4 bombings in Baghdad kill at least 183 people

BAGHDAD – Suspected Sunni insurgents penetrated the Baghdad security net Wednesday, hitting Shiite targets with four bomb attacks that killed 183 people – the bloodiest day since the U.S. troop surge began nine weeks ago.\nLate Wednesday, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki ordered the arrest of the Iraqi army colonel who was in charge of security in the area around the Sadriyah market where at least 127 people died and 148 were wounded in the deadliest bombing of the day.\nIt was the second massive blast at the market since Feb. 3.\nNationwide, the number of people killed or found dead on Wednesday was 233, which was the second deadliest day in Iraq since The Associated Press began keeping records in May 2005. Five car bombings, mortar rounds and other attacks killed 281 people across Iraq on Nov. 23, 2006, according to the AP count.\nInterior Minister spokesman Brig. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf declined to comment when asked about the staggering number of deaths Wednesday, directing an Associated Press reporter to Brig. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi, the military spokesman. His phone was turned off.\nU.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates called the bombings “horrifying” and accused al-Qaida of being behind them.\nAmong the dead in the Sadriyah market bombing were several construction workers who had been rebuilding the mostly Shiite marketplace after the February bombing that killed 137 people, a police official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information.\nThe laborers typically finish work around 4 p.m. each day. One of those wounded, 28-year-old Salih Mustafa, said he was waiting for a minibus to head home when the blast went off at 4:05 p.m.\n“I rushed with others to give a hand and help the victims,” he said. “I saw three bodies in a wooden cart, and civilian cars were helping to transfer the victims. It was really a horrible scene.”\nThe market is situated on a side street lined with shops and vendors selling produce, meat and other staples. It is also about 500 yards from a Sunni shrine.\nAbout an hour earlier, a suicide car bomber crashed into an Iraqi police checkpoint at an entrance to Sadr City, the capital’s biggest Shiite Muslim neighborhood and a stronghold for the militia led by radical anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.\nThe explosion killed at least 41 people, including five Iraqi security officers, and wounded 76, police and hospital officials said.\nBlack smoke billowed from a jumble of at least eight incinerated vehicles that were in a jam of carsstopped at the checkpoint. Bystanders scrambled over twisted metal to drag victims from the smoldering wreckage as Iraqi guards staggered around stunned.\nEarlier, a parked car exploded near a private hospital in the central neighborhood of Karradah, killing 11 people and wounding 13, police said. The blast damaged the Abdul-Majid hospital and other nearby buildings.\nThe fourth explosion was from a bomb left on a minibus in the central Rusafi area, area, killing four people and wounding six others, police said.\nU.S. officials had cited a slight decrease in sectarian killings in Baghdad since the U.S.-Iraqi crackdown was launched Feb. 14. But the past week has seen several spectacular attacks on the capital, including a suicide bombing inside parliament and a powerful blast that collapsed a landmark bridge across the Tigris River.