Bombs Kill 22 After Deadly Day in Iraq

'When I read this news from abcnews, I really upset about what terrorists do. How can they kill people that don't have any relation to them?' - Mike

Two Bombs Explode, Killing 22 in Iraq, Following Bombings in Baghdad Slum That Killed 215

BAGHDAD, Iraq Nov 24, 2006 (AP)— Two bombs killed at least 22 people in northern Iraq and scattered violence shook Baghdad on Friday as the government tried to tamp down violence a day after Sunni-Arab insurgents killed 215 people in the capital's Sadr City Shiite slum, the deadliest attack of the war.

The bomb attack in Tal Afar, 420 kilometers (260 miles) northwest of Baghdad, involved explosives hidden in a parked car and in a suicide belt worn by a pedestrian that detonated simultaneously outside a car dealership at 11 a.m., said police Brig. Khalaf al-Jubouri. He said the casualties 22 dead, 26 wounded were expected to rise.

In Baghdad, followers of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr warned they would suspend their membership in parliament and the Cabinet if Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki meets with U.S. President George W. Bush in Jordan next week, a member of parliament said. Bush and al-Maliki were scheduled to meet Wednesday and Thursday in Amman.

The al-Sadr bloc in parliament and government is the backbone of al-Maliki's political support, and its withdrawal, if only temporarily, would be a severe blow to the prime minister's already shaky hold on power.

Legislator Qusai Abdul-Wahab, an al-Sadr follower, said in a statement that U.S. forces were to blame for Thursday's bombings in Sadr City that killed 215 people and wounded 257 because they failed to provide security.

"We say occupation forces are fully responsible for these acts, and we call for the withdrawal of occupation forces or setting a timetable for their withdrawal," Abdul-Wahab said.

Al-Sadr's followers hold six Cabinet seats and have 30 members in the 275-member parliament.

Al-Sadr also challenged sheik Harith al-Dhari, the Sunnis' most influential leader who heads the Association of Muslim Scholars, to issue a fatwa, or religious edict, that condemned Sunni attacks on Shiites.

The Shiite cleric said al-Dhari should ban Sunnis from joining al-Qaida in Iraq and organize the reconstruction of the Shiite Golden Dome mosque in Samarra, north of Baghdad. The destruction of the mosque ignited the sectarian bloodshed after suspected al-Qaida bombers blew the shrine apart on Feb. 22.

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