Bomb, gunman kill 100 in Baghdad

BAGHDAD - A suicide bomber killed more than 80 people in a crowded Shi'ite district of Baghdad on Wednesday, while gunmen killed 17 north of the city and the capital resounded with explosions and gunfire.

The violence came as Iraqi troops, with US support, continued operations against insurgents across the country. Fears of civil war are growing in the run-up to a divisive vote on a new constitution for Iraq's post-Saddam Hussein era.

The suicide bomber blew up an explosives-packed minibus in Kadhimiya, in Baghdad's old town, killing 82 and wounding 163, most of them laborers looking for day jobs, police said.

An Interior Ministry source said the bomber lured the men toward his vehicle with promises of work before detonating the bomb, which contained up to 500 lbs of explosives.

It was one of the single deadliest car bombings Iraq has seen, and came days after around 1000 people died in the same district in a stampede on a bridge, triggered by fears of a suicide bomber in a crowd during a Shi'ite religious ceremony.

"We gathered and suddenly a car blew up and turned the area into fire and dust and darkness," said Hadi, one of the workers who survived the attack, which happened shortly after sunrise.

Bodies lay in the street beside burned-out cars, witnesses said. Some used wooden carts to haul away the dead.

Iraqi government officials have accused Sunni Arab militants of attacking majority Shi'ites, who were swept to power in January elections boycotted by most Sunnis, in a bid to spark a civil war.

Around two hours later another blast was heard in central Baghdad, and two more car bombs exploded shortly afterwards.

Police said five were killed and 20 wounded in one of the blasts, near the offices of a Shi'ite cleric. There were no details on casualties in the other explosions.

Separately, gunmen dragged 17 people from their homes and killed them just north of Baghdad early on Wednesday, police said.

They said the gunmen had rounded up their victims in the middle of the night and shot them outside their homes in Taji, on the northern outskirts of Baghdad.

CONSTITUTION TENSIONS

Iraq has seen a rising level of sectarian violence ahead of a referendum on the constitution due on October 15. The vote has exacerbated tensions between the country's main communities, Shi'ites, Sunni Arabs and Kurds.

Sunnis, who account for 20 per cent of the population, have dominated Iraqi politics for decades, under ousted leader Saddam and before, and resent their loss of influence since his removal from power by the US invasion of March 2003.

They fear the constitution will institutionalize their reduced role, by increasing autonomy for southern Shi'ites in line with the broad autonomy enjoyed by Kurds in the north, and by decentralizing control of oil revenues.

The Iraqi army has been fighting Sunni insurgents for days in the northern town of Tal Afar, near the Syrian border, killing over 200 and capturing several hundred, according to Iraqi government reports.

Late on Tuesday, US aircraft also launched air strikes against targets in Karabila, another town near the Syrian border. The United States and Iraq say insurgents smuggle fighters and arms across the border, which Iraq closed in places on Sunday. Syria denies it.

Tensions have also been running high ahead of the trial of Saddam, still admired by some Sunnis, which is due to start on October 19. He faces trial on a single charge of mass killing in a village in reprisal for an assassination attempt on him in 1982.

If found guilty, Saddam may face the death penalty by hanging. The government has indicated it may not try him for other offences, potentially opening the way to his early execution.

- REUTERS