Wave of Fatal Bombings Widens Fissures in Iraq

The New York Times
April 23, 2010

Wave of Fatal Bombings Widens Fissures in Iraq
By STEVEN LEE MYERS and DURAID ADNAN

BAGHDAD — A coordinated series of explosions struck a party headquarters, two mosques, a market and a shop in Baghdad on Friday, deepening the country’s turmoil amid a political impasse and a concerted military campaign against the leaders of Al Qaeda in Iraq.
The attacks, which killed at least 58 people and wounded scores more in Baghdad and elsewhere in Iraq, were the worst of an intermittent wave of bombings since the parliamentary election on March 7. The outcome of the vote remains unclear, as election officials prepare to conduct a partial recount in Baghdad and possibly other provinces.
The deadliest three bombings on Friday exploded in rapid succession near the headquarters of the political movement led by the Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr in Sadr City, the impoverished Shiite neighborhood in Baghdad that bears his family’s name.
Each Friday hundreds of his followers gather in an open square there for noon prayers, and they accounted for many of the victims.
The movement’s candidates did well in last month’s election, giving them increased leverage to shape a new government that they say should not be led by the incumbent prime minister, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki.
A member of Parliament from the bloc, Balqis Koli al-Kafaji, put the attacks in the context of several recent events that she said contributed to the overall chaos here: the still unresolved elections, the controversy surrounding a previously undisclosed prison in Baghdad that held Sunnis from northern Iraq, and the government’s claims of recent successes in dismantling the leadership of Al Qaeda in Iraq, also known as Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, the main insurgent group here.
Her remarks reflected how Iraq’s myriad challenges — from politics to security to human rights — are perceived to be thoroughly entwined with the violence that still engulfs the streets.
“The security departments are messed up, as everybody looks to find a place in the new government,” she said. “Until now, we haven’t seen any of the security heads announce his resignation. I assert that influential figures in the government, with external agendas, are trying to unsettle security in Iraq.”
The attacks came five days after a joint Iraqi-American raid killed the top two leaders of Al Qaeda in Iraq. Iraqi and American officials hailed the killings — and a series of other killings and arrests before and after — as a devastating blow to the group. At the same time they warned that retaliation was almost certain to come, though it was not clear that the group was behind the attacks on Friday.
At least seven explosions spread carnage in neighborhoods across Baghdad over the course of the day — from a clothing store in Dora to a market in Rahmaniya, from mosques in Huriya and Amin to the three bombs near the Sadr office. The attacks used bombs hidden in a parked motorcycle and cars, among other places, but did not involve suicide bombers, a typical tactic of Al Qaeda in Iraq.
The attacks struck in mostly Shiite Muslim neighborhoods, but in Anbar, the sprawling Sunni province to the west of Baghdad, 7 people were killed and 11 wounded on Friday morning when five homemade explosives damaged a cluster of houses in a small village. A police lieutenant heading to the scene was also killed by a roadside bomb.
Al Qaeda in Iraq and other Sunni extremists are blamed for much of the violence in Iraq, but the country faces threats from other militias and terrorists, including those representing Shiites, often with support from Iran. Without a claim of responsibility, and often even with them, it is difficult to determine the source and motive of attacks here.
If the motive was to discredit Mr. Maliki’s government and Iraq’s security forces, however, it appeared to work.
“I was sitting on the second floor with my children and I heard the explosion,” a man who identified himself only as Abu Ammar, 36, said near one of the explosions in Sadr City. “The windows were blown in. I came down and saw dead bodies everywhere. My house was burning. I did not know what to do, put out the fire or help the wounded.”
“I just want to ask,” he continued, “where is the government?”
The area around the Sadr headquarters is cordoned off during Friday Prayer, prohibiting vehicles from approaching. The first bomb was hidden in a motorcycle parked about 100 yards away. Minutes later, two bombs exploded in parked cars two blocks away. The force of the blasts severed bodies and charred more than a dozen cars nearby. Passers-by buried body parts they found on the street.
Iraqi police officers who arrived fired shots in the air to try to disperse an angry crowd that lingered at the scene. At the neighborhood’s main hospital, which began to turn away victims after filling up, friends and relatives of the wounded and the dead clambered to get inside.
Ahmed Mahdi, shirtless, his chest burned raw, cried as he lay on a hospital bed. He said he had no idea where his brother was and was desperate to find out.
“The politicians are busy forming the government and forgot all about us,” he said. “They are all useless.”
Zaid Thacker contributed reporting.