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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Vehicle bomb kills dozens in Baghdad

Hannah Allam McClatchy

BAGHDAD – A vehicle packed with explosives detonated in a crowded Baghdad marketplace Tuesday, killing 51 people and wounding another 75 in the deadliest bombing in the capital in months, Iraqi security officials said.

The explosion in the mostly Shiite Muslim district of Hurriyah occurred just before 6 p.m., when the area was bustling with shoppers as well as commuters who’d gathered at a nearby bus station to head home after the workday. Witnesses said several women and children were among the dead.

The bombing disrupted a period of relative calm during which U.S. and Iraqi forces had made significant gains in the twin battles against Sunni insurgents and Shiite militias. Displaced families had begun trickling home, and politicians were gearing up for elections this fall. Then, in an instant, the blast Tuesday restored the ambulance sirens, puddles of blood and smoldering wreckage that had become emblematic of life in the car-bombing capital of the world.

“People were screaming. A taxi driver pulled over and got out, with his face covered with black from the smoke. He asked me to check whether he was injured or not,” said Muhannad Mahmoud, 31, who survived the bombing. “One of the people told me he was hit by something really hard. He looked to see what had hit him and it was a man’s arm.”

Iraqi officials said the blast came from a minibus that had been packed with explosives and parked outside a building in the area. U.S. military officials said a team of U.S. bomb experts at the scene had determined that the cause was an explosives-laden truck. They said preliminary intelligence reports point to what they referred to as “special groups,” Iranian-backed Shiite militant cells, and not to Sunni insurgents such as those affiliated with al-Qaida in Iraq, or AQI for short.

Hurriyah, the scene of some of the worst sectarian cleansing of the past two years, is now predominantly Shiite, so it’s unclear why Shiite militants would target their own sect. One theory, according to the U.S. military, is that the vehicle exploded prematurely and really was intended for an attack on American-led forces.

Lt. Col. Steve Stover, a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad, said intelligence experts had “picked up on” a claim of responsibility by a Shiite extremist cell. Stover said the claim of responsibility was not made publicly. He said investigators were focusing on Shiite – not Sunni – suspects.

“How difficult would it be for (al-Qaida in Iraq) to get a bomb into Hurriyah? It would be extremely difficult,” Stover said.