IRAQ: Bombs kill at least 71 in wholesale market in Baghdad; suicide car bomber has killed 15 in attack on police station in Dour, police say

Bomb attacks at crowded markets in central Baghdad killed at least 76 people on Monday (February 12) as Iraqis marked the first anniversary of a Shi'ite shrine bombing that pitched the country to the brink of civil war. In the deadliest attack, at least 71 people were killed and 164 wounded in the popular Shorja wholesale market. An Interior Ministry spokesman said three car bombs exploded in quick succession. However, Major-General Abdul Rasool al-Zaidi from the Civil Defence Authority told Iraqiya state television the carnage was caused by five roadside bombs that blew up simultaneously around a multi-storey building. Huge clouds of black smoke and flames belched from the building, which houses wholesale clothing merchants, turning a cloudless day into night in the debris-strewn street. The blasts echoed across Baghdad and reduced market stalls to mangled wrecks. People with wooden carts carried badly wounded survivors with bandaged legs, arms and heads. Some 75 cars were destroyed. The Interior Ministry spokesman, also speaking on Iraqiya television, said three suspects had been arrested. A separate roadside bomb attack at the Bab al-Sharji market, also in central Baghdad and home to Sunni Arab and Shi'ite traders, killed at least five people, police sources said. The bombings occurred on the first anniversary under the Islamic calendar of the bombing of the al-Askari shrine in Samarra. Under the Gregorian calendar the bombing was on February 22. Earlier, Iraq's top Shi'ite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani urged followers not to seek revenge against Sunnis. Tens of thousands of Iraqis have been killed in a wave of sectarian attacks triggered by the destruction of the al-Askari mosque, one of the holiest in Shi'ite Islam. Hundreds of thousands have been displaced to flee sectarian cleansing. On Sunday (February 11) a suicide bomber driving a truck packed with explosives killed at least 15 people when he attacked a police station in the town of Dour near Tikrit, 175 km (105 miles) miles north of Baghdad, police said. Police said they were caught off-guard by the bomber, who ignored the main gate to the station and instead rammed the poorly guarded entrance to an adjoining municipal building. He then drove across open ground and smashed his vehicle into the police station, which is in the mainly Sunni town of Dour near Tikrit, 175 km (110 miles) north of Baghdad. A police major in Dour said at least 15 people were killed and 25 wounded. The deputy governor of Salaheddin province, Abdullah Jabara, put the death toll at five killed and seven wounded. Police Lieutenant Abdullah Jassem, stationed at a hospital in Tikrit, said it had received nine bodies and eight wounded. The explosion brought down one side of the building and police said the death toll could rise as they were still searching through the rubble. The dead included policemen and civilians. More than 3,000 Iraqi policemen have been killed in attacks mainly carried out by Sunni insurgents fighting the Shi'ite-led government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.

ITN Source | February 12, 2007

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