Irag: US Out - Iran In (BMB)

Baghdad explosions kill at least 63 in first major violence since U.S. departure

By Dan Morse and Aziz Alwan, Updated: Thursday, December 22, 6:19 AM

BAGHDAD — More than a dozen explosions in Baghdad over a two-hour period Thursday morning killed at least 63 people--the first major violence in Iraq since the U.S. completed its troop pullout last week and a political crisis broke out.

At least 185 people were reported injured in the bombings, said officials at the Ministry of Interior, who were speaking on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

The coordinated wave of attacks began around 6:30 a.m. local time (10:30 p.m. Wednesday in Washington). Witnesses said that all main roads and many government offices in the Iraqi capital remained closed for hours after.

Babil province, about 80 miles south of the capital, imposed a curfew after receiving intelligence information that explosive-laden cars had entered the area, according to a report on government-run Iraqia TV.

But by 2 p.m., traffic was clogging main roads in central Baghdad, and life returned at least partially to normal. Street vendors sold food. Women boarded buses. Pedestrians, including men in suits and carrying briefcases, walked down sidewalks.

The Baghdad blasts included at least five booby-trapped cars, two operated by suicide drivers. Police were able to diffuse or safely detonate an additional three booby-trapped cars, officials said. Additionally, a Katyusha rocket was fired into a western Baghdad neighborhood, killing one person and injuring another.

Qassim Atta, a spokesman for the Baghdad Operations Command, told the Iraqia station that the explosions targeted civilians randomly, and not specific establishments.

In response to the attacks, speaker of parliament Ussama Alnujafi called on leaders of the government’s political blocs to gather Friday to discuss security concerns, said Tami Ahmed Ma’aruf, a spokesman for the speaker.

Iraq’s political leadership has been in turmoil since Monday, when officials from the Shiite-backed central government announced an arrest warrant had been issued for vice president Tariq al-Hashimi, a leading Sunni politician. The warrant alleged that Hashimi he enlisted personal body guards to run a hit squad.

Hashimi has fled to Iraq’s semiautonomous region of Kurdistan. The country’s top government official, Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, is demanding that Kurdish officials return him to Baghdad to face the charges.

In a news conference on Wednesday, Maliki also said that he would release what he described as incriminating information about government officials unless they work to stop killings and to rebuild the country. Iraq’s constitution, he said, gives him broad authority and latitude to run the country as he sees fit.