Attacks kill 60, raise sectarian fears in Iraq

BAGHDAD – Simultaneous early morning attacks on mostly Shiite targets across Iraq killed at least 60 people and wounded dozens Thursday in one of the bloodiest days of violence since U.S. troops pulled out in mid-december.

The attacks that appeared to pitch al-qaida-linked Sunni Muslim insurgents against Shiites raised fears of a return to the widespread sectarian carnage that tore Iraq apart and cost thousands of lives in 2006 and 2007.

The violence breaks weeks of relative calm as Shiite Prime Minister Nuri al-maliki and Sunni leaders have sought to resolve a political crisis that threatened to unravel their power-sharing agreement following the U.S. withdrawal.

At least 32 people were killed i n blasts i n Baghdad, where 10 explosions tore through mainly Shiite neighbourhoods during rush hour and other attacks targeted police patrols, commuters and crowds gathered in shopping areas.

“We were sitting at a restaurant having soup for breakfast when the bomb exploded. I lost consciousness and then saw smoke and dust when I came to. I saw people and body parts everywhere,” police officer Ahmed Kadhim told Reuters.

Kadhim suffered shrapnel wounds to his left leg and back when a car bomb exploded near a restaurant killing six people and wounding 18 in Baghdad’s northern Kadhimiya district.

More than a dozen blasts and attacks hit other cities across Iraq from Mosul in the north to Hilla, south of Baghdad, many of them targeting police.

The interior ministry blamed al-qaida and affiliated armed groups for the attacks it said were an attempt to show that Iraq’s security situation remained unstable.

The blasts hit just weeks before Baghdad plans to host an Arab League summit, which has been postponed because of regional turmoil and acrimony between Iraq’s Shiite-led government and some Sunni Gulf states.

Holding a successful summit at the end of March would help Iraq restore its place in the Arab World since the U.S. withdrawal and help allay Sunni Gulf States worries over Iran’s influence over Iraq’s Shiite government.

“The attacks aimed to spark sectarian strife among the Iraqi people, and to prevent the Arab League meeting from being held,” Parliament Speaker Osama al-nujaifi said.