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Iraq

Blasts in Baghdad kill 31

Rockets, mortars and a car bomb wreak havoc on a commercial-residential district where several prominent Shiite politicians live. A Web site attributes the attack to a Sunni group.

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published July 28, 2006

BAGHDAD - Rockets and mortar shells rained down Thursday on an upscale, mostly Shiite area of Baghdad, collapsing an apartment house, shattering shops and killing at least 31 people - part of the rising sectarian violence President Bush has vowed to stop.

A car bomb also exploded during the attack in the commercial-residential district of Karradah, an area that is home to several prominent Shiite politicians.

More than 150 people were wounded in the blasts, police said.

Horrified survivors milled about the street hours later, surveying the damage and blaming Sunnis from neighborhoods across the Tigris River.

A statement posted late Thursday on an Islamist Web site claimed responsibility in the name of the al-Sahaba Soldiers, a part of the Sunni extremist Mujahedeen Shura Council that also includes al-Qaida in Iraq.

The statement, the authenticity of which could not be determined, said the attack was "in response to Shiite crimes" and warned "we are prepared for many such operations" to punish Shiites for supporting the "crusaders," or Americans, and the "treacherous" Iraqi government.

At least two rockets slammed into Karradah, including one that collapsed an apartment house, said Lt. Col. Abbas Mohammed Salman, police commander in Karradah. Salman gave the tally of dead and wounded.

Two mortar shells exploded - one near an investment bank and another across the street near a row of shops. A car bomb went off minutes later near a gas station, shattering storefronts and spraying flaming gasoline onto homes and shops, the Interior Ministry reported.

The blasts transformed a normally bustling, generally safe area of Baghdad into a scene from a war zone. One detonation occurred about 600 feet from the home of Vice President Adil Abdul-Mahdi, a senior figure in the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki condemned the attack, saying it was carried out by "killers of women and children" including religious extremists and Saddam Hussein loyalists.

He said security forces would hunt down "those terrorists and killers who try to incite sectarian strife."

Iraq's biggest Sunni political group, the Iraqi Islamic Party, said the attackers were bent on "sabotaging the national reconciliation plan, but they will fail" if Iraqis realize "the solution is in their hands."

The government ordered private vehicles off the streets today between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. to prevent car bombs against Sunnis and Shiites on Islam's main day of worship.

Thursday's attack occurred as Maliki was en route home from Washington, where President Bush agreed to send more American soldiers into Baghdad to curb the Sunni-Shiite reprisal attacks that have surpassed the Sunni-led insurgency as the No. 1 threat to Iraq's stability.

As part of the plan, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Thursday extended the tours of some 3,500 members of the 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team.

It was scheduled to be leaving now, but instead, most of troops will serve for up to four more months.

[Last modified July 28, 2006, 06:53:22]