A car bombing on Monday near a medical centre in a town south of Baghdad killed 105 people in the single deadliest insurgent attack in Iraq in more than a year, hospital officials said.
The blast ripped through a crowd of civil servants waiting outside a medical centre in Hilla, capital of Babil province, and left another 122 people wounded, they said.
”Our definitive toll after taking away the last victims is 105 dead and 122 wounded,” said Dr Mohammed Dia, head of Hilla’s general hospital.
Civil servants had gathered at the medical centre for physical exams that would permit them to go to work for the state or return to jobs lost with the fall of Iraqi president Saddam Hussein’s regime in April 2003.
The bombing was the worst attack in Iraq since 105 people were killed in the northern city of Arbil in February last year in suicide bombings targeting Kurdish political parties.
Ambulances carried dead and wounded to the hospital, where doctors worked steadily to tend the wounded who filled almost every room at the facility.
At the site of the blast, the burnt chassis of the car smouldered in the street of the packed commercial district.
The attack came as the Iraqi government was expected to shed light on the arrest of Saddam Hussein’s half-brother amid speculation he was handed over by Syria where he had taken shelter.
In other violence, a United States soldier was shot dead at a traffic checkpoint in Baghdad, the US army said on Monday. His death late on Sunday brought to 1 487 the number of US servicemen killed in attacks or accidents in Iraq since the launch of the invasion in March 2003.
Two Iraqi soldiers were killed in a gun battle south of the restive city of Samarra, while an Iraqi soldier and translator died in a mortar attack near Dhuluiya, north of Baghdad, Iraqi security officials said.
A civilian was killed and two were wounded during a small arms attack on a police station in Baquba, the US military and Iraqi witnesses said.
Arrest of Saddam’s half-brother
Meanwhile, rumours swirled over the circumstances of the arrest of Saddam’s half-brother Sabawi Ibrahim al-Hassan al-Tikrit, accused of masterminding Iraq’s deadly insurgency from neighbouring Syria.
Iraqi officials gave differing accounts of Sabawi’s capture, with some claiming he was arrested in Iraq, while others said Syria detained him and transferred him to Iraqi custody.
The Iraqi government had announced Sabawi’s capture on Sunday, but refused to disclose the circumstance.
Iraq’s National Security Adviser, Muwaffaq al-Rubaie, said Sabawi was among about 30 insurgents arrested.
He refused to confirm or deny whether Sabawi had been detained by the Syrians. Earlier, Deputy Prime Minister Barham Saleh told The New York Times the Syrians had handed Sabawi over.
But Rubaie hinted the detention could mark new cooperation between Baghdad and Damascus, which has been accused of sheltering ringleaders from Saddam’s Ba’ath party.
”Without going into detail, we in the Iraqi interim government hope that this is going to be the beginning of a good start by the Syrian government in collaborating and cooperating with the Iraqi government,” Rubaie said.
He said Baghdad has submitted a list of insurgents suspected of hiding in Syria to Damascus and warned rebels they should now fear being hunted down abroad.
”This will be a major blow to those who are working against Iraq in Syria and they will be looking over their shoulders because the Iraqi justice will follow them inside and outside Iraq.”
Sabawi, Saddam’s adviser and intelligence chief, was number 36 on the US list of 55 most-wanted former Iraqi regime officials.
Hassan and a former Saddam aide Mohammed Yunis al-Ahmed directed the Ba’athist strand of the insurgency from Syria, where they had access to funds and directed a network of Iraqi army veterans, national intelligence chief Mohammad Abdullah al-Shahwani said in January.
Two other half-brothers of Saddam, Barzan and Watban, are already being held at a US army-run jail near Baghdad and are set to be tried in the coming months.
Just 10 top officials from Saddam’s regime have so far escaped arrest or death at the hands of US-led forces.
The most senior figure still at large is Ezzat Ibrahim al-Duri, Saddam’s former deputy. He has a $10-million bounty on his head.
Detained former regime leaders face charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, which could result in a sentence of death by hanging or firing squad.
Maintaining the pressure on insurgents, US marines pressed ahead with their week-long offensive in al-Anbar province, considered the gateway from Syria to Iraq.
The military said 51 people had been detained over the past 48 hours, raising to 211 the number of suspected rebels detained in Operation River Blitz. — AFP
