At least 67 killed in bomb blasts; attacks target Shi'ite Muslims; attacks a continuation of sectarian violence.
By REUTERSPeople grieve outside morgue in Baghdad after bomb 311 R(photo credit: REUTERS/STRINGER)
BAGHDAD - Bomb attacks targeting Shi'ite Muslim areas of Iraq killed at least 67 people on Thursday, police and hospital sources said, ramping up fears of an increase in sectarian strife.Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki sparked the worst political crisis in a year on December 19 when he sought the removal of two senior Sunni politicians, a day after the last US troops left Iraq. On December 22 bombs in predominately Shi'ite parts of Iraq's capital killed 72.RELATED:Analysis: Al-Maliki - Iraq's next autocrat?Police: Gunmen kill five Iraq Sunni militiaThe biggest attack on Thursday was by a police checkpoint west of Nassiriya in the south, where a suicide bomber targeting Shi'ite pilgrims killed at least 38 people and wounded 70, Qusay al-Abadi, head of Nassiriya provincial council said.Hundreds of thousands of Shi'ite pilgrims are expected to make their way to the holy southern Iraqi Shi'ite city of Kerbala before Arbain, a major Shi'ite Muslim religious rite due to be marked in a week's time.John Drake, a senior risk consultant at AKE Group, said Shi'ites were likely to be targeted in the weeks around Arbain.Earlier on Thursday, a bomb planted on a parked motorcycle and another roadside explosive device killed at least 10 people and wounded 37 others in Baghdad's northeastern impoverished Sadr City slum, police and hospital sources said.Police said they found and defused two other bombs."There was a group of day laborers gathered, waiting to be hired for work. Someone brought his small motorcycle and parked it nearby. A few minutes later it blew up, killed some people, wounded others and burned some cars," said a police officer at the scene, declining to be named.Another set of explosions, two car bombs, occurred in Baghdad's northwestern Kadhimiya district and killed at least 15 people and wounded 32, police and hospital sources said.Sectarian tensionsIraq - on the brink of civil war as recently as 2006-7 - is still plagued by a deadly Sunni Muslim insurgency and Shi'ite militias nearly nine years after the US-led invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein.Sadr City is a stronghold of radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, whose Mehdi Army militia once fought US and Iraqi troops. He is now a key ally of Maliki.Baghdad's health statistics department put the final toll from the Kadhimiya blasts at 16 killed and 36 wounded and said 13 were killed and 32 others wounded in the Sadr City attacks."It is early to point our fingers to a particular side till we clarify some issues related to the investigations," said Baghdad operations center spokesman Qassim al-Moussawi."We are in a battlefield with the terrorists... and with the enemies of the political process, so we do not consider these (explosions) as a surprise for us or something strange. We are used to such (insurgent) operations."Moussawi put the toll from the Sadr City attack at 33 wounded and said 29 were wounded in the Kadhimiya bombings. He said he did not have figures for the number of people killed.Maliki moveMaliki asked parliament to have his Sunni deputy Saleh al-Mutlaq removed nearly three weeks ago and sought the arrest of Sunni Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi on charges he ran death squads.On Tuesday, members of the Sunni-backed Iraqiya bloc boycotted Iraq's parliament and cabinet, accusing Maliki's bloc of governing alone in a power-sharing coalition that was supposed to ease sectarian tensions.The inclusion of Iraqiya in the governing coalition was widely considered crucial to prevent a return to the level of sectarian violence that was unleashed after the 2003 US-led invasion. Thousands were killed in the violence.Many Sunnis complain of having been sidelined in the political process since Saddam was ousted and the majority Shi'ites dominated the government.
if(catID != 151){
var cont = `Take Israel home with the new Jerusalem Post Store
