Bombers rock Baghdad’s last quiet enclave

BAGHDAD — Al Qaeda terrorist suspects have wreaked havoc in the Baghdad neighborhood known as the war-torn capital’s last peaceful enclave. More than 80 people have been killed in five separate car bomb attacks in the past two weeks in the Karrada neighborhood, a city-center district where a Shi’ite majority still lives alongside Kurdish, Christian and Sunni neighbors.

The attacks are thought to be part of a fresh campaign by the Sunni-led terror group to step up sectarian violence that the U.S.-led troop surge is supposed to be suppressing. U.S. and Iraqi commanders claim to have had some success in driving the group and other militias out of the capital in recent months.

The latest attack in Karrada took place Wednesday at the popular al Fiqna ice-cream parlor, as large crowds were celebrating last Sunday’s victory by the Iraqi national soccer team in the Asian Cup. A four-wheel-drive car hurtled toward the crowds from a nearby traffic circle, detonating with a blast that tore a 6-foot hole in the concrete and wrecked buildings.

The bomber’s motive, residents said, was simple: Karrada is one of the few remaining neighborhoods in Baghdad that is free from sectarian tensions, and as such, it is an affront to the religious zealots whose writ runs elsewhere.

“The explosions happened here in Karrada because it is a peaceful place, where Sunnis and Shias have no difference,” said Hisham Fadel, 24, a supermarket owner. “Here people stay out every night in the streets until 11 p.m., unlike anywhere else in Baghdad or Iraq, where they don’t feel safe. The terrorists want to change that.”

Situated opposite Saddam Hussein’s old palace complex on the Tigris, Karrada is a compact and bustling inner suburb known across Baghdad for its fine array of restaurants, clothing shops and food markets.

Al Arasat Street, which runs along its more affluent outer district, used to have designer boutiques and eateries serving chateaubriand and fine French wine; the shops under the apartment blocks in inner Karrada offer more affordable delights such as ice cream, juice bars, and Internet and computer game cafes. Small grocery shops discreetly sell beer, spirits and pop music recordings — products that could earn them a death sentence from the hard-line Islamists who now run much of the rest of Baghdad.

The neighborhood also extends choice elsewhere. Within earshot of the many blue-domed mosques that call to prayer every few hours are numerous Christian churches. Some businesses are run by Kurds and Sunni Arabs while many of Iraq’s feuding politicians also have offices and private homes here.

The district is not a complete stranger to violence. Churches and mosques have been bombed and the religious death squads that have stalked the rest of Baghdad have done their share of slaughter here. But with little sympathy for their activities among the locals, the scope for them to foment havoc is limited. While other districts have been reduced to virtual ghost towns, Karrada’s markets and souks have remained full, often enjoying all the more business because of customers flocking from other neighborhoods.

“My own neighborhood is like a prison; there is nothing to do at any time now,” said Abbas Hussein, a resident of a more troubled Shi’ite neighborhood farther west.

“In Karrada, you can eat some ice cream with your friends and forget about the problems elsewhere.”

The havoc wreaked in the past couple of weeks is thought to have been the work of al Qaeda, the Sunni terrorist group for whom the suicide bomb is a hallmark weapon.

U.S. and Iraqi commanders claim troop surges have pushed back al Qaeda in recent months, but increased security is limited against insidious car bombers.

“One of the recent attacks here by al Qaeda was on a Shia mosque,” said Mohamed Husan, a Karrada police captain. “It is designed to make the Shias start a civil war. But the people here are good people, and they did not fall into that terrorist trap.”

c Colin Freeman in London contributed to this article.