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Blasts to avenge U.S. attacks on Iraqi town, says Al-Qaeda

Atul Aneja

Highest number of casualties in suicide car explosion in Baghdad

MANAMA: More than 150 persons have been killed in multiple strikes in Iraq where the majority Shia community has been the main target.

The highest number of casualties took place in Baghdad's Khadimiya district where a suicide bomber blew up his explosives laden car.

Around 114 persons — mostly Shias — are suspected killed during this strike, which marks the second biggest single attack since the U.S. invasion.

Sectarian tensions

The attack is likely to deepen sectarian tensions between Sunnis on one side and a combination of Shias and Kurds on the other. The Sunni militants have been blamed for most of the attacks on the Shias, who have widely supported Iraq's U.S. backed constitution.

An Iraqi police spokesman said the suicide bomber drove his minivan into a crowd of labourers who had assembled at Baghdad's Oruba Square. He first lured the workers by promising them work, and then exploded nearly 220 kg of explosives as they came near. Many of the wounded and were taken to four different hospitals.

The Al-Qaeda in Iraq has posted a statement on the Internet that it had launched a nationwide bombing campaign in response to a recent U.S. backed operation in the city of Tal Afar, not far from Iraq's border with Syria.

In another incident, uniformed gunmen pretending to be policemen shot 15 civilians dead. The assailants "arrested" their victims in the early hours in the town of Taji on the outskirts of Baghdad. The kidnapped were shot at point blank range. Most of the executed are believed to be Shias. Soon after the incident, gunmen opened retaliatory fire on a group of Sunnis in a busy marketplace in the town, killing six.

In yet another suicide car bombing, 11 persons who had gathered to fill gas canisters were killed in northern Baghdad.

The spate of killings took place just before the final draft of the Constitution was handed over to the United Nations for printing and distribution.

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