Suicide Bombs Cause Iraq Carnage
May 11, 2005
BBC
Photo: A nurse checks the IV of a man wounded in a Baghdad bombing on Wednesday
Victims in Baghdad were treated in nearby hospitals
Suicide bombers have set off a wave of blasts in Iraq, killing more than 60 people and injuring more than 100 in the bloodiest day since February.
The deadliest bombings were in Tikrit, where at least 33 died, and the town of Hawija, where at least 30 were killed.
Two suicide bombings rocked Baghdad, killing at least four people.
The bombings continue an upsurge in violence that has claimed more than 300 lives in the past two weeks, as US forces fight rebels in the west.
I was standing near the centre and all of a sudden it turned into a scene of dead bodies and pools of blood — Police Sgt Khalaf Abbas, Hawija
Laith Kubba, an Iraqi government spokesman, told the BBC that rebels were lashing out wildly, knowing their "days are numbered".
But the insurgency appears to be gathering pace rather than running out of steam, the BBC's Jim Muir in Baghdad says.
The attacks came a day after the US Senate unanimously approved an emergency spending bill authorising a further $82bn for US military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, among other activities.
POLICE TARGETS
Wednesday's wave of bombings began in the northern city of Tikrit - Saddam Hussein's hometown, which is dominated by Iraq's minority Sunni Muslim community.
At least 33 people were killed and about 70 injured in a car bombing in a crowded marketplace, police said.
The bomber had apparently been targeting a police station, but police forced him to swerve into the market.
Almost all the dead are said to be Shia Muslim civilians who had gathered to look for work.
Ibrahim Mohammad, a migrant worker who saw the explosion, called it "a tragedy", Reuters news agency reported.
"Some [bodies] were burned, some were ripped to pieces."
At least 30 people were killed and dozens wounded soon afterwards, when a suicide bomber with explosives strapped to his body hit a police and army recruitment centre in the northern town of Hawija.
The bomber reportedly mingled with recruits before setting off his explosives, a tactic that has been used at least twice before in recent weeks, our correspondent says.
"I was standing near the centre and all of a sudden it turned into a scene of dead bodies and pools of blood," police Sgt Khalaf Abbas told the Associated Press news agency by telephone from the scene of the blast.
"Windows were blown out in nearby houses, leaving the street covered by glass."
HIGH-PROFILE KIDNAPS
Akihiko Saito - Contractor, Japanese
Raja Nawaf - Governor of Anbar, Iraqi
Mohammad Jalal Saleh - Security chief, Iraqi
Douglas Wood - Engineer, Australian
Marie Jeanne Ion, Sorin Dumitru Miscoci, Ovidiu Ohanesian - Journalists, Romanian
Florence Aubenas - Journalist, France
Jeffrey Ake - Contractor, US
Some casualties were taken to Kirkuk, the nearest city, because Hawija does not have the means to care for them, AP reported.
There have also been at least four explosions in Baghdad, including a car bombing in the Dura district that killed three people and injured at least eight.
Baghdad was also the scene of an attack on a police patrol in the Mansour district that killed two policemen and a civilian, Reuters reported.
A third car bombing and a roadside bomb aimed at a US convoy appear to have caused no deaths.
Not since 28 February - when 125 people died in a massive car bombing in Hilla - have insurgents killed so many Iraqis in a signle day.
US forces have been mounting a major counter-insurgency operation in the western province of Anbar, where they say they have killed about 100 rebels in the past several days.
The insurgents deny suffering such heavy losses.
The governor of Anbar was kidnapped on Tuesday and rebels have demanded that the US stop its operations.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4535323.stm