Bombs Kill at Least 30, Suddenly Ending a Calm Spell in Baghdad - New York Times

Bombs Kill at Least 30, Suddenly Ending a Calm Spell in Baghdad - New York Times: "February 28, 2006

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Tuesday, Feb. 28 — A string of three bombs went off in quick succession here at noon today, killing at least 30 people and wounding more than 130, Iraqi officials said. The explosions brought a sudden end to the relative calm that had followed a curfew imposed after last week's outbreak of sectarian violence.

In signs that the new violence may represent a resumption of the sectarian strife, two of the blasts took place in Shiite areas in the southeastern part of the city, while the roof of a Sunni mosque in Baghdad was also blown off. In the Sunni stronghold of Tikrit, the mosque built over the grave of Saddam Hussein's father was attacked, according to an official in the Iraqi interior ministry.

The toll in the wave of reprisal killings that followed the attack last Wednesday on a revered Shiite shrine in Samarra was put at 379 dead and 458 wounded, the nation's Council of Ministers said today. At least 246 people in Baghdad alone were killed, the top two city morgue officials said. And the bodies of 47 protesters killed in a single incident right after the shrine bombing were found south of Baghdad."