Suicide bomber kills 106 in Iraq
At least 106 people were killed today when a suicide car bomber drove into a crowd applying for work at a government office south of Baghdad, then blew himself up.
More than 130 were injured by the blast in Hilla, 60 miles from the Iraqi capital, police said.
The blast came a day after Iraq announced the capture of a key insurgent leader – Saddam Hussein’s half brother – in neighbouring Syria.
A second car bomb exploded at a police checkpoint in Musayyib, about 20 miles north of Hilla, killing at least one policeman and wounding several others, police said.
In the deadlier attack, the suicide attacker drove into the crowd of jobseekers at the government office in Hilla and detonated the explosives, witnesses said.
Dozens of bodies could be seen lying on the ground after the blast, and half a dozen ambulances ferried casualties to a nearby hospital. The huge blast damaged nearby shops and parked cars, and sent panicked people fleeing.
The twin attacks came a day after Iraqi officials announced that Syria had captured and handed over Saddam Hussein’s half brother, a most-wanted leader in the Sunni-based insurgency, in the latest in a series of arrests of important insurgent figures that the Iraqi government hopes will deal a crushing blow to violent opposition forces.
The arrest of Sabawi Ibrahim al-Hassan also ended months of Syrian denials that it was harbouring fugitives from the ousted Saddam regime. Iraq authorities said Damascus acted in a gesture of goodwill.
Sabawi Ibrahim al-Hassan, who shared a mother with Saddam, was grabbed along with 29 other fugitive members of the former dictator’s Baath Party in Hasakah in north-eastern Syria, 30 miles from the Iraqi border.
Syria is under intense pressure from the US, the UN, France and Israel to drop its support for radical groups in the Middle East, to stop harbouring Iraqi fugitives and to remove its troops from Lebanon.
A week ago authorities grabbed a key associate and the driver of Jordanian-born terror leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, leader of al-Qaida in Iraq and believed to be the inspiration of the ongoing bombings, beheadings and attacks on Iraqi and American forces. Iraqi officials said they expect to take al-Zarqawi soon.
Iraqis welcomed news of al-Hassan’s capture.
“I hope all the terrorists will be arrested soon and we can live in peace,” said Safiya Nasser Sood, a 54-year-old Baghdad housewife. “Those criminals deserve death for the crimes they committed against the Iraqi people.”
The Iraqi officials did not specify when al-Hassan was captured, only saying he was detained after the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in Beirut, Lebanon, on February 14.
Captain Ahmed Ismael, an Iraqi intelligence officer, said al-Hassan was handed over yesterday.
Another Iraqi official said Syrian security forces expelled al-Hassan after he and his supporters had been turned back in an earlier attempt to cross the Syrian border into Lebanon and Jordan.
Al-Hassan was Number 36 – the six of diamonds – on the list of 55 most-wanted Iraqis compiled by US authorities after Saddam was toppled in April 2003. Eleven from the deck of cards issued to help troops identify the suspects remain at large. The United States had offered a million dollars for his capture.
Iraq’s post-election Shiite Muslim power broker, United Iraqi Alliance leader Abdel Aziz al-Hakim, said al-Hassan’s arrest signalled troubled times for the insurgency.
“Those criminals are on the run and we will chase the rest of them. We will work on arresting all the criminals, either those inside Iraq, or those in other neighbouring countries, so that they can stand fair trial and be punished for the crimes they have committed against the Iraqi people,” he said.
Under Saddam, al-Hassan led the dreaded General Security Directorate, which was responsible for internal security, especially cracking down on political factions that opposed the Iraqi leader.
Al-Hassan was accused of the widespread torture of political opponents. He later became a presidential adviser, the last post he held in the former regime.
He was also thought to have been responsible for setting up shadowy companies in neighbouring Jordan to overcome UN sanctions imposed after Iraq invaded neighbouring Kuwait, prompting the first Gulf War in 1991.
Internationally, al-Hassan’s name was linked to attempts to sell looted Kuwaiti treasure.
Saddam’s two other half brothers, Barzan and Watban, were captured in April 2003 and are expected to stand trial along with Saddam at the Iraqi Special Tribunal. Both appeared before the special court in Baghdad along with Saddam and other captured regime during preliminary hearings to hear the charges against them.
The blast in Hilla, was one of the deadliest single attacks since President George Bush declared the war over in May 2003.
“A suicide car bomb hit a gathering of people who were applying for work in the security services.
The incident led to the death of 106 people and injury of 133 citizens,” said a police statement.
It added that “several people” has been arrested but did not elaborate.
Small lakes of blood were seen outside the medical clinic, located on a dusty street.
Scorch marks infused with blood covered the clinic walls and dozens of people gathered at the scene helped put body parts, including arms, feet and limbs into blankets. Piles of shoes and tattered clothes were piled up in a corner.
“People were queuing up to be checked medically in order to become policemen. A car came … and exploded, killing more than 50 people, more than what you expect," said witness Ammar Mosa.
Dia Mohammed, the director of Hilla General hospital, most the victims were recruits waiting to take physicals as part of the application process to join the Iraqi police and national guard.
