Bombings, ambush kill 65 Iraqis

BAGHDAD -- In attacks targeting Iraq's major Shi'ite Muslim cities, car bombs in Najaf and Karbala killed at least 62 people yesterday and wounded 120, threatening to inflame sectarian anger as the nation prepares for elections next month.

In a separate ambush in Baghdad, heavily armed militants attacked a car carrying five employees of Iraq's Independent Electoral Commission, dragging three of the workers out of the vehicle and killing them in the street in front of scores of rush-hour drivers.

The attacks seemed to be the latest attempt by insurgents to fuel instability before the Jan. 30 election.

''We blame the extremists, fundamentalists, and remnants of the old regime," said Mohammed Hussein Hakim, one of Najaf's top Shi'ite clerics. ''They are trying to bait a sectarian conflict and create a state of terror among the Iraqi people."

Shi'ites, which represent about 60 percent of Iraq's population, have been among the leading proponents of elections. Led by Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the long-oppressed Shi'ite community is optimistic that a vote next month will allow them to assume a major role in governing Iraq.

The insurgency is largely made up of Sunni Muslims, who lost power after the US invasion toppled Saddam Hussein and have been threatening to boycott elections.

Election officials pledged yesterday to continue their work.

''We won't be frightened by a few terrorists," said Abdul Hussein Hendawi, head of the commission charged with supervising the coming vote. ''These inhumane crimes do not represent the Iraqi people."

The attack yesterday in Baghdad brings to nine the number of election workers killed, Hendawi said. Two were slain Saturday when a mortar hit their office in Dujail, a town about 50 miles north of the capital.

The car bombs in Shi'ite-dominated southern Iraq exploded within two hours of one another yesterday afternoon, each exploding near the cities' gold-domed shrines, which rank among the holiest sites in Islam.

The second and more deadly of yesterday's explosions struck in Najaf. The blast occurred at 3:30 p.m. in a narrow street where dozens of clinics and doctors offices are located, about 300 yards from the Imam Ali Shrine. Among the victims were patients seeking treatment, including many women and children, witnesses said.

The city's police chief and the regional governor were attending a funeral procession not far from the blast site, but neither was injured.

''This attack targeted innocent Iraqis," said Adnan Zurfi, governor of the region.

Hospital officials said 49 were killed and 90 wounded in the blast. There were conflicting reports over whether the attacker or attackers were among the dead or escaped.

The bombing broke a relative calm in Najaf after battles in August between US troops and followers of radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. American officials have been leading a $200 million reconstruction program to rebuild the Old City, which was heavily damaged in the summertime fighting and suffered another devastating blow yesterday.

About two hours before the attack in Najaf, a car bomb struck near a bus station in Karbala.

Thirteen were killed and 30 injured, officials said. The explosion ignited a row of minibuses and left a 5-foot crater in the asphalt.

The attack on election workers earlier yesterday occurred in the area of Haifa Street, one of Baghdad's oldest and most dangerous neighborhoods. More than 30 militants armed with pistols, machine guns, Kalashnikov assault rifles, and hand grenades swarmed the car carrying five election workers before pulling three of the workers into the street, officials said.

An Associated Press photographer captured pictures of the attack, showing one election worker lying on the ground as a gunman aimed a pistol at his head. A second election worker, cowering on his knees nearby, was shot seconds later, AP reported.

The employees were identified as Hatem Ali Hadi al-Moussawi, a lawyer and deputy director for one of the commission's offices in Baghdad, and two of his office employees, Mahdi Sbeih and Samy Moussa.

The two other workers escaped the attack, although it was not clear how.

Unlike the roughly two dozen election workers assigned to the United Nations, who live and work inside the heavily guarded Green Zone, most of the 6,000 Iraqi employees of the nation's electoral commission travel without weapons or heavy security. Officials fear the workers were followed.

''There was a huge number of terrorists involved," said Hendawi, the commission chief. ''We think it was an organized attack."

He said the recent attacks have not resulted in resignations or large-scale defections from his staff, but there are signs that the increase in violent strikes is taking a toll.

''We are not going to be able to do anything about candidates or voting centers if the security situation stays at this level," said a election worker in the city of Samarra, who was afraid to be identified. He said insurgents had bombed one election center in the city and chased away the supervisor of another with death threats.