March 3, 2004
By TAREK AL-ISSAWI and JIM KRANE, Associated Press Writers

Photo: An Iraqi shouts slogans as a funeral of Tuesday's suicide attacks turns into an anti-American protest Wednesday March 3, 2004 at the Al-Khadum Shiite Mosque in the Kazimiya district of Baghdad. Tuesday's series of suicide attacks at the Al-Khadum mosque in Baghdad and the Shrine at the holy city of Karbala killed at least 150 people and injured hundreds more as the Shiites marked the Ashoura, the holiest day in the Shiite calendar. (AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed)

KARBALA, Iraq - Shiite Muslim mourners chanted slogans against the United States Wednesday, venting their anger at Iraq's instability after a series of suicide bombings against pilgrims. As the country began three days of mourning, officials said 15 people, some possibly Iranians, had been detained in the attacks.

U.S. administrators lowered their death count from 143 to 117, a senior coalition official said Wednesday. Iraq's Health Ministry said 185 people died. Estimates of the wounded ranged from 300 to more than 400.

Also Wednesday, three rockets hit a telephone exchange building in Baghdad, knocking out international phone service for much of the country only days after the system was put back in service. One Iraqi worker was killed and another injured, Iraqi officials said.

Restoring telephones knocked out during the U.S. invasion last year has been a priority as U.S. forces trying to bring back some normalcy amid the continuing violence.

Tuesday's near-simultaneous bombings struck pilgrims gathered at Baghdad's Kazimiya shrine and holy sites in Karbala to mark Ashoura, the holiest day of the Shiite calendar. The attacks coincided with anti-Shiite bombings that killed 41 victims in Pakistan.

The attacks forced the delay of a key milestone in the U.S. handover schedule — the planned Thursday signing of an interim constitution.

U.S. and Iraqi officials pointed to an al-Qaida-linked Jordanian militant, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, as a "prime suspect" in the attacks, saying he aims to spark a Shiite-Sunni civil war in Iraq. Many Iraqis, including Shiites, have also blamed foreigners — throwing suspicion on al-Qaida.

Photo: TV grab of Osama bin Laden. A statement attributed to Al-Qaeda denied the terror network was responsible for the wave of anti-Shiite attacks in Baghdad and Karbala that killed more than 180 people.(AFP/HO)

U.S. officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, could not rule out possible connections between the bombings in Iraq and Pakistan. At this point, though, one official said, there isn't any evidence indicating the attacks were coordinated.

As authorities slowly identified the dead, relatives picked up their slain loved ones from Karbala's Al-Hussein hospital Wednesday. Others wept as they scanned handwritten lists of names posted on the hospital walls. Iranian pilgrims, speaking in Farsi, struggled to communicate with the Iraqi hospital officials.

Several thousand joined a funeral procession in the afternoon, taking three bodies to the tombs of the Islamic saints Imam Hussein and Imam Abbas for blessings before heading to bury them at the cemetery in this city 50 miles south of Baghdad.

"No, no, Americans! No, no Israel! No, no, terrorists!" they chanted, carrying red, black and green flags, symbols of martyrdom traditional for Ashoura ceremonies.

Iraqi leaders have worried about Shiite revenge attacks against Sunnis and pleaded with the public to maintain unity.

But the focus of Shiite anger has been directed more at the U.S.-led occupation. Some, including the top Shiite cleric, accused U.S. officials of not doing enough to protect the 10-day Ashoura ceremonies; others simply vented resentment over the country's continuing insecurity.

The coalition official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said 15 people were detained in Karbala after the blasts and nine were in Iraqi custody. The others, held by coalition forces, included four Farsi speakers thought to be Iranians, the official said. An estimated 100,000 Iranians were believed to have come to Iraq for Ashoura.

It appeared other attacks had been planned for Tuesday.

In the southern city of Basra, police found a car packed with 550 pounds of explosives with a remote control detonator left at a gas station near the path of a Shiite Ashoura procession, police chief Mohammed al-Ali said Wednesday. The explosives were defused and several people were arrested, though one was later released.

Two women were also found apparently planning to set explosives in Shiite mosques, the police chief of Basra's Maqal district said. One was arrested, but the other escaped, perhaps with the explosives, said Brig. Gen. Noori Jaafar al-Fayadh.

In Kirkuk, police found and defused a 22-pound bomb alongside a road where Shiites had planned to march Tuesday, said Anwar Amin, the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps chief in Kirkuk.

In Najaf, police arrested two people carrying explosives near the Imam Ali shrine, police Col. Saeed al-Joubri said Wednesday.

Japan's Foreign Ministry on Wednesday urged Japanese nationals to leave Iraq, warning that "the possibility that Japanese nationals and facilities could also be targeted can't be ruled out" amid the rash of suicide bombing across Iraq this year. Some 230 Japanese troops are based near the southern town of Samawah, and more are due to arrive.

A firm number of dead was difficult to reach, particularly in Karbala — in part because some were taken elsewhere, said the city's hospital director Hassan Nasrallah.

Karbala health department director Salih al-Hasnawi said 98 were confirmed dead, but predicted that figure would likely rise because there were 12 bags of human remains. He also said a quarter of the 230 wounded were in severe condition.

"Some died post operation, some will not survive," al-Hasnawi said.

Iraqi Health Minister Khudyar Abbas in Baghdad, however, put the Kazimiya death toll at 70 and the Karbala toll at 115 — a total of 185. But the U.S. official said 32 people were killed in Baghdad and 85 at Karbala, for a total of 117.

Also Wednesday, U.S. forces said they arrested five Iraqis wanted for attacks against American forces during raids Tuesday in Tikrit; the nearby town of Uja; and Abu Saydah, just north of Baqouba.

An AC-130 gunship fired on men suspected of planting homemade bombs in Zaghiriah, another town near Baqouba, late Tuesday and wounded three of them, one seriously, U.S. Army Maj. Josslyn Aberle said. Two others were captured and taken in for questioning.
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AP correspondent Scheherezade Faramarzi contributed to this report from Basra, Iraq.

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