Iraq Carnage Continues

Tragedy upon tragedy upon tragedy:

Iraq Bombings Add to Week of Carnage
By ALISSA J. RUBIN

BAGHDAD, March 31 — Car bombs in three Iraqi cities killed nine people on Saturday and wounded dozens more, while the government gave its first official reckoning of the carnage in the northern city of Tal Afar this week.

The explosions on Saturday were in the Shiite district of Sadr City in Baghdad; in Hilla, which is frequently hit by car bombings; and in the northern town of Tuz khormato, south of Kirkuk.

The Interior Ministry gave its first news conference about the killing in Tal Afar, announcing that the total number of dead was 152 with another 347 wounded. It appeared that the 152 included those killed in the initial truck bombing of a Shiite neighborhood and those killed in the subsequent reprisals.

A retaliatory rampage by Shiite police officers and gunmen after the bombings killed 47 Sunnis, said Brig. Gen. Abdul Karim Kh