‘14 explosions’ rock Baghdad, killing at least 60

A SERIES of bombs rocked mainly Shi’ite areas of Baghdad yesterday, killing at least 60 people and wounding dozens two days after al-Qaida militants staged a bloodbath when they took hostages in a Christian church.

The bombings occurred hours after a memorial service for some of the 52 hostages and police killed in Sunday’s church raid and as the Iraqi government vowed to step up security for Iraq’s Christian minority.

The third major assault in Iraq since Friday appeared to demonstrate that a weakened but stubborn insurgency has a greater capacity to carry out large-scale strikes than US and Iraqi officials have acknowledged.

Iraq remains in political limbo almost eight months after an inconclusive election, raising fears Sunni Islamist groups like al-Qaida might exploit tensions to reignite sectarian war.

“The initial death toll we have so far is 40 killed, 80 wounded, I repeat, it is an initial death toll,” Baghdad security spokesman Major General Qassim al-Moussawi said, adding that there had been 14 explosions in all.

“They were all in Shi’ite neighbourhoods.”

Health Minister Saleh al-Hasnawi said 36 people died, but that could rise, and 320 were wounded, most of whom had been released from hospitals.

An Interior Ministry source, who asked not to be named, put the toll at 57 dead and 248 wounded. The source said there were 14 car bombs, two roadside bombs and eight mortar rounds, though US forces said their radar had not detected any mortar fire.

One of the biggest explosions appeared to target restaurants and cafes in the Shi’ite slum of Sadr City.

“We do not have any conclusive information at this time as to the responsible parties but this seems to be typical AQI [al-Qaida in Iraq] tactics,” said a US military spokesman.

Violence has spiked sharply across Iraq in recent months. Between June and September, 784 Iraqis were killed and nearly 3,000 were wounded, according to the quarterly report by the US Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction that was released last weekend.

Though the number of security incidents remains well below the levels of 2006 and 2007, it increased five-fold during the period covered in the report.