Killing continues in Iraq

A suicide car bomb struck a market in the Shiite district of Sadr City and police said 17 people died today, a day after a blast targeting university students killed 70 in what appeared to be a renewed campaign of Sunni insurgent violence against Shiites.

The latest explosion occurred at 3.55pm near the outdoor Mereidi market, one of the neighbourhood’s most popular commercial centres, and wounded 33 people, police said.

The force of the blast shattered the windows of nearby stores and restaurants. Angry residents gathered around the charred hulk of the car used in the attack, turning it on its side and picking off pieces of blackened upholstery, apparently looking for pieces of flesh from the bomber.

Yesterday, twin car bombs struck Al-Mustansiriya University in Baghdad, two miles from Sadr City, as students lined up for the ride home, leaving at least 70 dead and more than 130 injured.

It was the single deadliest attack on civilians in Iraq since November 23, when a series of car bombs and mortar attacks by suspected al-Qaida in Iraq fighters in Sadr City killed at least 215 people.

Baghdad's streets were crowded with cars and minivans carrying wooden caskets of the victims.

Many headed to the holy city of Najaf where Shiites prefer to bury their dead, although some were headed for a Sunni cemetery in central Baghdad, reflecting the religiously mixed nature of the university.

Iraqi state television reported that the university would be closed through tomorrow to allow for a clean-up as firefighters and street sweepers worked to clear the debris.

Hussein Mohammed, a lecturer in the university’s French language department, said the workers were still finding human remains and only some guards and teachers were on the campus.

“We are trying to heal our wounds and start again,” he said.

Some university professors participated in the funeral procession, along with relatives and friends of the students killed, chanting: “Shiites and Sunnis are brothers.”

Police raised the casualty toll from the attack to 70 people killed and 133 wounded.

Higher education minister Abed Theyab visited some of the wounded in several hospitals around the capital and urged all sides to leave educational institutes out of conflicts. Iraqi lawmakers and students also called for stepped-up measures for educational institutions.

The Iraqi parliament held a moment of silence for the students who were killed.

Sunni legislator Alaa Makki, head of the parliament’s education committee, condemned the attack and blamed it on ”terrorist gangs”.

“We call on the government to make the protection of educational institutes one of the priorities of the new security plan,” Makki said.

A total of 142 Iraqis were killed or found dead yesterday, 124 in Baghdad, in what appeared to be a renewed campaign of Sunni insurgent violence against Shiite targets.

The sharp rise in deadly attacks coincided with the release of UN figures that showed an average of 94 civilians died each day in sectarian bloodshed in 2006.

Prime Minister Nouri Maliki, meanwhile, met the ambassadors of several countries, including the US, to shore up support for his planned security operation to quell the sectarian violence in Baghdad.

He pledged to act equally against all perpetrators of the violence as the Shiite leader has faced criticism that his reluctance to confront Shiite militias blamed for many attacks in the capital led to the failure of two previous attempts to pacify the capital.

“We want the international community to understand that the Baghdad security plan is targeting all the outlaws. It does not target a specific group or specific area. Rather, it targets all Baghdad,” al-Dabbagh said.

Violence was unrelenting today. Another suicide car bomb exploded earlier today at a checkpoint in the city of Kirkuk, an oil-rich city 180 miles north of Baghdad, after guards opened fire as the driver approached a police station, police said. The blast killed 10 people and injured dozens.

Guards shot the driver as he approached the checkpoint, killing him before he could reach the police station, but his explosives detonated, causing part of the sand-coloured station to collapse and damaging nearby shops, Police Brigadier Sarhad Qadi said.

Most of the casualties were caused by the building collapse, he said.

Northern Iraq has also seen an increase in violence as Iraqi troops prepare for the crackdown in Baghdad.

Two more American soldiers died this week, the US military said today. One soldier from the 1st Brigade, 1st Armored Division died from wounds sustained in an operation in Anbar, the Sunni insurgent stronghold west of Baghdad.

Another soldier from Regimental Combat Team 5 died on Monday, the military said without elaborating.

The US capture last week of six Iranians working at a liaison office in the northern city of Irbil drew criticism today from the leader of the 130-member Shiite bloc in parliament, Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim.

One of the six was released and the five others were alleged to be connected to an Iranian Revolutionary Guard faction that funds and arms insurgents in Iraq.

“Regardless of the Iranian position, we consider these actions as incorrect,” al-Hakim, leader of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, said in an interview with the BBC. “They represent a kind of attack on Iraq’s sovereignty and we hope such things are not repeated.”

In other violence, a mortar attack on a residential area in Iskandariyah, 30 miles south of the capital, killed a woman and injured 10 people, police said.

Police also said they found the body of an Iraqi policeman, whose hands and legs had been bound, hanging by electric wire, two days after he was kidnapped while going to his home in the same area.

Gunmen in a car also opened fire on two brothers, aged 30 and 35, on their way to work as construction workers in Mahaweel, 35 miles south of Baghdad. One was killed and the other was wounded, police said.

In Baghdad, a civilian was killed in a drive-by shooting in the west, while a roadside bomb struck a downtown commercial district, injuring a policeman and a bystander, police said.

Five unidentified bodies were found by Iraqi police. Two of them were apparently killed by a sniper on Haifa Street, a Sunni Arab stronghold in Baghdad that has seen recent fierce clashes.

The others were found shot to death with their hands and legs bound in areas in western Baghdad, police said.

Two mortar rounds also landed in a residential area near Haifa Street, wounding five civilians, police said.