Suicide Car Bomber Targets Shiite Pilgrims in Southern Iraq

KUFA, Iraq —  A suicide bombing here Thursday morning highlighted the fragility of Iraq’s nascent religious tourism industry, which brings hundreds of thousands of dollars in foreign cash to the economically ravaged south each month.

Meanwhile, skirmishes between U.S. forces and suspected insurgents continued for a second day in the western city of Ramadi, where Marines have taken over a 400-bed hospital allegedly used by rebels. At least one civilian was killed and two Iraqi police officers were injured, U.S. and hospital officials said.

The suicide car bomber in Kufa struck Iranian pilgrims visiting Shiite Muslim religious sites, killing at least 11 civilians.

At least 50 civilians were injured in the blast. The dead included seven Iranians, part of a steady flow of about 1,500 religious tourists arriving daily from the neighboring country to visit shrines on bus tours and bringing business to hotels, restaurants and shops in nearby Najaf and in Karbala to the north.

The attacker maneuvered his vehicle between two buses parked near the Maitham Tamar shrine, a lesser religious site, before setting off the explosives.

“Suddenly, I felt myself flying with a huge blast before I hit the ground,” said Hassan Ahmad, 16, a vendor of religious paraphernalia who was recovering at Najaf’s main hospital.

Political leaders quickly denounced the attack, which appeared aimed at heightening tensions between the country’s majority Shiite and minority Sunni sects.

The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad issued a statement saying, “The perpetrators of this attack show no respect for Islam and the long tradition of pilgrimage to holy sites.”

Tensions between Shiites and Sunni Arabs have risen since Saddam Hussein’s regime was ousted in 2003. Sunnis play a large role in the insurgency roiling Iraq, whose democratically elected government is dominated by Shiites.

Members of the minority sect allege that Shiite-controlled security forces operate death squads targeting the community. Iraqi officials Thursday reported the discovery of 36 bodies of Iraqi men in outlying neighborhoods of the capital. The victims, who were bound, blindfolded and bore signs of torture, had been shot in a manner often attributed to the alleged Shiite death squads.

Two car bombings in downtown Baghdad killed four people and injured 12. An investigative judge, who serves as a prosecutor in the Iraqi system, was gunned down as he was being driven through a western neighborhood.

At least six mortar shells crashed into an electricity facility south of the capital, killing at least one security guard.

Gunmen killed a prominent doctor in the northern city of Kirkuk. Khalida Mohammed Ameen was shot as she left for work, police said, adding that two civilians were killed in the nearby city of Hawija.

In the south, the Basra provincial council voted to oust the police chief, an independent-minded official who had defied the authority of the ruling Shiite political parties believed to be involved in oil smuggling and sectarian killings. Brig. Gen. Hassan Suwadi faces immediate dismissal if the Interior Ministry approves the council’s resolution.

In Ramadi, in Al Anbar province, U.S. military officials said the raid Wednesday to retake the city’s main hospital had been a success. They said the facility had been used by insurgents to hide weapons.

“The hospital raid was a huge success, not a shot was fired” in the hospital, said U.S. Army Lt. Col. Pete Lee, the executive officer of the 1st Brigade of the 1st Armored Division, which oversees Ramadi. “Because it is a hospital, you have to think hard, make sure it is right, make sure the conditions are right.”

Hospitals, like mosques and churches, are protected buildings under the Geneva Convention. The U.S. military is allowed to enter protected buildings only when it has evidence they are being used for enemy combat operations.

Military officials said Iraqi security forces led the way into the hospital. The Marines also used a sniper and Navy SEAL team to help secure the complex, officials said.

They said troops found no insurgents inside and did not engage in firefights in the hospital.

Lee said the hospital had only a handful of patients when the raid was conducted -- a sign, he said, that insurgents had scared people away from the facility. He said the hospital had reopened Thursday and had been taking X-rays of patients.

“The hospital has become an enemy command-and-control node,” said Lt. Col. Stephen Neary, commander of the 3rd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, stationed in the heart of downtown Ramadi.

The Marines have sent several dozen Iraqi police officers to protect the hospital and keep the insurgents out. A military officer said insurgents tried to attack the hospital Thursday and injured two Iraqi police officers who were guarding the front of the building.

Times staff writer Daragahi reported from Baghdad and special correspondent Fakhrildeen from Kufa. Times staff writer Julian E. Barnes in Ramadi and special correspondents in Basra, Kirkuk and Ramadi contributed to this report.