Suicide Bombers Kill at Least 31 In Baghdad
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
BAGHDAD, Iraq -Suicide bombers inflicted another day of mayhem in the capital yesterday, killing at least 31 people in two attacks about a minute apart that targeted Iraqi police and Interior Ministry commandos. The carnage left nearly 200 people dead just two days.
A dozen bombings during a nine hour spate of terror Wednesday killed at least 167 people and wounded nearly 600 – Baghdad’s worst day of bloodshed since the American-led invasion in March 2003.
American officials blamed the bombing onslaught on efforts by the Sunni Arab-dominated insurgency to answer the Iraqi army’s successful offensive in the northern city of Tal Afar and to undermine the October 15 referendum on Iraq’s new constitution.
“These spikes of violence are predictable around certain critical events that highlight the progress of democracy,” the chief American military spokesman, Major General Rick Lynch, said.
“Remember, democracy equals failure for the insurgency. So there has to be heightened awareness now as we work our way toward the referendum. That’s power, that’s movement toward democracy.”
Al Qaeda in Iraq, headed by Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, claimed responsibility for the bombing campaign launched after an Iraqi-American force of 8,500 soldiers stormed Tal Afar, an insurgent bastion, this week.
Mr. al-Zarqawi then purportedly declared “all-out war” on Shiite Muslims, Iraqi troops.
Leaders of the Sunni Arab minority in Iraq have vowed to defeat the constitution, which they claim favors the Shiite majority and the Kurds.
General Lynch said the joint force killed 145 insurgents and captured 361 in the second operation in a year to rid Tal Afar of militants, including foreign fighters crossing from Syria.
Recent violence only served to deepen the misery in Baghdad, where streets were noticeably quieter yesterday – deserted in the southern Dora district where the latest bombings were concentrated.
American and Iraqi forces using loudspeakers roamed the district warning residents to stay indoors because five more suicide car bombers were believed to be in the area.
