Car bomb blast kills 23 in Iraq
Interim PM offers amnesty to insurgents
Agencies, Hilla/London
Shocked residents of this busy town south of Baghdad laboured yesterday to clear the wreckage left by a massive car bomb blast in a shopping district that killed 23 people and wounded 58, many of them children. The explosion late Saturday ripped through the area near to a new democracy centre and religious university funded by the US-led coalition in Hilla, a mainly Shiite Muslim city 100km south of the capital. The blast site was nowhere near Iraqi police or coalition military posts that are favoured targets of a bloody insurgency that US and Iraqi officials have warned will increase as the handover of sovereignty from the coalition to an Iraqi government on Wednesday nears. The attacks was condemned by US overseer in Iraq Paul Bremer, who said it was carried out by "enemies of Iraq" when he visited the scene on Sunday. "There were 23 people killed and 58 injured, some seriously, meaning the number of dead could rise," said hospital director Mohammad Dia Bayram. The coalition, which earlier estimated that up to 40 people may have been killed in the attack, confirmed the latest toll figure, as did the health ministry. wreckage as hundreds of locals gathered around to watch. Witnesses said the force of the blast, which went off at about 8:45pm (1645 GMT), caused severe destruction. OLIVE BRANCH
Iraq's interim prime minister yesterday offered the olive branch of amnesty to his countrymen who have resisted the US occupation out of a sense of indignation not destabilisation. Iyad Allawi said his administration would have understanding for fellow Iraqis who had risen up against the occupation out of a sense of desperation but would draw the line at those who had joined the foreign conspiracy to destabilise the country. "We are drawing up plans to provide amnesty to Iraqis who supported the so-called resistance without committing crimes, while isolating the hardcore elements of terrorists and criminals," he wrote in the Independent on Sunday newspaper. "The government will make a clear distinction between those Iraqis who have acted against the occupation out of a sense of desperation, and those foreign terrorist fundamentalists and criminals whose sole objective is to kill and maim innocent people and to see Iraq fail," he added. With a rising crescendo of murders and bombings of civilians as well as peacekeepers and officials across the country, and a threat on his own life, Allawi said national security was the top priority. (AFP and Reuters)
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