Wave of bomb blasts kill 66 in Baghdad area
Print Edition
Baghdad area residents awoke to a coordinated wave of bombings mainly targeting Shiite areas, and seven members of a single family were killed as they slept in an apparently sectarian attack in Iraq yesterday. At least 66 were killed and many more are wounded.
As increasingly common large-scale attacks grip the country, Iraqi officials are bracing for further fallout from the Syrian civil war raging across their western border. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said he has put his government on high alert ahead of a possible military strike on Syria.
Yesterday’s string of morning attacks was the latest in a relentless wave of killing that has left thousands dead since April, marking the country’s worst spate of bloodshed since 2008. Coordinated car bomb attacks have hit Baghdad repeatedly for several months, sometimes as often as twice per week.
The violence raises fears that Iraq may head toward a civil war fueled by ethnic and sectarian differences.
Yesterday, insurgents deployed explosives-laden cars, suicide bombers and other bombs and targeted parking lots, outdoor markets and restaurants in predominantly Shiite neighborhoods of Baghdad, according to officials. A military convoy was also hit south of the capital.
Security forces sealed off the bomb scenes as ambulances raced to pick up the wounded. The twisted wreckage of cars littered the pavement while cleaners and shop owners brushed away debris. At one stricken restaurant, the floor was stained with blood, and dishes were scattered on plastic tables.
“What sin have those innocent people committed?” asked Ahmed Jassim, who witnessed one of the explosions in Baghdad’s Hurriyah neighborhood. “We hold the government responsible.”
The northern neighborhood of Kazimiyah, home to a prominent, gold-domed Shiite shrine, was among the worst hit. Two bombs went off in a parking lot, followed by a suicide car bomber who struck onlookers who had gathered at the scene. Police said 10 people were killed and 27 wounded in that attack.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the day’s attacks, but they bore the hallmarks of the Iraqi branch of al-Qaida, which operates in Iraq under the name the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. The group frequently targets Shiites, which it considers heretics, and employs coordinated bombings in an attempt to incite sectarian strife.
Charles Lister, an analyst at IHS Jane’s Terrorism and Insurgency Center, said the group is increasingly showing “huge confidence and military capability.”
“Both the increasing frequency, and statistically, the increasing deadliness of (their) coordinated nationwide bombings in Iraq underlines the extent of their operational reach and the huge depth of their resources,” he said.
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