Truck bomb kills more than 60 in northern Iraq

by By KIM GAMEL, AP


BAGHDAD (AP) — A truck bomb exploded as worshippers left a Shiite mosque in northern Iraq on Saturday, killing at least 63 people and wounding nearly 200 in the deadliest bombing in nearly two months.

The blast near Kirkuk — a city rife with ethnic tensions — came hours after the prime minister insisted U.S. troops will leave Iraqi cities by the end of this month "no matter what happens," but acknowledged more violence was likely.

The Americans already have begun withdrawing combat troops from inner-city outposts in Baghdad, Mosul and other urban areas ahead of the June 30 deadline. But continued assassinations and high-profile explosions have heightened concerns that Iraqi forces are not ready to take over their own security.

Worshippers were leaving the mosque in Taza, 10 miles (20 kilometers) south of Kirkuk, following noon prayers when the truck exploded, demolishing the mosque and several mud-brick houses across the street, according to police and witnesses.

Rescue teams searched for hours to find people buried under the rubble while women begged police to let them near the site so they could search for loved ones. The U.S. military said it was providing generator lights and water at the site.

Ambulances rushed victims to the overwhelmed hospital in Kirkuk and some victims had to be taken to hospitals in nearby cities. Three babies cried as they were placed on a single hospital bed to be treated.

Brig. Gen. Sarhat Qadir of the Kirkuk police force said late Saturday that the discovery of bodies beneath the debris had pushed the death toll to 63, while 170 were wounded. They were still looking through the rubble.

Witnesses said the truck was parked across the street from the mosque and they assumed the driver was praying, although Kirkuk's police chief, Maj. Gen. Jamal Tahir, said investigators were looking into the possibility it was a suicide bombing.

"The truck was parked near our house; therefore most of the victims were found beneath the debris of the houses, mostly women and children," said Ehsan Mushir Shukur, whose sister was seriously wounded and taken to the Kurdish city of Sulaimaniyah.

He said his wife also was wounded while his sister's young son and daughter were killed.

Yellman Zain-Abideen, who was wounded by shrapnel in his hand and face, cried for his missing son who had been leaving the mosque with him when the blast occurred.

The 43-year-old father of four blamed local authorities for not providing sufficient security in the mainly Turkomen area, which is surrounded by Sunni villages.

"There should have been guards around the mosque, we are living in an area surrounded by enemies," he said.

AP Television News footage later showed men using pickaxes and shovels to dig dozens of graves in the cemetery behind the mosque to bury the victims.

Nobody claimed responsibility for the attack, but it bore the hallmark of al-Qaida in Iraq or other Sunni insurgents who remain active in northern Iraq despite security gains.

Tensions have risen in the oil-rich area as Kurds seek to incorporate Kirkuk into their semiautonomous region despite opposition from Arabs, Turkomen and other rival ethnic groups.

Officials also have warned that insurgents are likely to stage more attacks in the wake of the withdrawal deadline to try to undermine confidence in the government's ability to protect its people.

Saturday's explosion was the deadliest since April 24 when back-to-back suicide women bombers killed 71 people outside a Shiite shrine in Baghdad.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki urged Iraqis to maintain support for government forces, calling the first phase of the U.S. withdrawal plans a "great victory."

"Don't worry if some security breach occurs here or there," he said in an address earlier Saturday to members of the ethnic Turkomen community in Baghdad. "They are trying to destabilize the situation, but we will confront them."

The U.S.-Iraqi security pact requires the Americans to pull back combat troops from cities by the end of this month as a first step toward a full withdrawal by 2012. The deal includes a provision for the Iraqi government to ask for U.S. help if violence surges.

U.S. troops, meanwhile, continued preparing for the withdrawal.

On Saturday, American commanders turned over control of a key base on the edge of Baghdad's main Shiite district of Sadr City. The sprawling slum was a militia stronghold that saw fierce clashes until a cease-fire following a U.S.-backed government crackdown.

The Iraqis also reopened Zaytoun Street, which had been part of the walled-off Green Zone that houses the U.S. Embassy and the Iraqi government headquarters. The Iraqis have begun removing some of the protective blast walls around the Green Zone — part of a campaign to restore a sense of normalcy as violence has waned.

Source: Truck bomb kills more than 60 in northern Iraq

Crackdown after victory points to fix in the voting for Ahmadinejad

“I voted for Ahmadinejad in 2005, but I’ve switched to Mousavi this time because I think he’ll improve the economy. Under President Ahmadinejad inflation has shot up,” Aboldazl Zamani, 45, a bazaari (shopkeeper), said as he voted last Friday at a mosque in Shoosh, a poor area of south Tehran that is an Ahmadinejad stronghold. “My family and relatives have also switched to Mousavi,” he added.

A few votes switched to Mir Hossein Mousavi, the moderate presidential contender, are neither here nor there, of course, but the point is this: in eight hours spent touring polling stations in and around Tehran The Times found a number of Iranians who had deserted Mr Ahmadinejad since 2005, but not one who had switched to him.

Had the election committee announced that Mr Ahmadinejad had won with, say, 51 per cent of the vote, few independent observers could have said with certainty that the election was rigged — Mr Ahmadinejad undoubtedly has millions of devoted followers. But the idea that he won with 63 per cent ran contrary to every manifestation of the public mood before polling day, defied electoral logic, and was simply incredible.

There were those huge Mousavi rallies, and all-night street parties pulsating with the passion and excitement of people who knew the tide was flowing strongly their way. By contrast, Mr Ahmadinejad’s rallies felt more scripted, less spontaneous, with supporters bussed in.

There was the massive turnout of 85 per cent on election day. Low votes favour hardliners such as Mr Ahmadinejad, while high turnouts favour reformers. There is the dire state of Iran’s economy, with rampant unemployment and 25 per cent inflation — unlikely conditions for an incumbent to win by a landslide.

The dirty tricks in the campaign, such as the sudden power cuts that sabotaged opposition rallies, lent credence to allegations of dirty tricks on polling day — shortages of ballot papers in Mousavi strongholds, the declaration of some results before ballot boxes had even been opened.

Of the last dozen (admittedly unreliable) opinion polls, seven put Mr Mousavi ahead. On election eve Mousavi aides confidently told The Times that their man would win between 55 and 60 per cent. The declared results improbably suggest Mr Ahmadinejad won more than half the vote in Tehran, a Mousavi stronghold, and 57 per cent in Tabriz, capital of Mr Mousavi’s native Azerbaijan region.

Mr Ahmadinejad had men in key positions to rig the vote and enforce the result. Sadeq Mahsouli, the Interior Minister, and Kamran Daneshjoo, the election commission chief, are his cronies and appointees.

Perhaps the most damning evidence that the vote was rigged was the sheer speed, scale and efficiency of the subsequent crackdown. The results had scarcely been declared before security forces flooded on to the streets, websites were blocked and mobile telephone and text-messaging services taken down to prevent the opposition mobilising. It had to have been planned in advance.

Source: Times Online.
Crackdown after victory points to fix in the voting for Ahmadinejad