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Car bomb at bus stop in Baghdad kills 63

US blames Shia militiamen for the attack

AFP, Baghdad
A car bomb at a bus stop in north Baghdad killed at least 63 people and wounded 75 onlYiesday in one of the deadliest attacks in the capital in months, security officials told AFP.
The attack took place in the mainly Shia Al-Hurriyah neighbourhood at around 5:30 pm (1430 GMT), at the peak of the evening rush hour, the officials said.
Several nearby buildings and vehicles caught fire in the aftermath of the explosion that was so powerful it could be heard more than five kilometres away.
The casualties, many of them women and children, were taken to several city hospitals, officials said.
The car bombing came just hours after a bomb hidden on a
motorcycle exploded at a checkpoint in another area of north Baghdad, killing four fighters of a group battling al-Qaeda militants.
That attack took place at around 10:00 am (0700 GMT) at a checkpoint run by the US-backed militia in the Al-Sulek neighbourhood, security officials said. Four other members of the group were wounded, along with two civilians.
al-Qaeda has repeatedly targeted such groups whose members were once its allies but in late 2006 turned against the radical Islamist group and sided with the US mili-
In recent months, insurgent attacks such as car bombs and suicide strikes have dropped significantly in Baghdad amid improved security following last year’s deployment of extra US
troops.
IXiesday's attack in Baghdad was the biggest since March 7, when 68 people were killed in twin bombings.
The deadliest in the Iraqi capital this year was a February 1 attack in which two female bombers blew themselves up at two pct markets, killing at least 98 people and wounding more than 200.
The biggest strike in recent weeks was on May 1 in the city of Baquba, north of Baghdad, when two suicide bombers killed 35 people and wounded dozens more.
Baghdad has seen a decline in violence in recent months but the city was rocked by intense fighting between security forces and Shiite militiamen loyal to the radical movement of Moqtada al-Sadr. Hundreds of people were killed in the clashes that ended after a ceasefire was ordered by Sadr on May 10.
The US military says that its strategy of deploying extra troops announced in February’ last year has been one of the key reasons for the respite from violence in Baghdad and other regions of Iraq.
After hitting a peak in January’ 2007, monthly death tolls from political violence have fallen to some of their lowest levels since the 2003 invasion.
Meanwhile, Ilie US military said yesterday that a deadly car bombing at a Baghdad bus stop was carried out by Shia militiamen and not by Sunni militants loyal to al-Qaeda.
Its intelligence indicated that the bombing was carried out by a renegade Shiite militia cell led by Haydar Mehdi Khadum Al-Fawadi in a bid to stop the resettlement of Sunni Arabs intheneighbourhood.
"We believe the attack was not conducted by AQ1 (al-Qaeda in Iraq),” military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Steven Stover said in a statement.
"Though vehicle-bome improvised explosive devices are a trademark of AQI, our intelligence, corroborated through multiple sources, is this atrocity was committed by a Special Groups cell led by Haydar Mehdi Khadum Al-Fawadi."
The US military uses the term Special Groups to refer to Shiite extremists, particularly renegade members of the Mahdi Army militia of Shiite radical leader Moqtada al-Sad r.