Slaughter Marks Anniversary Of Saddam’s Coup
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
Dozens of gunmen attacked a crowded market in Iraq yesterday, killing about 50 people, mostly Shiite Muslims, when they launched mortars and grenades before shooting dead fleeing civilians.
The attack, claimed by local Al Qaeda fighters, was one of the worst single examples of sectarian bloodletting to occur this year and reinforced fears that a bloody and brutal civil war has now broken out across central Iraq.
According to police, the assailants first entered the market in the mixed Sunni and Shiite city of Mahmoudiya at around 9 a.m. A mortar barrage first struck the site, then three Iraqi soldiers at a checkpoint were killed, allowing the Kalashnikov-wielding attackers, many of whom were in pickup trucks, to attack without fear of retaliation.
Their targets appear to have been chosen at random and included women and children. Witnesses described how rocket-propelled grenades were fired into the crowd as people fled in panic.
