Investigators suspect the devastating bomb that tore through a crowded street along Iraq’s most sacred Shiite Muslim shrine, killing a prominent religious leader and scores of others, was packed in a car parked for as long as 24 hours along a curbside and probably detonated by remote control, a senior U.S. official said today. In an attempt to forestall another car bombing — Friday’s was the third in less than a month — U.S. forces will begin patrolling the grounds of the Imam Ali shrine within days, a task they have so far avoided given religious sensitivities and the prospect of another flashpoint in a city already on edge, said Maj. Rick Hall, executive officer of the 1st Battalion, 7th Marines. The recent blasts have sent a deep shudder through Iraq and badly undermined faith in officials of the U.S.-led occupation. Investigators have yet to determine how the bombs in the two previous bombings in Baghdad were detonated. Full Story
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