Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Iraq bombs target Shiites as holy day nears; 78 die
BAGHDAD — An apparently coordinated wave of bombings targeting Shiite Muslims killed at least 78 people Thursday in Iraq, the second large-scale assault by militants since U.S. forces pulled out last month.
The attacks, which bore the hallmarks of Sunni insurgents, come ahead of a Shiite holy day that draws hundreds of thousands of pilgrims from across Iraq, raising fears of a deepening of sectarian bloodshed. Sunni-shiite rifts just a few years ago pushed Iraq to the brink of civil war
The bombings in Baghdad and outside the southern city of Nasiriyah appeared to be the deadliest in Iraq in more than a year and occurred amid a political standoff between the country’s main Shiite and Sunni Arab factions.
The attacks began during Baghdad’s morning rush hour when explosions struck the capital’s largest Shiite neighborhood of Sadr City and Kadhimiya, a district that contains a Shiite shrine, killing at least 30 people, according to police.
Several hours later, a suicide attack hit pilgrims heading to the Shiite holy city of Karbala, killing 48, police said. The explosions took place near Nasiriyah, about 200 miles southeast of Baghdad.
Hospital officials confirmed the casualties. Authorities spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to release figures of the dead and wounded, who numbered more than 100.
The explosions began about 7 a.m., when a bomb attached to a motorcycle detonated in an area of Sadr City where day laborers wait for work and vendors sell food, police and witnesses said. Moments later, two improvised explosive devices were detonated near rescuers who were taking the wounded to a nearby hospital, the officials said.
Security forces also found two unexploded devices in the area, they said.
Ali Mohsen Chiyad, a 31year-old day laborer, said he was just yards away from one of the explosions.
“I saw a ball of fire, then smoke came out from the place. ... People were running in all directions,” he said. “Such incidents increase our fears that the violence will mount. ... These political problems and differences among the politicians encourage the terrorists to work, in my opinion.”
An hour after the Sadr City attack, two car bombs were detonated in bustling squares in the neighborhood of Kadhimiya, killing 15 people and wounding 31, according to security officials.
The most lethal attack occurred near the southern city of Nasiriyah, where a suicide bomber detonated an explosive vest in a crowd of pilgrims as they waited to pass through a checkpoint, killing 48 and wounding dozens, including several Iraqi army officers, according to security officials.
The blasts occurred in the run-up to Arbaeen, a holy day that marks the end of 40 days of mourning after the anniversary of the death of Imam Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad. During this time, Shiite pilgrims — many on foot — make their way across Iraq to Karbala, south of Baghdad.
Other Iraqis blamed the political discord for the lethal strikes.
“We hold the government responsible for these attacks. They [ the politicians] are bickering over their seats and these poor people are killed in these blasts,” said Baghdad resident Ali Qassim not long after the first bomb went off.
Baghdad military spokesman Maj. Gen. Qassim alMoussawi said the aim of the attacks is “to create turmoil among the Iraqi people.” He said it was too early to say who was behind the bombings.
Coordinated attacks aimed at Shiites are a tactic frequently used by Sunni insurgents.
The last U.S. combat troops left Iraq on Dec. 18, ending a nearly nine-year war. Many Iraqis worry that a resurgence of Sunni and Shiite militancy could follow the Americans’ withdrawal. In 2006, a Sunni attack on a Shiite shrine triggered a wave of sectarian violence that pushed the country to the brink of civil war.
“People have real fears that the cycle of violence might be revived in this country,” said Tariq Annad, a 52-yearold government employee in Sadr City, after Thursday’s bombings.
“Definitely ... there is a relationship between these explosions and the political crisis, but it doesn’t mean necessarily that one of the sides in the crisis is directly responsible,” said Dhiya Shikerchi, an Iraqi political analyst. “Maybe there is a third side that is exploiting this crisis to fulfill its agenda to return Iraq to sectarian strife.”
Attacks Wednesday targeted the homes of police officers and a member of a government- allied militia. Those strikes, in the cities of Baqouba and Abu Ghraib outside Baghdad, killed four people, including two children, officials said.
Two weeks earlier, militants killed at least 69 people as a wave of bombs ripped through mostly Shiite neighborhoods in Baghdad. An al-qaida front group in Iraq claimed responsibility.
POLITICAL STORM
Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-maliki’s government issued an arrest warrant for the country’s top Sunni politician last month. The Sunni official, Vice President Tariq alHashemi, is holed up in Iraq’s semiautonomous Kurdish region in the north, effectively out of reach of state security forces.
Al-maliki’s main political rival, the Sunni-backed Iraqiya bloc, is boycotting parliament sessions and Cabinet meetings to protest what its members say are efforts by the government to consolidate power.
Gala Riani, a Middle East analyst at IHS Global Insight, said the political storm feeds into Sunni fears they could be marginalized by the Shiite-dominated government — worries that Sunni militants are trying to exploit.
“The political crisis has set up a perfect scenario for Sunni militants to re-establish themselves,” she said. “It’s very sectarian in nature and gives them fuel for their fire.”
While the political showdown appears far from being resolved, there are tentative signs of progress.
Al-maliki met Thursday with the Sunni speaker of parliament, Osama al-nujaifi, a member of al-hashemi’s Iraqiya party. In televised comments afterward, they described the talks as positive and said they will work to find a way out of the crisis.
Earlier, both men condemned Thursday’s bombings.
In Washington, State Department spokesman Victoria Nuland also denounced the “terrorist violence” in Iraq and called the attacks “desperate attempts by the same kind of folk who’ve been active in Iraq trying to turn back the clock.”
Britain’s Foreign Office minister for the Middle East and North Africa, Alistair Burt, urged Iraq’s leaders to renew their efforts to break the political impasse.
Meanwhile, six Iraqiya lawmakers broke ranks with their party over the boycott by attending a parliament session. Ahmed al-jubouri, one of the Iraqiya lawmakers who participated, said he did so to “encourage all blocs to sit together and open dialogue.” Information for this article was contributed by Adam Schreck, Sameer N. Yacoub, Qassim Abdul-zahra, Mazin Yahya and David Stringer of The Associated Press, by Raheem Salman and Alexandra Zavis of the Los Angeles
Times; and by Michael Schmidt, Yasir Ghazi and Zaid Thaker of