Iraq's deadliest day: 50 killed

2006-01-04 18:30

Baghdad - A suicide bomber killed at least 50 people and injured dozens of others on Wednesday at a funeral for the nephew of a Shi'ite politician - making it the deadliest day since the December 15 parliamentary elections.

Diyala police said more than 100 mourners were standing in a cemetery for the burial of a nephew of Muqdadiya hospital director Ahmed al-Bakka when the explosion went off.

The cemetery was strewn with body parts and the tombstones were stained in blood.

He detonated his bomb at the graveside killing 37 people and wounding 45 others in the deadliest suicide attack since Iraq's parliamentary elections.

Assassination attempt

Police said in Baghdad, a car bomb in Dora district killed at least seven and injured 15. Thirteen people were killed in other violence, raising the day's death toll to at least 52.

Al-Bakka had survived an assassination attempt on Tuesday, but his nephew was killed.

Al-Bakka was the head of the local Dawa party, led by Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari and a main partner in the country's largest Shi'ite political coalition, the United Iraqi Alliance.

Shi'ites had been targeted by extremist Sunni groups such as al-Qaeda in Iraq, led by Jordanian-born terrorist mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

A partner in the largest Sunni Arab political party condemned the attack.

National unity government

Nassir al-Ani said: "The Islamic Party condemns such ugly acts that are aimed at dividing the country.

"The perpetrators want to cause divisions and hinder the political process in Iraq, but they will fail and we will establish a national unity government."

A Shi'ite politician said the attacks came as Iraq's three major political parties were close to forming a coalition government that would include Shi'ites, Sunni Arabs and Kurds.

Commission member Safwat Rashid said Iraq's election commission also planned to release the results of its investigation into almost 2 000 polls complaints.

Coalition government

An Alliance official said the three tickets - the Shi'ite United Iraqi Alliance, the Sunni Arab Iraqi Accordance Front and the Kurdish coalition - were working on a coalition government and were discussing a nominee for prime minister.

Ridha Jawad Taqi, a member of SCIRI, the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq said: "We can say that the (three parties) are close to forming a new government.

"Meetings between the tickets will be resumed after announcing the final results of the elections."

An international monitoring team this week began to review results from Iraq's December 15 parliamentary elections, including some of the hundreds of complaints filed.

A member of Iraq's election commission said final results won't be announced until the international review was completed, meaning results might be delayed until mid-January.

- AP