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Tensions run high in Iraq

Atul Aneja

Suicide bomber lured Shia labourers by promising work

DUBAI: Sectarian tensions are running high in Iraq after suicide bombers killed at least 60 persons in central Baghdad on Tuesday.

Most of the persons killed in the twin suicide bombing in Baghdad were Shia workers who were waiting to be hired in the early hours on Tuesday. At first, a suicide bomber smashed his explosives-laden car into a police vehicle. Soon after, a truck bombing took place in a nearby area. Eyewitnesses said the death toll was particularly high because the bomber lured workers to come closer after promising them work. Police said that around 150 kgs of explosives were used in the massive blasts. According to eyewitnesses, the area was littered with mangled dead bodies. Some of the survivors looked dazed and some were weeping. Thick black smoke rose from the site of the attack.

There has been no let-up in sectarian violence in Iraq, which surged following the bombing in February of the Askari shrine, which is part of the ninth century structure.

Reuters reports:

More than 220 persons were wounded in the synchronised blasts at 7 a.m. (local time) that ripped through the busy Tayaran Square.

``A driver with a pick-up truck stopped and asked for labourers. When they gathered around the car it exploded,'' said a witness, who was helping a stumbling survivor with a blood-stained bandage covering his head.

``After the explosion, not a single person in the square was standing, I thought everyone was dead,'' said a labourer, who then searched for his four companions.

``I found them all cut in half, no legs, and for some I could only find their heads,'' he said. Suicide car bombs have become a hallmark of Sunni extremist attacks on Shias in past weeks.

A series of bombings in Baghdad's Sadr City district last month killed more than 200 persons.

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