Car bombs kill 66 in Iraq

BAGHDAD -- Car bombs ripped through Shia and Kurdish targets here and in other cities yesterday, killing 66 people, wounding more than 200 and feeding growing doubts that Iraq would emerge as a stable democracy after decades of war and dictatorship.

The latest bloodshed comes against a backdrop of sharpening political divisions that show little progress in healing the breach among Iraq's religious and ethnic communities that once pushed the country to the brink of civil war. The coordination, sophistication and targets of the attack bore the hallmarks of al-Qaida and its Sunni militant allies.

Iraqi authorities played down any suggestion that the devastating attacks that have taken place every few weeks or so since the U.S. military withdrew in mid-December portend a return to the all-out, tit-for-tat violence that tore the nation apart in 2006-07.

"Iraqis are fully aware of the terrorism agenda and will not slip into a sectarian conflict," said Baghdad military command spokesman Col. Dhia al-Wakeel.

But Iraqi authorities have been unable to prevent such wide-scale attacks, though they were on high alert during a major Shia pilgrimage. And the number and distribution of these bombings demonstrate the strength and resilience of the Sunni militants.

Altogether, 17 explosions struck Baghdad and six other cities and towns 300 miles apart, from Mosul in the vast deserts of the north to Hillah in the southern fertile plains. Most targeted Shia pilgrims between 5 a.m. and 8 a.m. as hundreds of thousands were walking to the capital.

"I fell on the ground. Then so many people fell on me" said Falah Hassan, who was being treated for wounds at Sheikh Zayid Hospital in Baghdad. Hours after the bombing in Hillah, puddles of blood and shards of metal still clogged a drainage ditch. Soldiers and dazed onlookers wandered near the charred remains of the car that had exploded. They gazed at the gaping holes in nearby shops.

Yesterday's blasts were the third this week targeting the annual pilgrimage to observe the 8th-century death of Imam Moussa al-Kadhim, a saint who was great-grandson of the Prophet Muhammad. The faithful will converge on a gold-domed shrine in Kazimiya, north Baghdad, ending the commemoration Saturday.