26 die as suicide bomber hits Baghdad Shiite site
Source: Agencies |
June 5, 2012, Tuesday
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A SUICIDE bomber detonated an explosive-packed car outside a Shiite Muslim office in central Baghdad yesterday, killing at least 26 people and wounding more than 190 in an attack bearing the hallmarks of Iraq's al-Qaida affiliate.
The bombing on a Shiite religious office comes at a sensitive time, with the country's fractious Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish blocs locked in a crisis that threatens to unravel their power-sharing deal and spill into sectarian tensions.
The attacker targeted the Shiite Endowment - a government-run body that manages Shiite religious and cultural sites - leaving dead and wounded along a main street nearby and blasting part of its headquarters to rubble, police said.
"It was a powerful explosion, dust and smoke covered the area. At first I couldn't see anything, but then I heard screaming women and children," said policeman Ahmed Hassan, who was at a nearby police station when the bomb went off. "We rushed with other police to help ... the wounded were scattered all around, and there were body parts on the main street."
Violence in Iraq has eased, but Sunni Islamist insurgents tied to al-Qaida are still capable of devastating attacks and often hit Shiite targets to stir up the kind of sectarian pressure that pushed Iraq close to civil war in 2006-2007.
Security officials said initial evidence from yesterday's blast pointed to a suicide car bomber. They said the bombing appeared to have been carried out by Islamic State of Iraq, al-Qaida's Iraqi wing, which often uses suicide bombers in its attacks.
The Shiite Endowment has been caught up in a dispute with the rival Sunni Endowment over control of a key Shiite shrine in the Sunni stronghold city of Samarra. An attack on the al-Askari shrine in Samarra in 2006 sparked sectarian fighting that killed tens of thousands in the two following years.
Last week, a truck bombing in a marketplace, a car bomb and several roadside blasts killed at least 17 people and broke weeks of relative calm in Baghdad. In mid-April, more than 20 bombs hit cities and towns across the country, killing 36 people. Islamic State of Iraq claimed responsibility for those attacks.
The bombing on a Shiite religious office comes at a sensitive time, with the country's fractious Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish blocs locked in a crisis that threatens to unravel their power-sharing deal and spill into sectarian tensions.
The attacker targeted the Shiite Endowment - a government-run body that manages Shiite religious and cultural sites - leaving dead and wounded along a main street nearby and blasting part of its headquarters to rubble, police said.
"It was a powerful explosion, dust and smoke covered the area. At first I couldn't see anything, but then I heard screaming women and children," said policeman Ahmed Hassan, who was at a nearby police station when the bomb went off. "We rushed with other police to help ... the wounded were scattered all around, and there were body parts on the main street."
Violence in Iraq has eased, but Sunni Islamist insurgents tied to al-Qaida are still capable of devastating attacks and often hit Shiite targets to stir up the kind of sectarian pressure that pushed Iraq close to civil war in 2006-2007.
Security officials said initial evidence from yesterday's blast pointed to a suicide car bomber. They said the bombing appeared to have been carried out by Islamic State of Iraq, al-Qaida's Iraqi wing, which often uses suicide bombers in its attacks.
The Shiite Endowment has been caught up in a dispute with the rival Sunni Endowment over control of a key Shiite shrine in the Sunni stronghold city of Samarra. An attack on the al-Askari shrine in Samarra in 2006 sparked sectarian fighting that killed tens of thousands in the two following years.
Last week, a truck bombing in a marketplace, a car bomb and several roadside blasts killed at least 17 people and broke weeks of relative calm in Baghdad. In mid-April, more than 20 bombs hit cities and towns across the country, killing 36 people. Islamic State of Iraq claimed responsibility for those attacks.
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