Pat Dollard | Young Americans

New York Times:

BAGHDAD — Attacks in Baghdad and a city in northern Iraq killed at least 41 people and wounded dozens more on Thursday, the worst violence since Iraq celebrated the withdrawal of American troops from cities and towns last month.

In the deadliest attack, two suicide bombers, working in tandem, detonated explosives in Tal Afar, a city in Nineveh Province. Tal Afar is about 40 miles west of Mosul, the provincial capital where violence has raged almost without interruption despite improved security.

The first bomber, wearing a vest of explosives, attacked two security officials outside the court that handles terrorism cases. The explosion occurred early Thursday morning in the city’s center, and as crowds gathered afterward, the second bomber struck. At least 34 people were killed in those two blasts and 64 were wounded, according to preliminary reports from security officials in the region.

In Baghdad, two separate improvised bombs exploded near a market in Sadr City, the Shiite district that has been a regular target. Those bombings killed at least 7 people and wounded 20 others, security officials reported.

The twin suicide bombings in Tal Afar bore the signature the Islamic State of Iraq, the umbrella organization of groups affiliated with Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia. The city’s population is predominantly Turkmen Sunnis, although there is also a Shiite minority.

The attacks came a day after a reputed leader of the Islamic State of Iraq, whom the Iraqi government claimed to have captured this year, issued a taped statement calling on Iraq’s Sunnis to join the fight against Shiites and American troops.

The statement, which was released on the Internet and attributed to Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, said attacks on American forces should continue despite the withdrawal from Iraqi cities by United States combat troops.

That withdrawal, heralded by the Shiite-led government as a milestone in the six-year-old war, was part of an agreement for the United States to withdraw from the country by the end of 2011. “Even if they are in one spot in the Iraqi desert, away from all forms of life, every Muslim must fight them until they are kicked out of that spot,” the statement said.

It was impossible to verify the authenticity of the statement, but it was posted on a Web site popular with jihadists. If authentic, it would be the first response from the Islamic State of Iraq since United States combat forces completed the urban withdrawal on June 30.

Iraqi and American military officials have said Sunni insurgent groups were significantly weakened during the past two years, and portions of the audio statement seemed to substantiate those claims. At times, the voice attributed to Mr. Baghdadi was openly recruiting new members.

“Come back to the real jihadists,” he said. “We are not going to hurt you. We are friends. We have always wished you a great life and to go to heaven after you die.”

In the days after the urban withdrawal by the Americans, several Iraqi insurgent and opposition leaders announced that they would no longer single out Iraqis.

But the voice in the 40-minute statement made no promises to end attacks on Shiites or Iraqi security forces, saying Iraq’s Sunnis were “growing weaker and weaker every day.”

In April, the Iraqi government announced that it had arrested Mr. Baghdadi — who is blamed for deadly attacks against Iraqis and Americans — but American officials in Iraq have long questioned whether Mr. Baghdadi exists at all, saying they suspect he is a figure created by the largely foreign leadership of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia to give the insurgency’s top ranks an Iraqi face.

An Iraqi government spokesman did not return a call seeking a comment on Wednesday.

Elsewhere in Iraq on Wednesday, two car bombs exploded near Shiite mosques in Mosul, killing 12 people and wounding 30 others, the police reported. In Hilla, south of Baghdad, the police said, a suicide bomber struck at a wedding party, killing 3 people and wounding 20.