Iraqi security forces were on alert today after a massive car bomb ripped through a funeral ceremony in a Shiite district of Baghdad,killing 48 people in Iraq's bloodiest day in more than two months. The blast yesterday was the deadliest in a series of bombings that claimed 53 lives across the capital,and led to an angry crowd pelting security forces with stones when they arrived at the scene. It was the latest in a surge in violence in the past 10 days that has left more people dead than attacks throughout any of the past three months,and comes little more than a month after Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki formed a coalition government,ending the deadlock that followed March elections. "The government arrests terrorists,they send them to prison,and then they release them the next day," shouted Abu Mohammed Saadi,56,one of the funeral-goers. "Take the criminals off the streets,don't release them so quickly!" An interior ministry official said the car bomb,which exploded outside a tent where the ceremony was being held early afternoon in the Shuala neighbourhood,killed 48 people and wounded 121. Saadi and other witnesses said the car bomb was driven by a suicide attacker. The blast caused part of the tent to collapse and left pools of blood and scattered pieces of clothing and shoes. Several cars were also completely destroyed,while the windows of nearby homes were shattered. Security forces closed off many of the main roads leading to the blast site and imposed a vehicle curfew. Policemen and soldiers who rushed to the scene were confronted by an angry mob that assaulted them with volleys of stones,with the security forces initially retreating from the scene. The interior ministry official said that "armed men" had fired on the forces who arrived at first,causing the soldiers and policemen to withdraw until another army regiment arrived. But a witness at the scene,Hussein Mohammed Saadi,said that the crowd had become furious after the arrival of the first security force officer at the scene. Saadi said the officer played down the attack and accused members of the crowd of having planted the bomb. Maliki ordered the arrest of the area's security chief,army Lieutenant Colonel Ahmed al-Obeidi,in the immediate aftermath of the attack. In other blasts around the capital today,five people were killed and 21 wounded by roadside bomb attacks and a bomb placed inside a minibus.
