Iraq: Up to six car bombs ripped through the east Baghdad stronghold of a major Shia militia force yesterday, killing 46 people and wounding 204 and raising fears that reprisals could again pitch Iraq toward civil war.
The apparently co-ordinated attacks on markets in Sadr City occurred as political leaders, shepherded by the US ambassador to Iraq, met once more without obvious result to discuss forming a national unity government that might avert a bloodbath.
The blasts ended a lull that itself followed days of violence between Sunnis and Shias after the bombing of a Shia shrine in Samarra on February 22nd.
Final police accounts of the attacks said up to six cars exploded in quick succession in the area. Officials put the death toll at 46. "People were torn to pieces," said a witness, declining to be named. Amid chaos at nearby hospitals, the wounded lay on floors and women wept. One man sat silently slapping his head in grief.
Officials said after the Samarra bombing that a new major attack could spark all-out sectarian conflict. Two years of relative restraint by the Shia majority, under clerical orders, is wearing thin, some Shia leaders warn. A major Sunni religious organisation, the Sunni Endowment, was quick to issue a statement condemning the Sadr City attacks.
Gunmen from the Mehdi army militia of radical Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr sealed off his sprawling slum stronghold, home to some two million people, and militia officials blamed Sunni militants loyal to Saddam Hussein.
Sunni leaders accuse the Mehdi army of taking a lead in attacks on Sunni homes and mosques, mainly in Baghdad, after the Samarra Golden Mosque bombing, despite al-Sadr's insistent denials. Three months after elections in which the once dominant Sunni minority took full part, hopes that this would help end violence and bring the country together have been dented.
Parliament has yet to meet but President Jalal Talabani said it would now do so on Thursday, three days earlier than planned. Talks on a government were halted by the violence after the Samarra bombing, which killed hundreds in just a few days.
US ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, playing a key role in negotiations that Washington hopes can curb violence and let it start withdrawing troops, was upbeat.
He called it positive that parliament would meet this week and said leaders would begin "continuous" talks on Tuesday with a view to settling on a coalition line-up soon.
Sunnis, Kurds and secular leaders have been blocking an accord with a demand that Ibrahim al-Jaafari, a Shia who has led the interim government for the past year, should be dropped as the Shias' choice of prime minister for the new four-year term.
After Sunnis and Shias held their first substantive talks on Saturday since the shrine bombing, Mr Jaafari yesterday said he would not step down.
His main rival within the dominant Shia Alliance bloc, Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, said after the all-party talks: "There is a real determination . . . to solve the crisis."
Mr Khalilzad declined to be drawn on whether he thought Mr Jaafari might be forced out. "Everyone agrees that the prime minister has to be someone that can bring the country together," he said. "It's still going to take a bit of time."
Earlier yesterday, shortly before the resumption of Saddam's trial in Baghdad, 10 people were killed in a series of mortar blasts and roadside bombings. Altogether, from body counts during the day, more than 80 new violent deaths were recorded.
Sadr City has previously been relatively immune from Sunni insurgent attacks. Some speculate that was because al-Sadr, who led two uprisings against US forces in 2004, had won respect among Sunnis with his anti-American rhetoric.
As a rising kingmaker within the Shia Alliance, al-Sadr has been more critical of Sunni militants lately, including comments in a lengthy interview aired on US-backed state TV on Friday.
- (Reuters)