BAGHDAD, 2 August 2007 — Thunderous car bomb blasts echoed around Baghdad yesterday, killing at least 70 people, as Iraq’s national unity coalition collapsed under the weight of sectarian tensions.
New government figures also revealed civilian deaths in the country rose by one third last month, dealing a further blow to a five-month-old security plan designed to stabilize Baghdad and allow for reconciliation. Three large bombs tore through crowded districts of the capital, feeding the communal bitterness that has undermined Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki’s US-backed government.
In the largest blast, a truck bomb detonated near a filling station in the west of the city, setting fire to a huge fuel tank, killing at least 50 people and wounding at least 60 more, Iraqi security officials said. A medic at the nearby Yarmuk Hospital said the emergency room struggled to cope with the wave of incoming wounded.
“There were not many lightly injured people, everyone had medium or severe burns. Some of them got beds, but others had to lie on the floor and some were given first aid then sent on to other hospitals,” he said.
Earlier a car bomb ripped through a busy shopping district, killing at least 16 and wounding 14, according to Brig. Gen. Qassim Atta, an Iraqi Army spokesman for Baghdad.
The blast near the Karrada Harij electronics market at a crossroads known for the popular Al-Fiqma ice cream store sent a dull boom echoing across the city and a plume of smoke skyward.
There was no word on who might have planted the bomb, but the area is known as a stronghold of supporters of Shiite leader Abdel Aziz Al-Hakim, and previous attacks of this kind have been blamed on Sunni extremists.
A third car bomb in the southern neighborhood of Dura, one of Baghdad’s most notorious districts, killed three more people and wounded another five, according to security officials.
Two off-duty Iraqi policemen were shot dead when gunmen ambushed their car in the Al-Saydiya neighborhood in southwest Baghdad, a security official said.
As the explosions rumbled across the city, ministers from the Concord Front, Iraq’s largest Sunni bloc, resigned from the ruling coalition and effectively ended its claim to be a government of national unity.
“The Front announces its withdrawal from the government of Nuri Al-Maliki and the deputy prime minister and the ministers will submit their resignation today,” said Rafie Al-Issawi, minister of state for foreign affairs.
Issawi made the announcement at a news conference inside Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone as Sunni Vice President Tareq Al-Hashemi and other senior members of the bloc stood behind him. Hashemi will remain vice president and the bloc’s 44 parliamentarians will return to the National Assembly in September after its summer recess, when they will swell the already growing ranks of the opposition.
