Terrorists spark fear of civil war in Iraq

By JUSTIN HUGGLER in Iskandariya

American authorities sought to blame al-Qaeda last night for a massive suicide bomb in a Shia-dominated city which killed at least 50 people in a crowded Iraqi police station.

The blast came after the US claimed - in an apparent leak to The New York Times - that it had intercepted a message from Iraq asking al-Qaeda for help fomenting a civil war between Sunnis and Shias in Iraq.

The Iraqi police said yesterday's explosion in Iskandariya, which left a three-metre deep crater, was caused by a car bomb packed with explosives and driven by a suicide bomber.

The crowd of Iraqis that gathered at the scene seething with anger blamed it on an American air strike. Burnt and twisted remains of cars littered the scene in this small and dusty town south of Baghdad.

"It was a human disaster," said Ali Abdullah, a local student who witnessed the attack.

"The American soldiers would no let us in to where it happened, but we used back ways. We found the bodies burnt and broken into pieces. We found pieces of flesh on the roof. We found body parts that we couldn't tell who they belonged to. There were pieces of women."

The dead were all believed to be Iraqis. The local hospital director, Razaq Jabbar, said his hospital had received 50 dead and 50 wounded, but the death toll was thought likely to rise.

Nervous American soldiers sealed off the compound where the blast occurred with razor wire, taking up positions kneeling on the ground, a few metres from an angry crowd of Iraqis.

The Iraqis were blaming the Americans for the explosion, and the soldiers had their fingers on their triggers.

The attack had the meticulous planning that has become the hallmark of the bombings here. The compound, which housed not only the police station but also the local court and the mayor's office, was unusually crowded that morning because it was the second day for those wishing to apply for jobs in the police to register. Whoever carried out the attack struck on the day when they would cause the most casualties.

Those who are willing to serve in the Iraqi police under the American occupation are seen as collaborators by many. According to the local police commander, Lieutenant-Colonel Abd al-Rahim Saleh, the explosion was caused by a red pick-up truck packed with an estimated 500lb of explosives. The driver set off the explosives as he passed the police station.

That was the official version. But it was not accepted by the Iraqis on the scene. To a man, all the witnesses we spoke to claimed the blast was caused by an American air strike. They said they had heard a helicopter overhead, and the whoosh of a missile flying through the air just before the blast. Several witnesses claimed that the Americans had brought a bulldozer and quickly filled in the crater caused by the explosion.

If nothing else, that was an example of how the Americans are losing the battle for Iraqi hearts and minds, and how the bombers are succeeding.

In Baghdad, the US army said that it was too early to know whether the explosion was caused by a car bomb, but Brigadier-General Mark Kimmitt, deputy operations chief, said it showed al-Qaeda's "fingerprints".

The US this week claimed its forces in Iraq had intercepted a letter from a Jordanian believed to be in Iraq to al-Qaeda leaders asking for help carrying out attacks against Shia Iraqis in the hope of fomenting a civil war between Sunnis and Shia.

The alleged author of the letter, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, boasted of organising 25 suicide bombings in Iraq so far. The Americans' claims would tally with a suicide bombing in the Shia holy city of Najaf last August that killed a Shia leader, Ayatollah Mohammed Bakr al-Hakim, and scores of others.

Iskandariya is a mixed town of both Sunni and Shia, on the boundary between the Sunni centre of the country and the Shia south. But unlike the Shia heartlands further south, which have been relatively peaceful since the fall of Saddam Hussein, Iskandariya has seen several attacks on US forces.

The residents we spoke to were fiercely anti-American, and proud of the attacks carried out by the resistance in the area. That is a sign of how far the resistance has spread beyond the so-called Sunni Triangle of Baghdad, Fallujah and Tikrit.

Attacks on American soldiers now occur from Mosul in the north to Iskandariya, and occasionally further south. The bombers are becoming more proficient. And everyone fears there is more to come.

- INDEPENDENT

Herald Feature: Iraq