Iraq: Death toll rises at bomb site

Insurgents penetrated security today in a city sacred to Shiites, planting a car bomb near one of Iraq’s holiest shrines and killing at least 37 people in a continued surge in attacks outside Baghdad during a security crackdown there.

A suicide bomber in the capital exploded his car on a major bridge, taking 10 more lives in the second such attack on essential infrastructure this week.

A riotous argument broke out in Iraq’s parliament, with the speaker shouting for order as MPs bickered over who was to blame for holes in security that allowed a suicide bomber to mingle among them two days earlier. A Sunni MP was killed in Thursday’s attack.

The bombings and political wrangling were signs the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki was still perilously weak despite a more than two-month-old plan to pacify Baghdad and give the regime room to function.

That plan, which will land 30,000 additional American troops in Iraq by the end of next month, comes as opposition to the strategy grows in Washington.

In an interview aired today, al-Maliki said he believed US support for his administration was steadfast.

“I feel that there is strong support because success would mean a civilised and democratic process,” al-Maliki told Al-Arabiya television. “I don’t feel any change... despite differences within the American government,” he said, referring to disagreements between Democrats and Republicans.

In addition to major attacks in Karbala and Baghdad, at least 40 people were killed or found dead across Iraq today. The US military announced the death of one service member, killed on Friday by a roadside bomb in southern Iraq.

In Karbala, a parked car bomb ripped through a busy bus station mid-morning, killing at least 37 people and wounding 168, police and hospital officials said. Other reports put the death toll as high as 56.

The station is about 200 yards from one of Shiite Islam’s holiest spots – the Imam Hussein shrine, where the Prophet Muhammad’s grandson is buried. The shrine, 50 miles south of Baghdad, is the destination of an annual Shiite pilgrimage, on which hundreds of faithful were killed last month.

At least 16 children were among the dead, said Interior Ministry spokesman Brig Gen Abdul-Karim Khalaf. Iranian and Pakistani pilgrims were also among the casualties, hospital officials said.

Mobs of mourners swarmed ambulances, beating their chests and crying out in grief. Some stormed the Karbala governor’s office, demanding his resignation and blaming local authorities for lax security. Two police vehicles were set afire.

In Baghdad, a suicide car bomb killed 10 people, police said, in the second attack on a span over the Tigris river this week.

A regular session was held in parliament, a day after an emergency meeting of “defiance” to mourn those hurt when a suicide bomber blew himself up in the parliament cafeteria.

But Saturday’s session descended quickly into chaos. Speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani said his office took “full responsibility” for Thursday’s security breach, but reminded MPs that some of them have refused to be searched while entering the building.

Khalaf said the bomber was known to members of parliament, and that they identified his body after the explosion. Suspicion has fallen on workers in the building, or a member’s bodyguard.

Also today, gunmen attacked the western Baghdad house of Adnan al-Dulaimi, head of the largest Sunni bloc in Iraq’s parliament, police said. Al-Dulaimi was not at home at the time of the attack, and is believed to be in Jordan.

Clashes erupted between his guards and the gunmen, lasting about half an hour. Five guards were wounded, police said.

Al-Dulaimi’s group, the Iraqi Accordance Front, has 44 seats in parliament.

Three bodyguards of the deputy minister of industry, Mohammed Abdul Jabar, were injured in a drive-by shooting on his convoy in western Baghdad, police said. The minister was in the convoy but escaped injury.