BAGHDAD – A car bomb exploded in a crowded market in southern Iraq yesterday, killing at least 33 and sparking angry protests by residents about the failure to protect them, officials and witnesses said.
Police swiftly locked down Al-Bathaa, a Shia Muslim town 30km (18 miles) west of Nassariya that has seen little violence, while hospital officials appealed for help from neighbouring cities to cope with the wounded.
Colonel Aziz al-Atabi, media director for the Iraqi army’s 10th division, said 33 people were killed and 70 wounded. The governor of Nassariya blamed the attack on al-Qaeda.
Pictures posted online by local journalists showed the charred wreck of a car in which the bomb was planted, burnt body parts and bloodstained rags.
High school teacher Hussein Salim said the market was supposed to be guarded by the police. He said he rushed to the scene and helped gather body parts, some of which had been blown on to the roof of nearby homes.
“How could the car enter the market? It was crowded with people . . . The police neglected their job,” he said. “I saw five children and six women among the dead.” Mr Salim said angry locals protested when the area’s police chief and Nassariya governor Talib al-Hassan arrived on the scene, prompting the governor’s bodyguards to open fire.
Mr Al-Hassan said they had only fired in the air.
“As the explosion was big, some people gathered at the scene to watch or look for their loved ones. The security forces shot in the air to disperse them and save their lives,” he said. “We accuse al-Qaeda. The area is open and there are many roads leading to it. We have little clues about the accused. The security forces are working to get precise information.”
Mr Al-Hassan account of the death toll was lower with 19 killed and 65 wounded, and said he had replaced the Al-Bathaa police chief.
In the aftermath of the attack US military helicopters hovered overhead.
The sectarian bloodshed and insurgency unleashed by the 2003 US-led invasion has reduced sharply across Iraq since its peak in 2006/07. Moreover, the Shia Muslim south has tended to be one of the quietest areas.
But insurgents, including Sunni Islamist al Qaeda, who view Shia as heretics, continue to carry out devastating car and suicide bomb attacks.
Analysts say violence is likely to rise ahead of parliamentary elections next January, which will pit not just Shia parties against once dominant Sunnis and minority Kurds, but also against rival Shia groups.
The withdrawal from Iraqi city centres by US combat troops at the end of the month is another potential trigger point for an increase in attacks, Iraqi officials say.
One of five US security contractors arrested in Baghdad as part of an investigation into the killing of a fellow American contractor was released by Iraqi police yesterday, a spokeswoman said.
No charges were brought against Don Feeney jnr of American Corporate Training Unlimited (CTU), the spokeswoman for the Feeney family said in a statement.
Four other CTU employees were still being held, the statement added.
The group was arrested in a pre-dawn raid on June 5th and questioned over the death of James Kitterman.
Mr Kitterman was found bound, blindfolded and stabbed to death last month in the capital’s heavily-fortified Green Zone.
If charged and brought before an Iraqi court, they would become the first Americans to face local justice since a bilateral security agreement came into force in January that made United States contractors subject to Iraqi law. – (Reuters)