Zarqawi declares war on Iraq Shi’ites

By Mohammed Ramahi and Faris Mehdawi

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – A suicide bomber killed 114 people in a
crowd of Shi’ite laborers in the bloodiest of a wave of attacks
in Baghdad, and a statement attributed to Iraq’s al Qaeda
leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi declared war on Shi’ites.

A total of more than 150 people were killed in Wednesday’s
violence and the suicide bombing was the second deadliest
single attack since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003
and the start soon afterwards of an insurgency by Sunni Arabs.

Fears of civil war have grown in the run-up to an October
15 referendum on a disputed new constitution for Iraq that is
backed by the Shi’ite- and Kurdish-led government. Sunni
politicians oppose the charter.

Zarqawi said his declaration of war on Iraq’s majority
Shi’ite Muslims was in response to the offensive mounted by
U.S. and Iraqi forces against insurgents in the town of Tal
Afar near the Syrian border, according to an Internet audio
tape.

Iraq says nearly 160 insurgents have been killed in the
offensive that began on Saturday. Both Baghdad and Washington
say Tal Afar is a staging post for foreign fighters entering
Iraq from Syria.

“Al Qaeda Organization in Iraq … has declared war against
Shi’ites in all of Iraq,” said the voice on the audio tape,
sounding like that on previous recordings attributed to
Zarqawi. No immediate verification was available.

“As for the government, servants of the crusaders headed by
(Iraqi Prime Minister) Ibrahim Jaafari, they have declared a
war on Sunnis in Tal Afar. You have begun and started the
attacks and you won’t see mercy from us,” the voice said.

BOMB VICTIMS LURED

In the worst of Wednesday’s attacks, the suicide bomber
lured the crowd of Shi’ite laborers to a minivan with promises
of work, before blowing it up. An interior ministry source said
the bomb contained up to 500 pounds (220 kg) of explosives.

“This targeted civilians, innocents. Why women and
children?” Mohammed Jabbar railed at the blast site in
Baghdad’s Shi’ite Kadhimiya area. Bystanders shouted: “Why?
Why?”

Another car bomber blew himself up in northern Baghdad,
killing 11 people lining up to refill gas canisters, and other
bombings rocked the capital. Gunmen dragged 17 people from
their homes and killed them in Taji, a northern Baghdad suburb.

A police official said the attacks appeared coordinated.
Iraq’s al Qaeda wing said in a statement earlier on Wednesday
it was waging a nationwide suicide bombing campaign to avenge
the U.S.-Iraqi offensive on Tal Afar.

U.S. officials said Zarqawi’s apparent declaration of war
against Shi’ites later in the day could reflect a disagreement
between the Jordanian-born militant and al Qaeda leader Osama
bin Laden.

Bin Laden and his second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahri, had
criticized previous attacks on Shi’ites in rhetoric viewed as
strategic guidance for Zarqawi, the officials said.

“Clearly they don’t agree on everything. While they have
some common goals, Zarqawi has his own agenda,” said a U.S.
official, who asked not to be identified.

U.S. intelligence agents were reviewing the tape to
determine its authenticity, but one official said previous
taped Zarqawi messages had proved authentic up to now.

“RAINING BLOOD”

Nayif Atshan, 58, who saw the Kadhimiya blast, said a man
in a van pulled up to the crowd and lured people with work
offers.

“After the explosion, cars were burning around me and flesh
was scattered everywhere. It was raining blood,” he said in
Karama hospital, with part of his leg blown off.

The hospital was overflowing with victims. Dozens of the
wounded screamed in agony as they were treated on the floor,
some lying in pools of their own blood.

Police said 114 people were killed and 156 wounded in the
blast. The death toll has only been exceeded since the start of
the conflict by a suicide car bombing on February 28 this year
in which 125 people were killed in Hilla, south of Baghdad.

Another blast echoed across central Baghdad about two hours
later. Two more car bombs exploded soon afterwards.

Police said five people were killed and 24 wounded in one
of the blasts, near a Shi’ite cleric’s offices.

The run-up to the October referendum has increased tensions
between Iraq’s main communities, Shi’ites, Sunnis and Kurds.

Iraqi officials have accused Sunni militants of attacking
Shi’ites, who swept to power in January elections boycotted by
most Sunnis, in a bid to spark a civil war.

Sunnis, who comprise 20 percent of the population,
dominated Iraq for decades and resent their loss of influence
since Saddam Hussein was toppled by U.S. forces in April 2003.

They fear the constitution will institutionalize their
reduced role by granting autonomy to southern Shi’ites in line
with that enjoyed by Kurds in the north, and by decentralizing
control of oil revenues.

Syria, facing U.S. and Iraqi accusations it allows foreign
fighters into Iraq, condemned the Baghdad attacks as terrorism.

(Additional reporting by Michael Georgy, Mussab
Al-Khairalla, Yasser Faisal, Sebastian Alison, Luke Baker,
Haider Salahiddine)