BAGHDAD, 25 April 2005 — At least 22 people died and more than 80 were wounded yesterday in a series of bomb attacks near a mosque in Baghdad and outside a police academy in the north of the country, security officials said.
Two suicide car bombs exploded in quick succession last night near a market in a Baghdad neighborhood, killing 15 people and injuring 40, Iraqi police said.
A vehicle packed with explosives was driven into a crowd of people gathered in front of a popular ice cream shop in the city’s western Al-Shoulah district, police Maj. Mousa Abdul Karim said. Minutes later, as police and residents rushed to assist the wounded, a second car bomb plowed into the crowd, he said.
The US military said it had received reports that at least one and possibly two car bombs parked near an Iraqi police station in western Baghdad, had detonated, causing some 30 casualties, but had no further details. A police station is located in the same street as the ice cream shop.
Police and US forces sealed off the area. Shattered glass, pools of blood, and pieces of flesh littered the scene.
Officials at Al-Shoulah Hospital said they had received 15 bodies and 32 wounded, but said more victims were taken to other facilities. Iraq’s Shiite majority have become a frequent target of Sunni-led insurgents.
Earlier, two suicide car bombs went off outside a police academy in Tikrit, killing at least seven people and wounding 37. Police casualties accounted for five of the dead, police and hospital sources said
Meanwhile, after nearly three months of negotiations, Iraq’s major Shiite bloc has decided to form a Cabinet without members of interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi’s Iraqi List party, lawmakers said yesterday.
Prime Minister-designate Ibrahim Jaafari could submit a list of ministers to Parliament as soon as today, they said.
“There is a big expectation that tomorrow there will be an announcement of a new government without the participation of the Iraqi List,” said Saad Jouawd Qandil, a member of Jaafari’s Iraqi United Alliance.
There were conflicting reports, however, as to when the allocation of seats would be finalized. Qandil thought the final list would be submitted to Parliament tomorrow. But Ali Adib, another alliance member, said Jaafari would make the announcement today.
“We weren’t able to succeed in our talks with Allawi’s group, and so we’ll go ahead with a government formed by the Kurds, Sunnis and the Shiites,” Adib told The Associated Press yesterday. “Tomorrow we expect to announce to the assembly the government.”
Members of Allawi’s party could not immediately be reached for comment. Jaafari’s alliance has repeatedly predicted he will soon announce a new Cabinet — but then failed to do so — since Iraqis voted in Jan. 30 elections. Many Shiites have long resented Allawi, himself a secular Shiite. They accuse his outgoing administration of having brought into the government and security forces former members of Saddam Hussein’s Baath party, who had helped carry out policies that oppressed many Iraqis — especially Shiites and Kurds.
On Friday, Allawi’s Iraqi List alliance, which controls 40 seats in the 275-member interim National Assembly, accused Shiites of trying to keep all the party’s members out of the new Cabinet. But it said the party would continue to support the government, even if it is excluded.
The dispute with Allawi’s party is just one of a number of issues that have stalled the formation of a government. The alliance, which controls 148 seats, is also trying to balance the competing demands of Kurdish factions.
Meanwhile, a Pakistani Embassy employee held by kidnappers in Iraq was released yesterday after two weeks in captivity, a Pakistani official said in Islamabad. “Because of the efforts made by the government of Pakistan we have been able to secure the safe release of Malik Javed,” a spokesman said.
— With input from agencies
