At least 56 killed as bombs rock Baghdad
Source: Agencies |
April 24, 2010, Saturday
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A SERIES of bombs targeting Shiite areas rocked Baghdad yesterday, killing at least 56 people in an apparent backlash after Iraq touted a series of blows against a weakened al-Qaida-led insurgency.
Eight people were also killed by bombs in the Sunni west of the country, less than a week after Iraqi security forces backed by US troops killed al-Qaida's top two leaders in Iraq.
Thirteen blasts hit different areas of the Iraqi capital around the time of Muslim prayers, mostly near Shiite mosques and at a marketplace, an Interior Ministry source said.
Three bombs targeted worshippers outside the main office of fiery anti-American Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in the crowded Sadr City slum. Those blasts killed 39 people and wounded 56, generating denunciations of the security forces. Some youths threw stones at an Iraqi army vehicle.
"Why do they always target us? We are peaceful people. We come to pray and then go on our way," one survivor told Reuters Television in an angry tirade, without identifying himself.
The attacks, one of Iraq's deadliest in recent weeks, also wounded around 120 people and signalled the possibility of a rise in violence after a March national election produced no clear winner and left a power vacuum for insurgents to exploit.
"Targeting prayers in areas with a certain majority is a revenge for the losses suffered by al-Qaida," Baghdad security spokesman Major General Qassim al-Moussawi said, referring to Iraq's Shiite Muslim majority. "We expect such terrorist acts to continue."
On Sunday, al-Qaida's leader in Iraq, Abu Ayyub al-Masri, and Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, the purported head of its affiliate, the Islamic State of Iraq, were killed northwest of Baghdad by Iraqi and US forces.
The strike against al-Qaida's Iraq leadership has been accompanied by a string of smaller battlefield victories in which more than 300 suspected al-Qaida operatives have been arrested and 19 killed, according to US and Iraqi officials.
In another of yesterday's attacks, 11 were killed by a car bomb and a suicide bomber near a Shiite mosque in al-Ameen district in southeastern Baghdad. A car bomb killed five near a mosque in the northwestern neighbourhood of al-Hurriya, police said.
"These are acts of revenge that are intended to send a message to the Iraqi government and the world that al-Qaida's existence will not be affected by the killing of specific leaders," Iraqi political analyst Hameed Fadhel of Baghdad University said. "They want to say that they are still here."
Several hours earlier, seven members of one family were killed in a series of blasts in Khalidiya, a town in Iraq's turbulent western province of Anbar 83 kilometers west of Baghdad. One police officer died trying to defuse a bomb.
The mainly Sunni province of Anbar has been relatively quiet since tribal leaders in 2006 started turning on once-dominant Sunni Islamist groups such as al-Qaida. But insurgents continue to operate in the vast desert province.
"At 4 in the morning, I heard a movement behind my house and found some barrels nearby, so I took my family out of the house," said Fadhil Salih, a judge at the Khalidiya courthouse.
"An hour later the bomb went off and destroyed my house but, thank God, there were no casualties in my family," Salih said.
At least 10 people were wounded, including two policemen. Authorities imposed a vehicle ban after the blasts.
Eight people were also killed by bombs in the Sunni west of the country, less than a week after Iraqi security forces backed by US troops killed al-Qaida's top two leaders in Iraq.
Thirteen blasts hit different areas of the Iraqi capital around the time of Muslim prayers, mostly near Shiite mosques and at a marketplace, an Interior Ministry source said.
Three bombs targeted worshippers outside the main office of fiery anti-American Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in the crowded Sadr City slum. Those blasts killed 39 people and wounded 56, generating denunciations of the security forces. Some youths threw stones at an Iraqi army vehicle.
"Why do they always target us? We are peaceful people. We come to pray and then go on our way," one survivor told Reuters Television in an angry tirade, without identifying himself.
The attacks, one of Iraq's deadliest in recent weeks, also wounded around 120 people and signalled the possibility of a rise in violence after a March national election produced no clear winner and left a power vacuum for insurgents to exploit.
"Targeting prayers in areas with a certain majority is a revenge for the losses suffered by al-Qaida," Baghdad security spokesman Major General Qassim al-Moussawi said, referring to Iraq's Shiite Muslim majority. "We expect such terrorist acts to continue."
On Sunday, al-Qaida's leader in Iraq, Abu Ayyub al-Masri, and Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, the purported head of its affiliate, the Islamic State of Iraq, were killed northwest of Baghdad by Iraqi and US forces.
The strike against al-Qaida's Iraq leadership has been accompanied by a string of smaller battlefield victories in which more than 300 suspected al-Qaida operatives have been arrested and 19 killed, according to US and Iraqi officials.
In another of yesterday's attacks, 11 were killed by a car bomb and a suicide bomber near a Shiite mosque in al-Ameen district in southeastern Baghdad. A car bomb killed five near a mosque in the northwestern neighbourhood of al-Hurriya, police said.
"These are acts of revenge that are intended to send a message to the Iraqi government and the world that al-Qaida's existence will not be affected by the killing of specific leaders," Iraqi political analyst Hameed Fadhel of Baghdad University said. "They want to say that they are still here."
Several hours earlier, seven members of one family were killed in a series of blasts in Khalidiya, a town in Iraq's turbulent western province of Anbar 83 kilometers west of Baghdad. One police officer died trying to defuse a bomb.
The mainly Sunni province of Anbar has been relatively quiet since tribal leaders in 2006 started turning on once-dominant Sunni Islamist groups such as al-Qaida. But insurgents continue to operate in the vast desert province.
"At 4 in the morning, I heard a movement behind my house and found some barrels nearby, so I took my family out of the house," said Fadhil Salih, a judge at the Khalidiya courthouse.
"An hour later the bomb went off and destroyed my house but, thank God, there were no casualties in my family," Salih said.
At least 10 people were wounded, including two policemen. Authorities imposed a vehicle ban after the blasts.
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