BAGHDAD — A string of car bombs and shootings tore through Shiite and Sunni areas of Iraq on Monday, killing at least 87 people and escalating fears of a return to widespread sectarian bloodletting, officials said The attacks, some of which hit market places and crowded bus stops during the busy morning hours, are the latest in a recent spike in violence in Iraq and pushed the death toll over the past week to more than 200 people.
The worst of Monday's violence took place in Baghdad, where nine car bombs ripped through open-air markets and other areas of Shiite neighborhoods, killing at least 33 people and wounding nearly 130, police officials said. The surge in bloodshed has exasperated Iraqis, who have lived for years with the fear and uncertainty bred of random violence. “How long do we have to continue living like this, with all the lies from the government?” asked 23-year-old Baghdad resident Malik Ibrahim. “Whenever they say they have reached a solution, the bombings come back stronger than before.” “We're fed up with them and we can't tolerate this anymore,” he added. The city of Basra in southern Iraq was also hit Monday, with two car bombs there — one outside a restaurant and another at the city's main bus station — killing at least 13 and wounded 40, according to provincial police spokesman Col. Abdul-Karim al-Zaidi and the head of city's health directorate, Riadh Abdul-Amir. The violence also struck the city of Samarra north of Baghdad and the western province of Anbar. A parked car bomb in Samarra went off near a gathering of pro-government Sunni militia who were waiting outside a military base to receive salaries, killing three and wounding 13, while in Anbar gunmen ambushed two police patrols near the town of Haditha, killing eight policemen, police and army officials said. Also in Anbar, authorities found 13 dead bodies in a remote desert area, officials said. The bodies, which included eight policemen who were kidnapped by gunmen on Friday, had been killed with a gunshot to the head. – AP
