more dead in Iraq

Sir Tokyo Sexwale · February 4, 2007

Suicide bombing kills 135 at Baghdad market

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A suicide truck bomber struck a market in a predominantly Shiite area of Baghdad on Saturday, killing 135 people among the crowd buying food for evening meals, police and hospital officials said.

The attacker was driving a truck carrying food when he detonated 1 ton of explosives, destroying stores and stalls that had been set up in the busy outdoor Sadriyah market, police said.

Officials said 135 people were killed, Reuters reported. The death toll made the attack one of the deadliest single bombings in the capital since the 2003 U.S.-led war.

The Health Ministry said more than 300 people were injured in the thunderous explosion that sent a huge column of smoke into the Baghdad sky on the east bank of the Tigris River. The nearby al-Kindi hospital ? quickly overwhelmed ? began turning away the wounded and directing ambulances to hospitals in Sadr City.

?Horrific? attack

U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad called the bombing ?horrific? and said it was ?an example of what the forces of evil will do to intimidate the Iraqi people. ... To those who commit these heinous crimes we send this message: You will be relentlessly hunted until you are apprehended and brought to justice.?

The bombing hit at a particularly inopportune time for the Bush administration's latest attempt to crush violence in the capital and just days before American and Iraqi forces were expected to start an all-out assault on Sunni and Shiite

Only a day earlier, 16 American intelligence agencies made public a National Intelligence Estimate that said conditions in Baghdad were perilous.

?Unless efforts to reverse these conditions show measurable progress ... in the coming 12 to 18 months, we assess that the overall security situation will continue to deteriorate,? a declassified synopsis of the report declared.

?It was a terrible scene. Many shops and houses were destroyed,? said one resident, Jassem, 42, who rushed from his home to help pull people from the rubble after hearing the explosion that rocked Baghdad.

The blast occurred at 4:40 p.m., the latest in a series of attacks against commercial targets in the capital as insurgents seek to maximize the number of people killed ahead of a planned U.S.-Iraqi security sweep.

?It was a strong blow. A car exploded. I fell on the ground. It was in Sadriyah,? said one young man with a bandaged head, his face still streaked with blood.

It was the deadliest attack in the capital since Nov. 23, when suspected al-Qaida in Iraq fighters attacked the capital?s Sadr City Shiite slum with a series of car bombs and mortars that struck in quick succession, killing at least 215 people.

A suicide bomber also crashed his car into the Bab al-Sharqi market, which is near Sadriyah, on Jan. 22, killing 88 people. The surge in violence comes as Sunni insurgents have stepped up attacks against Shiite targets in an apparent bid to maximize the number of people killed ahead of a planned U.S.-Iraqi security sweep.

In the northern city of Kirkuk, eight bombs exploded within two hours, beginning with a suicide car bomber who targeted the offices of the Kurdish Democratic Party of Massoud Barzani, leader of Iraq?s autonomous Kurdish region, police said. Two people were killed in the first explosion, which devastated four nearby houses.

Nobody claimed responsibility for the attacks in the oil-rich region, but concerns have been raised that insurgents have fled north to avoid the impending crackdown in Baghdad.

At the Kurdish party offices, guards opened fire as the attacker drove up, and the explosives detonated about 15 yards from the building, killing at least two people and wounding 30, including five KDP guards, police Col. Dishtoun Mohammed said.

Concrete blast walls protected the offices from serious damage, but the explosion devastated four nearby houses. Five charred cars were near the entrance of the Kurdish building, in a mainly Turkomen district.

?We are upset and angry about the existence of a party office in our area,? Um Khalid, a 52-year-old Turkomen housewife, said as she examined her damaged home. ?Had the office not been here, the suicide bomber would not have chosen to explode his car near our houses.?

Another car bomb exploded about 20 minutes later near a girls? school in the south of the city, but the school was closed for the weekend and no casualties were reported, police Col. Anwar Hassan said.

A third car bomb hit a gas station in southern Kirkuk, followed by two other parked car bombs 20 minutes later near a popular pastry shop. Eight people were wounded in those explosions.

Edited February 4, 2007 by Macca

Hassony · February 4, 2007

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