Blasts Rock Iraq Killing, Injuring Dozens of People
'Pakistan Times' Monitoring Desk

BAGHDAD (Iraq): Two bomb blasts killed dozens of people and injured several others while foreign envoys held peace talks just three kilometers away, a security official said Saturday.

Initial reports put the death toll close to fifty, which medics say could increase due to serious injuries to a number of men, women and children.

A suicide bomber attacked an army checkpoint in Baghdad killing 35 people. Six soldiers were among those killed when the attacker rammed a military position guarding the entrance to the east Baghdad Sadr City as part of a city-wide operation to quell sectarian violence, he said.

A doctor in Sadr City said medics had received 25 bodies and treated 40 wounded, while an official at Ibn Nafees Hospital said it had seen at least ten wounded.

The blast erupted in Mudaffer Square on the edge of Sadr City, a short distance from a police checkpoint, a news agency photographer said from the scene.

Another car bomb occurred in Eastern districts of Baghdad killing eleven people and injuring many others.

Earlier, three mortar shells fell near a building of Iraqi foreign ministry causing damage to building, but no loss of life was reported.

Envoys Moot

Baghdad was playing host Saturday to a conference of Middle Eastern countries and permanent members of the United Nations Security Council to discuss ways to deal with the threat of terrorism and sectarian violence.

The blast hit an Iraqi patrol in Sadr City at midday, scattering burning debris across a small bridge, witnesses said.

Home to about 2.5 million of Baghdad's poorest residents, Sadr City is the base for fighters allied to anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. His militia, the Mahdi Army, has laid low in recent weeks during a U.S.-Iraqi security crackdown under pressure from Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

Hours earlier, Iraqi Special Forces teams backed by U.S. soldiers detained six suspects believed to be rogue members of the Mahdi Army, the U.S. military said in a statement.

The suspects were accused of coordinating and carrying out kidnappings and murders of Iraqi civilians, the statement said.

In central Baghdad, two mortars fell near Iraq's Foreign Ministry, where envoys gathered for an international conference on how to quell the violence and bolster Iraq's government. There were no reports of injuries, but smoke was visible from the meeting area.

Meanwhile, Iraqi officials said they were holding a top al-Qaida activist, but not the terror mastermind Abu Omar al-Baghdadi who they believed was captured a day earlier.

"After preliminary investigations, it was proven that the arrested al-Qaida person is not Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, but, in fact, another important al-Qaida official," said Brig. Gen. Qassim al-Mousawi, an Iraqi military spokesman.

"Interrogations and investigations are still under way to get more information," he said.

Raids

An alleged member of the Islamic State of Iraq was among 27 suspects detained in U.S. raids across Iraq overnight, the U.S. military said.

One suspect was killed and 18 were detained in Taji, an area on the northern outskirts of Baghdad, the military said in a statement.

Eight suspects were captured in Mosul, 225 miles northwest of Baghdad, and one was detained in Ramadi, 115 kilometers 70 miles west of Baghdad, it said.

Also Saturday, the U.S. military said it was investigating the shooting of three Iraqis in Baghdad's Azamiyah neighborhood. American paratroopers fired on a vehicle when it failed to respond to warning signals, the military said in a statement. Three Iraqis were killed and three others were wounded in Friday's incident, it said.

In other violence, a roadside bomb killed three Iraqi policemen and wounded another Saturday in central Ramadi, police said.

Gunmen opened fire Saturday on pilgrims in Latifiyah, about 20 miles south of Baghdad, police said. One person was killed and three were wounded. Later, two more pilgrims were killed in shootings in eastern Baghdad, police said.

The pilgrims were on their way back from a Shiite shrine in Karbala, where millions of faithful were performing rites this weekend for Arbaeen, a holiday that marks the end of a 40-day mourning period after the death anniversary of the Prophet Muhammad's grandson.

Some 340 people, mostly pilgrims en route to Karbala, were killed in sectarian attacks this past week.

Maliki for Non-Interference

Meanwhile, Iraqi Prime Minister Nurial-Maliki has said that Iraq must not be the place where other countries play out their differences and interfere in domestic affairs.

"We demand that regional or international states refrain from interfering or influencing the Iraqi state of affairs through supporting a certain sect, ethnicity or party," Maliki said.

He was addressing a regional conference in Baghdad, including deputy foreign ministers and other mid-level officials from Iran, Syria and the United States.

Iraq's prime minister appealed for international help to cut off networks aiding extremists and warned envoys from neighbors and world powers that Iraq's growing sectarian bloodshed could spill across the Middle East.

‘Iraqi has become a front-line battlefield,’ said Maliki.

‘Iraq needs support in this battle that not only threatens Iraq but will spill over to all countries in the region,’ he added.

He expressed hope the conference could be a ‘turning point in supporting the government in facing this huge danger.’

Iran Blames US

Iran's envoy to regional peace talks in Baghdad rebuffed allegations that his country was fomenting violence in Iraq and instead blamed the fighting on the presence of US forces.

Iran's deputy foreign minister for legal and international affairs, Abbas Araghchi, accused the international forces in Iraq of playing a double game and called on them to set a date for their withdrawal.

He also demanded that six "Iranian diplomats" detained in Iraq by US forces be released. US commanders say the six, captured in December and January, are not diplomats but Iranian agents linked to arms smuggling.

"For the sake of peace and stability in Iraq we need a timetable for the withdrawal of foreign forces. We think the presence of foreign forces in Iraq contributes to the lack of security in Iraq we are facing," he said.

"The presence of foreign forces in Iraq is serving to benefit terrorists and violence," he added.

"We raised the question of the six Iranian diplomats kidnapped by American forces. We said they have diplomatic status and we are concerned about our diplomats," he added.

He also condemned attacks on religious places and gatherings, five days after a double suicide attack on a crowd of Shiite pilgrims killed at least 117 Iraqis in the central town of Hilla.●