Bombs, gunmen kill over 150 in Baghdad

During the night, gunmen killed 17 people in the nearby town of Taji after dragging them from their homes.

The violence occurred as a final draft of the Iraqi constitution was handed to the UN for printing and distribution.

After months of negotiations the draft is due to be distributed to Iraqis before a referendum on it in mid-October.

The deputy speaker of Iraq's national assembly, Hussein Shahristani, said the final version of the document contained some changes.

The draft now includes a statement that Iraq is committed to the charter of the Arab League and it has a provision for two, rather than three, deputy prime ministers.

In other developments:

* Three Iraqi soldiers are killed when a car bomb targets their patrol in the Al-Adel district of western Baghdad

* A bomb explodes by an Iraqi National Guard convoy in the northern Baghdad district of Shula, killing at least four people and wounding 22

* Two US soldiers are wounded as a suicide bomber rams a vehicle packed with explosives into their Humvee in east Baghdad

* A suicide car bomber attacks a US convoy close to the Rashid Hotel in the Green Zone, although it is not yet known if there were any other casualties

* A suicide bomber blows himself up in Baghdad without causing any other casualties.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4244068.stm

A suicide bomber lured a crowd of Shi'ite day laborers to his minivan and blew it up in Baghdad on Wednesday, killing 114 people and wounding more than 156 in
Iraq's second deadliest bombing since the war began.

The bomber drew the men to his vehicle with promises of work before detonating the bomb, which contained up to 500 pounds (220 kg) of explosives, an Interior Ministry source said.

"There's no political party here, there are no police," Mohammed Jabbar railed at the blast site in the Shi'ite Muslim Khadhimiya area. "This targeted civilians, innocents. Why women and children?" he added, as bystanders shouted, "Why? Why?"

Another car bomber blew himself up in northern Baghdad, killing 11 people lined up to refill gas canisters, as a wave of bombings rocked the capital. Gunmen also dragged 17 people from their homes and killed them in Taji, a northern suburb.

More than 150 people were killed in all the attacks, which a police official said seemed to have been carefully orchestrated.

Iraq's al Qaeda claimed it was waging a nationwide suicide bombing campaign to avenge a military offensive on a rebel town.

A statement on an Islamist Web site often used by the Sunni Muslim militant group led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi did not mention a specific attack, but said the campaign was in reprisal for a U.S.-Iraqi offensive in the northern town of Tal Afar.

"We would like to congratulate the Muslim nation and inform it the battle to avenge the Sunnis of Tal Afar has begun," it said.

Fears of civil war have grown ahead of an October 15 referendum on a new constitution for Iraq.

Iraqi government officials have accused Sunni militants of attacking majority Shi'ites, who swept to power in January polls boycotted by most Sunnis, in a bid to spark a civil war. Most of the victims of Wednesday's attacks were Shi'ites.

"We gathered and suddenly a car blew up and turned the area into fire and dust and darkness," said Hadi, one of the workers who survived the attack, which happened shortly after sunrise.

Bodies lay in the street beside burned-out cars, witnesses said. Some used wooden carts to haul away the dead.

Police said 114 people were killed and 156 wounded in the explosion. It was the deadliest attack since July, when 98 people were killed in a blast south of the capital.

The most lethal bombing since the U.S.-led invasion of 2003 was a suicide car bomb attack on February 28 this year, which killed 125 people in Hilla, south of Baghdad.

Earlier this month more than 1,000 people died in Khadhimiya in a stampede on a bridge, triggered by fears of a bomber in a crowd during a Shi'ite religious ceremony.

At the nearby Kadhimiya hospital, overflowing with victims, dozens of the wounded screamed in agony as they were treated on the floor, some lying in pools of their own blood.

One man had severe burns to his arms and legs, and another victim, shivering uncontrollably, lay bleeding unattended.

Another blast echoed over central Baghdad about two hours after the first. Two more car bombs exploded soon afterwards.

Police said five people were killed and 24 wounded in one of the blasts, near a Shi'ite cleric's offices. Three policemen and three civilians were killed in an attack on a police convoy.

A U.S. patrol also came under attack. A Reuters cameraman saw a Humvee military vehicle burned out by a roadside bomb. There was no word on any U.S. casualties. Minutes later another bomb nearby wounded two Iraqi policemen in a convoy.

The gunmen in Taji had rounded up their victims in the middle of the night. All were shot in the head, and all were Shi'ite relatives from the same tribe, police said.

TENSIONS OVER CONSTITUTION

The run-up to the October 15 vote has worsened tensions between Iraq's main communities, Shi'ites, Sunni Arabs and Kurds.

Sunnis, who comprise 20 percent of the population, dominated Iraqi politics for decades and resent their loss of influence since
Saddam Hussein was toppled by U.S. forces in April 2003.

They fear the constitution will institutionalize their reduced role, by granting autonomy to southern Shi'ites in line with that enjoyed by Kurds in the north, and by decentralizing control of oil revenues.

Iraq's parliament sent a "final draft" of the text to the
United Nations on Wednesday, after making minor amendments designed to appease Sunni concerns. U.N. officials said they would not start printing it until they had an assurance from the speaker of parliament that it was the final version.

Iraqi and U.S. troops have been fighting Sunni rebels for days in Tal Afar, near the Syrian border, killing over 200 and capturing several hundred, according to the Iraqi government.

"Since the operation began, there have been dozens of terrorists killed, 341 detained and 22 weapons caches found," the U.S. military said in a statement on Wednesday.

Late on Tuesday, U.S. aircraft launched strikes on targets in Karabila, another town near the Syrian border. Washington and Baghdad say insurgents smuggle fighters and arms across the border, which Iraq closed in places on Sunday.
Syria denies it.

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