Violence spikes in Iraq, 60 dead

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Iraqis carry a coffin of a relative killed after a bomb attack in Baghdad. — AFP

BAGHDAD, May 21 (AFP): Iraq was engulfed Thursday by a wave of violence, with suicide and bomb attacks killing 23 people a day after a massive bomb devastated a Baghdad Shiite neighbourhood slaughtering 40 civilians.
The main target of Thursday's attacks was Baghdad, where a suicide bomber detonated his explosives in a crowded market in southern Dora neighbourhood, killing at least 12 people and wounding 25, security officials said.
The bomber targeted a US patrol that was passing through a popular Assyrian market in the confessionally mixed neighbourhood, officials from the interior and defence ministry told the news agency.
The market attack came soon after a bomb exploded in a rubbish bin inside a Baghdad police station, killing three policeman and injuring 20, among then 12 officers and eight civilians, officials said.
The day began on a bloody note when a suicide bomber killed eight members of an anti-Qaeda militia early morning in the tense northern city Kirkuk as they were lining up to receive their salaries, police said.
The attacks in two of Iraq's largest urban centres come as the US military prepares to decamp from the nation's cities and towns by June 30 and ahead of a complete withdrawal by the end of 2011.
The bloodletting has sparked fears of a return of Al-Qaeda-style attacks aimed at reigniting the sectarianism that swept the country two years ago.
Iraqi vice president Tarek al-Hashemi, a Sunni Arab, called Thursday for national unity in the wake of the violence.
"The evil and criminal powers are back once again to continue their criminal actions against our patient people," he said in a statement.
"We call upon our people to unite, to not give in to the enemies of Iraq who are trying to undermine our unity."
The bombing in Kirkuk occurred inside a building under the control of the Iraqi army, where anti-Qaeda fighters, known as Sahwa, or Awakening, had gathered to receive the pay cheques, police major Salam Zangana told newsmen.
"A suicide bomber dressed in a Sahwa uniform blew himself up at a Sahwa gathering near Kirkuk's technical college. They were waiting to receive their salaries," he said.
Thursday's attacks follow a huge car bomb blast in a Shiite neighbourhood in Baghdad on Wednesday evening that killed at least 40 people and injured 83.
No one has claimed responsibility for the latest wave of bombings but Al-Qaeda insurgents regularly target civilians and also try to kill Sahwa members, whom it brands traitors, especially in ethnically mixed parts of Iraq such as Kirkuk.
Meanwhile, the US military says three soldiers have been killed and nine others wounded in a roadside bombing in southern Baghdad.
Army Maj David Shoupe said the soldiers were killed Thursday when a bomb exploded at about 10:38 am while American troops were patrolling near a popular outdoor market in the southern district of Dora.
He says four civilians have also been killed in the blast. Iraqi police and hospital officials put the civilian toll at 12 killed and 25 wounded.
Shoupe says initial reports that the attack was caused by a suicide bomber could not be confirmed.