IRAQ:Lured to their death for seeking work, at least 71 people were killed and more than 200 injured yesterday in a dual bomb attack on a central Baghdad square that was shocking even by Iraq's grim standards.
The co-ordinated blasts happened at 7am on Tayaran Square, a well-known gathering point for casual labourers looking for work. Witnesses said a suicide bomber driving a minibus approached workers and told them to get on board. As they did so he set off his explosives. At almost the same time a second bomb detonated in a car parked 30m away.
"The square was packed and the bombs blew us all over," said Ali Hussein, a labourer from Sadr City. "It is difficult to believe anyone is alive."
Surrounding buildings were severely damaged and dozens of shops and cars destroyed. The blasts left two charred craters filled with debris and body parts. Ambulances came from across the city, but for many it was too late. Hospitals were overwhelmed and morgues overflowed.
Recovering in the nearby Ibn al-Afis emergency department, where many wounded were taken, Mohammed Jassim described how he had searched for his two friends: "I found them, I think. But I could not be sure. They had no heads," he said.
Most of the dead were said to be unemployed labourers from the capital's impoverished Shia community, which has borne the brunt of a devastating bombing campaign by Sunni militants.
A series of car bombs in the Sadr City area last month killed 200.
Police estimated that up to 68kg (150lb) of explosives were used in yesterday's blasts, which shook buildings across the city.
Government forces were on alert last night in Sunni districts in western Baghdad to prevent possible reprisals. "These cynical and despicable attacks on innocent men looking for work show that the terrorists are the enemy of everyone in Iraq, and that everyone must join together to stop them," said Iraq's president, Jalal Talabani.
The prime minister, Nuri al-Maliki, blamed the bombs on Saddamists and Takfiris, a term used for those who accuse fellow Muslims of apostasy, and vowed to hunt down the perpetrators. He said he planned to hold a national reconciliation conference this Saturday.
The latest atrocity comes as senior officials in Baghdad and Washington struggle to formulate a new political and military strategy for Iraq that could halt such carnage and the slide to civil war.
After the publication of the Iraq Study Group's pessimistic report, US president George Bush is engaging in a series of crisis talks to decide the next move, though White House sources say a decision may not be made until the new year.
Yesterday he held a videoconference with senior American commanders in Iraq and the US ambassador, Zalmay Khalilzad, while in Washington he met Iraq's vice-president Tareq al-Hashemi. - (Guardian service)