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Wave of Bombings Kills Dozens in Iraq Wave of Bombings Kills Dozens in Iraq
(about 7 hours later)
BAGHDAD — A wave of car bombs hit Baghdad and oil-rich Basra in southern Iraq on Monday, killing at least 48 people and injuring 170, security and medical officials said, deepening concerns that sectarian violence is pushing the country toward a conflagration recalling the widespread fighting of 2006-2007 before the withdrawal of American forces. BAGHDAD — A wave of car bombings and gunfire attacks hit cities in Iraq overnight and on Monday, killing at least 64 people and wounding more than 170, medical and security officials said. The attacks sharpened concerns that sectarian violence was pushing the country toward a conflagration similar to the widespread fighting of 2006 and 2007, before the withdrawal of American forces.
Some reports put the toll higher from the series of blasts, which began in Basra when two car bombs went off at a restaurant and a bus stop, the officials said. In Baghdad, at least seven car bombs went off in Shiite neighborhoods, killing 25 people and wounding 150. The string of attacks followed bomb blasts in Sunni areas on Friday that killed at least 66 people.
Soon after, at least seven car bombs went off in Baghdad, the capital, targeting Shiite neighborhoods following a string of attacks against Sunni areas two days ago that left almost 70 dead. Also on Monday, two car bombs exploded at a restaurant and a bus stop in the southern city of Basra, killing 15 people, officials said. In Balad, north of Baghdad, a car bomb explosion targeting a bus of Iranian pilgrims killed 12 Iranians and 2 Iraqis, a police official said. The pilgrims had been returning to the capital after visiting a Shiite shrine in Samarra.
The discovery of the bodies of five kidnapped police officers in restive Anbar Province pushed the death toll higher. At the same time, 10 police officers were reported killed in a separate incident in the province after unidentified gunmen armed with automatic weapons and anti-tank rockets struck a police station. In restive Anbar Province, which has been the scene of predominantly Sunni protests against the mostly Shiite government, 10 police officers were killed when unidentified gunmen armed with automatic weapons and antitank rockets struck a police station late on Sunday.
One leader of the insurgents threatened more attacks on government security forces. A tribal leader in the province said there would be further attacks on security forces because the government had not responded to the demands of demonstrators.
“We will not accept the army in Anbar; this is out of question,” said Muhammed Khamis Abu Risha, a fugitive former member of the Sunni Awakening, the fighters who were paid to switch sides and fight alongside the United States against Al Qaeda before the American pullback in late 2011. “The protest is not peaceful anymore and we are ready for them. The coming days will not pass peacefully. We don’t want democracy anymore.” “We will not accept the army in Anbar; this is out of the question,” said Muhammed Khamis Abu Risha, a fugitive former member of the Sunni Awakening, the fighters who were paid to switch sides and fight alongside the United States against Al Qaeda before the American pullback in late 2011. “The protest is not peaceful anymore, and we are ready for them. The coming days will not pass peacefully. We don’t want democracy anymore.”
The fighting left civilians caught between the opposing forces. Also on Monday, the bodies of five police officers who had been kidnapped in Anbar last week were found.
“Whenever we have hope and start to build our life again, whenever we feel healing from our wounds, a shock hits us and we feel that we lose again,'’ said Haider al-Musawi, 33, a shop owner who witnessed one of the bombings. “Iraq is never going to get better as long as we have those politicians that are not man enough to say that we have failed.” The fighting has trapped civilians. “Whenever we have hope and start to build our life again, whenever we feel healing from our wounds, a shock hits us and we feel that we lose again,” said Haider al-Musawi, 33, a shop owner who witnessed one of the bombings, at a market in Baghdad. “Iraq is never going to get better as long as we have those politicians that are not man enough to say that we have failed.”
Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki said on Monday that some Parliament members were to blame for the instability, alleging that they were exploiting sectarian passions for their own political interests. He also accused Sunni leaders of stoking the unrest.
“The sectarian speeches at the demonstration sites are giving the insurgents a reason to kill,” he said at a news conference.

Yasir Ghazi contributed reporting from Baghdad.