http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-
iraq17jul17,0,7969257.story?track=tothtml
July 17, 2005
THE CONFLICT IN IRAQ
Suicide Bomber Kills 60 in Iraq
# He targets a fuel tanker in a busy marketplace, burning many
victims in a mostly Shiite town south of Baghdad. The toll is
expected to climb.
By Alissa J. Rubin, Times Staff Writer
BAGHDAD A man with a bomb strapped to his waist walked up to a
fuel tanker and blew himself up Saturday, setting off a roaring
inferno in the crowded and cramped streets of an impoverished town
south of Baghdad that killed at least 60 people.
The explosion ripped through the marketplace in the heart of the
predominantly Shiite town of Musayyib when it was packed with
families buying ice cream and shoppers who had come out as the worst
of the day's heat ebbed. Many had also gathered at the nearby Shiite
mosque around the time of the evening prayer, police sources in
Musayyib and Baghdad said.
The warren of streets was so congested that it was difficult for
people to escape as fire raced through the surrounding buildings.
Local police told Baghdad officials of a hellish scene in which the
flimsy houses behind the mosque almost immediately went up in flames
and charred body parts lay scattered around the market and in
surrounding streets.
"There was no electricity in the town, so people were coming out to
get some air, eating ice cream to cool off," said a police source in
Baghdad who asked not to be named because he wasn't authorized to
speak to the media.
Fuel tankers either outfitted with bombs or blown up by suicide
bombers are among the most devastating of weapons used by insurgents
because in addition to the power with which they fling shrapnel,
they cause raging conflagrations.
The number of dead was expected to climb today because some of the
85 people injured in the blast had burns over much of their bodies.
The area is rural and there are few hospitals, let alone burn
treatment facilities.
The bombing capped a violent week in Iraq in which 100 people died
in insurgent attacks, mostly suicide bombings.
Saturday's fiery bombing occurred in Babil province, one of the 14
Iraqi provinces that U.S. officials count as "stable." But Babil has
now suffered two of the worst bombings in Iraq in recent months. In
March, a suicide bomber at a job center in Hillah killed at least
110 people and injured scores more.
Musayyib, 40 miles south of Baghdad on the Euphrates River, is
majority Shiite but near the southern tip of the so-called Sunni
Triangle, and assassins have targeted the police force, including a
police chief. Residents believe Sunni insurgents from the nearby
towns of Latifiya and Mahmoudiya bear responsibility for a number of
the attacks.
Over the last year, police in Musayyib have searched almost every
car that goes through the town, sharply reducing the incidence of
attempted suicide car bombings. But they cannot search every
pedestrian.
Meanwhile, in southern Iraq on Saturday, three British soldiers died
and two were injured when a roadside bomb exploded near their
vehicle. The incident occurred in Amarah, the largest city in Maysan
province, an area that has repeatedly proved dangerous for troops
from Britain.
"The bravery of our armed forces was yet again underlined as they
help Iraq and its people towards the democracy they so desperately
want," British Prime Minister Tony Blair said in a tribute to the
men.
Britain's Defense Ministry said the deaths brought to 92 the number
of British troops who have died in Iraq, including 53 killed in
action. As of Friday, the official U.S. death toll stood at 1,761,
with 1,357 killed in action.
Maysan province has seen several of the most brutal attacks
targeting British forces. It was the location of a gruesome
execution in 2003 when six British military police were cornered in
the police station of a village. The room was peppered with bullets,
killing all the men.
In May, two British soldiers were killed in separate attacks near
Amarah.
The British have about 8,500 troops in Iraq with responsibility for
security in the southernmost provinces of the country.
The Musayyib bombing and the attack on British troops were just two
of the deadly incidents Saturday, which also included two assaults
in the troubled northern city of Mosul: a suicide bombing that
killed four police officers and the assassination of a community
leader.
The Mosul neighborhood where the bombing occurred "is the center of
terrorists and terrorism, and it is the source of most of the
operations in Mosul," said police Lt. Hassan Daiykh Mohammed, who
was injured in the blast. "But despite all difficulties and
casualties we have sustained among our men, we will never surrender
or submit to those who want to sabotage our country," he said.
As in the Musayyib bombing, the attacker wore a bomb belt.
In another Mosul neighborhood, insurgents assassinated the community
leader, known as the mukhtar, as he sat in his office. A barbershop
assistant, Akil Ismael, 26, who was watching the street outside the
community leader's office at the time of the execution, described a
chilling scene.
At lunchtime, two cars parked on either side of the road, he
said. "There were two men in each car, and then a heavy-built man,
his face covered with a scarf and holding a machine gun, entered the
mukhtar's office normally and then sprayed him with bullets. The
gunman left rapidly I couldn't do anything," he said. "We went to
the office and we found the mukhtar covered with blood. I am really
sorry for him he was really a good man."
In Fallouja, west of the capital, four policemen were killed in an
unspecified attack, said Dr. Mohammad Dulaimi of the Fallouja
hospital. "Four dead bodies were brought to the hospital, and all
were wearing uniform," he said.
*
A special correspondent in Mosul contributed to this report.
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