BAGHDAD, 20 December 2004 — At least 62 people were killed and more than 120 wounded as car bombs rocked Iraq’s two Shiite cities yesterday while in downtown Baghdad dozens of gunmen carried out a brazen ambush on a car, executing in broad daylight three employees of the organization running next month’s elections. The bombings came just over an hour apart — first a suicide blast that ripped through minibuses at the entrance of the main bus station in the city of Kerbala, then a car bomb in a central square of Najaf crowded with people watching a funeral procession attended by the city police chief and provincial governor.
The violence was the latest in an insurgent campaign to disrupt the crucial Jan. 30 elections, the first national polls since the fall of Saddam Hussein — and they were the latest attacks to target Shiites, the majority community in Iraq and the most likely to dominate the vote.
The car bomb in Najaf detonated in central Maidan Square where a large crowd of people had gathered for the funeral procession of a tribal sheikh — about 100 meters from where Gov. Adnan Al-Zurufi and police chief Ghalib Al-Jazaari were standing.
Youssef Munim, head of the statistics department at Najaf’s Al-Hakim Hospital, said 47 people were killed by the explosion and 69 were wounded.
The nearby Al-Zahraa Hospital received another two people killed by the bombing, plus 21 suffering from various injuries, according to nurse Mohanad Abdul Redha.
“A car bomb exploded near us,” Al-Zurufi said. “I saw about 10 people killed.”
Al-Jazaari believed he and Al-Zurufi were the targets of the attack, in which he said three explosives went off at about 2:45 p.m. Both men were unhurt. “As I and the governor were waiting for the funeral processions three explosions occurred,” Al-Jazaari said. “We were targeted.” It was not immediately clear what the other explosions were from.
Residents were pulling bodies of the dead from damaged shops at the square, which is about 400 meters from the Imam Ali Mosque.
The blast brought down part of a two-floor building on a main thoroughfare. Dozens of local men clambered over the rubble, digging for survivors as a cloud of dust and white smoke rose. Parts of the facades of surrounding buildings were sheered off by the force of the blast, exposing the rooms inside.
The bombing in Kerbala, about 70 kilometers northwest of Najaf, destroyed about 10 passenger minibuses and set fire to five cars outside the crowded bus station. Firefighters tried to put out the blazes as ambulances ferried burned and bleeding casualties to the nearby Al-Hussein Hospital.
Ali Al-Ardawi, assistant for the hospital’s director, said 13 people were killed in the attack and 33 injured.
It was the second bombing in Kerbala in a week. On Wednesday, a bomb went off at the city’s gold-domed Imam Hussein Mosque, killing eight people and wounding 40 in an apparent attempt to kill a top aide to Iraq’s most powerful Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani.
The mosque, located near the bus station, was hit by a March 2 suicide bombing that killed 85 people and wounded 100.
Insurgents yesterday also carried out a new attack on election officials, with a daylight assault on Baghdad’s central Haifa Street, the scene of repeated clashes between security forces and insurgents.
About 30 militants hurling hand grenades and firing machine guns attacked a car carrying five employees of the non-governmental Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq as they were driving to work.
Three employees, identified by the commission as Hatem Ali Hadi Al-Moussawi, a lawyer deputy director for the commission’s Karkh office, and two of his office employees — Mahdi Sbeih and Samy Moussa — were dragged from their cars and shot dead, while two escaped unhurt. Several pistol-wielding gunmen forced their three victims to kneel in the middle of the road before shooting them from point-blank range.
The commission condemned the killings as a “terrorist ambush” and said one gunman was killed in the confrontation.
“The IECI urges the Iraqi people and all its political, religious and social leaders, and the authorities to condemn this inhumane crime, which has brought shame on our people and country,” the commission said in a statement. A police official said the ferocity of the clashes prevented police from nearing the area. Witnesses said the attackers, most of whom were seen brazenly roaming Haifa Street without anything covering their faces, later set fire to at least one vehicle before fleeing the area. US and Iraqi National Guard forces cordoned off the area after the attacks. A US military spokesman had no immediate details.
Also, insurgents claiming to represent three Iraqi militant groups issued a videotape showing what they said were 10 abducted Iraqis who had been working for an American security and reconstruction company. Masked insurgents in the video said they represent the Mujahedeen Army, the Black Banner Brigade and the Mutassim Bellah Brigade, all previously unknown groups. Nine blindfolded hostages could be seen lined up against a stone wall and a 10th was lying in a bed, apparently wounded.
The militants said they would kill the hostages if the company, Sandi Group, does not leave the country.
— With input from agencies
