25 people killed by bombing in Iraq, death toll at least 100

BAGHDAD – A car bomb exploded Tuesday at an outdoor market in a Shiite area of Baghdad, killing 25 people and wounding at least 60, the deadliest in a string of attacks that stoked sectarian tension in and around the capital.\nThe blast occurred in Amil, one of a cluster of neighborhoods in southwestern Baghdad where Sunni-Shiite tension is running high three months after the start of the U.S.-led security crackdown.\nFollowing the blast, terrified survivors ran through the streets hauling buckets and pots of water to try to put out fires in shops that were shattered by the bomb. Volunteers tore through the rubble, searching for survivors.\nSami Hussein, 25, was heading to the market with her 5-year-old son when she heard the explosion, “followed by gray and black smoke, which engulfed the market and made me to fall on the ground.”\nShe suffered shrapnel wounds in her face and legs.\n“I lost my son and have no idea about his fate,” she said. Medical officials at the hospital said he died in the blast. \nFadhil Hussein, 32, who sells spices in the market, said he was thrown from his stall and wounded with shrapnel in his back and head.\n“I found myself in a pickup truck with other people. Some of them were bleeding and yelling,” he said.\nNo group claimed responsibility for the blast. But U.S. officials believe Sunni extremists are stepping up car bombings, especially against Shiite civilians, to enflame sectarian hatred and undermine public confidence in government security forces.\nThere were other signs Tuesday that Sunni-Shiite tensions are again rising after they eased last winter following the start of the Baghdad security operation Feb. 14.\nIn north Baghdad, gunmen wearing army uniforms stopped a bus carrying college students to a Shiite neighborhood, entered the vehicle and sprayed the passengers with gunfire, police said. Eight students were killed and two were wounded.\nAt another fake checkpoint near Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, gunmen killed six people from one family – a woman, her 5-year-old son and four men – and stole their car, police said. It was unclear whether the victims were Sunnis or Shiites.\nIn Baghdad, mortar shells struck a college in the mostly Sunni neighborhood of Azamiyah, killing four people and wounding 27. Four rounds landed around the office of prominent Sunni politician Adnan al-Dulaimi, causing no casualties but destroying three cars, his staff said.\nGunmen in two vehicles ambushed a car in the mostly Sunni neighborhood of Khadra carrying three plainclothes police officers from the major crimes unit, killing two and wounding the third, police said.\nAnother officer was killed when a roadside bomb exploded next to a police patrol driving through an eastern Baghdad neighborhood, police said. Three other officers were wounded.\nIn all, at least 100 Iraqis were killed or found dead nationwide Tuesday, according to police. They included 33 people found shot execution-style, presumably by sectarian death squads, and their bodies scattered across Baghdad.