It was a bloodier-than-usual day in Iraq as the terrorists desperately work to stave off the pending elections.
Suicide car bombers struck Iraq’s two main Shi’ite holy cities of Najaf and Karbala yesterday, killing at least 62 people and wounding nearly 130, six weeks before a historic election.
Both bombs, which went off about two hours apart, exploded near crowded bus stations in a seemingly co-ordinated attempt to cause as much bloodshed as possible among Shi’ites, a long-oppressed majority expected to dominate the January 30 vote.
Earlier in Baghdad, gunmen killed three Electoral Commission employees after hauling them from a car on a busy street.
In Najaf, the suicide bomber detonated his vehicle about 300 metres from the Imam Ali shrine, near crowds of people queuing for buses and taxis and not far from busy offices.
Medical officials said there were at least 48 dead and 90 wounded in the blast. Police imposed a curfew in Najaf’s old city.
In Karbala, where a suicide bomber stuck about two hours earlier, the main hospital said 14 people were killed and 39 wounded. A hospital official said all appeared to be civilians with many women and children among them.
In an unrelated occurrence, I’ve just about finished my Christmas shopping.