OMEN
08-11-2006, 12:20 AM
NAJAF: A suicide bomber has killed at least 35 people and wounded more than 90 near one of Shi'ite Islam's most revered sites, the Imam Ali shrine in the southern Iraqi city of Najaf.
The attack was the bloodiest since July 18, when 59 people were killed by a suicide bomb in nearby Kufa. That attack was claimed by al Qaeda, which has targeted Shi'ites in a bid to inflame sectarian passions and trigger full-scale civil war.
Hospital sources said the Najaf bomber blew himself up at a police commando checkpoint on his way to the Imam Ali shrine.
The Shi'ite television channel al-Forat said there were two attacks, including the suicide blast, in the city which is home to Iraq's top Shi'ite clerics.
"Suddenly my cart and the cans and the people were flying through the air," said Moussa Khadhan, a 37-year-old street vendor who was nearby at the time.
Ambulances drove through the streets of Najaf appealing for blood donations as the scale of carnage became clear.
Television pictures showed the body of a child being laid besides other bloodied corpses on a patch of ground beside a hospital. The dead, marked with numbered white labels on their foreheads for identification, included both police and civilians, police and hospital sources said. Riyadh al-Shibli, a doctor, said 35 people were killed and 94 wounded.
Ali Fahad was walking towards the shrine with his brother when the bomb exploded. "Where is my brother?" he asked while medics treated him for burns.
An Iraqi insurgent group said it was behind The suicide bombing.
"God enabled your brothers of the Jamaat Jund al-Sahaba (Soldiers of the Prophet's Companions) to carry out an operation which took the lives of at least 30 rejectionists (Shi'ites), including police," said a group statement, whose authenticity could not be verified. It was posted on a main Islamic website.
INTER-COMMUNAL BLOODSHED
Mostly Shi'ite Najaf has been stable compared to other parts of Iraq, where a Sunni Arab insurgency is aimed at toppling the US-backed government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.
However, in December 2004 a suicide car bomb killed 52 people and wounded at least 140 near the same Imam Ali shrine.
The United States has boosted its troop levels in Baghdad, some 160 km (100 miles) to the north, to try to ease inter-communal bloodshed tearing the capital apart and build confidence in the new Shi'ite-led government in power since May.
About 6,000 additional Iraqi forces and 3,500 US soldiers from the 172nd Striker Brigade combat team are being deployed in the Baghdad area, and are expected to start systematically trying to clear neighbourhoods of militants and insurgents.
Maliki has pledged to disarm rival militias and bring sects together. But a senior politician said the problem lay with the ministries themselves.
"Disbanding the militias means disbanding the Interior and Defence Ministries and disbanding the sides funding the militias in the Interior and Defence ministries," Speaker of Parliament Mahmoud al-Mashhadani told a news conference.
Almost 2,000 bodies were brought to the Baghdad morgue in July, the largest monthly toll since the aftermath of the bombing of the Shi'ite Golden Mosque of Samarra in February, which triggered a wave of sectarian killing.
Around Iraq, violence continued. Six people were killed by a bomb in a restaurant in southern Baghdad, an Interior Ministry source said. A policeman was shot dead in Falluja. Gunmen killed a civilian in Mosul and in Hawija, southwest of Kirkuk, two policemen died in a roadside bomb blast.
There was no word from the US military on the fate of two US soldiers missing since Tuesday, when their Blackhawk helicopter crashed in Anbar province, a heartland of the insurgency west of Baghdad.
Reuters
The attack was the bloodiest since July 18, when 59 people were killed by a suicide bomb in nearby Kufa. That attack was claimed by al Qaeda, which has targeted Shi'ites in a bid to inflame sectarian passions and trigger full-scale civil war.
Hospital sources said the Najaf bomber blew himself up at a police commando checkpoint on his way to the Imam Ali shrine.
The Shi'ite television channel al-Forat said there were two attacks, including the suicide blast, in the city which is home to Iraq's top Shi'ite clerics.
"Suddenly my cart and the cans and the people were flying through the air," said Moussa Khadhan, a 37-year-old street vendor who was nearby at the time.
Ambulances drove through the streets of Najaf appealing for blood donations as the scale of carnage became clear.
Television pictures showed the body of a child being laid besides other bloodied corpses on a patch of ground beside a hospital. The dead, marked with numbered white labels on their foreheads for identification, included both police and civilians, police and hospital sources said. Riyadh al-Shibli, a doctor, said 35 people were killed and 94 wounded.
Ali Fahad was walking towards the shrine with his brother when the bomb exploded. "Where is my brother?" he asked while medics treated him for burns.
An Iraqi insurgent group said it was behind The suicide bombing.
"God enabled your brothers of the Jamaat Jund al-Sahaba (Soldiers of the Prophet's Companions) to carry out an operation which took the lives of at least 30 rejectionists (Shi'ites), including police," said a group statement, whose authenticity could not be verified. It was posted on a main Islamic website.
INTER-COMMUNAL BLOODSHED
Mostly Shi'ite Najaf has been stable compared to other parts of Iraq, where a Sunni Arab insurgency is aimed at toppling the US-backed government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.
However, in December 2004 a suicide car bomb killed 52 people and wounded at least 140 near the same Imam Ali shrine.
The United States has boosted its troop levels in Baghdad, some 160 km (100 miles) to the north, to try to ease inter-communal bloodshed tearing the capital apart and build confidence in the new Shi'ite-led government in power since May.
About 6,000 additional Iraqi forces and 3,500 US soldiers from the 172nd Striker Brigade combat team are being deployed in the Baghdad area, and are expected to start systematically trying to clear neighbourhoods of militants and insurgents.
Maliki has pledged to disarm rival militias and bring sects together. But a senior politician said the problem lay with the ministries themselves.
"Disbanding the militias means disbanding the Interior and Defence Ministries and disbanding the sides funding the militias in the Interior and Defence ministries," Speaker of Parliament Mahmoud al-Mashhadani told a news conference.
Almost 2,000 bodies were brought to the Baghdad morgue in July, the largest monthly toll since the aftermath of the bombing of the Shi'ite Golden Mosque of Samarra in February, which triggered a wave of sectarian killing.
Around Iraq, violence continued. Six people were killed by a bomb in a restaurant in southern Baghdad, an Interior Ministry source said. A policeman was shot dead in Falluja. Gunmen killed a civilian in Mosul and in Hawija, southwest of Kirkuk, two policemen died in a roadside bomb blast.
There was no word from the US military on the fate of two US soldiers missing since Tuesday, when their Blackhawk helicopter crashed in Anbar province, a heartland of the insurgency west of Baghdad.
Reuters