114 die as bomber blows up with his van
It was the second deadliest single attack since the US-led invasion of March 2003.
“There’s no political party here, there are no police,” Mohammed Jabbar railed at the blast site in the Shi’ite Kadhimiya area.
Another car bomber blew himself up in northern Baghdad, killing 11 people lined up to refill gas canisters, as bombings rocked the capital. Gunmen also dragged 17 people from their homes and killed them in Taji, a northern suburb.
A police official said the attacks appeared coordinated. Iraq’s al-Qaida claimed it was waging a nationwide suicide bombing campaign to avenge a military offensive on a rebel town.
A statement on an Islamist website often used by the Sunni Muslim militant group led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi did not mention a specific attack, but said the campaign was in reprisal for a US-Iraqi offensive in the northern town of Tal Afar.
“We would like to congratulate the Muslim nation and inform it the battle to avenge the Sunnis of Tal Afar has begun,” it said.
Fears of civil war have grown ahead of an October 15 referendum on a new constitution for Iraq.
Iraqi government officials have accused Sunni militants of attacking majority Shi’ites, who swept to power in January polls boycotted by most Sunnis, in a bid to spark a civil war. Most of the victims of Wednesday’s attacks were Shi’ites.
Earlier this month more than 1,000 people died in Kadhimiya in a stampede on a bridge, triggered by fears of a bomber in a crowd during a Shi’ite religious ceremony.
At the nearby Kadhimiya hospital, overflowing with victims, dozens of the wounded screamed in agony as they were treated on the floor, some lying in pools of their own blood.
Another three blast echoed over central Baghdad about two hours after the first.
Police said five people were killed and 24 wounded in one of the blasts, near a Shi’ite cleric’s offices. Three policemen and three civilians were killed.
