Bombs, mortars kill 157 in Iraq

BAGHDAD -- Five car bombs and two mortar rounds struck the capital's Shi'ite Sadr City slum yesterday, killing at least 157 persons and wounding 247, police said.

The attack by suspected Sunni Arab militants was the deadliest on a sectarian enclave since the war began. Shi'ites quickly struck back.

Soon after the onslaught, Shi'ite militants fired 10 mortar rounds at the Sunnis' holiest shrine in Baghdad, the Abu Hanifa mosque in the Azamiya neighborhood, killing one person and wounding 14. A 3-foot hole was blown into the dome, and some inside rooms sustained severe damage.

Eight mortar rounds later slammed into the top Sunni organization in Iraq, the Association of Muslim Scholars, but caused no casualties, police said.

Fighting also flared in another part of Baghdad when 30 Sunni insurgents armed with machine guns and mortars attacked the Shi'ite-controlled Health Ministry. The attackers were repulsed after a three-hour battle, during which Iraqi soldiers and U.S. military helicopters intervened. At least seven ministry guards were wounded, police 1st Lt. Maitham Abdul-Razaq said.

The government ordered a curfew in Baghdad beginning at 8 p.m. yesterday, saying all people and vehicles must stay off the streets of the city until further notice.

Top officials held an emergency meeting at the home of Shi'ite leader Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, apparently to discuss deteriorating security. President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi, a Sunni, and U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad attended, an aide to Mr. al-Hakim said.

Afterward, the three Iraqi officials appeared on national television. Mr. al-Hashimi read a statement urging calm and calling on politicians to work hard to reduce tensions that have brought a surge in sectarian bloodshed in the past year.

"We call for a revision of the government's existing security plans for Baghdad to better protect innocent civilians," he said.

Sectarian attacks and revenge killings have escalated since a bomb wrecked a Shi'ite shrine in Samarra in February.

Beginning at 3:10 p.m., three suicide car bombers attacked at 15-minute intervals in Sadr City, hitting the Jamila market, al-Hay market and al-Shahidein Square. At about the same time, two mortar rounds exploded at al-Shahidein Square and Mudhaffar Square, police Col. Hassan Challoub said.

Two other parked cars packed with explosives also blew up, one at the edge of Sadr City and another behind the main office of radical anti-American Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, Col. Challoub said. Police detected and detonated a sixth car bomb out of harm's way, he said.

The three explosions sent huge plumes of black smoke over northeastern Baghdad and left streets covered with burning bodies and blood. Residents and Shi'ite militiamen flooded the streets, hurling curses at Sunni Muslims and firing weapons into the air.

Ambulances raced to burning wooden fruit and vegetables stalls in Jamila market to rescue dozens of wounded. Rescue crews also removed burned bodies from mangled cars and minibuses and took them away on wheeled carts, but many corpses of adults and children remained in the streets.

Shortly after the attack, Mahdi Army militiamen deployed across the area, setting up checkpoints and roadblocks to keep away all strangers.

Col. Challoub said the bombs and mortar shells killed 157 Iraqis and wounded 257.

The coordinated attack was the deadliest assault on a single Iraqi area since the U.S.-led war began in March 2003. The worst previous was a bombing in the southern city of Hillah that targeted mostly Shi'ite police and National Guard recruits in February 2004, killing 125 persons and wounding more than 140.

The toll was higher on March 2, 2004, but the attack occurred in two cities. Coordinated suicide bombings, mortar attacks and planted explosives struck Shi'ite Muslim shrines in Karbala and Baghdad, killing at least 181 Iraqis and wounding 573.