Iraq:Three car bombs ripped through a busy street in the Shia city of Amara yesterday, killing 40 people and wounding 125 in one of the deadliest attacks in southern Iraq this year.
The co-ordinated attacks came just days before Britain is to complete the handover of security for the four southern provinces it has controlled since 2003.
Tensions have been running high between rival Shia factions competing for influence in the oil-producing south, although one analyst said al-Qaeda was the likely culprit.
The Amara street was a scene of chaos, with cars torn apart. A blocked gutter street was red with blood washed from pools on the pavement next to a child's shoes. "I arrived just after the explosions. It was gruesome and horrible - pieces of flesh sprayed everywhere," said taxi driver Kazim Mutar (42). "They were women, children, market traders. The aim of this explosion was to kill [ civilians]."
Amara, capital of Maysan province, has no foreign troops after Britain handed over responsibility for security in the province to Iraqi forces in April, part of a plan to pull British troops off the streets by the end of this year.
Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said the last stage of that plan would go ahead in four days despite the blasts, with Iraqi forces taking control of neighbouring Basra province, source of nearly all of Iraq's oil export revenue.
"It [ the bombing] has nothing to do with Basra. The handover will go ahead on the 16th of this month. The quality of the forces in Basra is excellent," he said.
Elsewhere, a car bomb in Baghdad killed five people and wounded 13. - (Reuters)