Bomb kills 11 during Iraq football celebrations

A car bomb struck revellers celebrating in Baghdad after Iraq’s soccer victory in the Asian Cup today, killing at least 11 people and wounding more than 30.

The victims were among thousands who took to the streets after the country’s national football team beat South Korea to reach the tournament’s final.

Crowds were cheering the victory near a well-known ice cream shop in Baghdad’s western neighbourhood of Mansour when the device went off, police said.

Thousands of fans also gathered in the central district of Karradah to celebrate, dancing, beating drums and chanting “Iraq, Iraq.”

Elsewhere in city, traffic snarled as cars, Iraqi flags flying from their windows, moved slowly amid hundreds of fans.

State television broadcast a warning from the Iraqi military urging residents not to engage in celebratory gunfire but police reports said one person was killed and 17 wounded by gunfire.

The Iraqi team will play Saudi Arabia in the final in Jakarta on Sunday

In other violence, a joint US-Iraqi force backed with helicopter gunships clashed with suspected Shiite militiamen when they raided several homes in eastern Baghdad.

Six people were killed and 10 wounded.

South of Baghdad, police chief Brigadier General Raid Shakir Jawdat escaped an assassination attempt when a roadside bomb targeted his five-car convoy in the holy city of Karbala, killing three of his guards, police said.

Meanwhile Iraq’s largest Sunni Arab bloc said today it had suspended membership in Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s coalition government, a fresh setback to the Shiite leader’s faltering efforts at national reconciliation.

The Iraqi Accordance Front, which has six Cabinet seats and 44 of 275 in parliament, gave al-Maliki a week to meet its demands or see its six members officially quit the 14-month-old Cabinet.

“The Accordance Front announces the suspension of its membership in the government,” Sheik Khalaf al-Elyan said at a news conference attended by the two other leaders of the three-party Accordance Front – vice president Tariq al-Hashemi of the Iraqi Islamic Party and Adnan al-Dulaimi of the Congress of the People of Iraq. Al-Elyan leads the National Dialogue Council.

Reading from a prepared statement, al-Elyan said the front’s demands included a pardon for security detainees not charged with specific crimes, a firm commitment by the government to human rights, the disbanding of militias and the inclusion of all parties in the government in dealing with the country’s security situation.

The Accordance Front cabinet ministers include the deputy prime minister for security as well as the ministers of planning, higher education, culture, defence and the minister of state for women’s affairs.

If the Sunni bloc quits, al-Maliki’s Cabinet would limp along with about a third of its seats vacant and without its billing as a “national unity” government. But the day-to-day business of the affected ministries was unlikely to be disrupted.