At least 66 people were killed by a car bomb in a busy Baghdad market on Saturday, despite a massive security crackdown in the Iraqi capital. A Sunni woman MP was also kidnapped in north Baghdad along with eight of her bodyguards, one day after al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden vowed the war would go on despite a peace plan launched by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.
The district of Sadr City, a stronghold of militiamen loyal to radical leader Moqtada Sadr, has been a repeated target for Sunni insurgents amid mounting sectarian violence.
The massive bomb exploded as a police patrol passed through Al-Ula market which was packed with morning shoppers, an interior ministry official said. Deputy Health Minister Sabah al-Hussein said at least 66 people were killed and 98 wounded but added that more casualties were still arriving at hospitals.
It was the deadliest attack since a suicide bomber killed 67 people and wounded 105 at a police recruitment centre in the insurgent bastion of Ramadi, west of Baghdad, on January 5. "The explosion happened in a very crowded market frequented by many people even from outside the area," Hussein told state television. "At the beginning of this market, the criminal blew up his dynamite-packed truck after trying to go over the pavement."
The force of the blast torched nearby stalls and around 20 vehicles. Fearful residents were seen desperately searching through the mangled wreckage for missing loved ones. A US military vehicle, which attempted to approach the blast scene withdrew in a hail of stones thrown by angry residents.
Major General Jihad Taher al-Luaibi, head of the interior ministry's anti-explosives unit, said: "The martyrs were of all sexes and ages-innocent people. Their bones and flesh were crushed together." Militiamen of Sadr's Mehdi Army threatened to take over patrolling the neighbourhood following the failure of security forces to prevent the attack.
Iraqi Shia and Sunni leaders traded blame over the attack. MP Sheikh Jalaleddin al-Saghir said after meeting revered Shia cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani in the southern shrine city of Najaf that the bombing was "a conspiracy being hatched by outside enemies".
Sunni Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi's Iraqi Islamic Party said: "We condemn the bombing in Sadr City and we hold the interior and defence ministers and Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki responsible for an impotent security plan that is unable to prevent such attacks." Elsewhere in Iraq eight people died and eight bodies were also found.
Taiseer Najeh Awad al-Mashhadani, an MP for the National Concord Front, the largest Sunni Arab bloc in parliament, was seized in north Baghdad, political and security sources said. The US military was meanwhile facing fresh allegations of serious abuses against Iraqi civilians by its troops. US officials announced on Friday that investigators were probing allegations that at least two US soldiers raped an Iraqi woman and then murdered her and three family members. The soldiers belonged to the 1st Battalion of the 502nd Infantry Regiment.
Comments
Comments are closed.