Seven car bombs exploded across Baghdad on Monday, killing at least 37 people and wounding scores of others, in what US and Iraqi officials said was a coordinated strike by al-Qaeda militants.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said the attacks were a “gift” from members of Saddam Hussein’s once omnipotent Baath party, aided by al-Qaeda. The 62nd anniversary of the pan-Arab nationalist party’s foundation in Syria fell yesterday.
“The seven car explosions are a gift from the buried Baath party in memory of its foundation, which was an evil omen for the Iraqi nation,” al-Maliki said in a statement.
PHOTO: REUTERS
A statement from Iraq’s Presidency Council, headed by President Jalal Talabani, expressed deep concern about the blasts and called for action from the security forces.
An explosion at a popular market in the Shiite Muslim slum of Sadr City in east Baghdad killed at least 12 people and wounded 65. Another car bomb blew up next to a group of laborers queuing for work, killing six people and wounding 17.
Hours later, south Baghdad’s Um al-Maalif neighborhood was shaken by two blasts in a market, killing 12 and wounding 32.
The latest attacks underscore the challenges Iraqi security forces face as US troops prepare to leave by the end of 2011.
Overall violence has fallen in Iraq to levels not seen since just after the 2003 US invasion, but militants, especially Sunni Islamist al-Qaeda, still carry out large-scale bombings. The last big bomb in Baghdad killed 20 people on March 26.
Preventing all car bombs in the crowded streets of Baghdad — a sprawling maze of crumbling buildings and concrete walls housing millions of people — is all but impossible.
Two other blasts shook a market area of Husseiniya, on Baghdad’s northern outskirts, killing four, and a street in eastern Baghdad, apparently targeting the convoy of an Interior Ministry official, killing two of his guards and a bystander.
“The explosion caused major damage to buildings and it even hurt some children,” shopkeeper Abdul-Jabar Saad said of that attack, which he witnessed. “God damn these people.”
Yet another blast later wounded two people at a south Baghdad vegetable market.
The attacks followed a week of arrests in Baghdad by Iraq’s Shiite-led government of Sunni Arab fighters known as Awakening Councils, or Majalis al-Sahwa in Arabic.
The Iraqi government insists it is only detaining those wanted for grave crimes, but the fighters — many of them former insurgents — fear it is settling sectarian scores.
The Sahwas first switched sides and joined with US forces to battle al-Qaeda in late 2006, manning checkpoints and conducting raids. Many have themselves been killed in insurgent attacks and US officials doubted they were behind these bombs.
“Our assessment is that the attacks today were a coordinated effort by al-Qaeda. There were no indicators that the [Sahwa fighters] ... were involved in any of the attacks,” US military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Philip Smith said.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was