Sunday 29 April 2007

Baghdad - A suicide car bomb exploded Saturday in the Shiite holy
city of Karbala as the streets were packed with people heading for
evening prayers, killing at least 63 and wounding scores near some of
the country's most sacred shrines. Separately, the U.S. military
announced the deaths of nine American troops, including three killed
Saturday in a single roadside bombing outside Baghdad.

With black smoke clogging the skies above Karbala, angry crowds
hurled stones at police and later stormed the provincial governor's
house, accusing authorities of failing to protect them from the
unrelenting bombings usually blamed on Sunni insurgents. It was the
second car bomb to strike the city's central area in two weeks.

Near the blast site, survivors frantically searched for missing
relatives. Iraqi television showed one man carrying the charred body of
a small girl above his head as he ran down the street while ambulances
rushed to retrieve the wounded and firefighters sprayed water at fires
in the wreckage, leaving pools of bloody water.

The Americans killed in Iraq included five who died in fighting
Friday in Anbar province, three killed when a roadside bomb struck their
patrol southeast of Baghdad and one killed in a separate roadside
bombing south of the capital.

The deaths raised to 99 the number of members of the U.S. military
who have died this month and at least 3,346 who have died since the Iraq
war started in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

The blast took place about 7 p.m. in a crowded commercial area near
the shrines of Imam Abbas and Imam Hussein, major Shiite saints.

Ghalib al-Daami, a provincial council member who oversees security
matters, said the bomber detonated his payload about 200 yards from the
Imam Abbas shrine, which with the others draws thousands of Shiite
pilgrims from Iran and other countries.

That suggested the attack, which occurred two weeks after 47 people
were killed and 224 were wounded in a car bombing in the same area on
April 14, was aimed at killing as many Shiite worshippers as possible.

Salim Kazim, the head of the health department in Karbala, 50 miles
south of Baghdad, said Sunday that 63 people were killed and 169
wounded. The figures were confirmed by Abdul-Al al-Yassiri, the head of
Karbala's provincial council.

"I did not expect this explosion because I thought the place was
well protected by the police," said Qassim Hassan, a clothing merchant
who was injured by the blast. "I demand a trial for the people in charge
of the security in Karbala."

Hassan, who spoke to a reporter from his hospital bed, said his
brother and a cousin were still missing.

"I regret that I voted for those traitors who only care about their
posts, not the people who voted for them," he said.

The U.S. military has warned that such bombings were intended to
provoke retaliatory violence by Shiite militias, whose members have
largely complied with political pressure to avoid confrontations with
Americans during the U.S. troop buildup.

The radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr launched a strong attack
earlier Saturday on President Bush, calling him the "greatest evil" for
refusing to withdraw American troops from Iraq.

Al-Sadr's statement was read during a parliament session by his
cousin, Liqaa al-Yassin, after Congress ordered U.S. troops to begin
leaving Iraq by Oct. 1. Bush pledged to veto the measure and neither the
House nor the Senate had enough votes to override him.

"Here are the Democrats calling you to withdraw or even set a
timetable and you are not responding," al-Sadr's statement said. "It is
not only them who are calling for this but also Republicans, to whom you
belong."

"If you are ignoring your friends and partners, then it is no wonder
that you ignore the international and Iraqi points of view," he added.

Al-Sadr led two armed uprisings against U.S. forces in 2004, and his
Mahdi militia is believed responsible for much of Iraq's sectarian
killing. The U.S. military says he has fled to Iran, although his
followers insist he is hiding in Iraq.

Abdul-Al al-Yassiri, the head of the Karbala provincial council,
said local authorities had raised fears that militants fleeing the
Baghdad security crackdown were infiltrating their area.

"We have contacted the interior minister and asked them to supply us
with equipment that can detect explosives," he said.

Ali Mohammed, 31, who sells prayer beads in the area, said he heard
the blast and felt himself hurled into the air.

"The next thing I knew I opened my eyes in the hospital with my legs
and chest burned," he said. "This is a disaster. What is the guilt of
the children and women killed today by this terrorist attack?"

Crowds stormed the provincial government offices and the governor's
house, burning part of it along with three cars and scuffling with
guards. Security forces detained several armed protesters, al-Daami
said.

Saturday's bombing was the deadliest attack in Iraq since April 18,
when 127 people were killed in a car bombing near the Sadriyah market in
Baghdad - one of four bombings that killed a total of 183 people in the
bloodiest day since a U.S.-Iraq security operation began in the capital
more than 10 weeks ago.

In all, at least 124 people were killed or found dead, including the
bodies of 38 people killed execution-style - apparent victims of the
so-called sectarian death squads mostly run by Shiite militias.

In Baghdad, a mortar attack killed two people and wounded seven in
the Sunni neighborhood of Azamiyah, where the U.S. military recently
announced it was building a three-mile long, 12-foot high concrete wall
despite protests from residents and Sunni politicians that they were
being isolated.

The U.S. military also said Saturday that a suicide truck bomber
attacked the home of a city police chief the day before in the Sunni
insurgent stronghold of Anbar province, killing nine Iraqi security
forces and six civilians.

Police chief Hamid Ibrahim al-Numrawi and his family escaped injury
after Iraqi forces opened fire on the truck before it reached the
concrete barrier outside the home in Hit, 85 miles west of Baghdad.