Wave of Baghdad car blasts kill 40

NEARLY 40 people have died in a rash of car bombings in Iraq’s capital in the space of 12 hours, including four co-ordinated blasts early yesterday in central Baghdad that killed 15 and wounded 28 more, police said.

Yesterday’s carnage in the capital’s Karradah area came on the heels of bloodshed the day before that included four car bombs exploding within minutes of one another. At least 23 people were killed in western Baghdad’s Shula neighbourhood and a nearby suburb. Nineteen were killed in Shula alone.

Most residents of Karradah and Shula are from Iraq’s Shi’ite majority, while the insurgents are almost exclusively Sunni Arabs, a minority that had dominated Iraq until Saddam Hussein’s ousting two years ago.

The attacks served as a chilling reminder of how potent militants remain in the capital despite around-the-clock American and Iraqi troop patrols.

Later yesterday, the top US military commander in the Gulf disputed a contention by Vice-President Dick Cheney that the Iraqi insurgency was in its “last throes” and told Congress yesterday its strength was basically undiminished from six months ago.

“I believe there are more foreign fighters coming into Iraq than there were six months ago,” General John Abizaid told the Senate Armed Services Committee.

The explosions on both days were carried out at times when large crowds are on Baghdad’s streets. Last night’s bombs came hours before an 11pm curfew when many residents are out at restaurants or chatting on the streets before locking themselves inside their homes. The militant group Ansar al-Sunnah Army said in a web statement that it was responsible for the Shula blasts.

Yesterday’s explosions in Karradah saw four car bombs explode. Iraqi police said they later defused a fifth car bomb timed to go off.

The car bombs exploded nearly simultaneously, police Lieutenant Colonel Salman Abdul Karim and officer Ahmed Hatam al-Sharie said. Five police officers were among the 15 dead. The force of the blasts blew off store shutters, and the surrounding footpaths were covered with debris, including shattered glass, concrete slabs and charred vegetables and fruit.

In another incident yesterday, the military said a US-led raid destroyed a hideout in Baghdad used by extremists associated with the Jordanian-born Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who heads al Qaida in Iraq.

The attack killed at least six insurgents who opened fire on the troops, the military said.