55+ Killed, Dozens Wounded As Heading For Evening Prayers
Good morning,
Special note: The death toll from this latest car bombing continues to rise. This is the most current information I have available as of 10:34 am. The figures have been changing all morning long.
BAGHDAD - A parked car exploded Saturday near one of Shiite Islam's holiest shrines in the city of Karbala as people were headed to the area for evening prayers, killing 55 people and wounding dozens, officials said.
The explosion took place in a crowded commercial area near the Imam Hussein shrine in Karbala, 50 miles south of Baghdad, officials said. At least 55 people were killed and 70 wounded, said Salim Kazim, the head of the Karbala health department.
A car bomb exploded in the same area on April 14, killing 47 and wounding 224.
Saturday's explosion occurred a few hundred meters yards from the Imam Abbas shrine, setting several cars on fire and causing chaos. The explosion took place as the streets were filled with people heading for evening prayers at the Abbas shrine and the adjacent Imam Hussein shrine, two of Iraq's holiest Shiite sites.
An angry crowd gathered after the explosion, many of them searching frantically for missing relatives. Some threw stones at the police and at the office of the provincial governor, accusing them of failing to protect the people.
Police fired weapons in the air to disperse the crowds.
Iraqi television showed a plume of black smoke rising from the street as ambulances rushed to retrieve the wounded. One man carried the charred body of a small girl as he ran.
Qassim Hassan, 34, who was about 40 yards away from the explosion, said his brother and cousin were missing.
"I saw dozens of people falling down on the ground and the same happened to me," he said from his hospital bed. "I demand a trial for the people in charge of the security in Karbala. They failed to prevent the breaches. I regret that I voted for those traitors who only care about their posts, not the people who voted for them."
Ali Mohammed, 31, who sells prayer beads, said he heard the blast and felt himself hurled into the air.
"The next thing I knew I opened my eyes in the hospital with my legs and chest burned," he said. "This is a disaster. What is the guilt of the children and women killed today by this terrorist attack?"
On Friday, a suicide truck bomber attacked the home of a city police chief in the Sunni insurgent stronghold of Anbar province, killing nine Iraqi security forces and six civilians, the U.S. military said Saturday. Police chief Hamid Ibrahim al-Numrawi and his family escaped injury after Iraqi forces opened fire on the truck before it reached the concrete barrier outside the home in Hit, 135 kilometers (85 miles) west of Baghdad.
Have a nice day.
Mr. George W. Bush
Picture speaks a thousand words.
48+ Killed in 7 Bombings Around Iraq
Good evening,
Today at least 48 Iraqis were killed in seven bombings, violence that has persisted despite a nearly 10-week-old U.S.-Iraqi security crackdown aimed at pacifying Baghdad.
Have a nice evening
46 Killed In Bombings Around Iraq Today
Good morning,
BAGHDAD - A suicide car bomb struck a restaurant in Iraq on Monday, killing at least 19 people and wounding 35, police said.
The attack occurred on a highway near Ramadi, a city that is 70 miles west of Baghdad, a policeman said on condition of anonymity out of concern for his own safety.
Three suicide bombers launched attacks in different parts of Iraq on Monday, killing at least 27 people and wounding nearly 60 on Monday, police and politicians said.
A parked car bomb also exploded outside the Iranian Embassy in Baghdad, killing one civilian, and a drive-by shooting wounded two guards at Tunisia's Embassy in the capital, police said.
Monday's first suicide car bomb attack occurred near the northern city of Mosul at 10:10 a.m. when a suicide attacker detonated his car in front of an office of the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Massoud Barzani, leader of the autonomous Kurdish region in Iraq, an official with the group said. At least 10 people were killed and 20 wounded in the attack in Tal Uskuf, a town 9 miles north of Mosul, said Abdul-Ghani Ali, a KDP official.
Ghanim Hazim, 37, a shop owner in Tal Uskuf, said dozens of people rushed past his store to the site of the blast to help the wounded, who "were screaming and asking for help as they lay buried under big pieces of debris."
He said residents of the predominantly Christian town were in deep shock because it was the first terrorist attack in their tight-knit community since the Iraq war started.
"This attack shows that no place in Iraq is free from the terrorists and their evil deeds," Hazim said in an interview as firefighters and police began removing the dead and wounded.
A suicide car bomber also struck a police station in Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, at about 11 a.m., killing at least 10 people and wounding 23, police said.
In central Baghdad, a bomber wearing an explosives belt blew himself up in an Iraqi restaurant in the mixed Shiite-Sunni neighborhood of Karradah Mariam, killing at least seven people and wounding 16, police said.
The attack occurred at about 11 a.m. less than 100 yards outside the heavily fortified Green Zone, home to the U.S. and British embassies and the Iraqi government's headquarters. At the time, Ryan Crocker, who became the new U.S. ambassador in Iraq about a month ago, was giving a news conference in the Green Zone.
The Iranian Embassy also is located in Karradah Mariam, and a parked car bomb exploded in a parking lot near it at about 12 noon, killing one civilian and wounding another, said Iraqi police.
At about 11:30 a.m., drive-by shooters opened fire on guards outside the Tunisian Embassy in the mostly Sunni district of Mansour in western Baghdad, wounding two of them, police said.
Have a nice day.
23 Executed From Iraqi Religious Sect, At Least 13 Killed, 82 Wounded In Twin Car Bombing
Good morning,
BAGHDAD - Gunmen in northern Iraq stopped a bus filled with Christians and members of a tiny Kurdish religious sect, police said, separating out the groups and taking 23 of the passengers away to be shot.
Police said the execution-style killings of the Yazidis _ a primarily Kurdish sect that worships an angel figure considered to be the devil by some Muslims and Christians _ appeared to be in response to the stoning death of a Yazidi woman who had recently converted to Islam.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, on a tour abroad to ask the mostly Sunni-led governments of the Arab world to help his struggling government stop the violence in Iraq, said he told Egypt's president that Iraq's reality is "not a civil or sectarian war."
In the northern Iraq killings, armed men in several cars stopped the bus as it was carrying workers from the Mosul Textile Factory to their hometown of Bashika, which has a mixed population of Christians and Yazidis _ a primarily Kurdish sect that worships an angel figure considered to be the devil by some Muslims and Christians.
The gunmen checked passengers' identification, then asked the Christians to get off the bus, said police Brig. Mohammed al-Wagga.
With the Yazidis still inside, the gunmen drove them to eastern Mosul, where they were lined up along a wall and shot to death, al-Wagga said.
After the killings, hundreds of Yazidis took to the streets of Bashika, a town in Ninevah province that is 80 percent Yazidi, 15 percent Christian and about five percent Muslim. Shops were shuttered and many Muslims closed themselves in their homes, fearing reprisal attacks.
Abdul-Karim Khalaf, a police spokesman for Ninevah province said the executions were in response to the killing two weeks ago of a Yazidi woman who had recently converted to Islam.
The woman fell in love with a Muslim, converted to Islam and ran off with him, Khalaf said. Disapproving relatives dragged her back to Bashika, where she was stoned to death, he said. A grainy video showing gruesome scenes of the stoning was distributed on Iraqi Web sites in recent weeks.
In a religiously mixed neighborhood of Baghdad, two suicide car bombers attacked a police station, police said, killing at least 13 people and turning nearby buildings into piles of rubble.
The first driver raced through a police checkpoint guarding the station and exploded his vehicle just outside the two-story building, police said. Moments later, a second suicide car bomber aimed at the checkpoint's concrete barriers and exploded just outside them, police said.
The blasts collapsed nearby buildings, smashing windows and burying at least four cars under piles of concrete. Metal roofs were peeled back by the force of the explosions. Pools of blood made red mud of a dusty driveway.
A man who was among the 82 wounded in Sunday's attack staggered through the wreckage.
"All our belongings and money were smashed and are gone. What kind of life is this? Where is the government?" he asked. "There are no jobs, and things are very bad. Is this fair?"
Iraqi police stations often are the target of attacks by insurgents who accuse the officers of betraying Iraq by working in cooperation with its U.S.-backed Shiite government and the American military.
A policeman, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media, said 13 people died _ five policemen and eight civilians _ and that 82 were wounded.
Elsewhere the capital's southwest, a parked car bomb exploded, killing three civilians and wounding 10, police said.
A top U.S. general said Sunday that American forces had no technology capable of detecting all suicide bombers before they strike. Lt. Gen. Martin Dempsey, who is in charge of training Iraqi troops, said the only solution is for Iraqi forces, government officials and civilians to work together to stop the terrorist cells planning attacks.
"There is no technological solution that will guarantee that we can prevent ... either a suicide bomber or a suicide car bomber from entering into the populated areas," Dempsey told reporters in Baghdad's Green Zone.
Al-Maliki's trip abroad came at a precarious time for his regime. He suffered a blow last week when six Cabinet ministers allied to the radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr quit the government, to protest the prime minister's failure to back calls for a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. forces. Al-Maliki is expected to name replacements in the coming days.
The Iraqi prime minister's Egyptian counterpart, Ahmed Nazif, said his government would support "reconciliation between all parts of the Iraqi society and we condemn terrorism that does not differentiate between anyone."
After Egypt, al-Maliki is scheduled to visit Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Oman.
Have a nice day.
38 Killed or Found Dead Including Yet Another Fallujah City Council Chairman and Musayyib's Mayor
Good morning,
BAGHDAD - The Fallujah city council chairman, a critic of al-Qaida who took the job after his three predecessors were assassinated, was killed on Saturday, the latest blow in a violent internal Sunni struggle for control of an insurgent stronghold west of Baghdad.
In the capital, U.S. and Iraqi officials defended plans to build a barrier around a Sunni enclave to protect its inhabitants from surrounding Shiite areas, while residents expressed concern it would isolate the community.
Sami Abdul-Amir al-Jumaili was gunned down by attackers in a passing car as he was walking outside his home in central Fallujah, 40 miles west of Baghdad, according to police.
His assassination came a month after he agreed to take the dangerous job _ the only person willing to do so _ with promises to improve services and work with the Americans to ease traffic-clogging checkpoints in the city with a population of an estimated 150,000 to 200,000.
The 65-year-old Sunni sheik was the fourth city council chairman to be killed in some 14 months as insurgents target fellow Sunnis willing to cooperate with the U.S. and its Iraqi partners. Abdul-Amir's predecessor, Abbas Ali Hussein, who was shot to death on Feb. 2.
Both men were strong critics of al-Qaida in Iraq, which is battling a growing number of Sunni tribes that have turned against it in the vast Anbar province _ a center for anti-U.S. guerrillas since the uprising in Fallujah in 2004 that galvanized the insurgency.
U.S. officials say tribal leaders and even some other insurgents are increasingly repelled by the group's brutality and religious extremism. The tribes also are competing with al-Qaida for influence and control over diminishing territory in the face of U.S. assaults.
The U.S. military confirmed the killing, and provincial officials condemned it.
"He was one of the many good people of the province who worked to help the city of Fallujah rebuild and regain life," the provincial government said in a statement. "This murder was a crime against all of the citizens of Iraq. We again strongly condemn this cowardly back-stabbing act."
Fellow councilmen and neighbors said Abdul-Amir had run for the office before and ignored pleas from friends not to take the job.
Gunmen also broke into the home of Najim Abdullah Suod, the city council chief who preceded Hussein, killing the lawyer and his 23-year-old son on Sept. 24, 2006, while Sheik Kamal Nazal, a cleric, was gunned down as he walked to work on Feb. 7, 2006.
The attack occurred despite U.S. optimism about efforts to tame Anbar, a vast desert area that borders Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, as alliances have been struck with influential Sunni sheiks once arrayed against American-led forces.
At least 38 people were killed or found dead elsewhere in Iraq, including another top city official, the mayor of Mussayyib who died in a roadside bombing in the city about 40 miles south of Baghdad.
In violence Saturday, two bullet-riddled dead bodies were discovered in Musayyib, about 40 miles south of Baghdad, police said. One of the bodies was found floating in the Euphrates River, and the other was discovered in a deserted area. Both victims had their hands and legs bound, and showed signs of torture, police said.
A bomb left on a bus exploded in Baghdad's Sadr City neighborhood, killing at least three people and gutting the vehicle, police said.
Gunmen stormed a house in Kirkuk, 180 miles north of Baghdad, killing a mother, father and their two teenage daughters, police said. The victims were Kurds who had received death threats from militants, witnesses said.
A roadside bomb killed the mayor of Musayyib, about 40 miles south of Baghdad, police said. One of his bodyguards was also killed, and four others were wounded, they said.
Have a nice day.
12 Killed, 34 Wounded In Baghdad Car Bombing
Good morning,
BAGHDAD - A suicide bomber breached Baghdad's heavy security presence again Thursday, killing a dozen people in a mostly Shiite district a day after more than 230 people died in one of the war's deadliest episodes of violence.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki called the violence in Baghdad an "open battle" _ nine weeks into a U.S.-led effort began to pacify the capital's streets.
Thursday's bomber struck within half a mile of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani's home in the mostly Shiite Karradah district where one of Wednesday's bombs exploded. Talabani was not believed to have been the target.
The bombing killed at least 12 people and wounded 34, police said. Two Iraqi soldiers were among the fatalities.
Have a nice day.
At Least 183 Killed In A String of Baghdad Bombings
Good morning,
As US news stations continue to rehash and
repeatedly go over the VA Tech tragedy, there has been barely a mention of the at least 183 Iraqis killed today in a string of bombings in Baghdad today.
BAGHDAD - Four large bombs exploded in mostly Shiite areas of Baghdad on Wednesday, killing at least 183 people and wounding scores _ the deadliest day in the city since the start of the U.S.-Iraqi campaign to pacify the capital two months ago.
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates called the bombings "horrifying" and accused
al-
Qaida of being behind them.
In the deadliest of the attacks, a parked car bomb detonated in a crowd of workers at the
Sadriyah market in central Baghdad, killing at least 122 people and wounding 148, said
Raad Muhsin, an official at Al-
Kindi Hospital where the victims were taken.
A police official confirmed the toll, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information.
Among the dead were several construction workers who had been rebuilding the mostly Shiite marketplace after a bombing destroyed many shops and killed 137 people there in February, the police official said.
The laborers typically finish work around 4 p.m. each day. One of those wounded, 28-year-old
Salih Mustafa, said he was waiting for a minibus to head home when the blast went off at 4:05 p.m.
"I rushed with others to give a hand and help the victims," he said. "I saw three bodies in a wooden cart, and civilian cars were helping to transfer the victims. It was really a horrible scene."
The market is situated on a side street lined with shops and vendors selling produce, meat and other staples. It is also about 500 yards from a Sunni shrine.
About an hour earlier, a suicide car bomber crashed into an Iraqi police checkpoint at an entrance to Sadr City, the capital's biggest Shiite Muslim neighborhood and a stronghold for the militia led by radical anti-U.S. cleric
Muqtada al-Sadr.
The explosion killed at least 41 people, including five Iraqi security officers, and wounded 76, police and hospital officials said.
Black smoke billowed from a jumble of at least eight incinerated vehicles that were in a jam of cars stopped at the checkpoint. Bystanders scrambled over twisted metal to drag victims from the smoldering wreckage as Iraqi guards staggered around stunned.
Earlier, a parked car exploded near a private hospital in the central neighborhood of
Karradah, killing 11 people and wounding 13, police said. The blast damaged the Abdul-
Majid hospital and other nearby buildings.
The fourth explosion was from a bomb left on a minibus in the central
Rusafi area, area, killing four people and wounding six others, police said.
U.S. officials had cited a slight decrease in sectarian killings in Baghdad since the U.S.-Iraqi crackdown was launched Feb. 14. But the past week has seen several spectacular attacks on the capital, including a suicide bombing inside parliament and a powerful blast that collapsed a landmark bridge across the Tigris River.
In Israel, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the military had anticipated that
al-
Qaida terrorists and other insurgents "would attempt to increase the violence in order to make the plan a failure or to make the people of Iraq believe the plan is a failure."
"Obviously the level of fatalities today is a horrifying thing. But I think it illustrates another point: These terrorists are killing innocent men, women and children who are Iraqis. They're killing their countrymen," he said at a news conference in Tel
Aviv with his Israeli counterpart,
Amir Peretz.
Nationwide the number of people killed or found dead today was 233, which was second only to a total of 281 killed or found dead on Nov. 23, 2006. Those figures are according to AP record-keeping, which began in May 2005
Have a nice day.
Bush: "Overcome Evil With Good"
Good morning,
As Mr. Bush spoke that the convocation
at the Va Tech University, there was one quote that he said that stood out for me:
"From the scriptures" , Mr. Bush quoted: " Don't be overcome by evil, overcome evil with good".
Does Mr. Bush listen to the scriptures he feels compelled to share with a grieving America? Mr. Bush, you
hypocrisy is
flagrant. And, your self assigned virtues of being a truly compassionate person are non-existant. Mr. Bush's actions speak for themselves.Have a nice afternoon.
Special Report: Domestic versus International Male Violence - Feel The Pain?
Good morning,
We are now in the dawn of what is now known as "The deadliest shooting rampage in modern U.S. history". Yesterday, and even this morning, on virtually all news stations coverage has been transfixed on this occurence. In summary, a young man, stormed through the VA Tech campus, and with his handguns, slaughtered a total of 32 people, injured 28, and then shot himself in the face.
Americans are now asking, how can this happen? How can innocent students and faculty one day go to their classes one minute, and the next minute be under seige?
Shock, sorrow and saddness run rampantly through the veins of every American today. Do you feel this? Do you feel the pain? You probably don't know any of the killed personally, but don't you feel exceptionally sad or meloncholy today?
OK, now take this emotion and painful feelings that you have, and ask yourself, why don't I feel this way for the Iraqi's? They lose aproximately 100 civilians a day due to male violence. Some here say that the horror at what happened at VA Tech is "Unimaginable". Well, people in Iraq can not only "Imagine this" but
try to live with the unimaginable
every day. Truly imagining this would be totally incomprehensible for Americans.
We either do not have a clue or we choose to repress the severity of the Iraqi slaughter. The news of the Iraqi slaughter has been sanitized through the media before we are able to process it. In my opinion, we cannot, nor will the American media allow us to "go there" emotionally by looking at graphic images. To go there emotionally, would be to put ourselves into the deepest funk, saddness and depression. On the most basic humanitarian level, I believe that the people of the US feel for the Iraqi's and the Iraqi's slaughter. American saddness and feelings about Iraq's slaughter is bland in comparison to the gut wrenching anguish that most Americans feel today for our domestic slaughter.
It is my goal, in doing this website, to personally honor and send a reminder into cyberworld, about the continual killing, bombing, slaughter, and pain of the Iraqi people.
Please take a moment to remember the innocent Iraqi civilians (Children, women, men, elders) who lost their lives today in a market, or while eating lunch at restaurant, or stood in a work line, or even those who simply walked the street.
Feel.
Have a nice day.
At Least 51 Across Iraq Killed Or Found Dead Monday
Good Morning,
As the US is still talking about the "Most Horrific Slaughter in US History", with 32 having been killed by a suicidal man at VA Tech University, the daily slaughter continues in Iraq.
The deputy chief of Mosul police was killed Tuesday in a drive-by shooting along with two of his guards, said police Brig. Mohammed al-Wagga. Also in Mosul, a roadside bomb apparently targeting a U.S. patrol killed one civilian instead, al-Wagga said.
The violence in Mosul, a mostly Sunni Muslim city 225 miles northwest of Baghdad, came a day after a university dean, a professor, a policeman's son and 13 soldiers died near there in attacks that bore the marks of al-Qaida.
Nationwide, at least 51 people were killed or found dead Monday. And the U.S. military reported the deaths of eight more American service members: three soldiers and two Marines on Monday and two soldiers on Saturday, as well as one Marine who died Monday in a "non-hostile incident" while on patrol in western Anbar province.
The U.S. military issued a statement Tuesday that a dump truck filled with drums of gasoline had overturned north of Baghdad en route to attack a joint U.S.-Iraqi security station.
"The driver of the vehicle told the soldiers that he was paid $30,000 to attack the JSS (Joint Security Station), which also houses the Mashahda Police Station," the military said.
Have a nice day.
Mosul University Professor & Dean of University College Of Political Science SLAIN & 13 Iraqi Soldiers Killed
Good afternoon,
In violence Monday, at least 13 Iraqi soldiers were killed and four were wounded when more than a dozen gunmen hiding in the back of a truck attacked a military checkpoint near Mosul, police said.
"When the driver approached the checkpoint and reduced speed, preparing to stop for a routine search, all of a sudden more than a dozen gunmen ambushed the checkpoint members and showered them with gunfire," said a security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity out of safety concerns.
Elsewhere in the city, gunmen killed Jaafar Hasan Sadiq, a professor at the University of Mosul's college of arts, as he was driving to work around 8:30 a.m. Five hours later, Talal Younis al-Jalili, dean of the university's college of political science, was slain as he drove home. Shortly after nightfall, gunmen killed the 17-year-old son of a Mosul policeman.
The brazen nature and the targets of the attacks are similar to previous assaults that blamed on al-Qaida in Iraq fighters, who are trying to break Iraqi military resolve and discourage secular activities such as university education.
In Basra, in the deep south of Iraq, about 3,000 protesters angry over inadequate city services marched peacefully through the streets of Iraq's second largest city to demand that the provincial governor resign.
The demonstrators gathered near the Basra mosque, then marched a few hundred yards to Gov. Mohammed al-Waili's office, which was surrounded by Iraqi soldiers and police officers. The protest ended a few hours later.
Have a nice day.
UPDATE: 30 Bullet Riddled Bodies Found Dumped In Baghdad
Good morning,
Today the US news coverage is almost exclusively about a suicidal man who slaughtered 32 people, mostly students, at Virginia Tech University. Aprox 28 were injured. The man then pointed his gun to his own face and pulled the trigger. The "Disfigurement" of his face, coupled with the fact that he was not carrying identification, has not been able to be identified to this point. This has ended up being the largest slaughter at an American University in our history. We are all sorry and convey our sympathy to families, friends, and people of the University.
While this is a horrendous occurance, and shocking to American's, I ask everyone to consider that this is how the Iraqis live
every day. Civilians, students and faculty in Iraq have been a HUGE target. Just this week, a car bomb exploded at the university's entrance, killing five students and wounding 18 others. Since the war in Iraq began in March 2003, at least 70 security guards and employees have been killed and 100 professors have been assassinated, officials said. The death toll from car bombs on campus isn't even known because there have been so many.
Every day on the average, across Iraq approximately 100 innocent civilians are shot to death or blown up.
We have some updated information about yesterdays carnage:
The number of bodies found dumped in Baghdad increased sharply on Sunday to 30 _ from as low as five in recent days _ in a possible sign of the militia's resurgence, even ahead of the six resignations.
The bodies, most of them tortured before they were shot execution-style, are widely believed to be the victims of Shiite death squads associated with the Mahdi Army. Al-Sadr had ordered his fighters hide their weapons and stay off the streets shortly before the U.S. troop surge and security crackdown began on Feb. 14.
Have a nice day.
Special Report: "Bridge Wars" - The Division Of Iraq
Good morning.
The recent bombings and destruction targeting bridges in Iraq were pretty much glazed over by American media. The significance of these actions is great, in the eyes of Iraqis. Think about this for a moment: How would we feel if someone blew apart the Golden Gate Bridge. This is what Iraqi's are feeling. A part of their history is now deep beneath the water, while divisions are being carefully crafted. I invite you to read on, to understand the significance of the Iraqi condition:
Iraqis fear "bridge wars" is plot to divide Baghdad
Sun 15 Apr 2007 9:49 AM ET
By Ibon Villelabeitia and Mussab Al-KhairallaBAGHDAD, April 15
(Reuters) - When insurgents blew up the Sarafiya Bridge in Baghdad, a piece of Yaseen Kathim's past was sent forever crashing into the muddy waters of the Tigris River."When I heard it was destroyed, I felt I was hit. It was my bridge. I used it everyday," said Kathim, a 37-year-old doctor, lamenting the destruction last Thursday of the steel span.But the bombing of one of Baghdad's most enduring symbols was not only an attack on the city's infrastructure. Some residents and officials fear it could be part of a more sinister plot by insurgents to split Baghdad, with a Shi'ite east bank and a Sunni west bank.On Saturday, a suicide car bomber blew himself up at a ramp leading to the Jadriyah bridge, causing no structural damage.It is unclear if the two attacks were related, but the U.S. military said insurgents appear to be changing tactics."The constant strategy of the terrorists is to look at ways to divide and create terror and make life difficult for the people of Iraq," Rear Admiral Mark Fox, a spokesman for the U.S. military in Iraq told reporters on Sunday, adding military planners were "studying carefully" the two incidents."The terrorists are planning to split Karkh from Rusafa," said a senior Shi'ite lawmaker, using Baghdad's ancient names for the west bank (Karkh) and the east bank (Rusafa)."This has been the plan by terrorists and their political allies all along to try and drive Shi'ites out of Karkh so they can split Baghdad in half."On the other side of the sectarian divide, parliament speaker Mahmoud Mashhadani, an outspoken Sunni politician, called the destruction of Sarafiya a "conspiracy to isolate the two halves of Baghdad".BAGHDAD'S "BRIDGE WARS"Baghdad, a city of 7 million, has been religiously mixed for most of its history since it was founded some 1,200 years ago on the banks of the Tigris River by Abbasid Caliph al Mansour.Its dozen bridges linking the east side with the west side were once a symbol of Baghdad's diversity, where Shi'ites, Sunni Arabs, ethnic Kurds and Christians lived together.But since the bombing of a Shi'ite shrine in Samarra in February 2006, a wave of communal violence has reshaped the city's fabric, carving out sectarian fiefdoms. Sunnis now mainly live on the west side of the river and Shi'ites on the east.Some talk gloomily of Baghdad's "bridge wars". Although the Sarafiya Bridge was built in the 1940s by the British, its destruction prompted eulogies in local newspapers, as if it was a repeat of the shelling of the fabled Mostar bridge, which became a worldwide symbol of Bosnia's 1992-95 civil war.Saad Eskander, director of Iraq's National Library and a historian, said blowing up Baghdad's bridges has been a military strategy to conquer and defend the city since ancient times.Medieval rulers burnt Baghdad's bridges, then wooden planks laid over boats roped together, to stop invading Mongols from sacking the city. The U.S. military, in its wars against Saddam Hussein, destroyed bridges in Baghdad to hinder troop movements."Destroying the Sarafiya bridge is an attempt to break Iraq's unity and to polarise our society," Eskander said."It is a message that Baghdad will soon become two Baghdads -- one for the Shi'ites and one for the Sunnis."But for those who share childhood memories of swimming under the 453 metre (l1,485 feet) long span as trains chugged along its railway tracks above, Baghdad bridges will never be severed."If they think they can split Karkh from Rusafa they are dreaming," said Saadi Ahmed, who runs a money exchange store."The terrorists are trying to destroy Baghdad's landmarks to erase our proud history of civilisation." (Additional reporting by Wathiq Ibrahim)
END
Here is an article which talks about the personal loss felt by so many Iraqis:
I
Iraqis Mourn Loss of Storied Baghdad Bridge.
People who grew up near the Sarafiya span feel as if a loved one has died.
By Suhail Ahmad and Tina Susman, Times Staff WritersApril 14, 2007
BAGHDAD — An elderly man sat on a chair in front of his house, lamenting the loss of yet another piece of his past. A short distance away, the skeletal remains of the Sarafiya Bridge dangled over the Tigris River.Focus on the steel-frame bridge, where a truck bomber killed at least 10 people early Thursday, was quickly diverted by the lunch-time attack at the heavily guarded parliament building. That's not unusual in Iraq, where brutal mornings often give way to uglier afternoons.
But to those who lived near the fallen bridge, the loss was as heartbreaking as a death in the family. Not only did the structure serve as a symbol of better times, when children frolicked in the water below and trains chugged along its railway tracks.It was an icon that had endured in a place where many have perished.Since the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003, Iraqis have watched their historical treasures fall to the ensuing chaos. The capital's National Museum was beset by looters as Saddam Hussein fled, and ancient treasures were lost. Archeological sites have been picked over by robbers looking to profit from sales of antiquities. Mosques have been bombed. The storied Mutanabi Street book market in Baghdad was ripped apart by a bomb last month, one of several famous bazaars that have been targeted.The Sarafiya Bridge fell into the Tigris River shortly after 7 a.m. Thursday when a truck loaded with explosives blew up. The frame cracked, and huge chunks fell away. Vehicles tumbled 30 feet into the water below. Some people swam to safety, but at least 10 died. The bridge was left a mangled wreck."Last year I lost my elder brother," said the man sitting in front of his house, Sahib Abdul-Razzaq, 67. "Believe me, I feel today as if my other elder brother has died."Asad Ibrahim, 41, grew up near the bridge and remembered when people in fancy clothes used to stay out until dawn in the casinos and restaurants lining both sides of the river."How many times we swam under this bridge since our childhood!" Ibrahim, an engineer, said. "When we were kids, we would watch the train passing over it. It is a heritage site."At a mini-market on a street that served as an approach, Maytham Hameed, 31, said his family's house would rattle and shake each time a train crossed. "We all have many memories related to the Sarafiya Bridge," he said.British forces commissioned the crossing in the late 1940s and their use of concrete and steel was a first for the city.
At a time when other bridges in Baghdad were little more than floats, residents saw the Sarafiya Bridge as a marvel of modern design. Its seven sections spanned 1,485 feet across the water and linked the train station in eastern Baghdad to the one on the western side of the city.Designed for the railroad, it was converted for vehicular and pedestrian use in 1989. It has been known variously as the Sarafiya Bridge, the Steel Bridge, the Train Bridge, and the New Bridge and was one of the 10 connecting east and west Baghdad. Now, there are nine.On Friday, Iraqi families, women in black abayas, and young men came to take a closer look at the ruins. Blood stains were visible on the gnarled steel. Boys waded in the water, amid the wreckage, looking for souvenirs.Some worried about the practical implications of the bridge's loss.
They said traffic, already dreadful because of military checkpoints, would become far worse.Many cited the bombing as the latest example of the failure of U.S. and Iraqi security forces to control insurgents.Saleem Jaboori said the attack on the bridge, which linked the Shiite-dominated neighborhood of Atifiya to Sunni-majority Waziriya, was symptomatic of Iraq's ills.Most, though, just mourned the loss of simple pleasures the bridge had offered."Women here cried bitterly when they saw it in this condition," said Mustafa Hazim, 22, who sat alone, smoking a cigarette and listening to music through an earphone.Hazim, who lives a few hundred feet up the river in Atifiya, was awakened by the blast and ran toward the smoke. When he saw what had happened, he raced back to his neighborhood to break the news to others.
Many of the women wept, he said. Amina Hameed Salman, 37, was one of them. She and her brother, Alaa, reminisced about the bridge as they stood at the gate of their house on the main road leading to the crumbled remains."We were raised with it," said Alaa, who raced to the scene after hearing the blast. "I was stunned, and I kept saying 'Why?' ""I cried bitterly when I saw the bridge," Amina said. "It's as if an elderly relative has died."
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At Least 45 Killed, 224 Wounded - In Continued Civil War Today In Iraq
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BAGHDAD - Six bombs exploded in predominantly Shiite sections of the capital Sunday, killing at least 45 people in a renewal of sectarian carnage that set back the U.S. push to pacify Baghdad.
And in the holy Shiite city of Karbala, health officials raised the toll from a bombing Saturday close to one of the sect's most sacred shrines, saying 47 people were killed and 224 wounded.
Twin car bombs exploded minutes apart in the busy market of Baghdad's Shurta Rabia neighborhood, a mostly Shiite area in the city's west. The first blast went off at midmorning in front of a kebab restaurant. Five minutes later, another car exploded nearby as rescuers were evacuating victims. Many women and children were among the casualties, police said.
Shortly after noon, a suicide bomber blew himself up on a minibus near a courthouse in the mainly Shiite northwest Baghdad neighborhood of al-Utafiyah, killing at least eight people and wounding 11, officials said.
Many of the victims were severely burned, an official at the Khazimiyah Hospital said.
About three hours later, a minibus rigged with explosives detonated on a busy street of electronics shops in the predominantly Shiite central Karradah district, killing 11 people and wounding 15, authorities said.
The owner of a glass shop said he saw a suspect park the bus at the roadside and leave.
"It was an ordinary thing because usually bus drivers stop there waiting for passengers, so we didn't suspect anything," said the witness, who gave only his nickname, Abu Jassim.
"Five minutes later, the bus blew up _ damaging the surrounded area and burning more than eight civilian cars that were passing by," he said.
In the same district after nightfall, two roadside bombs exploded within five minutes of each other, killing at least eight civilians and wounding 23, police said.
Six shops and several cars parked nearby were damaged by the blasts, which occurred about 20 yards apart, police said.
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37 Killed, 168 Wounded and 10 More Killed on Bridge By Car Bomb
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BAGHDAD - A car bomb blasted through a busy bus station near one of Iraq's holiest shrines Saturday, killing at least 37 people, police and hospital officials said.
The bus station bombing occurred about 200 yards from the Imam Hussein shrine in Karbala, where the grandson of Islam's Prophet Muhammad is buried _ one of the most important sites for Shiites. After the attack, hundreds of people swarmed around ambulances, crying out and pounding their chests, and attacking police who tried to clear the roadway.
"I want my father. Where is my father?" 11-year-old Sajad Kadhim cried out as he lay on the grounds of the hospital, where doctors were treating his burns.
"All I remember was we were shopping. My father was holding my hand and suddenly there was a big explosion. I don't know where my father is. I want my father," the boy cried.
Dr. Khalid Adnan Obeid, director of Al-Hussein Hospital, Ghalib al-Daamai of the provincial security committee and Rahman Mishawi, spokesman for Karbala police, all said 37 civilians were killed and 168 wounded.
The wounded were being treated in a makeshift emergency room set up in tents near the blast site. A forest of racks held intravenous bags. Through it, a man guided a wooden cart stacked high with body parts.
The charred body of a child lay motionless on a stretcher.
At least 16 children were among the dead, said Brig. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf, spokesman for the Interior Ministry. Iranian and Pakistani pilgrims were also among the casualties, said an official at Al-Hussein Hospital, on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information.
A 72-year-old woman who called herself Um Hussein ran through the hospital corridors looking for her daughter and 6-year-old grandson.
"They were near the bomb. They went to buy something for our lunch," she said, pounding her head in grief. "What did they do to deserve this? To whom should I complain? There is no government to protect us," she moaned.
Rioters surrounded the Karbala governor's office and demanded his and provincial council members' resignations, blaming them for lax security. Mobs threw stones at the governor's office and set fire to the building.
"This bombing shows a security breach, and we are investigating where the shortcoming was," Khalaf said.
A curfew was imposed in the area, and the city's entrances were sealed off while police and soldiers patrolled the streets.
More than 168 people were wounded in the attack, said Dr. Saleem Kadhim, spokesman for Karbala health department.
Karbala, 50 miles south of Baghdad, is the destination of an annual Shiite pilgrimage. Hundreds of Shiite faithful were killed traveling back and forth to the city during this year's pilgrimage, which took place last month.
Separately, a suicide car bomb killed 10 people on a major bridge in downtown Baghdad _ the second attack on a span over the Tigris river this week, police said. The Jadriyah bridge suffered little damage.
On Thursday, a suicide truck bomb completely collapsed the al-Sarafiyah bridge in northern Baghdad, killing 11 people and sending cars plummeting into the waters below.
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Civilian Deaths Down In BAghdad But Are up Outside The Capital
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BAGHDAD - Iraqi civilian deaths have fallen in Baghdad in the two months since the Feb. 14 start of the U.S.-led offensive, according to an Associated Press tally.
Outside the capital, however, civilian deaths are up as Sunni and Shiite extremists shift their operations to avoid the crackdown.
And the sweeps have taken a heavy toll on U.S. forces: Deaths among American soldiers climbed 21 percent in Baghdad compared with the previous two months.
Since the crackdown began Feb. 14, U.S. military officials have spoken of encouraging signs that security is improving in the capital but have cautioned against drawing any firm conclusions until at least the summer.
Figures compiled by the AP from Iraqi police reports show that 1,586 civilians were killed in Baghdad between the start of the offensive and Thursday.
That represents a sharp drop from the 2,871 civilians who died violently in the capital during the two months that preceded the security crackdown.
Outside the capital, 1,504 civilians were killed between Feb. 14 and Thursday, April 12 compared with 1,009 deaths during the two previous months, the AP figures show.
"We know this increased security presence and cooperation from the people is having an impact in Baghdad," U.S. military spokesman Maj. Gen. William C. Caldwell said this week. "It is a good beginning, but it is not nearly enough. The violence across the rest of Iraq remains at unacceptable levels."
U.S. officials have cautioned that numbers alone cannot provide a complete picture of the security situation.
The Baghdad crackdown was designed to provide the Iraqi government with what U.S. officials call a "secure platform" and to buy time for the country's religious and ethnically based political parties to agree on key reforms.
So far there has been little progress on that front.
Sunni and Shiite militants remain a potent force _ regardless of whether they are slaughtering civilians in the capital at the previous rate.
On Thursday, extremists managed to penetrate the most secure part of the capital _ the Green Zone _ and launch a suicide attack in the building where the Iraqi parliament meets.
Earlier in the day, a suicide truck bomber heavily damaged a major bridge across the Tigris River, collapsing part of the span into the muddy waters.
Such spectacular attacks may not produce a large number of civilian casualties. But they undermine public confidence _ which the U.S. military believes is essential for lasting stability.
"It is not going to be possible to see just how well the resulting mix of capabilities will counter the insurgency until the late spring of 2008 at the earliest," wrote former Pentagon analyst Anthony Cordesman. "The various insurgents and hostile groups may be weakened or suppressed early on, but will do their best to react."
It is unclear why deaths outside Baghdad have increased. However, U.S. military officials say both Sunni and Shiite extremists left Baghdad ahead of the crackdown, instead stepping up their operations in a belt of communities around the capital.
The rise in deaths outside Baghdad may also be partly a result of clashes in Anbar province between al-Qaida extremists and Sunni tribes that have broken with the extremist movement.
For example, at least 52 people were killed Feb. 24 when a suicide truck bomber struck worshippers leaving a Sunni mosque in Anbar after the mosque's preacher spoke out against al-Qaida.
Also, hundreds of Shiites died last month in a spate of bombings and shootings during a religious holiday _ including 120 Shiite pilgrims killed by a pair of suicide bombers in Hillah.
One key finding of the figures: Although civilians deaths are down in the capital, a careful analysis of the figures shows that sectarian tensions remain high.
Of the 1,586 civilians killed in Baghdad since the start of the crackdown, more than half _ or 832 _ appear to have been the victims of sectarian death squads. Their bodies were found scattered around the city. That number represents a significant drop from the 1,754 bodies found in the capital during the two months before the crackdown, according to AP figures. Still, the figure shows that the security crackdown has been unable to stop death squads entirely.
Furthermore, the number of civilians killed by suicide bombers has risen in Baghdad _ 352 during the crackdown compared with 279 in the two months before.
Suicide bombings are considered the signature attack of Sunni religious extremists, including al-Qaida in Iraq. And most of the suicide attacks occurred in largely Shiite areas of the capital, indicating attacks on Shiites by Sunnis.
The AP count includes civilians as well as government officials and police and security forces, and is considered a minimum based on AP reporting. There have been no figures provided by the U.N. or the Iraqi government since the Baghdad crackdown began.
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20 People Killed Or Found Dead Across Iraq Today
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Twenty people were killed or found dead across Iraq on Friday, with just five victims of sectarian assassinations found in the capital. That was the second lowest daily toll since the security operation began in Baghdad on Feb. 14.
An al-Qaida-led amalgam of Sunni insurgents claimed one of its "knights" carried out Thursday's suicide bombing in Baghdad's Green Zone and warned the "monkeys in parliament" to brace for more attacks. The U.S. military revised the death toll sharply downward, saying one civilian was killed. Late into Thursday the military had said eight people were killed and 23 wounded.
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8 Killed Dozens Wounded In Iraqi Parliament Cafeteria
BAGHDAD - A suicide bomber blew himself up in the Iraqi parliament cafeteria Thursday, killing at least eight people _ including three lawmakers _ and wounding dozens in a stunning assault in the heart of the heavily fortified, U.S.-protected Green Zone.
A news video camera captured the moment of the blast: a flash and an orange ball of fire causing a startled parliament member who was being interviewed to duck, and then the smoky, dust-filled aftermath of confusion and shouting. The video was shot by Alhurra, a U.S. government-funded Arab-language channel.
The explosion came hours after a suicide truck bomb exploded on a major bridge in Baghdad, collapsing the steel structure and sending cars tumbling into the Tigris River, police and witnesses said. At least 10 people were killed.
The parliament bombing was believed to be the deadliest attack in the Green Zone, the enclave that houses Iraq's leadership as well as the U.S. Embassy, and is secured by American and Iraqi checkpoints.
Security officials at parliament, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information, said they believed the bomber was a bodyguard of a Sunni member of parliament who was not among the dead. They would not name the member of parliament.
The officials also said two satchel bombs were found near the cafeteria. A U.S. bomb squad took the explosives away and detonated them without incident.
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Easter Bloodshed, 15 Killed 26+ Wounded
Good Morning.
In today's Easter violence:
A pickup truck loaded with artillery shells exploded Sunday near a hospital south of Baghdad, killing at least 15 people. The blast left a crater 10 yards wide, the Iraqi military said.
Three mortars sailed into houses in eastern Baghdad, sending six people to the hospital with breathing difficulties from a possible chemical agent, police said.
Doctors said the victims' faces turned yellow and they were unable to open their eyes. One hospital official said the chemical was chlorine, and that the victims were expected to recover.
Chlorine has been used in at least nine attacks in Iraq since January, mostly in bombings by al-Qaida in Iraq.
The bombing in Mahmoudiyah involved a pickup truck parked next to the city General Hospital, an Iraqi army officer said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak about the matter. Other reports said the explosion was a rocket attack.
At least 26 people were wounded, he said.
Hours later, five burned and mutilated bodies remained scattered at the scene. Most of the dead were technicians who worked at auto repair shops nearby, officials said.
The hospital was slightly damaged by flying debris and shrapnel, but shops and residential buildings bore more damage. Many of those wounded were in their homes at the time of the blast.
Mahmoudiyah is 20 miles south of Baghdad.
Have a nice Easter.
46 Killed or Found Dead, Including 27 In Chlorine Truck Bombing In Ramadi
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BAGHDAD - A suspected al-Qaida in Iraq suicide bomber smashed a truck loaded with TNT and toxic chlorine gas into a police checkpoint in Ramadi on Friday, killing at least 27 people _ the ninth such attack since the group's first known use of a chemical weapon in January.
Al-Qaida in Iraq, which asserts fealty to Osama bin Laden, was believed to be hitting back at Sunni tribesmen who are banding together to expel foreign fighters from their territory.
An Internet posting by the Islamic Army in Iraq, meanwhile, exposed a growing and deep split among even the most radical Sunni groups, which are linked under the umbrella organization called the Islamic State of Iraq.
Including those killed in Ramadi, 46 people died or were found dead in sectarian violence nationwide on Friday.
The bombing in Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province and an insurgent stronghold, left many people nearby with breathing difficulties and some needed hospitalization, according to police Maj. Jubair Rashid al-Nayef. Most were released in about 30 minutes. Thirty other victims were hospitalized with wounds from the explosion.
Police opened fire as the suicide bomber sped toward a checkpoint three miles west of the city, police Col. Tariq al-Dulaimi said. Nearby buildings were heavily damaged, and police were searching the rubble for more victims.
The first known chlorine attack took place Jan. 28, also in Ramadi. Pentagon officials first disclosed the attack, which killed at least 16 people. In low exposures, chlorine irritates the respiratory system, eyes and skin. Higher levels can lead to accumulation of fluid in the lungs and other symptoms. Death is possible with heavy exposure, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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49 + Killed or found dead today
Good afternoon
At least 49 people were killed in shootings, bombings and mortar attacks across Iraq on Thursday, including 20 men whose bullet-riddled bodies were brought to a hospital in Baqouba a day after they were abducted at an illegal checkpoint.
Earlier this week, 21 people were killed after they were snatched in a similar incident.
Police also found the body of a famous television anchor from the Saddam Hussein era who was kidnapped two days ago in western Baghdad. A car bomb struck a Sunni television station in the same neighborhood, killing the assistant director and wounding 12 others, according to the Iraqi Islamic Party, which owns the station.
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