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NAJAF,
Iraq (Reuters) - Suicide car bombers struck
Iraq's two main Shi'ite holy cities of Najaf and
Kerbala on Sunday, killing at least 62 people and
wounding nearly 130, six weeks before a historic
election.
Both bombs, which went off about two hours apart,
exploded near crowded bus stations in a seemingly
coordinated attempt to cause as much bloodshed as
possible among Shi'ites, a long-oppressed majority
expected to dominate the Jan. 30 vote.
Earlier in Baghdad, gunmen killed three Electoral
Commission employees after hauling them from a car
on a busy street.
The bomb blasts were not far from important shrines
-- the Imam Ali mosque in Najaf and Imam Hussein
mosque in Kerbala.
The attacks appeared designed to provoke sectarian
conflict with Saddam Hussein's long-dominant Sunni
minority -- officials have seen similar motives
behind previous attacks in the cities.
Shi'ite leaders called on their people not to reply
in kind.
In Najaf, the suicide bomber detonated his vehicle
about 300 yards from the Imam Ali shrine, near
crowds of people queuing for buses and taxis and not
far from busy offices.
Medical officials said there were at least 48 dead
and 90 wounded in the blast, which left stunned
crowds waiting in freezing temperatures for
ambulances. A thick column of smoke rose from the
blast site as a rare drizzling rain fell.
Police imposed a curfew in Najaf's old city.
In Kerbala, where a suicide bomber stuck about two
hours earlier, the main hospital said 14 people were
killed and 39 wounded. A hospital official said all
appeared to be civilians with many women and
children among them.
A cameraman for Reuters who filmed the aftermath of
the attack said the ground around the bus station
was littered with dead and wounded. Flames licked at
the burned-out vehicles nearly an hour afterwards.
The explosion left a deep crater and blew out
windows and shop fronts, showering the area with
broken glass.
PREVIOUS ATTACKS
The Kerbala attack was the second in five days. On
Wednesday, a bomb apparently targeting Shi'ite
cleric Abdul Mehdi al-Kerbalai exploded as he was
returning to his office after evening prayers at the
Imam Hussein shrine.
Sunday's bomb was just a few hundred yards away.
Twelve people were killed and 30 wounded in
Wednesday's attack, including the cleric, who is
regarded as close to Iraq's supreme Shi'ite
authority, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.
Sistani, who lives in Najaf, has overseen the
creation of a powerful Shi'ite coalition to stand in
the election, a bloc of candidates widely expected
to emerge victorious.
Many militant Sunnis, waging an insurgency against
American occupation, fear domination by the Shi'ite
majority who make up 60 percent of the population
but have never held power.
There have been concerns about attempts to aggravate
religious divisions since March, when suicide
bombers struck Baghdad and Kerbala during an annual
Shi'ite mourning rite, killing more than 170 people,
an act blamed on Sunni militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi,
a Jordanian allied to al Qaeda.
Shi'ite religious leaders say they will not be
provoked by bombs and reject accusations by some
secular opponents that they want to install an
Iranian-style Shi'ite theocracy.
"They are trying to ignite a sectarian civil war and
prevent elections from going ahead on time. They
have failed before and they will fail again," said
Mohammad Bahr al-Uloum, one of Iraq's most respected
Shi'ite clerics.
"The Shi'ites are committed not to respond with
violence, which will only lead to violence. We are
determined on elections and Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani
has made this clear."
ELECTION OFFICIALS KILLED
As well as attempts to drive a wedge between
religious sects that have historically co-existed
fairly peacefully, insurgents have made direct
efforts to wreck plans for the poll. Friday and
Saturday, three election offices were attacked in
the north.
In Baghdad, gunmen dragged three junior Electoral
Commission employees from a car and shot them dead
in broad daylight, although it was not clear if they
were targeted because they worked for the
commission, a commission spokesman said.
Witnesses said insurgents had opened fire on the
vehicle first. Two other commission employees
escaped.
Separately, four Kurds were killed by gunmen in
Hawija, southwest of the ethnically tense city of
Kirkuk.
U.S. and Iraqi officials have warned that attacks
will increase in the run up to the election, Iraq's
first fully democratic poll in nearly half a
century.
Electoral officials say 14 of Iraq's 18 governorates
are safe enough to hold free and fair polls, but
violence in the remaining areas -- mostly populated
by Sunni Arabs -- has led Sunni organizations to
call for a delay.
Militants have kidnapped and are threatening to kill
10 Iraqis employed by a U.S. security company unless
the firm pulls out of Iraq, a caller from the
militants told Reuters. Arab satellite channels
broadcast a tape showing the hostages.
It was not clear when the men were kidnapped. No
deadline appears to have been set.
© Reuters 2004. All Rights Reserved.
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