Gunmen kill at least 50 on market of Baghdad

WORLD / Middle East

 Gunmen kill at least 50 on market of Baghdad
(AP)
Updated: 2006-07-18 09:53

Gunmen sprayed grenades and automatic weapons fire in a market south of
Baghdad, killing at least 50 people, mostly Shiites. The sectarian attack
drew an angry protest from lawmakers who accused Iraqi forces of standing
idly by during the rampage.

Relatives of a victim killed by armed gunmen in a Mahmoudiya market mourn
during a funeral procession, Monday, July 17, 2006, in the holy city of
Najaf, southern Iraq. Dozens of heavily armed attackers raided the open
air market in Mahmoudiya, south of Baghdad, killing at least 41 people
and wounding about 90, Iraqi and U.S. officials said. Most of the victims
were believed to be Shiites.[AP]

Women and children were among the dead and wounded in the Monday assault
in Mahmoudiya, hospital officials said. Late Monday, police said they
found 12 bodies in different parts of town, possible victims of reprisal
killings.

Late Monday, a statement was posted on an Islamist Web site claimed
responsibility for the attack in the name of the "Supporters of the Sunni
People," which said it staged the assault to avenge the slaying of Sunnis
in Baghdad.

The group has claimed responsibility for other attacks against Shiites,
including the July 1 car bombing that killed 66 people in Baghdad's
Shiite stronghold of Sadr City. The claims could not be verified.

Several witnesses, including municipal council members, said the attack
began when gunmen _ presumed to be Sunnis - fired on the funeral of a
member of the Mahdi Army, a Shiite militia, killing nine mourners.

Assailants then drove to the nearby market area in the town 30 kilometers
(20 miles) south of Baghdad, killing three soldiers at a checkpoint and
firing rocket-propelled grenades and automatic rifles at the crowd. After
the gunmen sped away, they lobbed several mortar rounds into the
neighborhood, the witnesses said.

The assault occurred a few hundred meters (yards) from Iraqi army and
police positions, but the troops did not intervene until the attackers
were fleeing, the witnesses said. They spoke on condition of anonymity
because of fear of reprisals.

The U.S. command announced that three American soldiers were killed in
separate attacks Monday - two in the Baghdad area and one in Anbar
province west of the capital. At least 2,553 members of the U.S. military
have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to
an Associated Press count.

There were conflicting casualty figures in the market attack, with a
Shiite television station reporting more than 70 dead. But local police
and Dr. Dawoud al-Taie, director of Mahmoudiya hospital, said 50 people
were killed and about 90 were wounded.

In Baghdad, Shiite legislator Jalaluddin al-Saghir said Iraqi military
authorities had ignored warnings that weapons were being stocked in a
mosque near the market. He also said the local police commander refused
to order his men to confront the attackers because they lacked weapons
and ammunition.

Dozens of Shiite lawmakers, including followers of radical anti-American
cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, stormed out of a parliament session to protest
the performance of the security forces.

In Mahmoudiya, long a flashpoint of Shiite-Sunni tension, tempers boiled
as frantic relatives milled about the hospital, scuffling with guards and
Iraqi soldiers who tried to keep them outside so doctors could treat the
wounded.

"You are strong men only when you face us, but you let them do what they
did to us," one man shouted at a guard.

The Shiite television station Al-Forat broadcast strident quotes from
Shiites who blamed the attack on Sunni religious extremists. They
expressed outrage that Sunni politicians could not rein in the militants.

The main Sunni bloc in parliament said the attack may have been
retaliation for the kidnapping of seven Sunnis whose bodies were found
Sunday in Mahmoudiya. The bloc accused Shiite-dominated Iraqi security
forces of failing to control the situation.

The Mahmoudiya attack raised doubts about the effectiveness of the U.S.
strategy of handing over large areas of the country to Iraqi control,
while keeping U.S. troops in reserve.

U.S. troops of the 101st Airborne Division reported hearing detonations
and gunfire, the U.S. command said. But Iraqi troops are responsible for
security in Mahmoudiya, and American soldiers do not intervene unless
asked by the Iraqis.

Four soldiers and a former soldier from the division are accused of
raping and murdering a teenage girl near Mahmoudiya on March 12. A sixth
soldier is accused of failing to report the crime.

The Mahmoudiya attack was part of a rising tide of tit-for-tat killings
and intimidation that many Iraqis fear is the prelude to civil war. The
campaign of intimidation and attacks is slowly transforming Baghdad into
sectarian zones under the tacit control of armed groups that protect
members of their sect and drive away others.

On July 9, Shiite militiamen swept through the mostly Sunni neighborhood
of Jihad in western Baghdad, dragging Sunnis from their cars and shooting
them in the street. About 50 people were slain.

Faced with such massacres, Iraqis are turning to sectarian militias to
protect themselves because government forces cannot. Some Sunnis, who
form the backbone of the insurgency, now say privately they want American
troops to remain in Iraq to protect them from Shiite militias.

Despite the security crisis, U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez
came to Baghdad Monday and signed an agreement with the Iraqis to
encourage foreign investment and lay the foundation for a market economy
after decades of state control.

"We are convinced that Iraq is ready for recovery," Gutierrez told
reporters, later acknowledging that "clearly, security is still the No. 1
challenge."

Also Monday, the final group of Japanese troops left Iraq and arrived in
Kuwait, ending Japan's two-year humanitarian mission in southern Iraq.
The rest of the Japanese contingent, which had numbered more than 600,
departed over the past two weeks.

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