The holy city of Najaf was rocked by a car bomb on Thursday that killed at least 10 people and wounded 40, threatening to increase tensions between Iraq’s Shia and Sunni Arabs.
The explosion took place on a crowded street near the shrine of the imam Ali — one of Shia Islam’s most revered sites. The mosque was not damaged, but Iraqi authorities were bracing themselves on Thursday night for reprisals on Sunni targets.
The February bombing of the golden mosque in Samara — also a sacred Shia site — sparked a wave of revenge attacks against Sunni targets, pushing the country towards sectarian war.
Other violence on Thursday in the cities of Kirkuk, Ramadi and Baquba left at least eight people dead.
In the wake of the carnage in Najaf police ordered a curfew in the city, which draws pilgrims from across the globe. But residents expressed their outrage, venting their frustration at Iraq’s bickering political elite who are struggling to form a new government in Baghdad.
”Our leaders are having lunch in the green zone, and we are dying,” one tearful resident shouted at an Iraqi television reporter. ”We are under attack by terrorists and nobody is doing anything. Why did we vote?”
The logjam in Baghdad over the choice of the next prime minister showed no sign of progresson Thursday. The main Shia parties are divided over the nomination of the incumbent, Ibrahim Jaafari. He is also opposed by Iraq’s Kurds and Sunni Arabs and by Washington and London. Shia leaders said they may turn to Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the country’s leading Shia cleric, to resolve the standoff.
In other developments, United States military officials in Baghdad said on Thursday that an intense manhunt had netted a ”major get” in the form of a senior militant with close ties to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
The military said the man, known as Abu Ayman, was behind a number of kidnappings, including that of the Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena, who was held for a month and released. – Guardian Unlimited Â