177 killed in Baghdad attacks
Bloodiest day since end of invasion Al- Zarqawi tape declares war on Shiites
BAGHDAD— A spasm of retaliatory violence, claimed by Al Qaeda in the name of Sunni insurgents, ripped through Baghdad yesterday. At least 177 people were killed and 570 wounded in more than a dozen highly co- ordinated bombings — the capital’s bloodiest day since the end of the U. S.- led invasion more than two years ago. The massive bombing campaign terrorized the capital for more than nine hours. The first attack, at 6:30 a.m., was the deadliest: a suicide car bombing which tore through assembled day labourers in the predominantly Shiite Muslim neighbourhood of Kazimiya.
In what was believed to be a new tactic, the bomber set off the explosive after calling the labourers to his small van and enticing them with promises of work, a witness said. At least 112 people were killed and more than 200 were wounded, Iraqi Health Ministry officials said.
Al Qaeda’s leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al- Zarqawi, purportedly declared “ all- out war” on Shiites, Iraqi troops and the government in an audiotape posted yesterday on an Internet site known for carrying extremist Islamic content. The al-Zarqawi tape was a clear attempt, coming on the heels of the attacks, to create a climate of fear, sow deeper sectarian discord and scare Iraqis away from the Oct. 15 referendum on a new constitution.
Iraqi forces arrested two insurgents in connection with the Kazimiya bombing, one of them a Palestinian and the other a Libyan, Iraqi television quoted Prime Minister Ibrahim al- Jaafari as saying.
Al- Jaafari also said the suicide bomber was a Syrian. The attacks came as U. S. and Iraqi forces pressed their offensive against insurgents in the northern city of Tal Afar and along the Euphrates River valley, striking hard at what officials have said were militants sneaking across the border from Syria. Al Qaeda in Iraq said in a Web posting that it launched the attacks, some less than 10 minutes apart, in response to the Tal Afar offensive, which began Saturday and in which more than 200 insurgents have been killed and several hundreds captured.
“ To the nation of Islam, we give you the good news that the battles of revenge for the Sunni people of Tal Afar began yesterday,” the statement said. Its authenticity could not be confirmed. The speaker, introduced as al- Zarqawi said his militant forces would attack any Iraqi they believe has co-operated with the Tal Afar offensive.
“ If proven that any of ( Iraq’s) national guards, police or army are agents of the crusaders, they will be killed and his house will demolished or burned — after evacuating all women and children — as a punishment,” the speaker said. But most of yesterday’s victims were civilians. At Baghdad’s Kazimiya Hospital, dozens of wounded men lay on stretchers and gurneys, their bandages and clothes soaked in blood. As the hours ticked by, at least 11 other car or roadside bombs shattered what had been a few days of relative calm in Baghdad. Two mortar attacks were reported and a multitude of gunbattles broke out between U. S. and Iraqi forces and insurgent attackers.
Also yesterday, attackers killed 17 men — including Iraqi drivers and construction workers for the U. S. military — in a Sunni village north of Baghdad before dawn. That raised the death toll in and around the capital to 177. Asenior Health Ministry official said 570 people were wounded in all. At least six attacks targeted U. S. forces, Iraqi authorities said. The U. S. military said there were four direct attacks on Americans, with 10 soldiers wounded. No U. S. deaths were reported.
U. S. officials said Zarqawi’s apparent declaration of war against the Shiites could underscore disagreement between the Jordanian-born militant and Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
Bin Laden and his second- incommand, Ayman al- Zawahri, have criticized previous attacks on Shiites in rhetoric viewed as strategic guidance for Zarqawi, intelligence officials say.
“ Clearly they don’t agree on everything. While they have some common goals, Zarqawi has his own agenda. If the tape is authentic, this would certainly indicate that,” said a U. S. official, who asked not to be identified.
“ Al Qaeda in Iraq lost basically a base area and transit point coming across the Syrian border. That will severely inhibit their operations at least in the short term,” the officer said.
Yesterday’s blasts coincided with Iraqi lawmakers announcing the country’s draft constitution was in its final form and would be sent to the United Nations for printing and distribution ahead of the referendum. Sunni Arabs, who form up the core of the insurgency, have vowed to defeat the charter. The carnage was believed to have produced the secondworst one- day death toll since the U. S.- led invasion in March 2003. The bomb that hit as labourers gathered in Kazimiya was the single deadliest in the country since Feb. 28, when a suicide car bomber targeted Shiite police and National Guard recruits, killing 125 people in Hilla, 100 kilometres south of Baghdad. The bombing was the second tragedy in the Kazimiya district in two weeks. On Aug. 31, about 950 people were killed during a bridge stampede as tens of thousands of Shiite pilgrims headed to a nearby shrine.