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Tue 02 Feb 2007Car bombs kill 85, injure 200 as smoke hangs over market areaIRAQ:It was intended as a period of national reflection. A 15-minute pause at midday was held to mark the first anniversary of what many consider to be the spark that lit the fuse of Iraq's civil war.The bombing of the golden-domed Askariya shrine in Samarra last February by suspected Sunni militants killed no one - but since that day, 33,849 Iraqi civilians have lost their lives in the ensuing violence. As Baghdad's clocks registered 12.20pm yesterday, Iraq's prime minister, Nuri al-Maliki, appeared on state television to appeal for calm, for national unity and for an end to the violence that has devastated the country.