American forces fired an artillery barrage in southern Baghdad Sunday morning, rocking the capital with loud explosions, while the death toll from a suicide car bomb attack in the Shiite holy city of Karbala went up to 68.
The explosion in Karbala, 50 miles south of Baghdad, took place about 7 p.m. Saturday in a crowded commercial area about 200 yards from the shrines of Imam Abbas and Imam Hussein, major Shiite saints. The shrines, some of the country's most sacred, were not damaged, police said.
The U.S. military announced the deaths of nine American soldiers, including three killed Saturday in a single roadside bombing outside Baghdad. The Americans died in Iraq included five who were killed in fighting Friday in Anbar province, three killed when a roadside bomb struck their patrol southeast of Baghdad and one killed in a separate roadside bombing south of the capital.
The deaths raised to 99 the number of members of the U.S. military who have died this month.
Meanwhile, Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr launched a strong attack Saturday on US President Bush, calling him the "greatest evil" for refusing to withdraw American forces from Iraq.
According to the AP, al-Sadr's statement was read during a parliament session by his cousin, Liqaa al-Yassin. "Here are the Democrats calling you to withdraw or even set a timetable and you are not responding," al-Sadr's statement said. "It is not only them who are calling for this but also Republicans, to whom you belong."
"If you are ignoring your friends and partners, then it is no wonder that you ignore the international and Iraqi points of view," he added.
