BAGHDAD: A suicide bomber struck Sunni and Shiite tribal leaders who were touring an outdoor market after a reconciliation meeting in a Baghdad suburb yesterday, killing up to 33 people in the second major attack in the capital in three days.
The horrific blast followed a suicide attack on Sunday that killed 30 people — many of them police recruits — outside a police training facility in eastern Baghdad.
The two attacks raised fears that insurgents may be escalating operations even as the US phases out its combat role in Iraq and prepares to withdraw troops from Iraqi cities by the end of June.
More than 40 people were wounded in yesterday’s blast, which occurred when a bomber detonated an explosives belt as tribal leaders, security officials and journalists strolled through the market in the town of Abu Ghraib, site of the infamous prison at the center of the 2004 detainee abuse scandal.
The leaders had just left a meeting called as part of a government campaign to reconcile local Sunni tribes and Shiites who fled the mostly Sunni town on Baghdad’s western outskirts two years ago but have been trickling back to their homes.
No group claimed responsibility for the attack, but US and Iraqi officials blamed Al-Qaeda. “These are small Al-Qaeda-related cells that are conducting these attacks,” said top US commander Gen. Ray Odierno. “The unfortunate part is they are still able to recruit people to do this.”
An Iraqi policeman, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information, said 33 people died in the blast and 46 were wounded.
Military spokesman Maj. Gen. Qassim Al-Moussawi said 29 people were killed, including at least three children. He said 41 people were wounded.
The dead included two Iraqi journalists working for a private television station and an Iraqi battalion commander, whose troops began firing wildly after the blast, according to witnesses.
Four staffers at a government television were injured, one of them critically, the station said. It quoted its employees as saying gunmen also opened fire from nearby buildings, sending terrified survivors scurrying for cover.
Baghdad Mayor Shakir Fizaa blamed Al-Qaeda, saying the militants “seized on the big meeting to carry out the attack.” He said some of the casualties were caused by the ensuing gunfire from security forces.
“This terrorist attack was aimed at stopping reconciliation and the improvement in the security situation,” said Fizaa. “But we will not be deterred by the acts of the vicious group against innocent civilians.”
Ahmed Ali, who owns an auto repair shop in the market, said he heard someone shout “God is Great” just before the blast, which was followed by volleys of automatic weapons fire from security forces.
“I hid for a while, but then I raised my head to see scattered bodies, including those of women and children. Some surviving women and children were screaming out of fear,” he said. Although US officials say violence has fallen to its lowest level since the summer of 2003, insurgents have carried out a series of high-profile attacks since last month.
They also include a March 5 car bombing that killed 13 people at a livestock market in the Shiite city of Hilla and a suicide attack against Shiite pilgrims on Feb. 13 that claimed 40 lives near Musayyib.
Also yesterday, a car bomb exploded near the municipal building in the mainly Christian town of Hamdaniya in northern Iraq, killing two civilians and wounding eight others, according to police.
All those attacks suggested that extremists may have regrouped after suffering major setbacks on the battlefield and may be planning a new wave of violence.
Last Sunday, the US command announced that 12,000 American troops and 4,000 Britons will leave Iraq by September.
