Suicide bomber attacks university

BAGHDAD, Iraq – A suicide bomber pushed past guards at a crowded college campus Sunday and set off a thunderous blast that killed at least 40 Iraqis, most of them female students who were waiting in line in the midday sun to enter classrooms for midterm exams.

The attack was the second in recent weeks to target the mainly Shiite Mustansiriya University, and it sent a clear message that whatever calm had followed the launch of the latest U.S.-Iraqi security plan was over.

Radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, whose followers virtually control the campus, denounced the plan as a failure and said Iraqi government troops and police should take charge of security and that “invaders,” a reference to U.S. troops, should leave.

Most Sunni Arabs distrust the Iraqi security forces because they are dominated by Shiites, and they also accuse the Shiite-led Iraqi government of not doing enough to rein in al-Sadr’s militia. In particular, they note that coalition troops have yet to move into the Shiite slum of Sadr City in large numbers, despite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s vow that the security plan would target Shiite as well as Sunni areas.

Al-Sadr’s comments suggested that he too is fed up with the plan. The anti-American firebrand had agreed to cooperate with al-Maliki by drawing down his militia forces when the plan was launched.

The bomber Sunday struck at an especially busy time at the college gate. Two lines, one for female students and one for male students, had formed as students waited to be checked by guards.

One person resisted being searched. The guards became agitated.

Lu’ay Sadek, a business management student who is Shiite, heard yelling near the gate and moved closer to see what was happening. As he did, the bomb detonated, sending shrapnel and flames across the campus. Sadek saw a wall of fire and the bodies of guards and classmates flying into the air. Most of the victims were young women, because the female students’ line was far longer than the men’s line, said student Muaataz Jawad, explaining that it had taken longer to check female students because of their handbags.

Jawad said surviving guards told him the bomber was a female, but other witnesses and police said it was a man. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but it was similar to others on mainly Shiite targets, such as crowded markets, which have appeared designed by Sunni insurgents to inflict maximum suffering.