Bombing attacks in Baghdad kill at least 42 people, injures 130 and destroys 32 houses
A series of early morning bombings near the northern city of Mosul and in Baghdad killed at least 42 people and wounded dozens more, Iraqi officials said.
The attacks provided a grim example of U.S. military warnings that insurgents are trying to derail security gains as the Americans scale back their presence and raised fears that Sunni insurgents are increasingly targeting Shiites in an effort to re-ignite sectarian violence that nearly tore the country apart in 2006 and 2007.
The worst attack was in the village of Kazna that is home to members of Iraq’s tiny Shabak minority, where two large truck bombs exploded at around 5 am, killing 30 people, injuring 130 and destroying 32 houses, according to figures from one hospital. The death toll was expected to rise as numbers come in from two other hospitals.
At around 6:30 am, car bombs exploded a minute apart in two different neighborhoods of western Baghdad targeting locations where casual day laborers gather to pick up work. The first, in the Shurta neighborhood, killed 10 people and the second, in Amel, killed seven. Both neighborhoods are home to Shiites.
Two other explosive devices exploded in two other Baghdad neighborhoods, targeting Iraqi army patrols. They injured eight people.
Mahmoud Hussein, 28, said he was asleep on a roof, about 150 yards (140 meters) away from the truck bombs, when then explosion flattened his house.
“If we had slept inside, we would have been killed,” said Hussein, who suffered a head wound from flying debris.
Qusay Abbas, who represents the Shabak minority as a member of the Ninevah provincial council, blamed security forces for failing to secure the area on the northern outskirts of Mosul, which the U.S. has called the last stronghold of al-Qaida in Iraq.
“I blame everyone who wants to divide Iraq, and every sectarian official shoulders responsibility for this crime,” Abbas said.
Nobody claimed responsibility for the attack, but it bore the hallmarks of al-Qaida in Iraq and other Sunni insurgents who remain active in Mosul and surrounding areas.
The Monday bombings is the latest in the line of attacks targeting Shiites. On Friday, a suicide truck bomber devastated a mosque used by another minority, Shiite Turkomen, killing 44 people north of Mosul.
The recent series of attacks have raised concerns about the ability of Iraqi security forces to contain violence as U.S. combat troops wind down duties as part of a withdrawal plan that would see all American forces out of Iraq by the end of 2011.
