Over 100 killed as Iraq violence flares up
Foreign Desk Report
BAGHDAD—Two suicide bombers strapped with explosives killed over 100
people and reduced two crowded Shi’ite mosques to rubble during Friday
prayers in a northeastern Iraq town, deepening the country’s sectarian
conflict.
More bodies were trapped in the rubble, said Ibrahim Ahmed Bajalan, a
member of the local council in Khanaqin. “I think there are more than
100 people dead,” he said. Another lesser blast was reported near a bank
in the town, police said.
Kamaran Ahmed, the director of Khanaqin hospital, said 77 people had
been confirmed killed and 80 were wounded. He said many bodies were too
badly mutilated to identify. The death toll rose steadily through the
day but looked to be stabilizing.
The attacks in the mixed Shi’ite and Kurdish town near the border with
Iran seemed certain to fuel sectarian tensions ahead of a December 15
election that Washington hopes will pave the way for peace and democracy
2-1/2 years after the U.S.-led invasion.
The Shi’ite and Kurdish-led government and its U.S. backers are fighting
a mainly Sunni Arab insurgency that has frequently blown up civilians in
crowded places like mosques and markets.
Police said the bombers entered the small Sheikh Murad and Khanaqin
Grand mosques with explosive belts strapped to their waists and
detonated themselves when the buildings were at their busiest — during
prayers on the Muslim holy day.
Earlier this month, nearly 30 people were killed at a Shi’ite mosque in
the town of Musayyib, south of Baghdad. Kurdish peshmerga militia forces
sealed off Khanaqin shortly after the blasts, and U.S. forces also came
to help, ferrying the wounded to hospitals in the Kurdish city of
Sulaimaniya.
In Baghdad earlier on Friday, two suicide truck bombs failed to pierce
the perimeter of a major hotel and destroyed an apartment block instead,
killing at least six people, including two children, police said.
Police said at least 40 were also wounded in the near simultaneous
blasts at the Hamra Hotel. There were no reports of foreign casualties.
Witnesses at the hotel said body parts were found in the swimming pool
and in the street outside.
Security camera footage showed a white van driving up to blast walls at
the perimeter of the hotel complex and exploding. About 20 seconds later
the second explosion blew out the camera. The nearby apartment building
was reduced to rubble and about 20 cars were destroyed.
Firefighters and soldiers searched for those trapped under the wreckage,
and distraught women in black veils beat their brows as they surveyed
the sweep of destruction. U.S. Colonel Ed Cardon told reporters at the
scene the plan had appeared to be for the first vehicle to open a path
for the second, which would breach the defenses and cause more damage.
“Instead, what happened is both trucks blew up right here and did
tremendous damage to this apartment building right here, wounding scores
of innocent people,” he said.
It was the second major attack on high-profile hotels in Baghdad in a
month. The Sheraton and Palestine hotels were hit in late October. About
three hours later, U.S. troops blew up a suspected car bomb in the same
area.
The Hamra is a few hundred yards (meters) from a secret Interior
Ministry bunker raided on Sunday by U.S. forces who found 170 prisoners,
mostly Sunni Arabs, many of whom had apparently been beaten, starved and
tortured. Local residents were furious over the attack. “They targeted
Shi’ite houses here regardless of the hotel and they did not target the
shelter (bunker). I had to pull a 15-year-old girl from the rubble,”
said Hameed Taha. United Nations human rights chief Louise Arbour on
Friday called for an international inquiry into Iraqi jails because of
the abuse scandal. |
