Editorial Note: The following news reports are summaries from original sources. They may also include corrections of Arabic names and political terminology. Comments are in parentheses.

 

49 Iraqis Killed, 160 Injured in Seven Baghdad Blasts

April 6, 2010

Baghdad blasts toll reaches 35 dead, 140 wounded

April 6, 2010 - 11:37:20
BAGHDAD / Aswat al-Iraq:

Casualties from the blasts that occurred earlier today in different parts of the Iraqi capital have reached 35 dead and 140 wounded persons, an Interior Ministry source said on Tuesday.

The blasts targeted residential buildings in Baghdad’s areas of al-Shula, Jakook, Allawi, al-Shurta al-Khamisa and al-Aamel neighborhood, the source pointed out.

Earlier today, an official spokesperson said that 13 persons were killed and 107 others were injured in the blasts.
SS (P)
   
7 blasts rip through Baghdad, 49 killed

The Daily Times, Wednesday, April 07, 2010

BAGHDAD:

At least seven bombs ripped through apartment buildings across Baghdad on Tuesday and another struck a market, killing 49 people and wounding more than 160, authorities said.

The explosions were the latest in a five-day spree of attacks in and around the capital that have killed at least 119 people.

“This is blamed on the power vacuum of course, and on how democracy is being raped in Iraq,” former prime minister Ayad Allawi told The Associated Press in an interview.

“Because people are sensing there are powers who want to obstruct the path of democracy."

(He also referred earlier to the Maliki warning that violence will return if an election recount does not happen. The Maliki statement followed his defeat in the election and the warning was understood that his coalition may return to violence, as they did before in attacking Sunni populations to provoke a sectarian civil war).

He also raised the prospect that the country’s political impasse could last for months as both sides try to cobble together the majority needed to govern.

“It could either be formed in two months or it could last four or five months,” he said.

Al-Maliki adviser Sadiq al-Rikabi challenged Allawi’s suggestion that Iraqi security forces had let down their guard since the elections.

“It is true that terrorism and attacks are attributed to the political situation the country is experiencing, and we have faced terrorism before elections as well,” al-Rikabi said. “Some parts are using terrorism events for political goals.”

Explosives: Maj Gen Qassim al-Moussawi, an Iraqi military spokesman for Baghdad’s operations command center, said the attackers detonated homemade bombs and, in one case, a car packed with explosives. He said there were at least seven blasts. The US military in Baghdad said there were eight.

Police and medical officials said the death toll from Tuesday’s explosions was at least 49, and that women and children were among the dead. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not allowed to release information publicly.

The first blasts hit around 9:30am in the Shula area of northwest Baghdad, striking a residential building and an intersection about a mile away, according to police and hospital officials who also spoke on condition of anonymity.

College student Ali Hussein, 22, was riding the bus to school when one of the Shula bombs exploded. He described “people running in different directions with fear.” ap

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