U.S. helicopter downed, 2 soldiers die

Hillah bombing aftermath
Iraqi officials in Hillah, a Shiite city about 60 miles south of Baghdad, announced a three-day mourning period after Thursday’s devastating suicide attack. Police spokesman Capt. Muthanna Khaled said at least 73 people were killed and 163 wounded.

Police and witnesses said the two bombers strolled into the central Maktabat market about 6 p.m. when the area was packed with shoppers buying food for the evening meal.

Police said an officer, Ahmed Abed Majood, became suspicious and grabbed one of the bombers but he managed to detonate his explosives. His partner then blew himself up too.

The blasts sent bodies hurling through the air and set fire to wooden stalls where vendors sold fruits and vegetables, witnesses said. Some shoppers fled screaming, while others stopped to help rescuers carry away the wounded.

No group claimed responsibility, but many residents blamed Sunni insurgents. The Shiite city, located in a religiously mixed province, was the scene of one of Iraq’s deadliest attacks — a February 2005 suicide car bombing that killed 125 people.

“I was hit by the first explosion. I fell on the ground and that is the reason that I was saved from the second explosion,” one wounded man said from his hospital bed.

In violence Friday, a roadside bomb struck a police patrol in the northern city of Mosul, killing one officer, police said.

But the capital was relatively calm amid a weekly three-hour vehicle ban to prevent car bombings during the traditional Islamic religious services.

Najaf curfew
Authorities also imposed a daytime vehicle ban Friday in the Shiite holy city of Najaf following last weekend’s battle between Iraqi-U.S. troops and a messianic Shiite cult that left more than 200 people dead, said Ahmed Duaebil, spokesman for the Najaf province.

Officials have said the cultists planned attacks during Tuesday’s Ashoura commemoration to try to bring back the “Hidden Imam,” a descendant of Islam’s Prophet Muhammad who disappeared as a child in the 9th century. Shiites believe that he will return one day to bring justice and peace.

Much conflicting information has emerged about the cult — the “Soldiers of Heavan” — including several names for the so-called leader, who Iraqi authorities said was among those killed in the fighting.

Shiite cleric Sadralddin al-Qubanji, a member of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, said the cult leader was a member of Saddam Hussein’s feared security agency, the Mukhabarat.

He claimed the group was established in 1993 and supported by Saddam’s ruling Baath Party to exploit internal rivalries among Shiites.

“The Baath Party has been saving this person in order to create a Shiite-Shiite sedition,” al-Qubanji said during his Friday sermon in Najaf.

He also said two other groups with offices in Najaf have adopted the same ideology as the cult and called upon security forces to prevent similar attacks.

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