Baghdad, Iraq – Militants struck back Sunday in their first major blow against a U.S.-led security clampdown in Baghdad with car bombings that killed at least 63 people, left scores injured and sent a grim message to officials boasting that extremist factions were on the run.
The attacks in mostly Shiite areas – twin explosions in an open-air market that claimed 62 lives and a third blast that killed one – were a sobering reminder of the challenges confronting any effort to rattle the well- armed and -hidden insurgents.
Instead, it was the Iraqi commanders of the security sweep feeling the sting.
Just a few hours before the blasts, Lt. Gen. Abboud Qanbar led a tour of the neighborhood near the marketplace that was attacked and promised to “chase the terrorists out of Baghdad.”
On Saturday, the Iraqi spokesman for the plan, Brig. Gen. Qassim Moussawi, said violence had plummeted by 80 percent in the capital.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki condemned the blasts as a desperate act by “criminals” who sense they are being squeezed.
U.S. military chiefs have been much more cautious. They have insisted the security drive, begun last week, may take months to make clear gains and that militants’ counterpunches were likely every step of the way.
The ones dealt Sunday came from the militants’ favored weapon of the moment: parked cars rigged with explosives.
The first blast tore through a produce market in the mostly Shiite area of New Baghdad, toppling the wooden stalls and leaving pools of blood and vegetables trampled in the chaos. Minutes later, another car bomb exploded near a row of stores.
More than 129 people were injured, including many women who were shopping, said police and rescue officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to the media.
Another car bomb in the Shiite enclave of Sadr City left at least one dead and 10 wounded, police said.
The Baghdad crackdown has sent ripples through all corners of the country. The borders with Iran and Syria – shut for three days as the plan got underway – reopened Sunday. But new and strict rules will apply.
