MUSAYYIB (Iraq), July 17: Stricken townspeople swept away the wreckage of a fuel truck bomb that killed 98 people south of Baghdad as three more suicide car bombers struck the Iraqi capital on Sunday in a relentless new campaign.

The overnight attack which devastated the highway town of Musayyib was the deadliest since the new Iraqi government took power in April and the highest death toll from a single car bomb since 125 people were killed in February in Hilla, also south of Baghdad.

Saturday’s bombing prompted denunciations of the authorities in parliament and calls for local militia to take up arms.

Some 15 suicide bombers have struck within just over 48 hours in the capital and along the highway heading south in what Al Qaeda’s Iraq wing has declared is a new campaign to seize control of Baghdad.

By far the worst incident was the blast near a Shia mosque which caused devastation in the mixed Sunni and Shia town, in the centre of a violent area dubbed by US forces the “triangle of death”.

A suicide bomber blew up a fuel truck near a crowded market outside the mosque. In addition to the 98 killed, hospital sources said 75 wounded were being treated, including 19 in a serious condition.

On Sunday, angry crowds rallied against the authorities outside buildings gutted by flame, while bulldozers swept aside the burnt-out wreckage of cars.

“The police banned trucks from entering Musayyib, yet they let in a fuel tanker. This is crime! The police are all agents (of the insurgency),” shouted one man.

At a tense session in parliament, politicians assailed the government for failing to maintain security and called for local militia to be formed to replace failed police and soldiers.

“The plans of the interior and defence ministries to impose security have failed to stop the terrorists. We need to bring back popular militias,” senior parliamentarian Khudair al-Khuzai told the chamber.—Reuters