The Bombings Elicit Shock and Shrugs From War-Weary Iraqis

BAGHDAD —  For more than two years, Sadek Rasool Sadek has been urging his brother Sabah to keep away from Iraq’s violence and stay put in London, where he works as a psychiatrist.

But to the 52-year-old government clerk’s dismay, even Britain wasn’t far enough away from the kind of bloodshed that has become common in Iraq.

Sabah’s wife, Fleur, left an underground rail station minutes before explosions rocked London’s public transportation system Thursday, Rasool said.

“It seems there is no safe place in this world,” said Rasool, who spent Thursday desperately trying to get in touch with his family in Britain.

Iraqis reacted with shock but also shrugs at the London bombings, the kind of attack that has become as common to Baghdad as drizzle is to the British capital.

“We had four car bombs exploding here in this neighborhood just a little while ago,” said Haider Mahdi, a salesman in the capital’s Karada district. “It’s happening on a daily basis all around the country.”

Iraqi political and religious leaders dutifully condemned the bombings. Spaniards pulled out of the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq after the March 11, 2004, attacks in Madrid, and President Jalal Talabani urged Britons on Friday to stay the course. “We are confident that these vile crimes will not dissuade the people of the United Kingdom of Great Britain from their noble values,” he said in a statement.

In claims posted on the Internet, militants called the bombings retaliation for British involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan. But Iraqis across the political spectrum expressed hope that the attack wouldn’t reflect badly on them.

“Those Islamic extremists in no way whatsoever represent us,” said Mahir Samir Saidi, a 37-year-old merchant. “May God curse them for speaking in the name of Iraqis. They have no right to avenge us. Their only aim is to destroy our reputation.”

But to Sahib Abbas, a 28-year-old engineer, the bombings had a silver lining: They gave Britons a taste of what it’s like to live in Iraq.

“It was a one-hour experiment in Iraqi life,” he said.

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Times staff writer Caesar Ahmed and special correspondents Asmaa Waguih in Baghdad and Saad Fakhrildeen in Najaf contributed to this report.