At lest 60 killed in suicide blasts in Iraq*

By Damien McElroy in Baghdad
Last Updated: 2:40pm GMT 11/03/2007

At least 60 people died as Iraqis were subjected to a wave of suicide
bombings today, just hours after a landmark summit convened to address
security in the war-torn country.

In the bloodiest attack, Shia pilgrims were targeted by a car bomb in
Baghdad after returning from ceremonies marking the religious festival
of Arbaeen in the city of Karbala. Police said that 35 people died and
dozens more were wounded when their convoy was devastated by the explosion.

Another ten people were killed in the capital when a suicide bomber
struck on a bus passing Mustansiriyah University, a frequent target of
Sunni extremists.

Five people were killed when an explosion ripped through their bus near
the town of Baladruz, 60 miles northeast of Baghdad in the volatile
Diyala province.

Several other bombings and shootings claimed the remainder of those
killed today.
advertisement

A mortar attack on Saturday failed to disrupt proceedings at the Iraqi
foreign ministry, where diplomats from Iraq, Iran, Syria and America
were among those gathered for a major security summit.

Its organisers hoped the first major encounter between Iranian and
American officials on Iraqi soil would help quell the violence. Instead
the two nations accused each other of fuelling the fighting by meddling
in Iraq.

Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s deputy foreign minister, said violence in Iraq
would not end until America announced a firm date for troop withdrawal.

“For the sake of peace and stability in Iraq we need a timetable for the
withdrawal of foreign forces,” he said.

“We think the presence of foreign forces in Iraq contributes to the lack
of security in Iraq we are facing.

“The presence of foreign forces in Iraq is serving to benefit terrorists
and violence.”

Zalmay Khalilzad, the American ambassador in Baghdad, took the Iranians
to task for aiding Iraqi militias and indicated that the talks were
unlikely to lead to a broader effort to engage directly with Teheran.

“I met with them directly and I met with them in front of others and
spoke to them across a table as well,” he said.

“The discussions with the Iranians and others with regard to Iraq were
constructive. We will, of course, have to see what happens on the
ground, both in terms of weapons crossing the border and support for
groups of militants crossing the border.”

The summit, the first to be held in Baghdad since 1990, was short on
achievements.

Delegates could not even agree on the location of the next meeting.

Turkey has offered to host foreign ministers next month but Iraq is
holding out for a return to Baghdad. If the meeting is held in Istanbul,
the US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, will attend, setting the
stage for a highly symbolic meeting between cabinet officials from
Washington and Teheran.

Two well-aimed projectiles - one hit a flat roof annex to the main
ministry building - appeared to have destroyed the Iraqi case.

Intense security was imposed for the meeting. Roads were flooded with
soldiers and the majority of delegates were flown in and out of Iraq on
a specially chartered jet. With a direct hit the extremists made clear
the distance between international diplomacy and the determined street
fighters who have enfeebled the three-year old Iraqi government.

Jaish al-Rashidin, one of the Sunni Muslim groups that claimed
responsibility for the mortar attack declared it had exposed the
weakness of the Baghdad authorities.

“If the hosts of the conference cannot manage to ensure their own
security, how can they control the security situation in Iraq?” the
group said in a statement.

Beyond the tantalising encounter between Iran and the US, the meeting of
16 nations and organisations was tainted with sectarian tensions.

The conference opened with a prayer lead by an imam but even this
ceremony fell prey to mutual suspicions. Sunnis said the imam had an
Iranian accent and was unable to recite Koranic Arabic proficiently.

The Iraqi prime minister, Nouri al-Malki, used his opening speech to
obliquely reject a call from the Arab League for a new constitution in
Iraq as the best route to ending the sectarian strife. Mr Maliki said
the millions who voted for the existing constitution would not allow it
to be destroyed.

“As millions of Iraqis have made this achievement, they stand ready to
defend it, to cling to it and unwilling to go back to the time of
dictatorship and totalitarism.”

It was a message tailor-made to dismay the majority of Iraq’s neighbours
who harbour strong sympathy for the Sunni minority’s claims that the
constitution monopolises power for the Shia majority.