Day of carnage for Baghdad
2005-09-14 14:57
Baghdad - A dozen explosions ripped through the Iraqi capital on Wednesday, killing at least 152 people and wounding 542 in a series of attacks that began with a suicide car bombing that targeted labourers assembled to find work for the day. Al-Qaeda in Iraq claimed responsibility.
The bloodiest attack killed at least 88 people and wounded 227 in the heavily Shi'ite neighbourhood of Kazimiyah where the day labourers had gathered shortly after dawn.
Overnight on Wednesday, 17 men were executed in a village north of Baghdad, which put the death toll in all violence in and around the capital on Wednesday at 169 and the number continued to rise.
A senior American military official told The Associated Press he believed the rash of bombings was retaliation for the joint Iraqi-United States sweep through the northern city of Tal Afar in recent days to evict insurgents from their stronghold near the Syrian border. Al-Jazeera television quoted the al-Qaeda as confirming that assessment.
Wednesday's carnage was believed to be the second worst since the US-led invasion. On March 2 2004, coordinated blasts from suicide bombers, mortars and planted explosives hit Shi'ite Muslim shrines in Karbala and in Baghdad, killing at least 181 and wounding 573.
- AP