Car bombs in Shi'ite areas of Iraq kill >100

Top News Car bombs in Shi'ite areas of Iraq kill 34 Fri, Feb 08 08:52 AM EST 1 of 2 By Kareem Raheem BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Five car bombs killed at least 34 people in Shi'ite areas of Iraq on Friday, police and medics said, as sectarian and ethnic tensions intensify ahead of provincial elections in April. Two car bombs were detonated simultaneously at a bus stop near a Friday street market selling birds and other pets in the Shi'ite district of Kadhimiya in Baghdad, killing at least 16 people and wounding another 44, police and hospital sources said. Footage of the scene showed dozens of buses and taxis destroyed by the explosion and blood on the ground. Ongoing violence following the withdrawal of U.S. troops in late 2011 is stoking fears of a return to the sectarian strife that killed tens of thousands of Iraqis in 2006 and 2007. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shi'ite, is facing mass protests by disenchanted Sunni Muslims and is at loggerheads with ethnic Kurds who run their northern region autonomously from Baghdad. The prospect of the election is hardening the divisions as political leaders appeal to their constituencies with often hostile rhetoric that rejects compromise. In the Shi'ite city of Hilla, 100 km (60 miles) south of Baghdad, 15 people were killed in two car bomb explosions at a vegetable market. "I was shopping when I heard the first explosion. I was scared and tried to reach my car to run away but before I got in the second explosion went off," said Habib al-Murshidi who was at the scene. "I saw many people, women and old men lying on the ground which was covered with blood and scattered fruit and vegetables". Another three people were killed by a parked car bomb in Kerbala, 80 km (50 miles) southwest of Baghdad, police said. Thousands of Sunni Muslims have taken to the streets since late December in protest at what they see as the marginalization of their sect since the fall of Saddam Hussein and the empowerment of Iraq's Shi'ite majority through the ballot box. The demonstrations in the Sunni heartland of Anbar are also compounding fears that war in neighboring Syria, where Sunni rebels are fighting to topple a leader backed by Shi'ite Iran, could further upset Iraq's own delicate sectarian and ethnic balance. No group claimed responsibility for the attacks on Friday. Iraq is home to several Sunni insurgent groups that have carried out at least one high-casualty attack a month since the U.S. withdrawal. They include a local branch of al Qaeda, the Islamic State of Iraq, which often targets Shi'ites, seeking to reignite sectarian strife. On Monday, a suicide bomber attacked a government-backed militia in Taji, killing at least 22 people -- the seventh of eight suicide bombings in Iraq over the past month alone. (Additional reporting by Ali al-Rubaie in Hilla; Writing by Suadad al-Salhy; Editing by Isabel Coles and Jon Hemming) =============== Fifty killed in Syria bombing: monitor group Fri, Feb 08 08:39 AM EST BEIRUT (Reuters) - More than 50 workers at a military factory in central Syria were killed in a bombing earlier this week, an opposition watchdog which monitors violence in Syria said on Friday. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 54 people died in Wednesday's explosion which struck their bus as they were preparing to return home at the end of their shift, and the number could rise further. The Observatory said 11 of the victims from the bombing in Buraq, about 10 km (six miles) south of the city of Hama, were women. The workers were from cities of Homs, Hama and the town of Salamiyah. There has been no claim of responsibility for the bombing, which angered many Syrian activists, who blamed Islamist hardliners for the attack. Some described it as "terrorist" attack which targeted civilians. "They are workers, they are civilians. Some people need to work to feed their families. This does not make them criminals," said an activist from Hama province who declined to be named. The Islamist Nusra Front last month said it was behind a car bombing which killed 42 people, including women and children in Salamiyah. The target of that attack was a pro-government militia, they said. Activists in Salamiyah posted pictures of children and young people who were killed in the attack. (Reporting by Dominic Evans; Editing by Jon Boyle) ============ More than 70 killed in wave of Baghdad bombings Mon, May 27 13:39 PM EDT 1 of 2 By Kareem Raheem BAGHDAD (Reuters) - More than 70 people were killed in a wave of bombings in markets in Shi'ite neighborhoods across Baghdad on Monday in worsening sectarian violence in Iraq. No group claimed responsibility for the blasts. But Sunni Muslim Islamist insurgents and al-Qaeda' s Iraqi wing have increased attacks since the beginning of the year and often target Shi'ite districts. More than a dozen blasts tore into markets and shopping areas in districts across the Iraqi capital, including twin bombs just several hundred meters apart that killed at least 13 people in the capital's Sadr City area, police and hospital officials said. "A driver hit another car and left pretending to bring traffic police. Another car rushed to take him away and right after his car exploded among people who had gathered to see what was happening," said bystander Hassan Kadhim. "People were shouting for help and blood covered their faces." Tensions between the Shi'ite leadership and the Sunni Muslim minority are at their worst since U.S. troops left in December 2011, and the conflict in Syria is straining Iraq's fragile communal balance. More than 700 people were killed in attacks in April, according to a U.N. count, the highest monthly toll in almost five years. So far in May more than 300 have died. Thousands of Sunnis began staging street protests last December against Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, whom they accuse of marginalizing their sect since the fall of Saddam Hussein after the 2003 invasion. The latest surge in violence began in April after a raid by the Iraqi army on a Sunni Muslim protest camp in the town of Hawija led to clashes with the security forces and more attacks. Bombings on Shi'ite and Sunni mosques, security forces and Sunni tribal leaders over a month-long surge in violence are heightening worries Iraq risks returning to the level of sectarian violence that killed thousands in 2006-2007. (Additional reporting by Ahmed Rasheed in Baghdad; Writing by Patrick Markey; Editing by Angus MacSwan) ===============