David
08-04-06, 16:25
1 hour, 35 minutes ago
MUSAYIB, Iraq (Reuters) - A car bomb killed at least six Shi'ite pilgrims south of Baghdad on Saturday, the latest in a wave of attacks that had prompted a fresh warning against civil war in Iraq.
The blast in the town of Musayib also wounded 16 people, said police Captain Muthana al-Ma'amouri.
"A man stopped his car outside a busy shop and said it was broken down then he left. Minutes later the car blew up," said town resident Ahmed Abbas.
Police said earlier the blast occurred near a Shi'ite shrine.
Just two hours earlier, powerful Shi'ite leader Abdul Aziz al-Hakim had urged his followers to stand firm against what he called an al Qaeda campaign to ignite sectarian civil war with bombings like one on Friday that killed at least 70 people.
That triple suicide bombing at the Buratha mosque in Baghdad, the biggest single suicide attack on a Shi'ite target since November 2005, raised fresh fears of a full-blown communal conflict, with the United States, Britain and the United Nations quickly urging Iraqi unity.
On Thursday, a car bomb near one of the world's most sacred Shi'ite shrines killed at least 15 people in the southern town of Najaf.
Hakim's speech, delivered on the anniversary of the execution of top Shi'ite cleric Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr and his sister by Saddam Hussein, called for unity between Iraq's main Shi'ite, Kurdish and Arab Sunni communities.
But he also reminded majority Shi'ites of their decades of suffering under Saddam's Sunni-dominated regime and urged them to resist attempts by the al Qaeda leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, to plunge the country into open civil war.
"(Sunni) militants and insurgents want to return Iraq to Saddam's formula," said Hakim, leader of the pro-Iranian Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), a party in the ruling Shi'ite Alliance.
"This nation will not fall into the trap of sectarian war that is being pursued by Zarqawi's groups."
Sectarian tensions have been rising since the bombing of a Shi'ite shrine on February 22 touched off reprisals and pushed Iraq to the brink of civil war.
Hundreds of bodies of people shot or strangled have turned up on Baghdad streets bound, blindfolded and showing signs of torture.
The latest bombs provided more proof of Iraqi leaders' failure to tackle violence as they struggle to form a government.
Hakim's Alliance is under intense pressure to replace Ibrahim al-Jaafari as its nominee for prime minister to break the deadlock over postwar Iraq's first full-term government.
But Jaafari, who is the serving prime minister, refuses to step aside despite calls from Sunni and Kurdish leaders who say he has failed in office, and even from within his own Alliance.
Hakim said repeatedly that Zarqawi and Saddam loyalists would fail to derail the political process. But four months after parliamentary elections, he could offer no clear timetable on the formation of a government.
"After the guidelines of the (Shi'ite) religious establishment, we will proceed to form a national unity government as soon as possible," he said.
Interior Minister Bayan Jabor has said he was confident that Zarqawi was no longer a serious threat. But Western intelligence sources disagree and Hakim seems just as concerned as ever, saying the whole region would suffer if he is not defeated.
"The battle of today is not just an Iraqi battle. Other countries will suffer and in the future there will be more suffering," he said. "These militant groups oppose all Arab rulers."
MUSAYIB, Iraq (Reuters) - A car bomb killed at least six Shi'ite pilgrims south of Baghdad on Saturday, the latest in a wave of attacks that had prompted a fresh warning against civil war in Iraq.
The blast in the town of Musayib also wounded 16 people, said police Captain Muthana al-Ma'amouri.
"A man stopped his car outside a busy shop and said it was broken down then he left. Minutes later the car blew up," said town resident Ahmed Abbas.
Police said earlier the blast occurred near a Shi'ite shrine.
Just two hours earlier, powerful Shi'ite leader Abdul Aziz al-Hakim had urged his followers to stand firm against what he called an al Qaeda campaign to ignite sectarian civil war with bombings like one on Friday that killed at least 70 people.
That triple suicide bombing at the Buratha mosque in Baghdad, the biggest single suicide attack on a Shi'ite target since November 2005, raised fresh fears of a full-blown communal conflict, with the United States, Britain and the United Nations quickly urging Iraqi unity.
On Thursday, a car bomb near one of the world's most sacred Shi'ite shrines killed at least 15 people in the southern town of Najaf.
Hakim's speech, delivered on the anniversary of the execution of top Shi'ite cleric Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr and his sister by Saddam Hussein, called for unity between Iraq's main Shi'ite, Kurdish and Arab Sunni communities.
But he also reminded majority Shi'ites of their decades of suffering under Saddam's Sunni-dominated regime and urged them to resist attempts by the al Qaeda leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, to plunge the country into open civil war.
"(Sunni) militants and insurgents want to return Iraq to Saddam's formula," said Hakim, leader of the pro-Iranian Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), a party in the ruling Shi'ite Alliance.
"This nation will not fall into the trap of sectarian war that is being pursued by Zarqawi's groups."
Sectarian tensions have been rising since the bombing of a Shi'ite shrine on February 22 touched off reprisals and pushed Iraq to the brink of civil war.
Hundreds of bodies of people shot or strangled have turned up on Baghdad streets bound, blindfolded and showing signs of torture.
The latest bombs provided more proof of Iraqi leaders' failure to tackle violence as they struggle to form a government.
Hakim's Alliance is under intense pressure to replace Ibrahim al-Jaafari as its nominee for prime minister to break the deadlock over postwar Iraq's first full-term government.
But Jaafari, who is the serving prime minister, refuses to step aside despite calls from Sunni and Kurdish leaders who say he has failed in office, and even from within his own Alliance.
Hakim said repeatedly that Zarqawi and Saddam loyalists would fail to derail the political process. But four months after parliamentary elections, he could offer no clear timetable on the formation of a government.
"After the guidelines of the (Shi'ite) religious establishment, we will proceed to form a national unity government as soon as possible," he said.
Interior Minister Bayan Jabor has said he was confident that Zarqawi was no longer a serious threat. But Western intelligence sources disagree and Hakim seems just as concerned as ever, saying the whole region would suffer if he is not defeated.
"The battle of today is not just an Iraqi battle. Other countries will suffer and in the future there will be more suffering," he said. "These militant groups oppose all Arab rulers."