BAGHDAD — A car bomb tore through a cafe packed with young men watching a soccer match Tuesday in Baghdad, killing at least 16 people, officials said. It was the first major attack since U.S. commandos killed al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in Pakistan.
Nobody claimed responsibility for the bombing, which struck a Shiite enclave in a mainly Sunni neighborhood, but it bore the hallmarks of the terror network’s chapter in Iraq. Al-Qaeda operatives have vowed revenge for bin Laden’s death.
Iraqi security officials said Monday that they were increasing security amid fears that insurgents would try to strike immediately following bin Laden’s death as a way to show they are still a potent force.
Most of the dead and wounded were young people watching a soccer match, said police and hospital officials. A vendor selling food near the cafe also was among the 16 killed. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information, said 37 people also were wounded.
The attack occurred in a Shiite enclave in the former insurgent stronghold of Dora, an area in southwestern Baghdad that saw some of the fiercest fighting of the Iraq conflict.
Many Iraqis were quick to blame the terror network.
“This is the cowardly reaction of al-Qaeda after the killing of the big terrorist bin Laden. They intend to do this against such gatherings in Shiite areas,” said Jasim Hashim, a 20-year-old student who lives about 200 yards from where the bomb went off in front of the popular cafe.
Hashim said his parents had refused to let him go out, fearing just such an attack after bin Laden’s death, but one of his close friends was at the cafe and was killed in the bombing.
