A suicide bomber lured a crowd of Shi’ite day labourers to his minivan and blew it up, killing 114 people and wounding more than 156 in Baghdad on Wednesday, in the the deadliest attack since a car bomb attack in February which killed 125 people.The bomber drew the men to his vehicle with promises of work before detonating the bomb, which contained up to 220 kilos of explosives, an Interior Ministry source said.‘‘There’s no political party here, there are no police,’’ a man railed at the blast site in the Shi’ite Muslim Khadhimiya area. ‘‘This targeted civilians, innocents. Why women and children?’’ he added, as bystanders shouted, ‘‘Why? Why?’’‘‘We gathered and suddenly a car blew up and turned the area into fire and dust and darkness,’’ said Hadi, one of the workers who survived the attack.Gunmen also killed 17 people in Taji, a northern suburb of the capital, while bombs exploded across Baghdad all morning. Police said they seemed to be carefully orchestrated.Fears of civil war have grown in the run-up to an October 15 vote on the post-Saddam Hussein era constitution. Tensions are also running high ahead of the trial of Saddam, still admired by some Sunnis, which is due to start on October 19.Iraq’s Al Qaeda said on Wednesday it was waging a nationwide suicide bombing campaign to avenge the US-supported Iraqi Army offensive on the rebel town of Tal Afar near the Syrian border. Al Qaeda’s statement was carried by an Islamist website often used by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s Sunni militant group. ‘‘We would like to congratulate the Muslim nation and inform them that the battle to avenge the Sunnis of Tal Afar has begun,’’ said the statement. ‘‘Our brigades have joyfully set off to uphold their religion through death . we will inform you of the details of our operations in Baghdad and other parts of the country soon and we ask for your prayers,’’ the statement added.More than 200 insurgents have been killed and several hundred captured in Tal Afar, according to government reports. Late on Tuesday, US aircraft also launched air strikes against targets in Karabila, another town near the Syrian border.Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari, speaking in the United States, suggested Wednesday’s attacks could even unite Iraq. ‘‘This criminal act will not send any message other than hatred for them (the bombers), and will unite the Iraqi people further everyday, despite their diverse religious and ethnic backgrounds, behind the government,’’ he said.Iraq’s parliament sent a ‘‘final draft’’ of a contentious constitution to the United Nations on Wednesday, after making minor amendments designed to appease Sunni concerns. —Reuters
