At least 45 die in Baghdad sectarian bombings

updated 7:20 p.m. ET April 15, 2007

BAGHDAD - Six bombs exploded in predominantly Shiite sections of the capital Sunday, killing at least 45 people in a renewal of sectarian carnage that set back the U.S. push to pacify Baghdad.

Beleaguered Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki suffered another blow later in the day when two officials close to the radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr said his followers would quit their Cabinet posts Monday, raising a threat that the government could collapse.

North of Baghdad, two British helicopters crashed after an apparent mid-air collision, killing two service members, U.K. officials said.

The U.S. military announced three U.S. troop deaths — two soldiers and a Marine killed in separate incidents.

And in the holy Shiite city of Karbala, health officials raised the toll from a bombing Saturday close to one of the sect’s most sacred shrines, saying 47 people were killed and 224 wounded.

Twin car bombs exploded minutes apart in the busy market of Baghdad’s Shurta Rabia neighborhood, a mostly Shiite area in the city’s west. The first blast went off at midmorning in front of a kebab restaurant. Five minutes later, another car exploded nearby as rescuers were evacuating victims. Many women and children were among the casualties, police said.

Shortly after noon, a suicide bomber blew himself up on a minibus near a courthouse in the mainly Shiite northwest Baghdad neighborhood of al-Utafiyah, killing at least eight people and wounding 11, officials said.

Many of the victims were severely burned, an official at the Khazimiyah Hospital said.

Minibus blast kills 11
About three hours later, a minibus rigged with explosives detonated on a busy street of electronics shops in the predominantly Shiite central Karradah district, killing 11 people and wounding 15, authorities said.

The owner of a glass shop said he saw a suspect park the bus at the roadside and leave.

“It was an ordinary thing because usually bus drivers stop there waiting for passengers, so we didn’t suspect anything,” said the witness, who gave only his nickname, Abu Jassim.

“Five minutes later, the bus blew up — damaging the surrounded area and burning more than eight civilian cars that were passing by,” he said.

In the same district after nightfall, two roadside bombs exploded within five minutes of each other, killing at least eight civilians and wounding 23, police said.

Six shops and several cars parked nearby were damaged by the blasts, which occurred about 20 yards apart, police said.

Maliki government in peril?
Two officials in al-Sadr’s organization said the cleric had ordered his supporters on al-Maliki’s Cabinet, six in all, to withdraw as a protest over arrests of leaders in his Shiite militia and the prime minister’s failure to back a timetable for U.S. withdrawal.

The six ministers will officially resign Monday, said Saleh al-Aujaili and Hassan al-Rubaie, both members of al-Sadr’s bloc in parliament. They said al-Sadr’s 30 legislators would remain in parliament.

Losing the six Sadrist ministers would further sap al-Maliki’s already weak government, possibly causing it to collapse. The threat comes two months into a U.S. military campaign intended to pacify Baghdad and bolster the government. Leaders of al-Sadr’s militia have been arrested in the crackdown.

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