Sectarian bloodshed in Iraq mounts

BAGHDAD – Three people were killed yesterday in a morning attack on a Baghdad market a day after a spate of bombings in Iraq left 64 dead amid renewed inter-communal bloodshed.

Ten people were also wounded in a roadside bomb attack on the central Baghdad market, known for selling garments, especially old clothes, an interior ministry official said. Meanwhile, yesterday’s hearing of the trial of Saddam Hussein was set to begin after prosecutors presented crucial documents on Tuesday linking the former dictator to the killings of 148 Shi’ites.With the latest wave of violence renewing warnings of the threat of civil war, a senior US state official maintained that the situation was “normal” in the insurgency-racked country.One of the bloodiest attacks was a car bomb that blew up on Tuesday evening outside a Shi’ite mosque in Baghdad’s northwestern al-Hurriya neighbourhood, killing 25 people and wounding 43, a security official said.The blast followed just hours after three bombs went off on Tuesday morning in quick succession in mixed Shi’ite-Sunni areas in the capital, killing at least 30 people and wounding 130.The bloodshed recalled last Wednesday’s bombing of a famous Shi’ite shrine in Samarra, north of Baghdad, which unleashed a wave of Shi’ite reprisals against Iraq’s Sunni minority that pushed the country to the brink of civil war.The new violence jolted feverish US and Iraqi efforts to restore stability to Iraq and comes amid stuttering efforts to resume talks on forming a national unity government by bringing Sunni groups into a Shi’ite-led coalition.The Iraqi government said 379 people had been killed and 458 wounded in violence around the country since Wednesday’s bombing in Samarra.In one of the Tuesday morning Baghdad attacks, a suicide bomber wearing a explosives vest blew himself up next to a queue of people waiting to buy kerosene in Al-Amin, southeast Baghdad.In the second, a car bomb exploded in the city’s southeastern district of Jadida, an interior ministry official said.Those two attacks killed 24 and wounded 112 people, he said.Another six people were killed in a car bomb attack near a market in the central Karada district, he said, adding 18 others were wounded.Five bodyguards of Lieutenant General Daham Radi al-Assal, advisor to Iraqi defence minister, were killed when a roadside bomb exploded against his convoy in eastern Baghdad, a defence ministry official said.Seven other bodyguards were also wounded.Gunmen detonated a bomb earlier in the day at the entrance of a Sunni mosque in the Al-Hurriya neighbourhood, which caused no casualties, but it was unclear if the blast at the Shi’ite mosque on Tuesday night was related.The bomb attacks hit Baghdad just a day after the authorities lifted a daytime curfew and a vehicle ban in the capital.US President George W.Bush, however, expressed worry over the turbulent situation.”The people of Iraq and their leaders must make a choice.The choice is chaos or unity,” Bush said, even as he declined to say how the unrest would affect US plans to lower troop levels this year.- Nampa-AFPMeanwhile, yesterday’s hearing of the trial of Saddam Hussein was set to begin after prosecutors presented crucial documents on Tuesday linking the former dictator to the killings of 148 Shi’ites.With the latest wave of violence renewing warnings of the threat of civil war, a senior US state official maintained that the situation was “normal” in the insurgency-racked country.One of the bloodiest attacks was a car bomb that blew up on Tuesday evening outside a Shi’ite mosque in Baghdad’s northwestern al-Hurriya neighbourhood, killing 25 people and wounding 43, a security official said.The blast followed just hours after three bombs went off on Tuesday morning in quick succession in mixed Shi’ite-Sunni areas in the capital, killing at least 30 people and wounding 130.The bloodshed recalled last Wednesday’s bombing of a famous Shi’ite shrine in Samarra, north of Baghdad, which unleashed a wave of Shi’ite reprisals against Iraq’s Sunni minority that pushed the country to the brink of civil war.The new violence jolted feverish US and Iraqi efforts to restore stability to Iraq and comes amid stuttering efforts to resume talks on forming a national unity government by bringing Sunni groups into a Shi’ite-led coalition.The Iraqi government said 379 people had been killed and 458 wounded in violence around the country since Wednesday’s bombing in Samarra.In one of the Tuesday morning Baghdad attacks, a suicide bomber wearing a explosives vest blew himself up next to a queue of people waiting to buy kerosene in Al-Amin, southeast Baghdad.In the second, a car bomb exploded in the city’s southeastern district of Jadida, an interior ministry official said.Those two attacks killed 24 and wounded 112 people, he said.Another six people were killed in a car bomb attack near a market in the central Karada district, he said, adding 18 others were wounded.Five bodyguards of Lieutenant General Daham Radi al-Assal, advisor to Iraqi defence minister, were killed when a roadside bomb exploded against his convoy in eastern Baghdad, a defence ministry official said.Seven other bodyguards were also wounded.Gunmen detonated a bomb earlier in the day at the entrance of a Sunni mosque in the Al-Hurriya neighbourhood, which caused no casualties, but it was unclear if the blast at the Shi’ite mosque on Tuesday night was related.The bomb attacks hit Baghdad just a day after the authorities lifted a daytime curfew and a vehicle ban in the capital.US President George W.Bush, however, expressed worry over the turbulent situation.”The people of Iraq and their leaders must make a choice.The choice is chaos or unity,” Bush said, even as he declined to say how the unrest would affect US plans to lower troop levels this year. – Nampa-AFP