Car bomb attacks kill 40 in Iraq
Three car bombs exploded in quick succession in a southern Iraqi city today, killing at least 41 people and injuring 150.
Oil-rich Shiite stronghold Amarah, guarded by British troops until last April, had largely escaped sectarian bloodshed before today.
The police chief was fired after the co-ordinated explosions and Iraqi soldiers were deployed on the streets. Hospital were overwhelmed with the casualties, which mounted as bodies were pulled from the rubble.
Violence has declined dramatically in Baghdad and elsewhere in Iraq in recent months, and insurgents driven out by the crackdown there have sought to gain a foothold in outlying regions.
The Shiite area around Amarah has suffered under violent power struggles between rival militias, but has had almost no al Qaida presence.
The explosions in Amarah were about five minutes apart, beginning with a small blast at the entrance to the market.
As bystanders gathered to look at the aftermath of the first explosion, which wounded just a few people, the second car bomb exploded. The third blew up nearby as the crowd began to flee, he said.
Most Baghdad markets, which have been hit by a succession of deadly bombings in recent years, are surrounded by blast walls and shoppers are searched upon entering. In the capital and elsewhere, no cars are allowed to park nearby.
But Amarah had no such security measures.
“There was not a single police car in the street at the time of the explosion,” he said. “The provincial council complained many times to the police chief about the lack of security measures in the city, but he would not listen.”
No one claimed responsibility for the attack, which was similar in style to those carried out by al Qaida.
America warned recently that al Qaida might attempt a major attack to try to provoke new sectarian bloodshed. In August, four suicide bombers hit a Kurdish Yazidi community in north-west Iraq, killing 500 people in the deadliest attack of the war.
Violence has declined sharply since then, and today’s explosions did not exact nearly the toll of bombings in the early years of the war, when suicide attacks and car bombs killed scores of Iraqis at a time.
The Iraqi government assumed control of security for Maysan province in April from Britain, which today announced it will relinquish control of neighbouring Basra province at the weekend.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said the attack in Amarah was a “desperate attempt” to undermine efforts to stabilise the country. He also called on residents in Amarah to exercise restraint and avoid revenge attacks against the “terrorists who do not want Iraq to stand up again.”
