BAGHDAD: A car bomb ripped through a market district yesterday in southern Iraq, killing as many as 35 people and wounding dozens, officials said.
The blast is the latest in a series of high-profile explosions that have raised concerns about a resurgence of violence as the US military faces a June 30 deadline to withdraw from urban areas in Iraq.
The explosives-laden car was parked in the center of the commercial area in the town of Bathaa when it blew up around 9 a.m., according to police.
Angry townspeople swarmed around police in the wake of the attack, cursing and blaming them for failing to prevent the bombing.
Nobody claimed responsibility for the attack, but car bombings are a signature of Al-Qaeda in Iraq. The US military has warned Al-Qaeda could be expected to try to foment sectarian violence in a bid to upset security gains ahead of the US withdrawal.
Persistent violence as the Americans begin to withdraw has raised new questions about the readiness of Iraqi forces to take over their own security. Officials gave conflicting death tolls yesterday, as is common in the chaotic aftermath of bombings in Iraq. They also faced the difficulty of gathering information from a small town. A spokesman for the Nasiriyah hospital, Kadhim Al-Obeidi, said 35 people were killed and 45 wounded.
An Interior Ministry official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he’s not authorized to release the information, put the death toll at 28.
Sajad Sharhan, the head of the provincial security committee, said 29 people were killed and 55 wounded.
The area has been the site of past violence — mainly fierce internal fighting between Shiite militia factions before a cease-fire took hold.
Pictures posted online by local journalists showed the charred wreck of a car the bomb was planted in, burned body parts and bloodstained rags among vegetables strewn on the floor.
Schoolteacher Hussein Salim said the market was supposed to be guarded by the police. He said he rushed to the scene and helped gather body parts, some of which had been blown onto the roof of nearby homes.
“How could the car enter the market? It was crowded with people ... The police neglected their job,” he said. “I saw five children and six women among the dead.” Angry locals protested when the area’s police chief and governor arrived on the scene, Salim said. This prompted the governor’s bodyguards to open fire though it was unclear if the shots were aimed at the crowd or in the air.
Dhi Qar province, of which Nasiriyah is the administrative capital, was the second province to be transferred from US-led coalition control to the Iraqis in September 2006.
