Baghdad, Iraq – A car bomb detonated Friday near a fruit and vegetable market in Hillah, a Shiite town south of Baghdad, killing at least eight people and wounding 41, part of two days of bloodletting that has left 110 people dead.
The bomb was detonated by remote control about 10:15 a.m. in the al-Sharia market in central Hillah and tore into a crowded area of people shopping for food.
The attack was almost identical to three that took place just 16 hours before in Balad, north of Baghdad.
In those bombings, two of which were also in a crowded marketplace frequented mostly by Shiites, the death toll rose sharply overnight and, by Friday afternoon, had reached 102, including 18 children, according to Dr. Qasim al-Qaisi, the manager of Balad Hospital. In all, 150 people were wounded, he said.
Al-Qaeda in Iraq, the radical Islamist group run by the Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, claimed responsibility for the Balad attacks, Agence France- Presse reported.
The steady stream of gruesome attacks, aimed mostly at civilians in Shiite areas, has surged in recent weeks.
Sunni Arab radicals, led by Zarqawi, are pursuing a strategy of attacks against Shiites in an attempt to start a war between Iraq’s two largest sects.
Iraq is preparing to hold a national referendum on a new constitution on Oct. 15, a document that most Sunni Arabs strongly oppose, and American military officials have warned that the violence is likely to increase up to the day of the vote.
In Hillah, 60 miles south of Baghdad, the explosives were packed into a Mercedes and then parked near the market, police officials said. Of the eight who died, two were younger than 10, and two were women, a doctor said.
