Rival Shiite militias feud after Iraq bombing
A suicide car bomber attacked a crowded market in this holy Shiite city Tuesday, killing at least 16 people, injuring more than 70 others and further stoking tensions between rival Shiite militias.
The bomb was detonated in a gray sedan beside a restaurant and across the street from a girls primary school.
An angry mob that included members of Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada Sadr’s Al Mahdi army quickly gathered around the blast’s crater and loudly blamed the United States and Iraqi police for allowing the attack. Most of the police in Kufa are linked to a rival Shiite militia, the Badr Organization, the armed wing of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, the country’s biggest Shiite political party.
The protesters blocked police and other security forces from entering the area. Three ambulances were destroyed, and many of the injured were eventually piled into pickup trucks to be taken to nearby hospitals.
The incident was a continuation of a series of showdowns in recent days between the two groups in far-reaching sections of the country, including east Baghdad, Diwaniya, Basra and Najaf, which neighbors Kufa 100 miles south of the capital. Both militias are tied to political groups that are vying for dominance among Iraq’s Shiite majority.
Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Saeed Hakim sought to tamp down the intra-sect dispute and blamed the bombing on “the terrorists and the Saddamists who continue their criminal show that started when the Saddam regime fell.”
Iraq has suffered a string of market bombings in recent days, including blasts in Ramadi that killed more than a dozen people Monday. More than 40 Iraqis died Sunday when a car bomb exploded in a popular market in Bayaa, in south Baghdad. At least 80 people were injured in that attack.
Early today, Vice President Dick Cheney arrived in Baghdad unannounced, the Associated Press reported. Cheney, on a weeklong trip to the Middle East, was briefed by Army Gen. David H. Petraeus and U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker.
He was to meet later with Prime Minister Nouri Maliki and others.
Early Tuesday, a roadside bomb targeting a U.S. convoy killed three Iraqi civilians and injured five in Baghdad.
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Special correspondent Fakhrildeen reported from Kufa and Times staff writer Therolf from Baghdad. Special correspondents in Baghdad contributed to this report.
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