Iraq: Shi'ite leaders call for calm after 63 die in three attacks

Haaretz ^ | December 19, 2004

[yonif]

At least 63 people were killed and dozens were wounded Sunday, in two bombings in the Shi'ite cities of Najaf and Karbala and a shooting attack in Baghdad. Iraqi Shi'ite leaders called on their people to show restraint saying the Sunday attacks were intended to disrupt the coming elections.

Shi'ite leaders accuse Sunni Muslim militants of carrying out the attacks. The Shi'ites suspect militants known as Salafists or Wahabis, and former ruling Baath Party members, of seeking to draw Shi'ites into a violence cycle that would spark a civil war and prevent the coming elections from taking place.

Wahabis are blamed by Shi'ites for killing scores of clerics and ordinary Shi'ites in Dora, a mixed area in Baghdad, and Latifiya, just south of the capital, in recent months.

According to Mohammad Bahr al-Uloum, one of Iraq's most respected Shi'ite clerics "[Wahabi militants] are trying to ignite a sectarian civil war and prevent elections from going ahead on time. They have failed before and they will fail again."

Haidar al-Ubadi, a senior official in the Shi'ite Dawa Party, said Karbala and Najaf were targeted on Sunday because of their symbolic value. Both hold major shrines to the sect's early martyrs and Najaf is a Shi'ite historic center of learning; in addition, the election is expected to go smoothly in the two cities.

These calls come as earlier on Sunday, a suicide car bomber detonated his vehicle in Karbala's main bus station. A hospital official reported 13 people died and 30 wounded.

Several hours later, a car exploded in Nafaf's city center in a funeral procession attended by the city police chief and provincial governor; hospital officials reported that 49 people were dead and 90 were wounded.

Earlier in the day, three workers of the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq were shot dead in Baghdad after being ambushed by some 30 rebels.

Police spokesman Rahman Mashawi said the Karbala blast occurred at 1:30 P.M. local time outside an entrance to the city's main bus station.

The bombing destroyed about 10 passenger minibuses and set fire to five cars outside the crowded bus station. Firefighters tried to put out the blazes as ambulances ferried burned and bleeding casualties to the nearby al-Hussein hospital, where medical workers struggled to treat people suffering from severe lacerations and burns.

Police cordoned off the chaotic scene of the blast, which was littered with pools of blood and shattered glass, as firefighters tried to extinguish at least five blazing cars. The blast also destroyed approximately 10 minibuses that were dropping off and picking up passengers.

The blast was second such attack in the city in five days and comes exactly six weeks before the upcoming Iraqi election.

The bus station is located in the heart of the predominantly Shi'ite city, some 200 meters from the shrine of Imam Hussein, one of Shi'ite Islam's most revered saints. The shrine was the scene of a March 2 suicide bombing that killed 85 people and wounded 100.

In Najaf, a car bomb exploded in a central square located near the city's Imam Ali mosque, the most sacred shrine in Iraq for Shi'ites. Hospital officials reported 49 people were killed and 90 wounded.

The central Maidan square was crowded at the time with people watching the funeral procession of a tribal sheik - some 100 meters from where Gov. Adnan al-Zurufi and police chief Ghalib al-Jazaari were standing.

Al-Jazaari believed the attacks targeted al-Zurufi and him. Three explosions went off at about 2:45 P.M.; both men were unhurt.

Earlier on Sunday insurgents also assaulted election officials, with a daylight ambush on Baghdad's central Haifa Street. About 30 militants hurling hand grenades and firing machine guns attacked a car carrying five employees of the commission's Baghdad office.

They tried "to drag them out," said Adel al-Lami, a member of the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq. Three employees, including a security guard, were killed, while two escaped unhurt, al-Lami said.

A police official said four people were killed, adding that the ferocious clashes prevented police from approaching the area.

Witnesses said the attackers later set fire to the vehicle and wandered the street brandishing their weapons. U.S. and Iraqi National Guard forces cordoned off the area after the attacks, they said.