BAGHDAD, 18 August 2005 — Three car bombs exploded near a crowded bus station yesterday, killing up to 43 in the deadliest suicide attacks in Baghdad in weeks. Meanwhile, Iraq’s largest Sunni Arab party denounced the committee writing the constitution, raising doubts about selling the charter to the Sunnis.
The attacks, which began at the height of rush hour, may have been carried out to coincide with deliberations on Iraq’s constitution which resumed yesterday after negotiators failed to meet the deadline two days ago.
Police said the first bomb blew up the Nadha bus terminal, the city’s largest, shortly before 8 a.m. as swarms of travelers were boarding buses. As Iraqi police rushed to the scene, a suicide driver detonated his vehicle in the station’s parking lot.
Another suicide bomber blew up his car a half hour later near the Al-Kindi Hospital, to which ambulances were transporting the injured.
Police Capt. Nabil Abdul-Qader said 43 people were killed and 85 wounded in the attacks. The US military put the casualty toll at 38 dead and 68 injured.
Terrified survivors — many weeping and screaming — scrambled about the smoking, charred hulks of buses and cars looking for signs of relatives. Several weeping men hugged beside a young boy inside the open-air terminal. One man searched through the charred buses for signs of his brother and cousin.
“We want our voices to be heard by the president of the republic and every official to tackle such violence,” shouted one dazed security guard who refused to give his name. “All those who were killed were innocent people. There were no American nor Iraqi troops on the scene.”
Four suspects were detained at the bus station on suspicion of involvement in the attacks, the Transportation Ministry said.
The attacks yesterday were the deadliest series of single-day suicide bombings in Baghdad since mid-July, although suicide attacks with far lower death tolls occur here near daily.
Twenty-five people died in a suicide blast July 10 at an army recruitment center in Baghdad. On July 13 a car bomb in Baghdad killed 27 people, including 18 youths and one American soldier.
The latest attacks occurred shortly before the leaders of Iraq’s political factions met to try to finish the constitution by the new deadline Monday. If no agreement can be reached this time, the interim constitution requires that Parliament be dissolved and that a new transitional assembly and government be elected in December.
Some Shiite officials spoke of progress in yesterday’s talks.
However, the largest Sunni group, the Iraqi Islamic Party, issued a blistering attack on the drafting committee, accusing it of bias and incompetence. The party, which has members on the committee, said major differences remain on the issues that blocked a deal last week.
They included federalism, the role of the Shiite clergy and the distribution of Iraq’s vast oil wealth. The Sunni party also insisted that the new constitution affirm the country’s Arab and Islamic identity and demanded that Islam be declared a main source in legislation — a measure opposed by Kurds and women’s activists. “The battle of the constitution is not over yet,” the Sunni party said. “Our people should be awake and cautious and the popular will should arise to put pressure for a free Iraqi national draft constitution that preserves the sovereignty and unity of its people.”
