Iraq Car Bombing Causes Carnage

February 28, 2005
BBC

Photo: Residents look at the vehicle of the suicide bomber sliced in half by the exposion as he blasted a crowd of police and national guard recruits as they gathered outside a clinic in Hilla on Monday, Feb. 28, 2005, about 95 kilometres (60 miles) south of Baghdad, Iraq. The attack left at least 106 people dead and 133 injured in the single deadliest attack since the end of the war. The white colour of the wreckage is due to the use of a fire extinguisher on it. (AP Photo/Alaa al-Marjani)

At least 110 people have been killed in a massive car bomb south of Baghdad, local medical officials say.

At least 130 others have been wounded in the blast in Hilla, 100km (60 miles) south of the capital.

The car, reportedly driven by a suicide bomber, exploded near a queue of people applying for government jobs.

Iraqi insurgents are waging a violent campaign against US-backed authorities, targeting anyone associated with the government.


DEATH TOLL 'TO RISE'

A statement from local police said a suicide car bomb "hit a gathering of people who were applying for work in the security services", the Associated Press news agency reported.

All the hospital's rooms, even those used for cardiology, are filled with the wounded — Mohammed Dia, Hilla hospital

"Several people" were arrested in connection with the blast, the statement added, without elaborating further.

Torn limbs, feet and other body parts littered the street after the blast.

Footage showed pools of blood at the scene, with dozens of people helping to put body parts into blankets. Shoes and tattered clothes were piled up in a corner.

"I was lined up near the medical centre, waiting for my turn for the medical exam in order to apply for work in the police," Abdullah Salih, 22, told the AP news agency.


DEADLIEST ATTACKS

29 July 2004: A suicide car bomb kills at least 70 people in a busy street in Baquba
2 March 2004: Co-ordinated attacks outside mosques in Karbala and Baghdad kill more than 170 people and wounds dozens more
10 February 2004: A suicide bomb outside a police station in Iskandariya kills 55 people
1 February 2004: A double suicide attacks outside Kurdish party offices kill 105 in Irbil
23 August 2003: A car bomb outside a mosque in Najaf kills at least 83 people
19 August 2004: A truck bomb outside UN headquarters in Baghdad kills 22 people
Sources: AP, AFP

"Suddenly I heard a very big explosion. I was thrown several meters away and I had burns in my legs and hands, then I was taken to the hospital," he said.

Muhsin Hadi, 29, broke his leg in the blast. "I was lucky because I was the last person in line when the explosion took place," he told AP.

"Suddenly there was panic and many frightened people stepped on me. I lost consciousness and the next thing I was aware of was being in the hospital," he said.

The director of the Hilla teaching hospital, Mohammed Dia, told the BBC the explosion was far worse than anything the town had ever experience before.

He said the number of dead was likely to rise, partly because some of the injured were in a serious condition, and partly because some of the victims had been blown to pieces.

"All the hospital's rooms, even those used for cardiology, are filled with the wounded," he said.


SECURITY

A medical official told the Reuters news agency that local people had been called on to donate blood and that expert assistance had been requested from further afield.

"We've called on doctors from Karbala, Diwaniya and Najaf to come and help and they have started to arrive," he said.

Map of Iraq showing location of Hilla

A spokesman for Iraq's Red Crescent Society said the agency was also sending emergency medicine and doctors to the town.

The attack comes as Interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi said Iraq's security forces were still unable to take on the insurgency without the help of US troops.

"Iraqis should be able to start taking over more and more security responsibilities very soon," he wrote in the Wall Street Journal.

"But we will continue to need and to seek assistance for some time to come."

Iraqi groups are holding talks over forming a new, Shia-dominated government following last month's general elections.

Hilla is a mainly Shia town, and Sunni militants have been openly striking at Shia targets in an attempt to stir up sectarian strife, says the BBC's Jim Muir in Baghdad.

In another incident, a US soldier was shot and killed in Baghdad on Sunday while manning a traffic checkpoint, the US military says.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4303629.stm