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BAGHDAD: A bomb shattered the post football calm in
Baghdad on Monday, killing at least four people and wounding several
more the day after the country was briefly united in joy at its
Asian Cup win.
The target appeared to be a bus
stop near Tayran Square, a bustling transport hub in the center of
the city surrounded by auto mechanic shops, according to an AFP
photographer at the scene.
At least four microbuses and two
cars were engulfed in flames, and officials at two hospitals
confirmed they had received four bodies and admitted 30 people
wounded in the blast.
The explosion came hours after
Iraqi authorities lifted an overnight curfew intended to prevent
attacks on residents celebrating the national football team’s
victory over Saudi Arabia in Sunday’s Asia Cup.
Soldiers at checkpoints in the
city told AFP that they had been told to be on the lookout for a
fleet of car-bombs which had set off the day before from a town
north of Baghdad but had been delayed by the curfew.
The overnight vehicle ban was
ordered after two car bombs killed at least 50 people celebrating in
the streets after their team’s semi-final victory against South
Korea last week.
The day after that match a third
large car bomb went off in the upscale Karrada district, killing
scores of people and devastating an entire city block just across
the river from Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone.
Insurgents continue to send car
and truck bombs into Baghdad despite a five-month-old security plan
aimed at pacifying the capital in order to give Iraq’s politicians
breathing space to promote national reconciliation.
But the country’s leaders
remain as divided as ever, even after the victory of their diverse
team of Sunni, Shiite, and Kurdish athletes—seen by many as a rare
triumph of national unity.
On Monday, Prime Minister Nuri
al-Maliki once again criticized the country’s largest Sunni bloc
for boycotting the Shiite-led government, calling on politicians to
reach across the country’s sectarian faultlines.
Maliki said he was “against
dictatorship of the majority, but even more strongly against the
dictatorship of the minority,” according to a statement from his
office.
“Some want to freeze the
political process while they wait for specific regional or
international developments but we will not permit this because it
will cause the political process to decay and come to an end,” he
said.
Meanwhile Omar Abdul Sattar, an
MP from the boycotting Sunni Concord Front, said everyone in the
government could learn from the football team’s example.
--AFP
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