Suicide bombers kill 60 in three attacks

AT least 60 people were massacred when three suicide attackers detonated car bombs almost simultaneously in a mainly Shi’ite town north of Baghdad last night.

Seventy other people were wounded, a hospital official said in Balad, 50 miles from the Iraqi capital. In another attack, five US soldiers were killed in a blast in a western Iraqi town, the military announced.

The car bombers struck just before sunset at around 6.45pm local time, hitting a bank, a vegetable market and another location in the town centre, witnesses said.

Dr Khaled al-Azawi, of Balad Hospital, said at least 60 were killed, and 70 were wounded, including the town’s police chief, Col Kadhim Abdul Razzaq, and four other policemen.

The five American soldiers were killed on Wednesday in Ramadi, a hotbed of insurgent activity 80 miles west of Baghdad, a Marine statement said. They were conducting combat operations when a roadside bomb hit them - the deadliest single attack on US forces since a roadside bomb killed 14 Marines in the town of Haditha on August 3.

Violence has escalated in the lead-up to a crucial October 15 referendum on a new constitution that has opened sharp divisions between the country’s Shiites and Sunnis.

More than 140 people - including 13 US service members - have been killed in the past four days. The Ramadi blast brought to 1,934 the number of US service members who have died since the Iraq war started in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

The top American commander in Iraq told Congress yesterday that the process of withdrawing US troops from the country depends greatly on the results of the referendum and elections that are due to take place afterward if the constitution passes.

“The next 75 days are going to be critical for what happens,” General George Casey told the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Sunni Arab leaders are calling on their followers to vote against the constitution, which they say will fragment the country into Kurdish, Shi’ite and Sunni areas, with Sunnis having least power and revenue.

The US ambassador has been trying to work out last-minute changes to the draft that might ease Sunni opposition.

That process was strained when Sunni officials said US forces raided the homes of two officials from a prominent Sunni Arab organisation yesterday.