30 Iraqi Police, Civilians Killed
Bloodshed continues a day after attacks on a Baghdad slum. A populist cleric blames officials for not putting a lid on the violence.
By Louise Roug and Raheem Salman, Times Staff Writers
March 14, 2006
BAGHDAD — Scattered attacks targeting police and civilians killed 30 Iraqis on Monday as populist cleric Muqtada Sadr lashed out at Iraqi politicians and U.S. officials for failing to stop the violence.
The attacks followed a bloody Sunday in which 52 people were killed and close to 300 injured by bombs and mortars in Sadr City, a vast Shiite slum in northeastern Baghdad.
"When things reach a certain point, then nobody can control the reins," said Abdulsattar Nasri, a 47-year-old lawyer who was among the many people gathered at a nearby hospital Monday to receive the bodies of their relatives.
In what appeared to be retribution by locals for the previous night's attacks, four men were found Monday hanged near the Jolan athletic club in Sadr City, each with a note pinned to the chest spelling out "traitor," police said. Witnesses told authorities that two of the men had been captured wearing explosive belts and the other two had been caught firing mortar rounds against targets in Sadr City, police said.
Eleven more bodies were found throughout the capital.
Amid rising impatience at daily attacks, Sadr vowed to respond to attacks on Shiites "militarily, religiously and ideologically," during a speech in the holy city of Najaf south of the capital.
"We're not weak," Sadr said. "But I don't want to be dragged into a civil war."
Speaking to reporters, Sadr criticized the Bush administration for interfering in Iraqi affairs, and the Iraqi government for being weak and self-involved.
The politicians "are busy. 'I want to be president, I want to be minister.' They forget the people and they are busy with their [own] interests," he said.
In a retort to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's statement last week that the U.S. would rely on Iraqi forces in case of an all-out civil war, Sadr added: "Whether there is or isn't a civil war, we don't want you to interfere in Iraqi affairs whatsoever."
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