BAGHDAD, March 3: The Al Qaeda network and foreign fighters from Iran were blamed on Wednesday for attacks in Karbala and Baghdad that killed around 170 people the previous day.
"They (Al Qaeda) are a strong suspect, probably the prime suspect in facilitating these operations," a senior US official said in the Iraqi capital. Brig Gen Mark Kimmitt of the US Army said the attacks were the work of a "transnational organization". He named Jordanian Abu Mussab al Zarqawi, suspected of links to the Al Qaeda network, as a prime suspect.
Last month, US officials had unveiled a memo attributed to Abu Mussab al Zarqawi that they said proved extremists planned to ignite a civil war among Iraq's ethnic and religious communities.
The judge investigating the attacks, Ahmed al Hillali, also singled out the Al Qaeda network and noted that the blasts happened almost at the same time as the attack in Quetta.
Meanwhile, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw told a news conference in Istanbul on Wednesday that the Quetta attack was clearly linked with the bombings in Iraq and that they "...indicate that the fight against terrorism is an international fight and one which affects everyone in the civilized world".
Three suicide bombers blew themselves up in Baghdad around the Kazemiya mosque, and a suicide bomber, mortars and concealed bombs combined to cause the bloodbath at Karbala.
The attacks ripped through the Ashura commemoration banned under the Saddam government. There was confusion over the death toll from the attacks. "The number of martyrs from the two cities as of this afternoon is 271," Governing Council President Mohammed Bahr al Uloum said at a news conference in Baghdad.
But Health Minister Khudier Abbass said the confirmed toll was 98 in Karbalaand 71 in Baghdad. The US official said the FBI had been called in to investigate Tuesday's attacks. The country's Shia leaders called for calm and urged their followers not to be provoked into a civil war.
The top US commander in Iraq said Washington had intelligence warnings of the attacks, claiming that his troops probably prevented even greater carnage with special operations raids the night before on operatives of Abu Mussab al Zarqawi.
Gen John Abizaid also claimed US and Iraqi forces had foiled a third planned attack in Basra and thwarted plans to attack several prominent Shia personalities.
"I believe the plan was for even greater carnage, and I think that joint action between Americans and Iraqis prevented that from happening, and we had better cooperation among various groups throughout Iraq in terms of security than is widely reported," he said.
The senior US official said terrorists probably had crossed over the border with thousands of Iranian pilgrims who had come to Iraq to attend the Ashura commemoration at Karbala.
"A significant number of Iranians came across the border to attend Ashura, hundreds of thousands, and among them were a small number who were possibly connected to terrorist organizations," he said.
"They were done by outside organizations," an Iraqi police official said. Iraqi authorities said 16 people - 11 Iraqis and five Iranians - had been arrested over the attacks in Karbala.
FUNERALS: Relatives committed their loved ones to the ground in Baghdad and Karbala on Wednesday, holding solemn processions in huge numbers. A long procession of lorries and cars, displaying black flags and filled with mourners, crawled through the streets of Baghdad.
Bound for the Kazemiya mosque, where three suicide bombers blew themselves up, many mourners abandoned their vehicles to continue on foot. "These crowds are a show of defiance to those who carried out the attacks," said one.
Checkpoints were set up every 10 metres across a bridge along the way and guards, scared of another suicide strike, frisked everyone who passed. In Karbala, where five million people turned out to mark Ashura on Tuesday in a city of one million, the first funerals took place at the Baghdad Gate, not far from the place where the blasts occurred.
Religious leaders spoke out against civil war as thousands of people flooded the city's holy shrines for a mass funeral. Simmering anti-US sentiment was also on display as Shias voiced frustration over the pace of reconstruction and the lack of security in the country.
"Down, Down America," marchers chanted as they streamed down the street. Iraq's leaders have declared three days of mourning and postponed the signing of a new temporary constitution. -Reuters/AFP
