Bombs kill nearly 200 in Baghdad after PM's pledge
By Dean Yates and Paul Tait
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Car bombs killed nearly 200 people in Baghdad on Wednesday in the deadliest attacks since U.S. and Iraqi forces launched a security crackdown aimed at halting the country's slide into civil war.
One car bomb alone in the mainly Shi'ite Sadriya neighbourhood killed 140 people and wounded 150, police said, making it the worst single insurgent bomb attack in Baghdad since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Car bombs killed nearly 200 people in Baghdad on Wednesday in the deadliest attacks since U.S. and Iraqi forces launched a security crackdown aimed at halting the country's slide into civil war.
One car bomb alone in the mainly Shi'ite Sadriya neighbourhood killed 140 people and wounded 150, police said, making it the worst single insurgent bomb attack in Baghdad since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.
Residents and rescue workers gather at the scene of a car bomb attack in Baghdad April 18, 2007. Car bombs killed nearly 200 people in Baghdad on Wednesday in the deadliest attacks since U.S. and Iraqi forces launched a security crackdown aimed at halting the country's slide into civil war. (REUTERS/Ali Jasim)
Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki condemned the perpetrators as "vampires" and "soldiers of satan" and ordered the arrest of the Iraqi army commander in charge of security in Sadriya for failing to secure the neighbourhood.
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, speaking in Tel Aviv on a visit to the region, called the bombings "horrifying" and indicated Sunni Islamist al Qaeda was to blame.
The apparently coordinated attacks -- there were several within a short space of time -- occurred hours after Maliki said Iraq would take security control of the whole country from foreign forces by the end of the year.
The bombs killed a total of 191 people and wounded 250, police said. The worst combined bomb attacks in Baghdad since the war were when six car bombs killed 202 people in November.
"The street was transformed into a swimming pool of blood," said Ahmed Hameed, a shopkeeper near the carnage in Sadriya.
One witness described scenes of mayhem at an intersection where the bomb exploded near a market. Many of the dead were women and children, said the witness, who declined to be named.
"Some people were burned alive inside minibuses. Nobody could reach them after the explosion," said the witness. "Women were screaming and shouting for their loved ones who died."
One man waving his arms in the air screamed hysterically: "Where's Maliki? Let him come and see what is happening here."
Maliki is under growing pressure to say when foreign soldiers will leave, but the attacks in mainly Shi'ite areas of Baghdad underscored the huge challenges for Iraq's security forces in taking charge of overall security from more than 150,000 U.S. and British troops.
U.S. and Iraqi forces began deploying thousands more troops on Baghdad's streets in February.
Sectarian death squad killings have declined, but car bombs are much harder to stop, U.S. military officials say.
The bombings could inflame sectarian passions in Baghdad, especially among the Mehdi Army militia of anti-American Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, which has kept a low profile so far during the two-month-old Baghdad security offensive.
Al Qaeda is blamed for most of the major bombings targeting Shi'ites in Iraq and there are fears the Mehdi Army may take to the streets to retaliate.
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, speaking in Tel Aviv on a visit to the region, called the bombings "horrifying" and indicated Sunni Islamist al Qaeda was to blame.
The apparently coordinated attacks -- there were several within a short space of time -- occurred hours after Maliki said Iraq would take security control of the whole country from foreign forces by the end of the year.
The bombs killed a total of 191 people and wounded 250, police said. The worst combined bomb attacks in Baghdad since the war were when six car bombs killed 202 people in November.
"The street was transformed into a swimming pool of blood," said Ahmed Hameed, a shopkeeper near the carnage in Sadriya.
One witness described scenes of mayhem at an intersection where the bomb exploded near a market. Many of the dead were women and children, said the witness, who declined to be named.
"Some people were burned alive inside minibuses. Nobody could reach them after the explosion," said the witness. "Women were screaming and shouting for their loved ones who died."
One man waving his arms in the air screamed hysterically: "Where's Maliki? Let him come and see what is happening here."
Maliki is under growing pressure to say when foreign soldiers will leave, but the attacks in mainly Shi'ite areas of Baghdad underscored the huge challenges for Iraq's security forces in taking charge of overall security from more than 150,000 U.S. and British troops.
U.S. and Iraqi forces began deploying thousands more troops on Baghdad's streets in February.
Sectarian death squad killings have declined, but car bombs are much harder to stop, U.S. military officials say.
The bombings could inflame sectarian passions in Baghdad, especially among the Mehdi Army militia of anti-American Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, which has kept a low profile so far during the two-month-old Baghdad security offensive.
Al Qaeda is blamed for most of the major bombings targeting Shi'ites in Iraq and there are fears the Mehdi Army may take to the streets to retaliate.
www.thestar.com.my (Thursday, 19th april 2007)
When will it end?
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