A car bomb killed 36 civilians and wounded 72 in a Shi’ite district of east Baghdad on Sunday, a day after an inaugural meeting to start reconciling Iraq’s rival factions produced little tangible result.
The bomb, near a police station and open-air market, was in the Sadr City neighbourhood, a poor area that is a stronghold of Shi’ite militias. Three weeks ago, a car bomb at a market in the same area killed about 60 people, one of a number of very bloody incidents this month that have raised fears of civil war.
Shattered vehicles and stalls showed the power of the latest blast. Blood lay in pools. Some witnesses spoke of a suicide bomber driving a minivan but police said the cause was unclear.
There were also heavy clashes in the district overnight between the Mehdi Army of radical Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and US-led forces, residents and police said.
The US military said in a statement that Iraqi troops raided a site in mainly Shi’ite eastern Baghdad targeting two people believed to be involved in ”death squads” — a term usually applied to Shi’ite militia activity.
It said eight people were detained after a battle involving machineguns and grenades and that two Iraqi hostages were freed.
Two other people were arrested in a similar raid in north-western Baghdad, the military said.
On Saturday, leaders held the inaugural meeting of the Higher Committee for Dialogue and National Reconciliation, in a show of sectarian and ethnic solidarity before a White House visit by the prime minister. But many remain pessimistic about the chances of tackling rising bloodshed.
The biggest party from the Sunni Arab community, which forms the backbone of a raging insurgency against a Shi’ite-led, US-backed government, did not join the talks.
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki will visit Washington to meet President George Bush on Tuesday, after a stop in London on Monday, where he is expected to discuss ways of improving security in Baghdad, which is gripped by sectarian violence fuelling fears of civil war.
US commanders have said they are considering sending more troops to the capital, whose seven-million people represent a rich and volatile mixture of all of Iraq’s communities.
RISING TOLL
Maliki, a tough-talking Islamist, strongly urged Iraqis to embrace peaceful politics during a break from the talks in Baghdad’s heavily fortified government headquarters.
”Those who oppose the political process want to return to dictatorship,” he told a news conference, standing beside the president, a Kurd, and the Sunni speaker of parliament.
So far, Maliki’s 24-point reconciliation plan, long on promises but short on detail, has failed to stem the violence, which the United Nations says may be killing 100 people a day.
Iraq leaders have admitted they despair of being able to avert all-out civil war. ”Iraq as a political project is finished,” a top government official told Reuters.
Iraqi and US officials now believe sectarian militias are killing more Iraqis and pose a greater security threat than the insurgency, though this is still a major destabilising force.
The US military said its troops, backed by Iraqi troops and police, killed 15 fighters in a three-hour gunbattle near a Shi’ite mosque at Mussayab, south of Baghdad. Two US soldiers were also killed around Baghdad on Saturday.
Bush is under pressure to show progress in Iraq, clearing the way for US troop cuts, as his Republicans face elections in November with their control of the US Congress at stake.
Five weeks after Bush visited Baghdad to give his blessing to the new Maliki government, thousands of Iraqis have been killed in suicide bombings and communal attacks. – Reuters