120 killed in Iraq suicide attacks; Bloodbath in Kerbala
KERBALA/RAMADI, Jan 5: Two suicide bombers killed 120 people and wounded more than 200 in attacks in Kerbala and Ramadi on Thursday — the bloodiest day in Iraq for four months.
Seven US soldiers were killed in two roadside bomb attacks, three bombs exploded in Baghdad and guerillas sabotaged an oil pipeline near the northern city of Kirkuk, causing a huge fire.
“This is a war against Shias,” said Rida Jawad al Takia, a senior member of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), one of the country’s leading Shia parties.
“Apparently to the terrorists, no Shia child or woman should live,” he said. “We are really worried. It seems they want a civil war.”
The bombings shattered hopes Iraq might start the new year on a more peaceful footing than the outgoing one, allowing for a swift withdrawal of some of the 150,000 US troops in the country.
BLOODIEST WEEKS: In all, violence has killed more than 240 people and wounded more than 280 in the five days since the year started, a death toll comparable with some of the nation’s bloodiest weeks since the US-led invasion in March 2003.
President Jalal Talabani blamed the attacks on ‘groups of dark terror’ and said they would fail to stop Iraqis forming a national unity government capable of meeting the demands of the country’s rival sects and ethnic groups.
KERBALA BOMBING: The bomber in Kerbala detonated an explosive belt laced with ball bearings and a grenade, killing 50 and wounding 138 at a market within sight of the golden dome of the shrine of Hazrat Imam Hussein.
Television pictures showed pools of blood in the street, which was littered with debris. Passers-by loaded the wounded into the backs of cars and vans, and one black-clad woman stood crying while clutching her dead or wounded baby to her chest.
RECRUITS TARGETED: About an hour after the Kerbala blast, another bomber blew himself up near police recruits in the western city of Ramadi, killing 70 people and wounding 65.
The US military said the blast ripped through a line of some 1,000 men waiting to be security-screened at a glass and ceramics works that was used as a temporary recruiting centre.
After the debris and body parts had been cleared away, hundreds of Iraqis returned to the queue, the military said.
Guerillas have often attacked Iraqi police and army recruits, whom the Americans hope will eventually replace them in the fight against the largely Sunni resistance, allowing US troops to withdraw.
Many young Iraqi men are drawn to work in the security forces by the promise of relatively high pay.
US FATALITIES: The deaths of the seven US soldiers took the number of military fatalities since the March 2003 invasion to 2,189.—Reuters
