Advertisement

Baghdad Blast Kills Scores of Iraqis

Share
Times Staff Writer

In one of the deadliest vehicle bombs to strike the capital, as many as 80 unemployed construction workers were killed early today as they lined up for day jobs in a largely Shiite neighborhood, Iraqi officials said.

One hundred sixty-three were injured, quickly overwhelming the city’s hospitals.

Along with the slaying of 17 Shiite Muslims early today in the city of Taji, the attack broke a relative lull in large-scale assaults and threatened to fuel already high sectarian tensions between Iraq’s majority Shiite population and the once-ruling Sunni Arabs.

It was the deadliest bombing in Iraq since a suicide attacker ignited a fuel tanker July 16 near a Shiite mosque in the central town of Musayyib, killing almost 100 people.

Advertisement

Today’s bomb exploded about 6:45 a.m. in the Kadhimiya district of the capital, where as many as 3,000 construction workers gather each morning to seek work for the day. Construction supervisors and engineers drive to the area throughout the day to pick up workers, who swarm around the vehicles in hope of being selected.

A suicide driver approached in a truck, pretending to be interested in hiring workers, witnesses said.

“Everyone gathered around the car, and when they got close it exploded,” said Hassan Qasim, one of the laborers. “I can’t believe I’m alive. It’s a miracle.”

Hazam Araji, a representative of Shiite cleric Muqtada Sadr in Kadhimiya, said, “This is a terrorist act targeting civilians and ordinary people in one of the safest areas of Iraq.”

One witness reported seeing a U.S. convoy passing the area shortly before the explosion. But several victims said they believed that the attack was motivated by sectarian tensions.

“The explosion was targeting Shiites, because there are no Sunnis there,” said Majid Hamid, 18, who was taken to a nearby hospital with injuries to his eyes and hands. “We were all Shiites.”

Advertisement

“We are fed up with the government,” said Ahmed Qusay, another job seeker. “They are doing nothing. They should exterminate those terrorists. If the government can’t do it, we will do it ourselves.”

About two hours before the blast, men armed with machine guns dragged 17 Shiite men from their homes and killed them in Taji, a Sunni Muslim-dominated city north of Baghdad, the Interior Ministry said.

Gunmen wearing Iraqi national guard uniforms and driving government-issued vehicles surrounded a residential neighborhood and entered several houses, seemingly at random, saying they were “arresting” the 17 men.

About 30 minutes later, residents heard gunshots on the edge of the neighborhood and discovered the men’s bodies.

On Tuesday, U.S. and Iraqi forces continued their crackdown on insurgents in Tall Afar in northern Iraq and bombed a safe house in Haditha in the western province of Al Anbar.

U.S. officials said they killed four suspected insurgents in Haditha and captured one accused of having ties to Al Qaeda.

Advertisement

In Basra, four employees of a private U.S. company working at the airport were killed by a roadside bomb Tuesday, said Col. Kareem Zaidi, spokesman for the Basra police. Five others were injured. Nationalities of the victims were not released.

Times staff writers Caesar Ahmed and Saif Rasheed contributed to this report.

Advertisement