Car bombings kill at least 144 following mortar attack on ministry; Baghdad under 'indefinite' curfew

The bodies of some victims are seen at hospital morgue following the bombings in Baghdad today

BAGHDAD, Nov. 23 — In one of the deadliest sectarian assaults since the ouster of Saddam Hussein, explosions from at least three powerful car bombs and a mortar shell tore through teeming intersections in the Shiite district of Sadr City today, killing at least 144 people and wounding 206, the authorities said.

The coordinated bombings followed a two-hour siege by about 30 insurgents early this afternoon against the headquarters of the Shiite-run Health Ministry in northern Baghdad, about a mile west of Sadr City. The gunmen, shooting from nearby buildings and surrounding streets, pelted the ministry with mortar shells and gunfire but fled when Iraqi troops and American military helicopters appeared, officials and witnesses said.

The attacks, coming against targets with strong Shiite identities, seemed intended to stoke sectarian fury and threatened to accelerate the cycle of retributive killings that has pushed Iraq to the brink of all-out civil war.

The car bombs sent thick pillars of smoke into the air, destroyed dozens of vehicles and shop fronts, and scattered charred, bloodied bodies. Rescuers desperately evacuated wounded victims from the bomb sites using cars and wooded carts, as residents and Shiite militiamen flooded the streets of the working-class enclave, waving assault rifles, shouting epithets against Sunni Arabs and the government, and vowing revenge.

“I’m very, very angry because the government did nothing for us,” said Muhammad Ali Muhammad, a 27-year-old laborer in Sadr City. “There’s no protection for us.”

Government security forces, in an effort to prevent a chain reaction of violence, flooded the neighborhoods around the Health Ministry and Sadr City, setting up cordons around both areas. The government imposed an indefinite curfew on the capital, according to Iraqi state television, quoting an Interior Ministry official.

Read the rest at the NY Times

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