Twenty-six killed as bomb rips through Iraqi market
October 30, 2005, 13:49 gmt
BAQUBA, Iraq (AFP) - A bomb hidden in a truck packed with dates killed at least 26 in a Shiite village market north of Baghdad late Saturday, in what appeared to be the latest bid by Sunni extremists to spark a sectarian war in the run-up to the December general elections.
A bomb hidden in a truck packed with dates killed at least 26 in a Shiite village market north of Baghdad late Saturday, in what appeared to be the latest bid by Sunni extremists to spark a sectarian war in the run-up to the December general elections.
Hospital officials said some 45 people were wounded in the attack on the village of Huwaider, near Baquba, 60 kilometres (35 miles) from the capital.
The attack came minutes before the start of evening prayers as the faithful headed to a nearby mosque and women and children shopped at the market before the breaking of the day-long Ramadan fast.
Police said that at least 14 people were missing, but added that several human remains had not yet been identified.
Eyewitness reported seeing the driver of a truck laden with dates parking near the market shortly before the explosion.
The bombing was the latest in a string of apparent sectarian attacks by Sunni extremists against the country's Shiite majority, whose representatives came to power in January's elections after years of Sunni rule under deposed leader Saddam Hussein.
Al-Qaeda in Iraq, an insurgent group controlled by Sunni extremist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, has killed hundreds of Shiites, mostly in car bomb attacks, since declaring open war on the community in September.
The group aims to deepen the rift between Shiites and Sunnis in a bid to further destabilize the war-torn country, according to observers.
In Baghdad, several large political coalitions established mostly on sectarian or ethnic lines put forward their candidates on Friday for the December 15 general elections, the final phase in the country's year-long transition to democracy.
Five large coalitions, as well as an undetermined number of small parties and independent candidates, had until Friday to register their candidates.
The electoral commission Sunday said 228 lists had been registered, including 21 coalitions, but it did not immediately specify the number of candidates.
The new 275-member parliament will take over from the transitional parliament elected in January and is to serve for four years, its first full term since Saddam's regime was toppled in April 2003.
Former Iraqi prime minister and Washington favorite Iyad Allawi, who heads the largely secular Iraqi National List, Saturday warned that "growing ethnic 'polarisation risks causing endless conflict in Iraq which could also split along sectarian lines."
In other violence, an advisor to the cabinet, Ghalef Abdel al-Mahdi, was wounded and his driver killed when their car was ambushed by armed men in Baghdad Sunday morning, security officials said.
And a civilian was killed and three more wounded by a roadside bomb south of the capital near Mahmudiyah, an interior ministry official said.
Meanwhile, British newspapers said the British army was having problems recruiting soldiers because of the Iraq war.
A Ministry of Defence document obtained by The Sunday Telegraph showed that the British infantry is facing one of its worst recruiting crises -- less than half the number of recruits needed will join this year.
The infantry was under greater strain than any other part of the army because it provides most of the 8,500 troops serving in Iraq.
A further 3,200 soldiers who are due to be deployed to Afghanistan next April will come mainly from infantry battalions, The Sunday Telegraph said.
The infantry, which numbers some 28,000 soldiers, is 1,859 men under strength. This figure will rise to 2,288 -- about eight percent of the total -- by next March, the document revealed.
Adding to the problem, more than 6,000 members of the Territorial Army -- made up of part-time reservists -- have quit in the past year because of the Iraq campaign, the Sunday Times reported for its part.
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