Iraqi Shiite leaders are calling for restraint after car bombings in two Shiite holy cities killed some 60 people and injured over 100 others. The bombings, in Najaf and Karbala, occurred near crowded bus stations. Shiite cleric Mohammad Bahr al Uloum and Shiite Dawa Party official Haidar al-Ubadi said Muslim militants and Baathists are trying to lure Shiites into violence to disrupt the January elections. They are calling on their people to show restraint, saying insurgents are trying to provoke a civil war.
A spokesman for radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr also called for restraint, saying”civil war would be hell.”
Hospital officials in Najaf say the blast there killed 48 and wounded 90.
The explosion in Karbala earlier killed as many as 14 and wounded 30 others.
The blasts follow an attack in Baghdad Sunday in which gunmen killed three Iraqi election workers.
In the northern town of Hawija, police say gunmen killed four Kurds Sunday. They said the attackers escaped. Kurds accuse Baathist loyalists of orchestrating attacks on their community.
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