160 slaughtered in Baghdad car bomb avalanche

String of car bombs rips through five districts of violence-torn capital, undermining US security plan.
middle east online
An avalanche of car bomb attacks on Shiite districts of Baghdad slaughtered 160 people on Wednesday and delivered a savage blow to the credibility of two-month-old US security plan.

The series of blasts were the deadliest in Baghdad since the launch of the massive crackdown; the single deadliest blast alone killed 115 people, mainly commuters and shoppers.

The bombings ripped through five districts of the sprawling capital, where thousands of Iraqi and US troops are straining to enforce order and contain the daily violence terrorising Baghdad's five million residents.

In the bloodiest attack, a parked car exploded on a principal intersection and in a busy market area in the downtown district of Al-Sadriyah, scattering charred corpses among a row of burnt-out buses.

A fire incinerated human flesh, cars and vehicles after a deafening blast that sent a dense cloud of putrid black smoke spewing into the afternoon sky as rescue workers screeched through the streets to scenes of horror.

Fire engines doused nearby cars and buses as dozens of ambulances and pick-up trucks ferried the wounded to hospital and civilian volunteers wrapped charred bodies in carpets for transport to the city's overflowing morgues.

Angry Iraqis who lost loved ones lashed out at Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, blaming his beleaguered government for failing to bring law and order to the streets of the capital, nearly a year after it took office.

"Down with Maliki! Where is the security plan? We are not protected by this plan," they shouted as an angry mob pelted Iraqi and American soldiers who scrambled to the scene with stones.

A defence ministry official put the death toll at 112, and a medic at the Al-Kindi hospital said doctors there had received 69 bodies alone.

On February 3, a suicide bomber blew up a Mercedes truck in the same Baghdad market, a mixed Kurdish and Shiite area, killing at least 130 people in the final days before the crackdown was officially launched on February 14.

Markets are favourite targets for mass bomb attacks, seen as a trademark tactic of Sunni extremists bent on slaughtering Shiites, the majority community in Iraq that today heads the government and dominates the security forces.

US military spokesman Major General William Caldwell told reporters on Wednesday that troops had constructed walls around vulnerable markets in a bid to thwart bomb attacks as part of the security crackdown.

The day's second deadliest car bomb attack killed 28 people, ripping through civilians on the streets near an Iraqi army checkpoint in Baghdad's Shiite slum district of Sadr City and wounding another 44 people.

The crowded district is a bastion of Shiite militia faithful to radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and has frequently been targeted by car bombings blamed on Sunni extremists.

At least 10 civilians were killed and 12 wounded, including women and children, when a car bomb exploded on a main road near a private hospital in the central Karrada district, formerly upmarket but fallen on hard times.

Seven other people, including four policemen, were killed in separate car bomb attacks on the western outskirts of Baghdad and in the central Al-Jhumuriyah district.

Wednesday's blasts overshadowed a festive ceremony in southern Iraq that saw government forces assume security control of the oil-rich Maysan province from British forces as part of plans in London to drawback troops.

Reading greetings from Maliki, national security adviser Mowaffaq al-Rubaie expressed hope Iraq would take full charge of all 18 provinces before the year-end even as the Baghdad bloodshed underscored the huge insecurity.

"Maysan province is the fourth.... To be followed by the three provinces of Kurdistan a month from now. Then Karbala and Wasit, followed by provinces one after the other until the end of the year," he told the ceremony.

Maysan is the fourth province to be handed over to Iraqi forces since July and the third transferred by British-led troops.

Speaking in London, British Defence Secretary Des Browne hailed the transfer as a milestone but warned the next few months would be a crucial test.

"We need to recognise ... that security challenges remain in all three provinces. Iraqi authorities now have the ability to deal with the vast majority of circumstances they are likely to face," said Browne.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair announced in February that the number of British troops in Iraq would likely drop to 5,000 by the end of the year, compared to about 7,200 currently deployed in the country.