Tweet
Bombs, mortars in Shiite slum kill at least 133
No Thanksgiving for Iraqis.
Sadr City residents stand next to a pool of bloodied water after Thursday's bomb attacks in the largely Shiite area of Baghdad.
More than 200 others wounded, many of them seriously, in Baghdad
BREAKING NEWS
MSNBC News Services
Updated: 25 minutes ago
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Up to six car bombs killed at least 133 people in a Shiite militia stronghold in Baghdad on Thursday, in one of most devastating such attacks since the U.S. invasion.
A further 201 people were wounded, police said. The Interior Ministry earlier put the toll at 115 dead and 125 wounded. Other reports suggested as many as 144 people were killed and another 236 wounded.
The blasts, which were followed by a mortar barrage aimed at a nearby Sunni enclave, came at the same time as gunmen mounted a bold daylight raid on the Shiite-run Health Ministry.
Angry residents and armed militiamen flooded the streets, hurling curses at Sunni Muslims.
Six parked vehicles each packed with as much as half a ton of explosives, as well as mortars landing in the area, devastated streets and a crowded market in the sprawling Sadr City slum in east Baghdad, Maj. Gen. Jihad al-Jabori of the Interior Ministry told Iraqiya state television.
Tensions inflamed
The violence seemed certain to inflame sectarian passions after a week of mounting tensions at the heart of the U.S.-backed national unity government.
Washington is pressing Shiite and minority Sunni leaders to rein in militants to halt a slide towards all-out civil war.
The Sadr City blasts destroyed whole streets, leaving bloodied remains amid mangled vehicle wrecks. Fierce fires were left blazing after the attacks.
Attack on Health Ministry
Five people were wounded at the Health Ministry, about 3 miles from Sadr City, an Interior Ministry source said, when about 30 guerrillas fired mortars, rocket-propelled grenades and machineguns into the compound in one of the biggest public shows of force by militants in the city since the U.S. invasion in 2003.
The arrival of U.S. attack helicopters and ground troops eventually dispersed the assailants, ministry employees said.
Shortly afterwards, a dozen mortar rounds hit Aadhamiya, a Sunni enclave in mainly Shiite east Baghdad. The Interior Ministry said it was not aware of casualties in the attack.
The Health Ministry is run by followers of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, whose Mahdi Army militia is accused by many Sunnis of being behind some of the worst death squad violence in the capital, in which hundreds of people a week are being kidnapped and tortured and their bodies dumped around the city.
The United Nations said Wednesday violent deaths among civilians had hit a record of over 3,700 in October, although the health minister insisted it was much lower.
Only a handful of attacks in the sectarian violence that followed the U.S. invasion have killed more than 100 people.
BREAKING NEWS
MSNBC News Services
Updated: 25 minutes ago
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Up to six car bombs killed at least 133 people in a Shiite militia stronghold in Baghdad on Thursday, in one of most devastating such attacks since the U.S. invasion.
A further 201 people were wounded, police said. The Interior Ministry earlier put the toll at 115 dead and 125 wounded. Other reports suggested as many as 144 people were killed and another 236 wounded.
The blasts, which were followed by a mortar barrage aimed at a nearby Sunni enclave, came at the same time as gunmen mounted a bold daylight raid on the Shiite-run Health Ministry.
Angry residents and armed militiamen flooded the streets, hurling curses at Sunni Muslims.
Six parked vehicles each packed with as much as half a ton of explosives, as well as mortars landing in the area, devastated streets and a crowded market in the sprawling Sadr City slum in east Baghdad, Maj. Gen. Jihad al-Jabori of the Interior Ministry told Iraqiya state television.
Tensions inflamed
The violence seemed certain to inflame sectarian passions after a week of mounting tensions at the heart of the U.S.-backed national unity government.
Washington is pressing Shiite and minority Sunni leaders to rein in militants to halt a slide towards all-out civil war.
The Sadr City blasts destroyed whole streets, leaving bloodied remains amid mangled vehicle wrecks. Fierce fires were left blazing after the attacks.
Attack on Health Ministry
Five people were wounded at the Health Ministry, about 3 miles from Sadr City, an Interior Ministry source said, when about 30 guerrillas fired mortars, rocket-propelled grenades and machineguns into the compound in one of the biggest public shows of force by militants in the city since the U.S. invasion in 2003.
The arrival of U.S. attack helicopters and ground troops eventually dispersed the assailants, ministry employees said.
Shortly afterwards, a dozen mortar rounds hit Aadhamiya, a Sunni enclave in mainly Shiite east Baghdad. The Interior Ministry said it was not aware of casualties in the attack.
The Health Ministry is run by followers of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, whose Mahdi Army militia is accused by many Sunnis of being behind some of the worst death squad violence in the capital, in which hundreds of people a week are being kidnapped and tortured and their bodies dumped around the city.
The United Nations said Wednesday violent deaths among civilians had hit a record of over 3,700 in October, although the health minister insisted it was much lower.
Only a handful of attacks in the sectarian violence that followed the U.S. invasion have killed more than 100 people.
Sadr City residents stand next to a pool of bloodied water after Thursday's bomb attacks in the largely Shiite area of Baghdad.
Comment