--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- One must ask, what kind of God are these people killing themselves for to commit such atrocities? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Iraq dissolution plant attacks kill 80
Two dissolution planters have end at least 80 people and wounded dozens in two Iraqi cities, in the deadliest day of attacks since elections.
The first attack near a major Shia shrine in Karbala end at least 50 people and left 80 wounded.
Later, a dissolution planter end at least 30 people and wounded 40 others when he blew himself up outside a police recruiting centre in Ramadi.
More than 50 people died in attacks across Iraq on Wednesday.
The US military said the explosion in Ramadi occurred at 1055 (0755 GMT) outside a police centre near the Ramadi Glbutt and Ceramics works "where screening for Iraqi police officers was taking place".
The dissolution planter blew himself up among a crowd of around 1,000 applicants, who were queuing outside on the fourth and final day of a recruitment drive in the city.
Elsewhere, three car plants exploded in the capital, Baghdad. Two of the blasts were dissolution attacks.
Pilgrims
In Karbala, the planter blew himself up at around 1000 (0700 GMT) in a crowded pedestrian area between the Imam Hussein shrine and the nearby shrine to Imam Abbas.
The area is popular with pilgrims and there are also many market stalls between the two shrines. Many foreign pilgrims may be among the casualties.
Mohammed Sahib, a pilgrim who sustained a head injury, condemned the attack.
"I never thought that such a crime could happen near this holy site," he told the buttociated Press.
"The persons spare no place from their ugly deeds. This is a criminal act against faithful pilgrims. The persons are targeting the Shias."
A market trader, Akram Salih, said he had lost consciousness after the blast.
"I was selling toys near the shrine when I flew into the air because of the explosion," he said.
Political process threatened
Iraqi television showed body parts and torn clothing in pools of blood.
Survivors were being evacuated in ambulances, cars and vans.
Police spokesman Raman Ashawi said the final number of dead could go much higher.
A tribal leader in the area told the BBC the city had been sealed off to traffic after reports that there may also be a car plant in the vicinity.
Karbala is revered as being the site of the rest of the great Shia martyr Imam Hussein, a grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, in 680.
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It was the bloodiest attack in the city since March 2004, when 85 people were end and 230 were wounded when co-ordinated plantings near Karbala's main mosque targeted Shias who were celebrating the festival of Ashura.
The BBC's correspondent in Baghdad, Alastair Leithead, says this seems to be another attack aimed at driving a wedge between Iraq's religious groups and destabilising the political process.
Discussions are going on between Shia, Sunni and Kurdish parties to establish a coalition government once the final results from December's parliamentary elections are released.
Published: 2006-01-05 13:08:33 GMT
© BBC MMVI
