No rest for Iraq: Soccer euphoria turns to carnage

BAGHDAD — Street celebrations following the Iraqi national soccer team's Asia Cup semifinals victory turned into another cruel tragedy Wednesday when two suicide car bombs exploded amid throngs of revelers, killing at least 50 and injuring more than 130 in Baghdad, police said.

The attacks broke the wave of euphoria that swept the capital and other parts of the nation after the Iraqis beat South Korea 4-3 in a close-fought game in Malaysia.

Thousands of overjoyed Iraqis poured into the streets of Baghdad, firing their guns in the air and waving huge flags. Iraqis danced and cheered for their mixed-sect soccer team, one of the last national symbols in a country that's disintegrating along strictly drawn lines of Sunni and Shiite Muslim and Kurd.

Witnesses said the first blast at 7 p.m. tore through a crowd that was chanting, "Today is your day, heroes!" in a public square of the once-upscale Mansour district. Iraqi police blamed a suicide car bomber; at least 30 people died and 75 were wounded.

"We were out celebrating in our neighborhood, standing, singing, shouting and clapping, with all the youths cruising in their cars," said Laith Abdul Rahman, 27, who survived the bombing. "What is the matter with these people? Can't they bear it that we Iraqis have something to rejoice in and be proud of?"

Less than half an hour later, a second explosion ripped through another crowd of soccer fans near an Iraqi army checkpoint in the eastern Baghdad neighborhood of Ghadeer. It was unclear whether the festivities or the military post was the intended target.

Iraqi authorities said 20 people, including several Iraqi soldiers, were killed. At least 60 were wounded.

Wednesday was the second time in a week that Iraqis took to the streets to express their excitement over the soccer team's performance in the Asia Cup qualifiers. Similar celebrations — uninterrupted by insurgent violence — took place Saturday after the Iraqi team's quarterfinals win over Vietnam. The next match will pit Iraq against Saudi Arabia in the finals scheduled for Sunday in Indonesia.

Abdul Karim Khalaf, spokesman for the interior ministry, said the first celebrations were so spontaneous that both security officials and insurgents were caught off guard. Wednesday's bombings, he said, showed that militants had readied themselves for attacks on the "easy targets" provided by large crowds.

Khalaf chided Iraqi police and soldiers for leaving their posts and creating security gaps by participating in the merrymaking.

The celebration over Wednesday's victory drew much larger crowds and spread to far-flung provinces. In the western Sunni town of Fallujah, cheering residents broke a two-month-old driving ban that was intended to prevent car bombings. Locals said they hired DJs and drummers for impromptu block parties — virtually unprecedented actions for the typically conservative Sunni insurgent stronghold.

Cellphone companies sent congratulatory text messages to subscribers throughout Iraq. "Together, on to gold!" read a message from the Atheer network.

The bombings showed that insurgents "don't want joy in Iraq," said Ali Dabbagh, the government spokesman. "This is how they show how evil they are. But, at the same time, the celebrations show that the Iraqis are united. There were no chants about religion, no chants about what town they are from."

Iraq's usual laundry list of daily violence accompanied the bombings that disrupted the soccer celebrations.

Police reported the discovery of 18 unidentified corpses throughout Baghdad. Three Iraqis were killed and two were wounded by a homemade bomb hidden in a car in the Shaab district. Gunmen in the Doura neighborhood opened fire on a busload of Iranian religious pilgrims, injuring six. A mortar shell injured two officers at the Khadraa police station in west Baghdad.

North of the capital, police officials in the Diyala province said gunmen kidnapped four young men who belong to a Turkmen political party in the town of Saadiyah; their severed heads were found four hours after the abduction. Other decapitations were reported in the provincial capital of Baqouba.

In the city of Kirkuk, also north of Baghdad, gunmen shot dead two farmers near a downtown technical institute. In a separate incident, kidnappers seized the son of a prominent Sunni Arab tribal leader.

Also Wednesday, Iraq's largest Sunni Arab bloc announced it was suspending its membership in the Shiite-led coalition government over unmet Sunni demands, such as the release of some detainees and the disbanding of militias.

Members of the Iraqi Accord Front issued an ultimatum to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, saying they would quit his fragile government permanently unless he meets their requests within a week. The Sunni group has five Cabinet ministers and 44 members of the 275-person Iraqi legislature. It had just resumed participation last week after a five-week boycott.

McClatchy Newspapers special correspondents Jenan Hussein, Laith Hammoudi, Sahar Issa and Mohammed al Dulaimy contributed to this report.