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| Iraq |
| Hakim calls for calm after Musayyib bombing |
| 2006-04-09 |
| A car bomb tore through a street crowded with pedestrians and vendors in Musayyib, a predominantly Shiite town, on Saturday, the authorities said, killing at least 6 people, wounding 21 and stoking sectarian tensions in Iraq. The attack followed two others this week against major symbols of Shiite Islam that killed more than 80 and prompted political leaders to appeal for calm and unity. Shortly before the attack on Saturday, Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, the leader of the country's dominant Shiite political bloc, urged Shiites to resist attempts by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, to ignite a civil war. He called for Iraqis of all ethnicities and sects to rally together against the threat. "This nation will not fall into the trap of sectarian war that is being pursued by Zarqawi's groups," he told hundreds of followers who gathered outside his political headquarters in Baghdad, Reuters reported. Hundreds of mourners marched through Shiite neighborhoods of the capital on Saturday, in funeral corteges for the victims of a triple suicide bombing at the Baratha mosque on Friday that killed at least 71 people. Wailing and beating their chests, the mourners carried wood coffins above their heads. The dead were bound for the vast Shiite cemetery in the holy city of Najaf. The Baratha mosque, in northern Baghdad, remained closed to worshipers on Saturday as workers continued cleaning the building. An air of hopeless dread had settled in. "We were afraid of going out and walking in the streets," said Um Raed, 40, the owner of a beauty salon. "I decided to close the shop and go away from this place and visit my sister so that I can sort of refresh myself of all this sadness. I cannot bear this atmosphere anymore." That mosque bombing followed a car bomb on Thursday that killed at least 10 people in Najaf. Musayyib is a poor industrial town that lies at the fault line between the predominantly Shiite south and a Sunni Arab insurgent stronghold south of Baghdad. Insurgents have occasionally initiated attacks against residents and Shiite militias there. Last July, in one of the deadliest suicide attacks since the invasion, a man wrapped in explosives blew himself up under a fuel tanker in the center of the town, igniting a fireball that killed at least 71 people and wounded at least 156. The police first reported that the attack on Saturday Musayyib was directed at an important Shiite mosque, but later retracted that account. The blast, which also wounded at least 21 people, was about two miles from the mosque. Top leaders in the dominant Shiite alliance are to meet Sunday to discuss the bloc's selection of Ibrahim al-Jaafari as prime minister in the next government, according to Redha Jowad Taki, a leader in the alliance. Mr. Jaafari's nomination has generated widespread opposition and has become the single biggest hindrance to political talks. The Associated Press reported that the leaders had agreed to hold the meeting at the urging of the country's most revered Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. The police recovered the bodies of 11 victims of killings around the country on Saturday, officials said. Seven were found in three Baghdad neighborhoods, according to an Interior Ministry official. The other four, all Iraqi contractors employed on an American military base near Tikrit, were found in the district of Hamreen, between Tikrit and Kirkuk. A homemade bomb exploded next to a Shiite family's house in the neighborhood of Sadoun, in central Baghdad, killing two men inside the house, family members said. The family had recently fled their old home in the Dora neighborhood because of violence there. The American military announced Saturday that a marine had died "from wounds sustained due to enemy action" in Anbar Province. Officials gave no further details. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |