Car Bomb Explodes in Iraq Bus Station Kills 56
Pastor Dale Morgan
Car Bomb Explodes in Iraq Bus Station Kills 56*
Saturday, April 14, 2007
In this image video Iraqi's react as carts carrying the injured and dead
from a car bomb explosion are pushed to awaiting vehicles in Karbala.
BAGHDAD — A car bomb blasted through a busy bus station near one of
Iraq's holiest shrines Saturday, killing at least 37 people, police and
hospital officials said. Other reports put the death toll as high as 56.
Separately, a suicide car bomb killed 10 people on a major bridge in
downtown Baghdad — the second attack on a span over the Tigris river
this week, police said. The Jadriyah bridge suffered little damage.
The bus station bombing occurred about 200 yards from the Imam Hussein
shrine in Karbala, where the grandson of Islam's Prophet Muhammad is
buried — one of the most important sites for Shiites.
Dr. Khalid Adnan Obeid, director of Al-Hussein Hospital, Ghalib
al-Daamai of the provincial security committee and Rahman Mishawi,
spokesman for Karbala police, all said 37 civilians were killed and 168
wounded. Earlier, hospital officials said at least 56 people had been
killed.
The wounded were being treated in a makeshift emergency room set up in
tents near the blast site. A forest of racks held intravenous bags.
Through it, a man guided a wooden cart stacked high with body parts.
The charred body of a child laid motionless on a stretcher.
At least 16 children were among the dead, Brig. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf,
spokesman for the Interior Ministry, told reporters. Iranian and
Pakistani pilgrims were also among the casualties, said an official at
Al-Hussein Hospital, on condition of anonymity because he was not
authorized to release the information.
"I want my father. Where is my father?" cried out 11-year-old Sajad
Kadhim as he lay on the grounds of the hospital, where doctors were
treating his burns.
"All I remember was we were shopping. My father was holding my hand and
suddenly there was a big explosion. I don't know where my father is. I
want my father," the boy cried.
A 72-year-old woman who called herself Um Hussein ran through the
hospital corridors looking for her daughter and six-year-old grandson.
"They were near the bomb. They went to buy something for our lunch," she
said, pounding her head in grief. "What did they do to deserve this? To
whom should I complain? There is no government to protect us," she moaned.
Hundreds of people swarmed around ambulances, crying out and pounding
their chests. Police fired into the air to disperse crowds and clear
roads for emergency vehicles, but angry mobs attacked them and set two
police vehicles on fire.
Rioters surrounded the Karbala governor's office and demanded his and
provincial council members' resignations — blaming them for lax
security. Mobs threw stones at the governor's office and set fire to the
building.
"This bombing shows a security breach, and we are investigating where
the shortcoming was," Khalaf said.
A curfew was imposed in the area, and the city's entrances were sealed
off while police and soldiers patrolled the streets.
"The explosion was a huge one. It took place in a crowded area," said
Khalid al-Daami, head of the city's security committee. Among the dead
were several women and children, he said.
Karbala lies 50 miles south of Baghdad, and is the destination of an
annual Shiite pilgrimage. Hundreds of Shiite faithful were killed
traveling back and forth to the city during this year's pilgrimage,
which took place last month.
In Baghdad, at least 15 people were wounded in the Jadriyah bridge
bombing — the second such attack this week on infrastructure connecting
the Iraqi capital's two sides.
On Thursday, a suicide truck bomb completely collapsed the al-Sarafiyah
bridge in northern Baghdad, killing 11 people and sending cars
plummeting into the waters below.
A regular session of Iraq's legislature descended into bickering
Saturday, with the parliament speaker shouting for order as lawmakers
argued over who to blame for holes in security that allowed a suicide
bomber into their cafeteria.
Speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani said his office took "full responsibility"
for Thursday's security breach, but reminded legislators that some of
them have refused to be searched while entering the building. The
bombing killed one Sunni lawmaker.
Separately, Khalaf told reporters the bomber was known to members of
parliament, and that they identified his body after the explosion. He
did not elaborate. Suspicion has fallen on workers in the building, or a
member's bodyguard.
Police said four would-be suicide attackers were killed Saturday in the
northern city of Kirkuk when one of them detonated his explosives belt
prematurely.
All four men were killed but no civilians were hurt, said police Brig.
Adil Zain-Alabideen. He said all four were insurgents embarking on an
attack mission, but did not elaborate.
Kirkuk lies about 180 miles north of Baghdad.
Also Saturday, gunmen attacked the western Baghdad house of Adnan
al-Dulaimi, head of the largest Sunni bloc in Iraq's parliament, police
said. Al-Dulaimi was not at home at the time of the attack, and is
believed to be in Jordan.
Clashes erupted between his guards and the gunmen, lasting about half an
hour. Five guards were wounded, police said.
Al-Dulaimi's group, the Iraqi Accordance Front, has 44 seats in parliament.
Three bodyguards of the deputy minister of industry, Mohammed Abdul
Jabar, were injured in a drive-by shooting on his convoy in western
Baghdad, police said. The minister was in the convoy but escaped injury.
In other violence, three civilians and a policeman were killed in
drive-by shootings in Fallujah and Hillah, about 60 miles south of
Baghdad, police said. Two policemen and a civilian died in a roadside
bombing south of Baghdad, and another civilian died in a similar bombing
in central Baghdad, police said.
A bomb planted in a garbage can missed a passing police patrol in
Baghdad's southwestern Baya district Saturday, but injured three
electricity workers who were working nearby, police said.
The U.S. military issued a statement saying American troops captured 17
suspected insurgents, including an alleged Al Qaeda in Iraq member,
during raids Saturday morning.
Eight suspected insurgents were killed by British forces late Friday
west of Basra, Iraq's second-largest city, the British military said in
a statement. The suspects had been planting bombs in the path of a
British patrol, the statement said.