Just as the weekend violence appeared to be abating, four bombs went off in Iraq in quick succession on Tuesday -- and a fifth exploded later in the day -- killing at least 41 people and wounding scores more. All five bombs went off in Baghdad, one of which killed 23 people and injured 51 outside a gas station in the eastern part of the city.
Sunni versus Shiite attacks continued with a number of mosques being targeted. A blast early Tuesday badly damaged the Sunni mosque in Tikrit where Saddam Hussein's father lies buried. Another bomb exploded in a small market outside a Shiite mosque in a Shiite neighborhood in Baghdad, killing four. Iraq has seemed on the brink of civil war since last Wednesday's bombing of the Golden Mosque in Samarra -- one of Shiite Islam's holiest sites -- and reprisal killings and attacks have cost hundreds of lives. The Washington Post on Tuesday cited the Iraqi police's statistics department and reported that some 1,300 people have been killed since last week -- a much higher estimate than has previously been reported.
The renewed violence comes after a relatively quite Monday, which saw fewer sectrian clashes than the previous days. It was quiet enough to prompt US Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad to express optimism that the sectarian violence was coming to an end. "The crisis is over," he told CNN on Monday. "I think the country came to the brink of a civil war, but the Iraqis decided that they didn't want to go down that path, and came together."
Indeed, there are some voices for peace. Despite the sectarian violence, Adnan al-Dulaimi, head of the Sunni Iraqi Accordance Front, has indicated that his party would return to the negotiating table in an effort to form an Iraqi unity government. He said his group is "intent on participating," but has demanded that some conditions be met before talks can continue.
It's not all bad news from Baghdad on Tuesday. For the first time in a month, Saddam Hussein's lawyers deigned to show up at the former Iraqi dictator's trial, ending their boycott of the proceedings. The lawyers had been staying away from the trial after head judge Raouf Abdel-Rahman tossed one of them out of court at the end of January for shouting. Hussein's team had unsuccessfully tried to get Abdel-Rahman removed from the bench.
In a welcome break from past disruptive behavior, Saddam and his seven co-defendants entered the court silently on Tuesday. The prosecution presented a document apparently signed by Saddam Hussein authorizing death sentences for 148 Shiites in 1984 before proceedings were adjourned until Wednesday.
In related news, a BBC poll released on Tuesday, reports that some 60 percent of people in 35 countries think that the war in Iraq -- a major element of the US-led war on terror -- has made terror attacks worldwide more likely. Just 12 percent of those surveyed felt that terrorist violence had become less likely because of the war. Fully 80 percent of Germans surveyed felt the danger had increased as did 75 percent of Iraqis, 77 percent of Britons and 55 percent of Americans.
Interestingly, when asked if coalition troops should pull out of Iraq, 73 percent of Americans felt they should stay or stay if requested to by the Iraqi government. Only the Australians, at 74 percent, and the Iranians, also 74 percent, scored higher. Egyptian respondents proved most eager for an immediate coalition withdrawal, while just 11 percent of Saudi Arabians feel the occupation should continue, regardless of what the Iraqi government wants.
cgh/AP/BBC/reuters
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