September 30, 2005
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Outbreak of Violence Kills More Than a Hundred Iraqis in 2 Days
Akram Saleh/Getty Images
A car bomb detonated near a market in southern Iraq today, killing at least eight people, the latest in a string of attacks.
September 30, 2005
Outbreak of Violence Kills More Than a Hundred Iraqis in 2 Days
By SABRINA TAVERNISE
BAGHDAD, Iraq, Sept. 30 – A car bomb detonated today near a fruit and vegetable market in Hilla, a Shiite town south of Baghdad, killing at least eight people and wounding 41, the second strike in two days of bloodletting that has left 110 people dead.
The bomb was remotely detonated about 10:15 a.m., in the al-Sharia market in central Hilla and tore into a crowded area of people shopping for food. The attack was almost identical to three others that took place just 16 hours before in Balad, north of Baghdad.
In those bombings, two of which were also in a crowded marketplace frequented mostly by Shiites, the death toll rose sharply overnight and by this afternoon had reached 102, including 18 children, according to Dr. Qasim al-Qaisi, the manager of Balad Hospital. In all, 150 people were wounded, he said.
Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, the radical Islamist group run by the Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, claimed responsibility for the Balad attacks, Agence France-Presse reported.
The steady stream of gruesome attacks, aimed mostly at civilians in Shiite areas, has surged in recent weeks. Sunni Arab radicals, led by Mr. Zarqawi, are pursuing a strategy of attacks against Shiites in an attempt to start a war between Iraq’s two largest sects.
Iraq is preparing to hold a national referendum on a new constitution on Oct. 15, a document that most Sunni Arabs here strongly oppose, and American military officials have warned that the violence is likely to increase up to the day of the vote.
In Hilla, 60 miles south of Baghdad, the explosives were packed into a Mercedes and then parked near the market, police officials said. Of the eight who died, two were children under the age of 10, and two more were women, said Dr. Baha al-Din Eqbal, a doctor in the Hilla Hospital. Three of the patients were wounded critically and Dr. Eqbal said he expected they would be dead by Saturday morning.
Images broadcast on Iraqi television showed scenes grief and pain. Women in black abaya robes wailed outside a local morgue, their bodies rocking back and forth. Bodies were covered in ordinary household blankets. Men in dishdashas wandered through charred remains of shops and past a burned-out hulk of a car.
Footage of the bombing site in Balad showed a large swath of a city block that had been destroyed. Rescue workers stepped around pools of blood.
In Hilla and Balad, Iraqis spoke angrily into television cameras, demanding the government take tougher action against those carrying out the bombings. A man in Hilla who was not identified by name shouted, “Where is the security, where are the policemen?” In Balad, another man said, “We ask, where is the government?”
Many Shiites have expressed frustration with the government, led by Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jafaari, a religious Shiite, saying it has not taken decisive enough steps against those who carry out attacks.
Anger at the blast appeared to reinforce political convictions among Shiites that the constitution, which was drawn up largely by Shiite and Kurdish political parties, would help secure their rights. The Associated Press quoted a hotel owner in Balad, Abu Waleed, as saying, that “this is a criminal act and the constitution is going to succeed in spite of them.” Seven people staying in his hotel were killed in the blast, he said.
Also in Balad, crowds gathered and chanted: “With our souls, with our blood, we sacrifice ourselves for the constitution.”
In Hilla, which has been the target of some of the most devastating bombings since the American invasion, including one in February that left 122 people dead, another car bomb went off today, outside an American military base in the northern part of the city about 30 minutes after the first one. There were no reports of casualties.
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