BAGHDAD — In what appeared to be the deadliest day in Iraq since the withdrawal of the American military in December, a terrifying series of explosions that mostly targeted Shiite Muslims amounted to an emphatic demonstration of the still potent capabilities of the Sunni insurgency and a reminder of the instability left behind by American forces.
Shortly after midnight, a homemade bomb exploded in the capital, a harbinger of what was to come over the next hours. Around 5 a.m., a truck bomb exploded in Khadamiya, a Baghdad neighborhood where Shiite pilgrims had begun to gather to mark the life and death of a revered imam who was the Prophet Muhammad’s great-grandson. From then on, reports of other attacks flooded in from around the country — Samarra, Kirkuk, Mosul, Falluja, Ramadi, Hilla — and by midday officials said more than 70 people were dead and at least 260 people wounded. The only large cities spared were the southern port city of Basra and the holy city of Najaf.
The attacks were a deadly reality check for a country that has made substantial steps to reclaim a sense of normalcy. One article on the front page of a local newspaper Wednesday heralded the return of women to local cinemas. Lately, new red double-decker buses have begun operating in Baghdad, and checkpoints and blast walls have been dismantled, providing some relief to the city’s notorious traffic delays. But after the first attacks struck Wednesday morning, security forces closed off roads, lending a sense of siege to the capital that will continue over the next several days leading up to the culmination of the Shiite religious festival on Saturday. In the afternoon, the government declared that Thursday would be a day off so that the army and the police can secure the city. And on Thursday morning, local papers will again be filled with stories of death and destruction.
Helicopters buzzed the skies over Baghdad, and in hospitals, familiar and bloody scenes of grief unfolded. Among the victims in Khadamiya were those who had set up tents, including some Sunnis, to serve water and food to the pilgrims.
“The explosion was large enough to tell us that the target is all Iraqis, not just Shiites, because I had two Sunni friends helping me serve the pilgrims,” said Ali al-Baydhani, 39, who was operating a food stand.
According to a Ministry of Interior official, five parked cars detonated across Baghdad, aimed at Shiite pilgrims celebrating the eighth-century martyrdom of Imam Moussa Kadhim. The pilgrimage reaches its peak on Saturday, raising the specter of further violence as more pilgrims descend on Baghdad in the coming days. In Baghdad, at least 29 people were killed and roughly 80 people wounded.
In Hilla, a predominantly Shiite city south of Baghdad, two car bombs left at least 20 people dead and nearly 40 injured. One attack struck a restaurant near the local police academy, and many of the killed were recruits eating breakfast, according to a local official. Also, Shiite mosques in the Hilla area were damaged by homemade bombs, although there were no casualties in those explosions. And in a village east of Karbala, a famous Shiite shrine city, a bomb struck a group of day laborers as they gathered for work.
Haider Ali, 32, a merchant in Hilla, was shopping nearby when the restaurant was attacked. He ran outside, he said, and “saw smoke and smelled burnt flesh.”
He continued: “I saw an old man who used to bring breakfast to his family every morning. He had lost one of his legs and had serious wounds on the other. I think he died while being transferred to the hospital.”
The attacks came against the backdrop of a political crisis that erupted in December and has continued unabated for months. The crisis began when an arrest warrant was issued for the Sunni vice president, Tariq al-Hashimi, on terrorism charges; the effect exacerbated a sense of disenfranchisement among Iraq’s Sunni minority. Lately, Sunni and Kurdish lawmakers have been engaged in an aggressive effort to force the Shiite prime minister, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, from office through a vote of no confidence in the Parliament.
Most analysts and diplomats say that is unlikely because Mr. Maliki’s opponents are too divided among themselves, but the crisis has paralyzed the government and raised fears that insurgents will continue to use the political situation as an impetus for more attacks. At the same time, two recent polls show that Mr. Maliki has weathered the crisis well, increasing his popularity among his Shiite base and even among some Sunni tribes. The polls reflect a sense of disillusionment about Mr. Maliki’s rivals over the perception that they are divided and obstructionist, even as fears persist that the prime minister is becoming too powerful, especially because of his firm grip on the security forces and the judiciary.
“Today is a disaster,” said Iskander Witwit, a member of Parliament’s security committee. “And it’s all because of the political problems between the parties that are reflected in the streets.”
On Wednesday, Mr. Maliki led a meeting of his top commanders and warned in a statement that the political crisis that has engulfed his government may be encouraging insurgents to unleash attacks.
Numerous other smaller attacks and assassinations were reported across the country Wednesday morning. In Kirkuk, four car bombs exploded, two near Kurdish political offices. In Balad, a largely Shiite city north of Baghdad, two car bombs detonated, killing 5 and wounding 30, according to a security official. In Diyala Province, a spate of assassinations by gunfire and homemade bombs killed five.
While the casualty reports suggested that Wednesday was the deadliest day since the American military left, two other days since then were similarly deadly: in late December at least 63 people were killed in Baghdad, and in early January an estimated 68 people were killed across the country.
Wednesday’s attacks followed a deadly sectarian attack last week on an important Shiite religious office in Baghdad that is in charge of overseeing mosques and cultural sites.
Late December marked the withdrawal of the last American forces, and in the immediate aftermath of their departure violence spiked. But in more recent months, overall violence has appeared to decline, according to statistics released by the Iraqi government.
But every few weeks, significant attacks, mostly aimed at Shiites — the public gatherings to mark religious rituals are frequent targets, as they have been for years — still occur at the hands of a still lethal Sunni insurgency. Last week, the Islamic State of Iraq, an umbrella organization that includes Al Qaeda’s local franchise, claimed responsibility for the bombing of the Shiite office in Baghdad, which left an estimated 20 people dead, and in a statement warned of further violence against Shiites. Referring to the attack on the religious office, the group warned, “This is the first message you have received, with the color of blood and the smell of death, and what is coming will be tougher.”
Despite the regularity of the sectarian attacks, there is little sense that Iraq could soon tilt back toward the vicious sectarian war the country faced in 2006 and 2007, and which Syria appears to be facing today. Shiites, who are firmly and strongly in control of the levers of state, have little incentive to retaliate with terrorism or tit-for-tat sectarian killings.
Zaid Thaker, Duraid Adnan and Yasir Ghazi contributed reporting from Baghdad. Other employees of The New York Times contributed reporting from Baghdad, Hilla, Mosul, Kirkuk, Samarra, Falluja and Ramadi.
Shortly after midnight, a homemade bomb exploded in the capital, a harbinger of what was to come over the next hours. Around 5 a.m., a truck bomb exploded in Khadamiya, a Baghdad neighborhood where Shiite pilgrims had begun to gather to mark the life and death of a revered imam who was the Prophet Muhammad’s great-grandson. From then on, reports of other attacks flooded in from around the country — Samarra, Kirkuk, Mosul, Falluja, Ramadi, Hilla — and by midday officials said more than 70 people were dead and at least 260 people wounded. The only large cities spared were the southern port city of Basra and the holy city of Najaf.
The attacks were a deadly reality check for a country that has made substantial steps to reclaim a sense of normalcy. One article on the front page of a local newspaper Wednesday heralded the return of women to local cinemas. Lately, new red double-decker buses have begun operating in Baghdad, and checkpoints and blast walls have been dismantled, providing some relief to the city’s notorious traffic delays. But after the first attacks struck Wednesday morning, security forces closed off roads, lending a sense of siege to the capital that will continue over the next several days leading up to the culmination of the Shiite religious festival on Saturday. In the afternoon, the government declared that Thursday would be a day off so that the army and the police can secure the city. And on Thursday morning, local papers will again be filled with stories of death and destruction.
Helicopters buzzed the skies over Baghdad, and in hospitals, familiar and bloody scenes of grief unfolded. Among the victims in Khadamiya were those who had set up tents, including some Sunnis, to serve water and food to the pilgrims.
“The explosion was large enough to tell us that the target is all Iraqis, not just Shiites, because I had two Sunni friends helping me serve the pilgrims,” said Ali al-Baydhani, 39, who was operating a food stand.
According to a Ministry of Interior official, five parked cars detonated across Baghdad, aimed at Shiite pilgrims celebrating the eighth-century martyrdom of Imam Moussa Kadhim. The pilgrimage reaches its peak on Saturday, raising the specter of further violence as more pilgrims descend on Baghdad in the coming days. In Baghdad, at least 29 people were killed and roughly 80 people wounded.
In Hilla, a predominantly Shiite city south of Baghdad, two car bombs left at least 20 people dead and nearly 40 injured. One attack struck a restaurant near the local police academy, and many of the killed were recruits eating breakfast, according to a local official. Also, Shiite mosques in the Hilla area were damaged by homemade bombs, although there were no casualties in those explosions. And in a village east of Karbala, a famous Shiite shrine city, a bomb struck a group of day laborers as they gathered for work.
Haider Ali, 32, a merchant in Hilla, was shopping nearby when the restaurant was attacked. He ran outside, he said, and “saw smoke and smelled burnt flesh.”
He continued: “I saw an old man who used to bring breakfast to his family every morning. He had lost one of his legs and had serious wounds on the other. I think he died while being transferred to the hospital.”
The attacks came against the backdrop of a political crisis that erupted in December and has continued unabated for months. The crisis began when an arrest warrant was issued for the Sunni vice president, Tariq al-Hashimi, on terrorism charges; the effect exacerbated a sense of disenfranchisement among Iraq’s Sunni minority. Lately, Sunni and Kurdish lawmakers have been engaged in an aggressive effort to force the Shiite prime minister, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, from office through a vote of no confidence in the Parliament.
Most analysts and diplomats say that is unlikely because Mr. Maliki’s opponents are too divided among themselves, but the crisis has paralyzed the government and raised fears that insurgents will continue to use the political situation as an impetus for more attacks. At the same time, two recent polls show that Mr. Maliki has weathered the crisis well, increasing his popularity among his Shiite base and even among some Sunni tribes. The polls reflect a sense of disillusionment about Mr. Maliki’s rivals over the perception that they are divided and obstructionist, even as fears persist that the prime minister is becoming too powerful, especially because of his firm grip on the security forces and the judiciary.
“Today is a disaster,” said Iskander Witwit, a member of Parliament’s security committee. “And it’s all because of the political problems between the parties that are reflected in the streets.”
On Wednesday, Mr. Maliki led a meeting of his top commanders and warned in a statement that the political crisis that has engulfed his government may be encouraging insurgents to unleash attacks.
Numerous other smaller attacks and assassinations were reported across the country Wednesday morning. In Kirkuk, four car bombs exploded, two near Kurdish political offices. In Balad, a largely Shiite city north of Baghdad, two car bombs detonated, killing 5 and wounding 30, according to a security official. In Diyala Province, a spate of assassinations by gunfire and homemade bombs killed five.
While the casualty reports suggested that Wednesday was the deadliest day since the American military left, two other days since then were similarly deadly: in late December at least 63 people were killed in Baghdad, and in early January an estimated 68 people were killed across the country.
Wednesday’s attacks followed a deadly sectarian attack last week on an important Shiite religious office in Baghdad that is in charge of overseeing mosques and cultural sites.
Late December marked the withdrawal of the last American forces, and in the immediate aftermath of their departure violence spiked. But in more recent months, overall violence has appeared to decline, according to statistics released by the Iraqi government.
But every few weeks, significant attacks, mostly aimed at Shiites — the public gatherings to mark religious rituals are frequent targets, as they have been for years — still occur at the hands of a still lethal Sunni insurgency. Last week, the Islamic State of Iraq, an umbrella organization that includes Al Qaeda’s local franchise, claimed responsibility for the bombing of the Shiite office in Baghdad, which left an estimated 20 people dead, and in a statement warned of further violence against Shiites. Referring to the attack on the religious office, the group warned, “This is the first message you have received, with the color of blood and the smell of death, and what is coming will be tougher.”
Despite the regularity of the sectarian attacks, there is little sense that Iraq could soon tilt back toward the vicious sectarian war the country faced in 2006 and 2007, and which Syria appears to be facing today. Shiites, who are firmly and strongly in control of the levers of state, have little incentive to retaliate with terrorism or tit-for-tat sectarian killings.
Zaid Thaker, Duraid Adnan and Yasir Ghazi contributed reporting from Baghdad. Other employees of The New York Times contributed reporting from Baghdad, Hilla, Mosul, Kirkuk, Samarra, Falluja and Ramadi.