Iraqi terrorists set off three devastating car bombs in Baghdad yesterday, killing at least 35 joyful children who had gathered to receive candy from American troops.
Al Qaeda’s network in Iraq claimed responsibility for the horrific bloodbath – and hailed the homicide bombers as “heroes.”
It was the largest death toll of children in any rebel attack since the start of the Iraq conflict.
Grief-stricken mothers wailed over the dead as relatives collected body parts from the street for burial.
At the hospital, angry relatives screamed for attention from overwhelmed doctors. One woman tore at her hair before pulling back the sheet covering her dead brother and kissing his body.
The devastating blasts killed a total of at least 41 and wounded more than 140 people, including 10 GIs and 72 children under the age of 14.
“The Americans called us. They told us, ‘Come here, come here,’ asking us if we wanted sweets. We went beside them, then a car exploded,” said Abdel Rahman Dawoud, 12, lying in a hospital bed with shrapnel in his body.
The attack on the children occurred about 1 p.m. in Baghdad’s al-Amel neighborhood as crowds gathered to celebrate the opening of a new sewage plant.
Two bombs went off in quick succession at the ceremony, then were followed by a third explosion a short distance away, said Interior Ministry spokesman Col. Adnan Abdul-Rahman.
American jets, tanks and artillery units repeatedly have targeted Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s terror network in Fallujah recently as U.S.-led forces seek to assert control over insurgent enclaves ahead of elections slated for January. The military says it has inflicted significant damage on the network, which has carried out bombings and kidnappings.
“This attack was carried out by evil people who do not want the Iraqis to celebrate and don’t want [reconstruction] projects in Iraq,” said Iraqi National Guard Lt. Ahmad Saad.
The follow-up explosions appeared designed to strike those who rushed to help the initial victims, residents said.
In two other attacks:
* A homicide bomber blew up his car near a U.S. checkpoint at Abu Ghraib outside Baghdad, killing two policemen and a U.S. soldier. Around 60 people, including women and children, were wounded.
* A car bomb killed four people in the center of the rebel northern Iraq town of Tal Afar. The blast occurred near an Iraqi police convoy and wounded 10 people, including five policemen.
Iraqi officials said they were stunned by carnage that was shown on TV.
Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari denounced the “criminal gangs, terrorists or Saddamists who are trying to undermine Iraq, to undermine the political process.”
But he said the ongoing violence showed how important it was to quickly train Iraqi military and security forces.
The attacks appeared to be an effort by Zarqawi-led terrorists to foment chaos in the weeks before the U.S. election in November, and Iraq’s own nationwide election early next year.
Attacks on American troops have risen to around 80 a day from 40 a month ago.
“The attacks today were those of a desperate enemy,” Lt. Col. James Hutton, of the U.S. 1st Cavalry Division, said.
“There is no conceivable justification for attacking innocent Iraqi civilians.”
Zarqawi’s group, Tawhid and Jihad, said “two heroes” died when they “targeted an invading forces’ convoy,” referring to the al-Amel ceremony.
Early this morning, U.S. and Iraqi forces launched a major attack against the insurgent-controlled city of Samarra, securing government and police buildings, the U.S. command said.
The attack came in response to “repeated and unprovoked attacks by anti-Iraqi forces,” the statement said. Its aim was to kill or capture insurgents in the city, located 60 miles north of Baghdad.
With Post Wire Services