Car Bomber Kills 8 at Baghdad Market

12/28/2007

By STEPHEN FARRELL
NY Times
Published: December 28, 2007


BAGHDAD — A car bomber killed eight people and injured 66 in Baghdad on Friday, timing the blast to catch people emerging from prayers on the Muslim holy day and setting his explosives off directly underneath a mural celebrating doves of peace.

The bomber parked his white sedan at the roadside shortly after noon, but allayed suspicion by dashing to a nearby vegetable stall and asking for five pounds of oranges and five pounds of cucumbers, said a market vendor in Tayaraan Square, before he car exploded. The blast was in a mainly Shiite area, adorned with posters of the radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and his family, but it was also close to an Armenian Christian church.

“This is what the terrorists do, attack the poor people, especially on Friday when many people come to buy their fruit and vegetables,” said a glum Falah Hassan Hashem, 26, as broken tables and wheel hubs were cleared off the sidewalk.

The spot was chosen carefully, in one of the few unprotected areas of a square that has been hit by insurgents in the past, including in May when a car bomb killed 23 people.

Five-foot high uninterrupted concrete blast walls now seal off most of the popular street market from vehicles, but there is no protection on the short, exposed stretch of highway flyover where the bomb exploded.

As the emergency services went through their familiar drills, sealing off the area and clearing debris, the explosion set off an argument between pessimistic and optimistic Baghdadis about the extent of improvements in the security situation.

There has seen a fall in bombings in Baghdad in recent months, but the last few weeks have still seen deadly attacks in nearby Ghazil animal market, and on shops selling alcohol.

“This wasn’t a surprise, their activities have never stopped,” said Mr Hashem, the stallholder. “I don’t think there has been any progress at all.”

“No, no, there is hope that things might be better,” interjected Saad Aboud, a customer. “Compared to what the terrorists used to do, this is nothing.”

Three hours after the blast, the police lifted roadblocks, and traffic poured back into the street.

In a nearby public park, Iraqis enjoying a day off evinced little concern about the bombing.

Some said that they were letting their children out in public for the first time in months, after being too scared to do so during the two major holidays Id al-Fitr and Id al-Adha, but that even though they expected more bombs, the violence had fallen to a level that they found tolerable.

“I was just talking to my friend about this subject,” said Thiaa Adel, 40, from Karrada. “It happens. There will be blasts from time to time.”

“Probably this part of the city will be targeted too, 100 percent I think so.

But I feel my children are living in a small prison so I had to bring them here. I walk around looking left and right. I think things will get better.”