA reported.

Majority Shiites were in the forefront of the protest movement which erupted in February 2011 after uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia. The Shiia population makes up about 70 percent of the country's 525,000 citizens.

The ruling Sunni Muslim Al Khalifa family crushed the protests a month later, imposing martial law and bringing in Saudi and United Arab Emirates troops to help restore order. It accused the Shiite power Iran of fomenting the unrest.

On Friday, Iraqi followers of Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr demonstrated in Basra in support of the Bahraini opposition. Around 3,000 people chanted anti-Saudi slogans and carried Bahraini and Iraqi flags.

Daily clashes
Bahrain, where the U.S. Navy Fifth Fleet is based, has remained mired in crisis and Shiite youths clash daily with riot police. The unrest has slowed the economy in what used to be a major tourism and banking hub.

Tension has risen around the February 14 anniversary of the uprising, with security forces maintaining a tight grip on the intersection formerly known as the Pearl Roundabout, which remains closed.

Pro-government Sunni groups have organized smaller counter-rallies, warning authorities not to enter into a dialogue on reforms that could give the elected parliament legislative clout and the power to form governments.

Those groups look to Sunni power Saudi Arabia as a key ally and demonize the opposition as loyal to Iran, a charge the opposition parties deny. Analysts say Riyadh does not want Bahrain to agree to reforms that empower Shiites.

Activists say at least 27 people have been killed in the unrest since June, many from the effects of tear gas. The government disputes the causes of death.

King Hamad appeared to dismiss the opposition last month, saying they were disunited.

Qassim said Friday's march would show how strong the opposition was. "The march will either prove you are only an isolated minority making demands, or that the demands are widely popular," he said in his sermon, which was posted on YouTube.

Next month, the Bahraini Grand Prix motor race is due to be held in the country, according to the BBC.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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