Suicide truck bomber kills 121 in Baghdad market

Baghdad, Feb 3: A suicide bomber killed 121 people today inthe deadliest single bomb blast in Baghdad since the 2003 war, when hedrove a truck packed with one tonne of explosives into a busy market ina mainly Shi'ite area.

The blast, which Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki blamed onSaddam Hussein supporters and other Sunni militants, shattered stallsand smashed the facades of shops. Three car bombs ripped through thesame market in December, killing 51.

''It was a terrible scene. Many shops and houses were destroyed,''said one resident, Jassem, 42, who had rushed from his home nearby tohelp pull people from the rubble after hearing the ear-splittingexplosion.

It comes as US and Iraqi troops prepare for an offensive seen as alast-ditch effort to stem worsening sectarian bloodshed. Maliki vowedin January to launch a crackdown in the capital to crush insurgents whohave defied attempts by his government to get control of security, butit has not yet begun.

A US intelligence report said yesterday that escalating violencebetween minority Sunni Arabs and politically dominant majority Shi'itesmet the definition of civil war.

''All Iraqis were shaken today by this crime,'' Maliki said in astatement. ''The Saddamists and Takfirists (Sunni militants) havecommitted another crime.'' A senior Interior Ministry official, MajorGeneral Jihad al -Jaberi, told state television that the truck had beenpacked with one tonne of explosives.

The casualties swamped the capital's hospitals. There were chaoticscenes at Ibn al-Nafis hospital in central Karrada, where hallwaysoverflowed with wounded on trolleys and relatives and friends screamingfor help.

Emergency workers pulled bodies from the debris and piled them onpickup trucks in Sadriya, a Reuters reporter at the scene of thebombing said.

The blast, which left a wide crater in the street, came hoursafter Iraq's leading Shi'ite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani,renewed an appeal to Iraqis to avoid violence.

''The Islamic nation is passing through difficult conditions andfacing tremendous challenges that threaten its future,'' his new fatwa,or religious edict, said.

''Everybody knows the necessity for us to stand together andreject the sectarian tension to avoid stirring sectarian differences.''

Reuters>