IRAQ: Car bombs kill at least 51 in Iraq, leave dozens injured

Car bombs tore through a fruit and vegetable market in a Shi'ite area of central Baghdad on Saturday (December 2), killing at least 51 people in another devastating attack fuelling a vicious cycle of sectarian violence. The bombing came two days after U.S. President George W. Bush met Iraq's prime minister to discuss ways to avert all-out civil war and 10 days after the bloodiest attack since the U.S. invasion killed more than 200 people in the capital. Bush, under pressure to change course in the unpopular Iraq war after a stinging defeat for his Republicans in Congressional elections, pledged in his weekly radio address on Saturday to seek bipartisan consensus on the way forward. In Baghdad, angry locals screamed in rage against Saddam Hussein's Baath party and speculated Sunni insurgents may have planted the bombs in retaliation for a raid on a nearby Sunni rebel stronghold on Friday by Iraqi and U.S. troops. A resident spoke of three huge blasts going off in the space of two or three minutes, sending black smoke billowing through the narrow lanes of the old Sadriya quarter and leaving a scene of carnage and devastation. A dozen cars were charred and market stalls were burnt out. Sources at police headquarters and the Interior Ministry said 51 people were killed and 90 people wounded. On Friday, Iraqi and American troops stormed the Fadhil area of the old quarter, backed by U.S. attack helicopters, and fought suspected Sunni militants for several hours. That show of strength came a day after Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said Iraqi forces would be able to take over from U.S. troops by June 2007. At talks in Jordan, Bush strongly backed him as the "right guy" and agreed to speed up training of Iraqi troops so they could take responsibility more quickly. The White House said Bush would meet one of the most powerful Shi'ite leaders in Iraq, Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, on Monday and the Sunni vice president later this month as he seeks to become more directly involved in calming sectarian tensions. Earlier, the bodies of fourteen insurgents were taken to a mortuary in Samarra, 100 km (60 miles) north of Baghdad, according to staff at the local hospital. The bodies were brought to the mortuary by the US military an employee at the mortuary said. But the military have made no comment on the incident. Data from Interior Ministry officials showed a 44-percent leap in civilian casualties in November compared with October. The increase, to 1,850 deaths, was matched by a 45-percent rise in the number of civilian deaths tallied by Reuters.

ITN Source | December 3, 2006

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