NAJAF, Iraq – Car bombs tore through a Najaf funeral procession and Karbala’s main bus station Sunday, killing at least 60 people and wounding more than 120 in the two Shiite holy cities. In Baghdad, gunmen launched a bold ambush on a downtown street, executing three election officials.
The bombings in Najaf and Karbala, predominantly Shiite cities 45 miles from each other south of Baghdad, came about an hour apart, and officials suspect they were coordinated. The first was a suicide blast that ripped through minibuses parked at the entrance to Karbala’s main bus station, followed by a car bomb in a central Najaf square crowded with people watching a funeral procession attended by the city police chief and provincial governor.
The Najaf car bomb detonated in central Maidan Square where a large crowd of people had gathered for the funeral procession of a tribal sheik – about 100 yards from where Gov. Adnan al-Zurufi and police chief Ghalib al-Jazaari were standing. They were not hurt.
Hospital officials said 47 people were killed and at least 90 others wounded in the blast, which went off about 400 yards from the Imam Ali Shrine, the holiest Shiite site in Iraq
The blast sheered facades off nearby buildings. Dozens of men clambered over the rubble, searching for survivors.
At Zehra Hospital, frantic relatives searched for loved ones among charred, mangled bodies laid out in the hospital garden.
“Why did you leave the house?” one anguished man cried over the body of his brother. “You are newly wed and your bride is waiting for you.”
The Karbala blast destroyed about 10 passenger minibuses and set ablaze five cars outside the crowded Bab Baghdad bus station. Hospital officials said 13 people were killed and 33 injured.
The Karbala and Najaf bombings were the deadliest since July.
The Baghdad ambush was the latest attack to target Iraqi officials working to organize the elections.
During morning rush hour, about 30 armed insurgents, hurling hand grenades and firing guns, swarmed onto Haifa Street, the scene of repeated clashes between U.S. forces and insurgents. They stopped a car carrying five employees of the Iraqi Electoral Commission and dragged out three of them. The other two escaped.
Pistol-wielding guerrillas forced the officials to kneel in the middle of Haifa Street, while cars behind them braked to a halt, with some panicked drivers trying to reverse away. One of the officials was punched by the gunmen as he lay on the ground, while another knelt nearby, before the militants shot all three at point-blank range.
The gunmen then set fire to the officials’ car and at least one other vehicle.
Also Sunday, insurgents detonated two roadside bombs and a car bomb targeting U.S. forces in the volatile city of Mosul 225 miles northwest of Baghdad, in three separate attacks during a two-hour period. Three soldiers were wounded in one roadside bomb blast, while there were no casualties from the others, according to military spokesman Lt. Col. Paul Hastings.
Meanwhile, masked insurgents claiming to represent three Iraqi militant groups released a videotape showing what they said were 10 abducted Iraqis who had been working for an American security and reconstruction company.
The militants said they represent the Mujahedeen Army, the Black Banner Brigade and the Mutassim Bellah Brigade, all previously unknown groups. Nine blindfolded hostages were seen lined up against a stone wall and a 10th was lying in a bed, apparently wounded.
The kidnappers said they would kill the hostages if the Washington, D.C.-based company Sandi Group does not leave Iraq.
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