Scores killed in wave of Iraqi attacks

BAGHDAD - A suicide bomber lured a crowd of Shiite labourers to his minivan before blowing it up, killing 114 and wounding more than 156 in Baghdad's old town last night, in one of Iraq's deadliest single bomb attacks.

The bomber drew the men to his vehicle with promises of work before detonating the bomb, which contained up to 220kg of explosives, an Interior Ministry source said.

Gunmen also killed 17 people in Taji, a northern suburb of the capital, and at least three other bombs exploded in Baghdad. The city was rocked by explosions and gunfire all morning local time.

The violence came as fears of civil war grew in the run-up to a vote on a new constitution for Iraq's post-Saddam Hussein era, further dividing Iraq's fragmented communities.

"We gathered and suddenly a car blew up and turned the area into fire and dust and darkness," said Hadi, a workers who survived the attack.

Police said 114 people were killed and 156 wounded in the explosion. It was the deadliest attack since July, when 98 people were killed.

The attack came days after more than 1000 people died in the same district in a stampede on a bridge, triggered by fears of a bomber in a crowd during a Shiite religious ceremony.

"There's no political party here, there are no police," railed Mohammed Jabbar at the scene. "This targeted civilians, innocents. Why women and children?" he added, as bystanders yelled "Why? Why?"

At the nearby Kadhimiya hospital, overflowing with victims, dozens of the wounded screamed in agony as they were treated on the floor, some lying in pools of their own blood.

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

Police said five were killed and 24 wounded in one of the blasts, near the offices of a Shiite cleric. They added that three police and three civilians were killed in another attack on a police convoy.

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

The gunmen, who arrived in military vehicles and were wearing Iraqi Army uniforms, had rounded up their victims in the middle of the night and shot them outside their homes in Taji.

All were shot in the head, execution-style, and all were Shiite relatives from the same tribe, police said.

The attacks came as US and Iraqi forces continued their offensive on fighters in northern Iraq near the border with Syria.

Yesterday, they launched bombing raids on the Euphrates River stronghold of Haditha only days after about 200 militants were killed in Tal Afar.

Residents also reported American air strikes near Qaim, in the same region and also near the border.

Colonel H. R. McMasters, commander of the 3rd Armoured Cavalry Regiment, said extremist fighters at Tal Afar had committed atrocities against civilians, including beheadings, torture and the booby-trapping of a murdered child's body.

"The enemy here did just the most horrible things you can imagine - in one case murdering a child, placing a booby trap within the child's body and waiting for the parent to come recover the body of their child and exploding it to kill the parents."

- REUTERS