Bombs kill 160 in Baghdad, curfew imposed

BAGHDAD: Six car bombs killed 160 people in a Shi'ite stronghold on Thursday in the bloodiest attack in Baghdad since the U.S. invasion and the authorities imposed an indefinite curfew on a city fearful of a sectarian civil war.   

Leaders from all main communities, including Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and the Sunni Vice President, made a televised appeal for calm, a step last taken in February when the bombing of a major Shi'ite shrine, blamed on al Qaeda, launched a wave of sectarian bloodshed that has not abated.   

"We call for people to act responsibly and to stand together to calm the situation," a joint statement read.   

A further 257 people were wounded in the series of blasts in the capital's Sadr City slum, police said.   

The blasts came at the same time as gunmen surrounded and fired on the Shi'ite-run Health Ministry in one of the boldest daylight assaults by militants in Baghdad. Mortars later crashed down on a nearby Sunni enclave in an apparent reprisal attack.   

After dark, there was sporadic gunfire in several districts. In Sadr city, parked vehicles packed with explosives caused carnage in streets and a market, a police general told state television. Mortars also landed nearby and residents seized a seventh car they said was driven by a would-be suicide bomber.   

"As the bombs went off, everyone started running and shouting," news photographer Kareem al-Rubaie said. "I saw a car from a wedding party, covered in ribbons and flowers. It was burning. There were pools of blood ... and children dead."   

Heavily guarded and policed by the Mehdi Army militia of radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, Sadr City was until this year relatively unscathed by al Qaeda and other Sunni insurgent attacks. A string of bombings against civilians there in recent months is seen as a declaration of war on the militia that Sunnis blame for much of this year's death squad violence.   

The bloodshed may heighten sectarian anger after a week of tension inside the US-backed national unity government.

Washington is pressing Shi'ite and minority Sunni leaders to rein in militants to halt a slide towards all-out civil war.    Noting Thursday was the seventh anniversary, by the Islamic calendar, of the killing of Sadr's father by Saddam Hussein's agents, Sadr ally Fattah al-Sheikh blamed "terrorist groups and Saddamists" as well as the US occupation and vowed: "Sadr City will be the rock on which all conspiracies will founder."   

Another Shi'ite politician, Sami al-Askari, called for the arrest of the main Sunni leader in parliament, Adnan al-Dulaimi, for inciting sectarian violence.   

Five people were wounded at the Health Ministry, about 5 km from Sadr City, an Interior Ministry source said, when guerrillas fired mortars, rocket-propelled grenades and machineguns into the compound. The arrival of US helicopters and troops dispersed the assailants, ministry employees said.   

Shortly afterwards, a dozen mortar rounds hit Adhamiya, an enclave of Iraq's Sunni minority in mainly Shi'ite east Baghdad. The Interior Ministry said 10 people were wounded in the attack.   

The Health Ministry is run by followers of Sadr, whose Mehdi Army is accused by many Sunnis of being behind some of the worst death squad violence in the capital, in which thousands of people have been kidnapped and tortured and their bodies dumped.   

The United Nations said on Wednesday violent deaths among civilians had hit a record of more than 3,700 in October. In the worst attacks in Iraq, 171 people were killed in a series of bombings at Shi'ite religious ceremonies in 2004. Last year, 125 died in a single blast in the Shi'ite city of Hilla.   

Sectarian tension has mounted this month, notably over attacks and kidnaps by men in uniform. Dozens of civil servants were abducted last week from the Sunni-run Higher Education Ministry by suspected Shi'ite militiamen from Sadr City.   

Sunnis were also incensed last week by an arrest warrant issued for their most senior cleric, Harith al-Dari. This week, one Shi'ite deputy health minister was seized at his home by men in camouflage and another survived a shooting.   

The United States, which has poured thousands of troops into Baghdad since August to staunch the bloodshed, says many police and army units are loyal to Shi'ite groups and some, especially in the army, are believed to have links to Sunni leaders.   

Prime Minister Maliki, due to meet US President George W Bush in Jordan, has vowed to disband militias loyal to fellow Shi'ite leaders like Sadr, a key ally, but he has resisted pressure from some in Washington to speed that up.