BAGHDAD: Of all the Iraqis struggling to make sense of violence ravaging their country, few are as desperate as the labourers who cannot understand why they were bombed yet again on Monday while trying to earn a few dollars.

A bomb hidden under a tea seller’s cart exploded in central Baghdad beside a crowd of workers, wounding 19 people.

“We are not policemen. We are not in the army. We are not in the government. We are just poor people,” said Sayid Rasoul, standing at the site of the blast in Bab al-Sharjee, where labourers have been attacked at least seven times.

Much of Iraq’s violence is driven by sectarian tensions.

Iraqis have also faced random suicide bombings like the one that killed at least 12 people on a bus in central Baghdad on Monday, one of the attacks apparently designed to fuel chaos.

But labourers are baffled by violence against men who gather in Baghdad seeking work, a daily ritual that has nothing to do with sectarianism or politics.

Hussein Ali said labourers are always at risk whether they are Shia or Sunni. “How can I feed my family? The government does not protect us. I get work maybe once or twice a week and I make an average of $20,” he said.

“Two days ago our suppliers were selling pipes to labourers and gunmen drove up and opened fire. The police did nothing. Who is fighting us? We have no idea.”

At least eight were killed and 65 wounded this month when a suicide bomber strapped with explosives attacked a crowd of labourers in central Baghdad, an Interior Ministry source said.

Tactics can be even more cruel. One man in a pick-up truck pulled up to a crowd of labourers and lured them with promises of work and then blew up his vehicle.

Bewildered labourers have pointed their fingers at everyone, including the government, militias and Americans troops. But they are still looking for answers.

With unemployment running high and an economy that few foreign investors will touch, labourers have no choice but to keep gathering in crowds for days on end hoping to find work before bombers find them.

“Political parties are using us in a battle against each other and the Americans must be using us to spread sectarian strife between Shias and Sunnis,” said Kathim Hussein, 25.

“Labourers have been gathering in the same spots in Baghdad to make a living for about 50 years. This is the source of our life. We are just poor people.”

Standing in the square where the 19 labourers were wounded, a police lieutenant-colonel who only gave his name as Talib drew his own disturbing conclusions about motives.

“They don’t want these people to build Iraq. They want to deprive them of ways of making a living,” he said as labourers swept away filthy water after the latest blast.—Reuters