Suicide bomber kills at least 51 north of Baghdad

BAQUBA - A minibus packed with explosives blew up near a marketplace north of Baghdad today, killing 51 people and wounding 40 in the worst attack since the handover of sovereignty exactly one month ago.

The powerful suicide bomb left a sea of destruction, obliterating market stalls and destroying six buildings just days before a major political conference to plot Iraq's future.

Reuters Television pictures showed at least a dozen dead bodies scattered across a street, some of them still on fire.

A severely wounded man, his clothes burnt and torn and his body covered in blood, sat amongst smouldering ruins with several dead, some of whom looked like children, lying near him.

A Health Ministry official said 51 people were killed and 40 wounded in the attack shortly after 10am (6.00pm NZT) in Baquba, an often violent town 65km north of Baghdad.

"We expect the death toll to rise," the official said.

Twenty-one people travelling in a minibus alongside the one that detonated were killed, an Interior Ministry source said.

It was the deadliest day in Iraq since June 24, when more than 100 people were killed in a string of bomb blasts and suicide attacks across the country.

The blast also comes exactly one month after the interim government took back power from US authorities, and three days before a major political conference to chart Iraq's future.

As well as tearing through scores of civilians as they shopped at the market, the bomb also struck a group of men lining up at a nearby recruiting office for the Iraqi police.

"We had gathered them at one place to register their names. There was a queue, when suddenly this vehicle appeared and exploded," said a police officer at the scene.

After the blast, police piled the dead and wounded into the back of pick-up trucks and drove them to hospitals.

Bystanders collected body parts for burial. Firefighters arrived to douse the flames, sometimes having to point their hoses at still burning dead bodies.

"God bless them, what have they done?" shouted one man, referring to the victims.

Baquba, a mixed Sunni and Shi'ite town, is home to many former members of the Iraqi army and has experienced frequent car bombings and suicide attacks over the past year.

Many of those have targeted Iraq's police and National Guard, who guerrillas regard as collaborating with US and other foreign troops stationed in Iraq.

Earlier this week, US and Iraqi forces fought a fierce battle just south of Baquba, near the village of Buhriz, which left 13 insurgents dead. US forces had to fire artillery rounds to suppress heavy guerrilla mortar fire.

The violence comes three days before Iraq is due to convene a national conference in which about 1000 delegates will gather in Baghdad to weigh the country's future and elect a 100-member National Council to oversee the interim government.

The event is being billed as a crucial next step in Iraq's transition to democracy ahead of elections planned for January.

But there are serious concerns about security, particularly with so many people converging on the capital for what could be a two- or three-day affair. US troops and Iraqi security forces have been planning the security for weeks.

The United Nations, which first proposed the conference in May and said it should be held before the end of July, had pushed in the past week for it to be postponed for several weeks to allow more time to prepare for such a large gathering.

But Fouad Massoum, the organiser of the event, said on Tuesday he was committed to holding it this month and said the credibility of Iraq's new government depended on it.

"Credibility is essential because any delay would be explained in a negative way, especially given that Iraq lived for decades under promises that were never fulfilled," he said.

"So it has been decided that the conference will be held on the 31st of July for one day, or at the maximum for two days."

The conference is supposed to bring representatives from all walks of Iraqi life - religious, ethnic, tribal, non-governmental, political and otherwise - under one roof to select the National Council.

The council would then act as a check on the interim government until elections are held in January.

As well as the power to veto legislation with a two-thirds majority, the council would have to approve Iraq's 2005 budget and would appoint a new president or prime minister should either official resign or die in office.

In other violence on Wednesday, two Iraqis were killed near the northern city of Kirkuk as they attempted to set explosives on a major oil pipeline. Saboteurs have repeatedly blown up the pipeline in an effort to disrupt Iraq's reconstruction.

- REUTERS

Herald Feature: Iraq