(Agencies)
Updated: 2007-12-06 08:54

Of all Baghdad neighborhoods, Karradah appeared closest to normalcy because of the recent lull in violence. It is heavily guarded by police, soldiers and Shiite militiamen. Its residents boast that when the rest of the city shuts down soon after sunset, Karradah buzzes with shoppers who throng its colorfully lit boutiques, restaurants, food stands and cafes until 9 pm.

After the blast, US Army troops and Iraqi security forces blocked the main street into Karradah. Most stores in the area around the blast closed. Food stands stood empty. A crowd of about 200 watched as firefighters hosed down fires and crews cleaned up the wreckage.

Later, two trucks drove away carrying the blackened and twisted hulks of several cars. One, cut in half, was suspected as the car used in the bombing. Police in SUVs escorted the trucks, using bullhorns to clear a path: "Make way, God have mercy on your parents."

A semblance of normalcy reigned elsewhere in the sprawling neighborhood. Stores and cafes remained open, although with fewer customers than usual.

Ali Sami, owner of a street stall selling children's clothes, was near the blast. "This terrorist attack was targeting innocent civilians and their livelihoods," he said.

The day's three other bombings took place in the cities of Mosul, Baqouba and Kirkuk.

American commanders have said violence has remained high in areas north of Baghdad even as it declined in the capital and surrounding areas in large part due to an influx of troops.

A parked car bomb in Mosul killed a civilian and wounded seven others in an area across the city from a US military base where Gates visited. In Baqouba, northeast of Baghdad, a suicide car bomber attacked a bus station, killing at least five civilians and wounding 20.

In Kirkuk, a parked car bomb killed three Kurdish soldiers and wounded 12 in a convoy guarding a police chief traveling from Sulaimaniyah to the east, police Brig. Anwar Qadir said.

The Karradah bomb went off near a Shiite mosque and was likely to stoke Shiite-Sunni tensions, something that has invariably been the case after attacks with obvious sectarian motives.

Tensions have been running high in recent days between politicians from both Muslim sects over raids by Iraqi and US troops on the offices of Adnan al-Dulaimi, a powerful Sunni Arab politician who has been a vocal critic of Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

Iraq's chief military spokesman defended the raids, saying Wednesday that people in the neighborhood had complained about killings and forced evictions at the hands of al-Dulaimi's bodyguards.

Forty-two people linked to al-Dulaimi, including his son, have been detained. But the spokesman, Brig. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi, said al-Dulaimi himself was not under suspicion.

The US military says violence has fallen to levels not seen since January 2006, the month before al-Qaida-linked Sunni militants bombed an important Shiite shrine in the city of Samarra north of Baghdad, unleashing a wave of sectarian violence that claimed tens of thousands of lives, mainly in Baghdad, a city of some 6 million people.

Besides the US-Iraqi security operation in Baghdad and other hot spots, a six-month unilateral cease-fire has been observed by the Mahdi Army, a Shiite militia loyal to radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

US-backed neighborhood watch-style groups in Baghdad and tribal forces in central Iraqi provinces have played a major part in curbing activity by al-Qaida in Iraq.

"The reason behind the drop (in violence) is the good performance of Iraqi security forces, support from Baghdad residents and the backing of US troops," al-Moussawi said.

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