Car bomb kills at least 51 near Baghdad market
Pastor Dale Morgan
Car bomb kills at least 51 near Baghdad market*
By QASSIM ABDULZAHRA,
Associated Press Writer
BAGHDAD - A car bomb ripped through a busy commercial street in a Shiite
area of Baghdad on Tuesday, killing at least 51 people and wounding
scores more in the deadliest blast in the capital in more than three months.
Many victims were trapped in their apartments by a raging fire that
engulfed at least one building, according to police and Interior
Ministry officials, who also said about 75 people were wounded. Stunned
survivors stumbled through the rubble-strewn street, which was filled
with the smoke from burning vehicles, witnesses said.
The attack shattered the relative calm in the capital since a May 11
cease-fire ended seven weeks of fighting between U.S. and Iraqi forces
and Shiite militants in the Sadr City district. Ironically, it came the
same day the Iraqi parliament announced plans to move outside the
U.S.-protected Green Zone.
Angry survivors blamed the army and police for failing to protect them.
"The blast occurred because there wasn't any security presence by the
Iraqi army or police at the scene, not even any checkpoint," said Khalid
Hassan, 40, who suffered shrapnel wounds and burns. "People were
confused, upset and running in all directions. We are all victims of
terrorism and carelessness."
The bomber struck about 5:45 p.m. near a market and bus stop in the
Hurriyah district of west Baghdad, scene of some of the most horrific
sectarian massacres during the wave of Sunni-Shiite slaughter in 2006.
Kamil Jassim, a witness, said the blast set fire to a generator used by
residents and shopkeepers to supplement city power. The fire quickly
spread to a two-story building containing both shops and apartments
where many of the victims were found.
Haider Fadhil, a 25-year-old metal worker, said he was shopping with two
friends when the blast hurled him to the ground.
"When I regained consciousness, I found that my left hand and leg were
broken," Fadhil said from his bed in a nearby hospital, where anguished
families wept as they jammed the waiting rooms. "Thanks be to God for
saving me and thanks to those who carried me in their pickup truck to
the hospital."
The blast was the deadliest attack in Baghdad since March 6, when a pair
of bombs detonated in the mostly Shiite district of Karradah, killing 68
people and wounding about 120.
No group claimed responsibility for Tuesday's blast, and both Sunni and
Shiite militants have used car bombs in their attacks.
U.S. officials said American soldiers were attending a meeting of a
neighborhood action committee about 150 yards from the blast site but it
was unclear if they were the target.
"This is a senseless and tragic event," said Lt. Col. Steve Stover, a
spokesman for the U.S. military's Baghdad command. "What's to gain by
terrorizing the population? ...This is simply an evil act."
U.S. commanders have warned repeatedly that the relative peace in
Baghdad is fragile because extremists, including al-Qaida in Iraq and
Shiite militant groups, remain capable of high-profile attacks.
The Americans hope that security measures are enough to prevent
extremists from mounting a sustained campaign of bombings against
civilians that could provoke a return to sectarian reprisal attacks.
Despite the uncertainty, Iraqi officials have been eager to promote a
sense of confidence among the war-weary Iraqi people after months of
declining bloodshed in the capital.
Deputy parliamentary speaker Khalid al-Attiyah told lawmakers Tuesday
that they will move from the convention center in the Green Zone to the
Saddam Hussein-era National Assembly building for their next legislative
term, which begins Sept. 1.
The move could help parliament affirm its independence from the
Americans and shed its public image as an institution isolated from its
people inside the U.S.-protected enclave.
"There is progress in the security situation and the reconstruction has
been completed of the new building," al-Attiyah said, adding the new
accommodations will be large enough for the full 275-member legislature
and staff members.
The National Assembly building was used by the Iraqi parliament under
Saddam and is located in the Allawi district, a religiously mixed area
about 500 yards from the blast walls that form the perimeter of the
Green Zone on the west side of the Tigris River.
It was looted and burned during the chaos that followed the fall of
Baghdad to U.S. forces in April 2003. But al-Attiyah said its
reconstruction has been completed.
Also Tuesday, an Iraqi state television journalist, Muhieddin
Abdul-Hamid, was shot to death near his apartment in the northern city
of Mosul, officials said.
Colleagues said the 50-year-old journalist was a local anchor for the TV
station in Mosul, the focus of an ongoing U.S.-Iraqi operation against
the last major urban stronghold of al-Qaida in Iraq.
Excluding Abdul-Hamid, the New York-based Committee to Protect
Journalists says at least 129 journalists and 50 media support workers
have been killed since the U.S. invasion in 2003.
In other violence Tuesday, a suicide bomber on a motorcycle struck a
Baghdad checkpoint manned by U.S.-allied fighters, killing one and
wounding four, officials said.
Another suicide car bomber attacked a police checkpoint in Baqouba,
northeast of Baghdad, killing one policeman and wounding 19 other
people, officials said.
Gunmen also killed a senior police officer and two of his guards near
Aziziyah, a Shiite area 35 miles southeast of Baghdad.
___
Associated Press writer Sameer N. Yacoub contributed to this report.