Triple Car Bombing Kills 41 in Iraq

BAGHDAD — Three car bombs exploded in quick succession in the market district of a southern Iraqi city yesterday, killing at least 41 people and wounding 150 in a Shiite region that has largely escaped the country's sectarian bloodshed, authorities said.

The police chief in Amarah was fired, an immediate driving ban went into effect, and Iraqi soldiers deployed on the streets. Hospitals were quickly overwhelmed with the casualties, which mounted as bodies were pulled from the rubble, according to a provincial spokesman.

In a Christian neighborhood in Baghdad, a parked car bomb apparently targeting a police patrol killed five civilians, police said. Thirteen people were wounded in the explosion in Ghadeer, police said. The explosions in Amarah were about five minutes apart, beginning with a small blast at the entrance to the market, a provincial council spokesman, Mohammed Saleh, said.