23 killed as suicide bombers strike Baghdad

BAGHDAD – Suicide bombers struck Baghdad for the second day yesterday, killing at least 23 people after a devastating string of similar attacks left some 150 dead and several hundred wounded.

The new wave of bombings in the capital followed a declaration of all-out war against the country’s Shi’ite majority by al Qaeda’s fugitive frontman in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, whose supporters claimed Wednesday’s attacks. At least 23 Iraqis were killed and several dozen people wounded, including two US soldiers, in four suicide car bombings yesterday, three of them in the predominantly Shi’ite southern district of Dura.Another nine people were killed in other attacks across the country including four policemen, and three Shi’ite pilgrims who were gunned down as they were walking from Baghdad to the holy city of Karbala.A Shi’ite imam or religious leader was killed and three people wounded when a bomb blew up near the gate to the Rowdha Al-Wadi mosque in the main northern city of Mosul, police said.One civilian was killed and 16 wounded in south Baghdad when a bomb blasted a bus taking trade ministry employees to work.Three unidentified bullet-riddled bodies were also discovered in the north of the capital and the bodies of four men, kidnapped on Wednesday on a highway near Latifiyah south of Baghdad were found near Al-Arkanderiyah further south.The latest strikes followed the deadliest day of attacks in Baghdad on Wednesday since the US-led invasion against Saddam Hussein’s regime in March 2003.Zarqawi’s group claimed responsibility for bombings, saying they were in revenge for a US-Iraqi crackdown on insurgents in the northern town of Tal Afar, near the Syrian border.Zarqawi, a Jordanian-born Sunni extremist who is Iraq’s most wanted man with a 25 million dollar bounty on his head, also declared “all-out war” on Iraq’s majority Shi’ites, according to an audiotape posted on the Internet.Shi’ite civilians have been increasingly targeted by Sunni insurgents as hardliners within the ousted elite vent their anger on the long oppressed majority that now leads the government.”Any religious group that wants to be safe from the blows of the mujahedeen (holy warriors) must (disavow) the government of (Shi’ite Prime Minister Ibrahim) Jaafari and its crimes.Otherwise it will suffer the same fate as that of the crusaders,” according to the tape, whose authenticity could not be verified.The term crusaders refers to the occupying US-led forces that ousted president Saddam Hussein in 2003 and which back the Jaafari government.Zarqawi’s group the al Qaeda Organisation in the Land of Two Rivers is considered responsible for some of the most spectacular attacks in Iraq as well as the kidnapping and beheading of hostages.- Nampa-AFPAt least 23 Iraqis were killed and several dozen people wounded, including two US soldiers, in four suicide car bombings yesterday, three of them in the predominantly Shi’ite southern district of Dura.Another nine people were killed in other attacks across the country including four policemen, and three Shi’ite pilgrims who were gunned down as they were walking from Baghdad to the holy city of Karbala.A Shi’ite imam or religious leader was killed and three people wounded when a bomb blew up near the gate to the Rowdha Al-Wadi mosque in the main northern city of Mosul, police said.One civilian was killed and 16 wounded in south Baghdad when a bomb blasted a bus taking trade ministry employees to work.Three unidentified bullet-riddled bodies were also discovered in the north of the capital and the bodies of four men, kidnapped on Wednesday on a highway near Latifiyah south of Baghdad were found near Al-Arkanderiyah further south.The latest strikes followed the deadliest day of attacks in Baghdad on Wednesday since the US-led invasion against Saddam Hussein’s regime in March 2003.Zarqawi’s group claimed responsibility for bombings, saying they were in revenge for a US-Iraqi crackdown on insurgents in the northern town of Tal Afar, near the Syrian border.Zarqawi, a Jordanian-born Sunni extremist who is Iraq’s most wanted man with a 25 million dollar bounty on his head, also declared “all-out war” on Iraq’s majority Shi’ites, according to an audiotape posted on the Internet.Shi’ite civilians have been increasingly targeted by Sunni insurgents as hardliners within the ousted elite vent their anger on the long oppressed majority that now leads the government.”Any religious group that wants to be safe from the blows of the mujahedeen (holy warriors) must (disavow) the government of (Shi’ite Prime Minister Ibrahim) Jaafari and its crimes.Otherwise it will suffer the same fate as that of the crusaders,” according to the tape, whose authenticity could not be verified.The term crusaders refers to the occupying US-led forces that ousted president Saddam Hussein in 2003 and which back the Jaafari government.Zarqawi’s group the al Qaeda Organisation in the Land of Two Rivers is considered responsible for some of the most spectacular attacks in Iraq as well as the kidnapping and beheading of hostages.- Nampa-AFP