Car bombs kill at least 70 in central Baghdad

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A suicide bomber targeting poor day laborers killed 70 people in Baghdad on Tuesday. Interior Ministry sources said 236 people were wounded in the Baghdad blast after the suicide bomber lured the crowd of workers to his vehicle with the promise of work.

Meanwhile, the U.S. military announced the deaths of five more U.S. troops, including three Marines killed in combat in volatile Anbar province.

The 7 a.m. bombing took place in Tayaran Square, a popular gathering point for construction workers who frequent the cafes and street vendors while waiting for the chance of some work. Many of the workers who gather in the area are poor Shiites.

“A driver with a pickup truck stopped and asked for laborers. When they gathered around the car it exploded,” said a witness, who was helping a stumbling survivor with a blood-stained bandage covering his head.

“They were poor laborers looking for work,” he said.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a member of Iraq’s Shiite majority, condemned the attack and blamed it on Sunni extremists and supporters of Saddam Hussein.

Calling the attack a “horrible massacre,” Maliki blamed it on Saddam Hussein sympathizers and operatives of al-Qaida. “Iraq’s security forces will chase the criminals and bring them to justice,” he said.

“These terrorist groups are trying to spread chaos by killing and fuelling sectarian strife,” he said in a statement.

Earlier official estimates put the number of dead as high as 71 with a lower wounded toll of 151. The discrepancy could not immediately be reconciled.

An official said most of the victims were Shiites from poor areas of the capital such as Sadr City.

Minibus driver lured laborers
Iraqis gather on the square early in the morning, soliciting jobs as construction workers, cleaners and painters. They buy breakfast at stands selling tea and egg sandwiches while they wait for potential employers to drive up.

Khalil Ibrahim, 41, who owns a shop in the area, was treated at a hospital for shrapnel wounds to his head and back.

“In the first explosion, I saw people falling over, some of them blown apart. When the other bomb went off seconds later, it slammed me into a wall of my store and I fainted,” he said.

Police at a nearby checkpoint fired random shots in several directions. Residents rushed to the devastated area to see if friends or relatives had been killed or wounded.

Mangled bodies were piled up at the side of the road and partially covered with paper. Two men sat on a nearby sidewalk, crying and covering their faces with their hands.

Parliament speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, a Sunni, said the massacre targeted poor people who were trying to feed their families, “turning them into pieces of flesh.”

“God’s curse upon those who are behind this,” he said in a speech to lawmakers.

He urged the deeply divided legislature of Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds “to find a solution” to Iraq’s many problems.

Targets of similar attacks
Tayaran Square is located near several government ministries and a bridge that crosses the Tigris River to the heavily fortified Green Zone, where Iraq’s parliament and the U.S. and British embassies are located.

Day laborers have been the target of similar attacks before. On Nov. 19, a suicide bomber in a minivan lured day laborers to his vehicle with promises of a job in the mainly Shiite southern city of Hillah, killing 22 people and wounding 44, police said.

Shortly after Monday’s Tayaran Square explosions, two roadside bombs targeting Iraqi police patrols also exploded about a mile away, wounding two policemen and seven Iraqi civilians, said police Capt. Mohammed Abdul-Ghani.

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