IRAQ: Seventy people die in a day of bloodshed

Four car bombs targeting Shi'ites in Baghdad and a town south of the capital killed more than 70 people on Saturday (December 30), hours after Saddam Hussein was hanged amid fears of revenge by his Sunni Arab supporters. In Baghdad, three car bombs exploded in quick succession in the mainly Shi'ite neighbourhood of Hurriya, killing 36 people and wounding 77, an Interior Ministry source said. They said a mob killed a man they accused of planting the bomb in the town about 160 km (100 miles) south of Baghdad. The attacks came the same day as Saddam was hanged for crimes against humanity, prompting fears of a violent backlash by his supporters among his fellow Sunni Arabs. While the attacks may have been a swift response to the execution, such bombings are common in a country where at least 100 people die on average every day in bombings, mortar attacks and death squad killings. Though Saturday's bombings may have been planned independently of the execution. They were typical of the cycle of sectarian violence that is driving both Shi'ites, Sunni Arabs and others from their homes, increasingly dividing Baghdad and surrounding areas on sectarian grounds. Bombs frequently provoke reprisals from militias, whose practice is to kidnap, torture and shoot their victims, leaving the bodies dumped in places where they will intimidate. A formerly mixed neighbourhood, Hurriya, where the three car bombs struck on Saturday, has become increasingly dominated by Shi'ites as Sunni Arabs have been driven out by threats and attacks. Saddam's execution was welcome by Shi'ites and Kurds, who were oppressed under his rule, but many in the once dominant Sunni Arab minority were angry and all sides feared it could spark even more violence.

ITN Source | December 30, 2006

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