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Seven car bombs kill dozens in baghdad { June 23 2005 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/23/AR2005062300363.htmlhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/23/AR2005062300363.html
Car Bombs Kill Dozens in Baghdad
Shiite Neighborhoods Targeted in Coordinated Attacks Over Two Days
By Andy Mosher
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, June 23, 2005; 6:44 AM
BAGHDAD, June 23 -- Seven car bombs killed more than three dozen people in Shiite Muslim neighborhoods of Baghdad over a 10-hour span on Wednesday night and Thursday morning in what appeared to be a new attempt to inflame Iraq's sectarian divisions.
The central commercial district of Karrada was rocked by four car bombs that exploded in rapid succession at about 7:10 a.m. Thursday, a Defense Ministry spokesman said. All four were placed within a one-mile stretch of the district's main shopping street -- two of them outside a Shiite mosque. In addition, a mortar shell struck near Karrada Hospital, a private clinic.
The blasts killed 15 persons and wounded 28, according to police officials quoted by the Associated Press. The previous night, three bombs detonated about 9:45 in the Shuala district, a working-class Shiite neighborhood on Baghdad's northern outskirts, witnesses said. News organizations reported that 23 persons were killed and 48 wounded.
Residents of the neighborhood said that unlike recent bombings that have struck Iraqi security forces, the attack took place in an area that had no police stations or other obvious security targets. Two of the bombs exploded at restaurants, while the third was directed against a bus station.
With a Shiite-led government in power for the first time in the country's modern history and an insurgency driven by the rival Sunni Muslim minority, Iraq faces sectarian tensions that some say could lead to civil war.
Attacks on Shiite civilians that serve to heighten those tensions are widely assumed to be the work of Sunnis. In addition, Sunni insurgents have targeted Sunnis who cooperate with the government and U.S. and allied military forces. On Thursday, gunmen opened fire on a car carrying a Sunni politician and legal scholar, Jasim Isawi, and his 18-year-old son, killing them both.
Isawi, a former judge and lecturer at Baghdad's College of Islamic Sciences, had earlier been one of several Sunnis nominated to join a committee that is working to write a new constitution for Iraq, according to Salih Mutlak of the National Dialogue Council, a Sunni group. He was not among those currently being considered for inclusion.
Meanwhile, the Iraqi Islamic Party, a leading Sunni organization, announced that one of its members, Abdul Sattar Khazraji, a college professor, died Wednesday after he was shot four times the previous day while on his way to work.
Mutlak said Wednesday that he believed there was "a campaign against Sunni politicians, who have become soft targets. We don't want to have an immediate reaction concerning these assassinations, but if these operations continue, I think many Sunni politicians will stop their participation" in the political process.
Leaders from almost all of Iraq's religious, ethnic and political factions have agreed to try to draw more Sunnis into the political process and away from the nearly two-year-old insurgency. But the process has moved haltingly. During a time of continuing uncertainty, insurgents have carried out frequent attacks on targets that appear calculated to turn Sunnis and Shiites against one another.
Insurgent attacks on U.S. and Iraqi security forces also continued. A suicide bombing Wednesday night apparently targeting an Iraqi army patrol in the Ameriyah district of central Baghdad killed at least four bystanders, the Associated Press reported. And before dawn Thursday, U.S. troops responded to gunfire from a home in Baghdad's Jamiaa neighborhood by counterattacking with the help of Iraqi troops and American helicopters. Seven insurgents were killed and the house reduced to rubble, according to police officers who spoke to the Associated Press.
Some 275 miles north, in the northern city of Mosul, a car bomb that detonated near a U.S. military patrol Wednesday killed three Iraqi civilians and wounded seven, the Reuters news agency reported. And U.S. Marines reported that small-arms fire killed two U.S. Army soldiers on Tuesday near the western city of Ramadi.
On Wednesday, a roadside bombing apparently targeting a U.S. military convoy west of Ramadi killed an Iraqi civilian and injured three.
In the town of Madain, southeast of Baghdad, a roadside bomb struck an Iraqi police patrol, killing two policeman and wounding two others, the Associated Press reported.
In a separate development, a Filipino held hostage in Iraq since November was released unharmed Wednesday after months of negotiations, according to Philippine government officials quoted by the Reuters news agency. Robert Tarongoy, an accountant working for a Saudi contractor, was taken hostage on Nov. 1 along with five co-workers when gunmen stormed their villa in Baghdad. Four of the workers were quickly released, but officials believe the hostage-takers are still holding an American, Roy Hallums.
In another development, a roadside bomb targeted a convoy of Japanese military vehicles on Thursday, according to the Reuters news agency. Although the news agency quoted local police as saying there were no casualties and little damage in the attack, the bombing marked the first time the Japanese have been struck outside their base in Samawa.
"Up to now there has never been this kind of destruction or any injuries," Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda told a news conference in Tokyo according to Reuters. "I think we need to be sufficiently careful."
The agency quoted a spokesman for Japanese forces saying the early morning attack happened as the troops were heading to a reconstruction project. Under Japan's constitution, Japanese troops are allowed only to engage in rebuilding and humanitarian work. All further reconstruction work for the day was cancelled, according to Reuters.
Washington Post Staff Writer Daniela Deane and special correspondents Bassam Sebti and Naseer Nouri contributed to this report.
© 2005 The Washington Post Company
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