Car bombs kill 51 in attack on Iraqis

Associated Press

BAGHDAD

Three suicide car bombers struck Shiite pilgrims south of Baghdad on Thursday, killing at least 51 people and wounding more than 180 in a third-straight day of attacks across Iraq.

The string of assaults, reminiscent of the bloodiest days of the Iraq war, shattered a two-month lull and presented a major challenge to the new government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who must soon decide whether to ask U.S. forces to stay after the end of the year.

Thursday’s attacks were particularly significant because most of the victims were Shiite civilians, the government’s core constituency. A lawmaker allied with anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, whose support for al-Maliki was crucial in enabling him to remain prime minister, accused government security forces of “not acting in a professional manner” to protect the pilgrims.

“I expect the attacks will continue ... due to the negligence of the security forces,” the lawmaker, Hakim al-Zamili, told The Associated Press.

The attacks took place at mid-afternoon Thursday at three security checkpoints — one north and the two others south of Karbala, where millions of Shiite pilgrims are converging for rituals marking the 7th-century death of Imam Hussein. He was a grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, who was slain near the city by Muslim rivals.

Ali Khamas, a pilgrim from the Shiite neighborhood of Sadr City in Baghdad, said he saw a car speeding toward one of the checkpoints, its driver refusing to stop despite warnings shouted by Iraqi soldiers.

“He sped up and blew up his car near the checkpoint,” said Khamas, a 42-year-old truck driver. “After the explosion, people started to run in all directions, while wounded people on the ground were screaming for help. I saw several dead bodies on the ground.”

The dead included a dozen Iraqi soldiers and policemen as well as an undisclosed number of women and children, officials said.

No group claimed responsibility, but suicide attacks are the trademark of the Islamic State of Iraq, an al-Qaida front group believed made up mostly of Sunni religious extremists.