Worst bombing in Baghdad since war kills 152

BAGHDAD, Nov 23, 2006 (AFP) - In the worst attack on Baghdad since the war to oust Saddam Hussein, insurgents killed 152 people on Thursday and wounded 236 in a series of car bombings in the Shiite district of Sadr City, security and medical sources said.

The attacks prompted the interior ministry to announce an indefinite curfew in the capital, effective from 8:00 pm (1700 GMT).

Iraq also closed its two main airports, in the capital Baghdad and the southern city of Basra, a senior government official said.

"As part of the indefinite curfew declared after the bombing in Sadr City, Baghdad airport will remain closed," he told AFP.

Basra airport and three ports in the Basra region -- Um Qasr, Khor Jubair and Al-Muaqqal -- will also close, said Samer al-Saqlawi, advisor to the transport minister Karim Mahdi Saleh,

Wounded clogged the hospitals of Sadr City, with dozens lying bleeding in the corridors as overworked staff struggled to tend to the casualties.

"Of those killed, 88 bodies are in the Imam Ali hospital and 55 in Sadr City hospital," a medic told AFP, saying many of the bodies were burned beyond recognition.

A police official said other bodies were taken to hospitals outside the district.

Hospital security forces kept at bay hundreds of relatives struggling to see the dead and wounded.

The bloodiest bomb exploded in a crowded market in the Hay neighborhood, targeting stores selling religious CDs, as well as electronics outlets selling mobile phones.

In the increasingly bitter sectarian war gripping the capital, crowded markets in Shiite neighborhoods and villages have been targets of choice for the bombers of the Sunni-led insurgency.

In the market, the twisted frame of a car carrying the explosives sat amid the wreckage of the shops, while pools of blood and debris from the stores covered the ground.

As ambulances rushed to attend to the wounded, pillars of black smoke billowed over the stricken neighborhood and inhabitants collected dismembered parts of the dead.

Interior ministry spokesman Brigadier General Abdel Karim Khalaf told state television Al-Iraqiya that police believe a total of eight bombs were planted in Sadr City.

"Four of them exploded, one we have located and also arrested the driver of the car, but three are still to be detected," Khalaf said, without elaborating.

He also said 10 mortar rounds slammed into Sadr City after the bombings and were expected to have caused casualties.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, in a national address broadcast on television, said the Baghdad bombings posed serious dangers to the country's Islamic brotherhood.

"This crime reflects serious danger on Islamic brotherhood by terrorists who are trying to trigger sectarian strife," Maliki said on state television, blaming politicians for fanning the strife.

And in the Shiite holy city of Najaf, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani "urged people not to react illegally and maintain self-restraint and calm," one of his officials said.

Minutes before the Baghdad blasts about 100 masked gunmen attacked the Shiite-controlled health ministry, clashing with guards and Iraqi soldiers, Deputy Health Minister Hakim al-Zamili told AFP.

"First a series of mortars were fired at the building from the nearby Al-Fadhel neighbourhood, and then about 100 masked gunmen holding machine guns attacked the building," said Zamili.

He said that he and about 2,000 employees were initially trapped in the building but the attack was eventually beaten off, with only five people wounded.

On Sunday, gunmen kidnapped Deputy Health minister Ammar al-Assafar from his home in Baghdad's Adhamiyah district. Zamili himself escaped an assassination bid on Monday, but two of his guards were killed.

The attack on the ministry mirrors a November 14 raid on the Sunni-controlled ministry of higher education, in which at least 150 people were kidnapped.

In the aftermath of the attacks in Sadr City and on the ministry, some 13 mortar rounds rained down on Adhamiyah, a Sunni neighbourhood, wounding 10 people.

Explosions continued to reverbate through Baghdad well into the night.

Sadr City, the impoverished district of followers loyal to radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, was also the site of an early morning incident involving American soldiers.

"US troops fired on a minibus carrying workers and killed a number of them in Al-Falah street at 6 am," Imam Abdel Zahra al-Suwaidi from the Sadr movement told AFP.

A medic at the Sadr City hospital said four people were killed and eight wounded, including two women.

The US military said Iraqi forces fired on the vehicle during a raid to detain the leader of a kidnapping cell.

On Wednesday, a UN report said Iraq's sectarian conflict killed at least 3,709 people in October, the highest monthly death toll since the 2003 US-led invasion.

The figures, from data provided by the health ministry and morgues, compared with a previous high of 3,590 in July, which the United Nations at the time called "unprecedented."

The report came as US President George W. Bush and Maliki prepared to meet in Jordan next Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the US military said three more soldiers were killed in Iraq, bringing its losses since the invasion to 2,866, according to Pentagon figures.

Police also recovered eight bodies near the central city of Diwaniyah, while 12 people were reported killed in the city of Baquba.

The Nation

Vietnam by another name!

Yeah there really hasn't been an improvement at all, the situation seems to be getting worse