Bombs, gunmen kill over 100 in Baghdad
BAGHDAD, Wednesday (Reuters) A suicide bomber killed over 80 people
in a crowded Shi'ite district of Baghdad on Wednesday, while gunmen
killed 17 north of the city and the capital resounded with explosions
and gunfire.
The violence came as Iraqi troops, with U.S. support, continued
operations against insurgents across the country. Fears of civil war are
growing in the run-up to a divisive vote on a new constitution for
Iraq's post-Saddam Hussein era.
The suicide bomber blew up an explosives-packed minibus in Kadhimiya,
in Baghdad's old town, killing 82 and wounding 163, most of them
labourers looking for day jobs, police said.
An Interior Ministry source said the bomber lured the men towards his
vehicle with promises of work before detonating the bomb, which
contained up to 500 lbs (220 kilos) of explosives.
It was one of the single deadliest car bombings Iraq has seen, and
came days after around 1,000 people died in the same district in a
stampede on a bridge, triggered by fears of a suicide bomber in a crowd
during a Shi'ite religious ceremony.
"We gathered and suddenly a car blew up and turned the area into fire
and dust and darkness," said Hadi, one of the workers who survived the
attack, which happened shortly after sunrise. Bodies lay in the street
beside burned-out cars, witnesses said. Some used wooden carts to haul
away the dead.
Iraqi government officials have accused Sunni Arab militants of
attacking majority Shi'ites, who were swept to power in January
elections boycotted by most Sunnis, in a bid to spark a civil war.
Around two hours later another blast was heard in central Baghdad, and
two more car bombs exploded shortly afterwards.
Police said five were killed and 20 wounded in one of the blasts,
near the offices of a Shi'ite cleric. There were no details on
casualties in the other explosions.
Separately, gunmen dragged 17 people from their homes and killed them
just north of Baghdad early on Wednesday, police said.
They said the gunmen had rounded up their victims in the middle of
the night and shot them outside their homes in Taji, on the northern
outskirts of Baghdad.
Iraq has seen a rising level of sectarian violence ahead of a
referendum on the constitution due on Oct. 15. The vote has exacerbated
tensions between the country's main communities, Shi'ites, Sunni Arabs
and Kurds.
Late on Tuesday, U.S. aircraft also launched air strikes against
targets in Karabila, another town near the Syrian border. The United
States and Iraq say insurgents smuggle fighters and arms across the
border, which Iraq closed in places on Sunday. Syria denies it.
Tensions have also been running high ahead of the trial of Saddam,
still admired by some Sunnis, which is due to start on Oct. 19. He faces
trial on a single charge of mass killing in a village in reprisal for an
assassination attempt on him in 1982. |