Baghdad bombers slaughter 57

BAGHDAD – Insurgents slaughtered at least 57 people in a bomb and missile attack on a busy Baghdad neighbourhood, officials said yesterday, while Iraq’s embattled government faced the political fallout from the blitz.

As rescuers dragged more bloodied corpses from rubble left in the Al-Qubyasi market by Sunday night’s blasts, more gun and bomb attacks around Iraq killed at least 12 more people and a missile crashed into the fortified “Green Zone”. Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki accused Sunni extremists of seeking to ignite civil war by attacking the largely Shiite district of Zafaraniyah, where a combination of suicide car bombs and missiles demolished two buildings.”We strongly condemn the series of terrorist attacks which were carried out by takfiri (hardline Sunni) terrorists on Sunday, which killed dozens of people,” the Shiite premier said, in a statement released by his office.”The terrorists planned this ugly crime to kill as many innocent victims as possible and this is evidence of their hatred for Iraq and their attempt to incite division and sectarian fighting among Iraqi people,” he warned.An interior ministry official said insurgents lobbed missiles into Zafaraniyah then dispatched suicide bombers.At least four major buildings, including a four-storey apartment block, were demolished.He put the toll at 57 dead and more than 150 wounded, but said this was expected to rise further.”There’s children, women.Whole families were killed,” the official told AFP.The attack marked the worst single loss of life since July 1, when a truck bomb killed 66, and hard-pressed medics reported dozens of seriously wounded residents arriving in hospital wards from the southeast of the capital.Meanwhile, police and witnesses said that three more bombs had gone off in downtown Baghdad, killing three more civilians.Four Australian soldiers were wounded in a rocket attack on the fortified “Green Zone”, the seat of Maliki’s government, home to the US and British embassies and an important coalition military base.The latest carnage took the shine off announcements by Maliki and his US allies about the arrest of many suspected insurgents and will erode the government’s authority as it tries to win back control of its capital.Nampa-AFPPrime Minister Nuri al-Maliki accused Sunni extremists of seeking to ignite civil war by attacking the largely Shiite district of Zafaraniyah, where a combination of suicide car bombs and missiles demolished two buildings.”We strongly condemn the series of terrorist attacks which were carried out by takfiri (hardline Sunni) terrorists on Sunday, which killed dozens of people,” the Shiite premier said, in a statement released by his office.”The terrorists planned this ugly crime to kill as many innocent victims as possible and this is evidence of their hatred for Iraq and their attempt to incite division and sectarian fighting among Iraqi people,” he warned.An interior ministry official said insurgents lobbed missiles into Zafaraniyah then dispatched suicide bombers.At least four major buildings, including a four-storey apartment block, were demolished.He put the toll at 57 dead and more than 150 wounded, but said this was expected to rise further.”There’s children, women.Whole families were killed,” the official told AFP.The attack marked the worst single loss of life since July 1, when a truck bomb killed 66, and hard-pressed medics reported dozens of seriously wounded residents arriving in hospital wards from the southeast of the capital.Meanwhile, police and witnesses said that three more bombs had gone off in downtown Baghdad, killing three more civilians.Four Australian soldiers were wounded in a rocket attack on the fortified “Green Zone”, the seat of Maliki’s government, home to the US and British embassies and an important coalition military base.The latest carnage took the shine off announcements by Maliki and his US allies about the arrest of many suspected insurgents and will erode the government’s authority as it tries to win back control of its capital.Nampa-AFP

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