SCORES OF people were killed and hundreds injured in a series of bombings targeting mainly Shia neighbourhoods in Baghdad last night.
At least 15 blasts, many of them caused by car bombs, prompted fears that the violence heralded the second phase of an al-Qaeda attempt to incite sectarian chaos after a massacre inside a church on Sunday.
The authorities were last night scrambling to deal with the aftermath of the co-ordinated bombings. At least 76 people were reported killed and nearly 200 injured, but the death toll appeared certain to rise.
The most deadly incident took place in Sadr City, where 21 people were killed. Security forces ordered shopkeepers to return home and closed down main roads in east Baghdad, which is mainly Shia. Apart from election days, Baghdad has not seen a city-wide curfew since late 2007.
The bombings came hours after a memorial service for some of the 52 hostages and security officers killed on Sunday, when Islamist gunmen stormed the Our Lady of Salvation church. Since then, security chiefs and politicians had ordered extra protection around mosques and churches, fearing further attacks. Police and soldiers used loudspeakers to order residents to stay in their homes near known sectarian flashpoints.
Last night’s bombs detonated within 90 minutes of each other. Hospitals were appealing for blood donors, and the city’s main accident and emergency centres were reporting large numbers of casualties amid chaotic scenes. The bombs exploded in 12 areas of the city, including a police station in Sadr City and a coffee shop in New Baghdad. Restaurants appeared to be prominent targets in other attacks, along with main roads and, in one case, a funeral tent. The scale of the attacks, and the ease with which car bombs were again able to penetrate security cordons, constitute a damaging blow for Iraq’s security forces, which have been without effective leadership for eight months over a crippling political crisis that has seen politicians unable to form a government.
Security chiefs immediately blamed al-Qaeda for the latest attacks. Al-Qaeda in Iraq is an umbrella group for many Sunni Islamist organisations who align to a global jihadi world view that identifies Shia Muslims and Christians as mortal foes. An intelligence chief said that al-Qaeda in Iraq had regrouped this year after briefly aligning during 2008 with former leaders of Saddam Hussein’s Baathist regime. “This is pure al-Qaeda,” he said. “It’s back to like it was in the early days – around 2004.”
The head of the Shia Endowment group, the main body for Shia interests in Iraq, said: “The goal is to reignite sectarian violence in Iraq. We have a responsibility to calm this demand and clarify things.
“They want a civil war and they want to stop the political process. As soon as we see a ray of hope here, these terrorists rise again.”
– (Guardian service)