Bombings, clashes kill more than 120 in Iraq

BAGHDAD

More than 120 people died in a series of bombings and attacks in Iraq Wednesday,
as US Secretary of State Colin Powell said the wave of violence would not stop
the holding of elections next year.

A minibus packed with explosives blew up near a police station and a market north
of Baghdad, killing 70 people and wounding 30 in the worst attack since the handover
of power one month ago.

The powerful suicide bomb left a sea of destruction, obliterating market stalls
and destroying several buildings. It raised fears of a fresh insurgent campaign
just days before Iraq holds a major political conference to plot its future.

It was the worst death toll from a single bomb attack in Iraq since a blast outside
a mosque in the holy city of Najaf last August killing some 80 people.

Confirming that a suicide bomber triggered the massive explosion, General Walid Khaled Abdel Salam accused a group loyal to Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi, Al-Qaeda’s suspected chief in Iraq, of masterminding the attack.

"After they found themselves cornered and hunted down by Iraqi police, they carried out this horrible act to scare off the new recruits," he said.

Powell vowed such incidents as the Baquba attack would not "deter us" from "our goal."

The attack came just hours after Powell pleaded with allies to stand firm, saying in Hungary on Tuesday "democracy is hard, democracy is dangerous," but warning it was not the time to "get weak in the knees and say ’gosh this might be too hard, let’s leave this people alone so tyrants can return.’"

On Thursday, Powell will meet with interim Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi in Jeddah, a US official said in Cairo.

The suicide bombing came as the Iraqi interim government marked its first month in power since the US handed over sovereignty on June 28 following the coalition’s March 2003 invasion.

The initial relative calm which followed the transition of power has been rudely shattered, with the Sunni Muslim belt north and west from the capital, Baghdad, seeing almost daily attacks and car bombings against symbols of Allawi’s caretaker government.

A national conference aimed at selecting a 100-member interim national council to advise the government until elections due in January is to start a four-day meeting Saturday even though UN officials have said it should be postponed.

But nostalgia for Saddam Hussein’s Sunni-dominated regime runs high in the Sunni Muslim belt, fueled by chronic poverty and mass unemployment and quelling the insurgency is proving a difficult job for the coalition.

Baquba has suffered frequent attacks targeting US-backed Iraqi security forces, some of which have been claimed by Al-Qaeda’s Zarqawi.

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=6732

28.07.2004
Bellaciao Collective