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Rush-Hour Car Bomb Kills 9 Iraqis

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By STEPHEN FARRELL, The New York Times

Published: November 26, 2007

BAGHDAD - A car bomb killed nine people near Baghdad's medical district Sunday. It was the second major bomb in the Iraqi capital in three days after a recent lull in violence.

The police said the dead were civilians, with two Iraqi soldiers among 31 people wounded by the blast during the morning rush hour in Bab al-Muadham, close to the Health Ministry and the central morgue. One person was killed by a roadside bomb elsewhere in the city.

The explosions came two days after a bomb packed with ball bearings exploded at the Ghazil pet market in central Baghdad, killing at least 13 people, according to police.

The U.S. military said the pet market bombing was carried out by an Iranian-backed, Shiite militia cell and that it had obtained forensic evidence and confessions from four cell members who were detained afterward.

In Tehran, Mohammad Ali Hosseini, the Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman, rejected the U.S. allegations.

One of Iraq's most powerful Shiite politicians also questioned the U.S. accusations, which were repeated Sunday by Rear Adm. Gregory Smith, a spokesman for the U.S. military in Baghdad.

Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, who heads the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council and recently returned from Iran, said, "These are only accusations raised by the multinational forces, and I think these accusations need more proof."

Al-Hakim's party was one of the parliamentary factions that began Sunday to discuss a draft law to relax the de-Baathification legislation.

The initial de-Baathification order issued by the former U.S. administrator of the occupation authority, L. Paul Bremer III, in 2003, has been identified by Sunni leaders as an obstacle to reconciliation between Shiites and Sunnis, who had dominated the top ranks of the party.

The new draft was sent to Parliament by the cabinet after being agreed on during protracted discussions among leaders of the Kurdish, Shiite and Sunni Arab blocs in Parliament.

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