(CBS/AP) Insurgents in Iraq are testing the country's security forces and asserting their might in a wave of violence that comes as the U.S. has begun pulling out combat troops.
Coordinated attacks Wednesday killed at least 56 people and injured hundreds, the worst day of violence in more than two years. And the violence is continuing Thursday, two days after the U.S. troop level fell below 50,000 for the first time since the war began in 2003.
Insurgents killed six members of a government-allied Sunni militia in an ambush northeast of Baghdad on Thursday, police said, offering no respite to a nation reeling from Wednesday's violence.
Diyala police spokesman Maj. Ghalib al-Karkhi said the government-allied fighters, known as Sahwa or Awakening Councils, were driving near the town of Muqdadiyah around 1:30 a.m. when their car hit a roadside bomb.
The explosion killed four of the guards immediately, al-Karkhi said. Gunmen then attacked the two survivors, killing them, he said.
Muqdadiyah is about 60 miles north of Baghdad.
The Sahwa are a government-backed Sunni militia that joined forces with U.S. troops against al Qaeda in 2006 and helped turn the tide of the war. Since then, the Sahwa fighters have become frequent targets of insurgent attacks.
The early morning ambush comes on the heels of a string of attacks a day earlier that struck at least 13 Iraqi cities. Fifty-six people were killed - including at least 31 policemen and soldiers - in a series of bombings and shootings across the country.
The attacks made August the deadliest month for Iraqi security forces in two years. But insurgents have been stepping up their attacks for months.
"It's about the terrorists trying to make a point about the lack of a government, trying to challenge the security forces, put doubts into people's minds about whether they are ready or not," said Gen. Ray Odierno, the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq.
In fact, in many cases the Iraqis are not ready, as some admit. - CBS News Story
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