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Dozens killed in Iraq blasts

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published February 19, 2007

BAGHDAD - Militants struck back Sunday in their first major blow against a U.S.-led security clampdown in Baghdad with car bombings that killed at least 64 people, left scores injured and sent a grim message to officials boasting that extremist factions were on the run.

The attacks in mostly Shiite areas - including twin explosions in an open-air market that claimed 62 lives - were a sobering reminder of the challenges confronting any effort to rattle the well-armed and well-hidden insurgents.

The attack occurred only minutes after American soldiers passed through the area on patrol.

Just a few hours before the blasts, Iraqi Lt. Gen. Abboud Qanbar led reporters on a tour of the neighborhood near the marketplace that was attacked and promised to "chase the terrorists out of Baghdad." On Saturday, the Iraqi spokesman for the plan, Brig. Gen. Qassim Moussawi, said violence had plummeted by 80 percent in the capital.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki condemned the bombings as a desperate act by "terrorists" and "criminals" who sense they are being squeezed.

"These crimes confirm the defeat of these perpetrators and their failure in confronting our armed forces, which are determined to cleanse the dens of terrorism," Maliki said in a statement.

U.S. military chiefs have been much more cautious. They have insisted that the security drive, begun last week, may take months to make clear gains and that counter-punches from militants were likely every step of the way.

The ones dealt Sunday came from the militants' favored weapon of the moment: parked cars rigged with explosives.

The first blast tore through a produce market in the mostly Shiite area of New Baghdad, toppling the wooden stalls and leaving pools of blood and vegetables trampled in the chaos. Minutes later, another car bomb exploded near a row of stores.

More than 129 people were injured, including many women who were shopping, police and rescue officials told the Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to the media.

Victims were carried to hospitals on makeshift stretchers or in the arms of rescuers.

Two other bombings targeted a restaurant and a police checkpoint in eastern Baghdad, killing two Iraqis and injuring 12. Gunmen in a Sunni neighborhood in central Baghdad and two districts south of the capital killed six civilians in drive-by shootings.

The daily number of bodies found with bullet holes and dumped in desolate lots or waterways has continued a weeks-long decline, plummeting dramatically from peaks of 60 or 70 per day in December to an average of 13 a day over the last week, according to unofficial hospital and police reports.

Three bodies were discovered Sunday in Baghdad, a Ministry of Interior official said.

It was by far the deadliest day since the security sweeps began. On Thursday, a string of car bombs killed seven civilians on the first full day of the house-to-house searches for weapons and suspected militants.

The U.S.-led teams have faced limited direct defiance as they set up checkpoints and comb neighborhoods. But that could change as they move into more volatile sections of the city. The next could be Sadr City, a stronghold of the Mahdi Army militia loyal to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

U.S. soldiers pressed closer to Sadr City on Sunday and the reception changed noticeably. In previous days, Shiite families opened their doors to welcome the troops - feeling that the American presence would be a buffer against feared attacks from Sunni militia.

On Sunday, in areas closer to Sadr City, parents slapped away the candy and lollipops given to children by soldiers.

Two more U.S. soldiers have been killed in action, the U.S. military said. Both were killed Saturday: one by a grenade in a northern neighborhood of Baghdad; the other by gunfire north of the city, the military said.

[Last modified February 19, 2007, 00:14:53]