57 Iraqis Killed 7/28/08
Good morning,
BAGHDAD - Female suicide bombers struck a Shiite pilgrimage in Baghdad and a Kurdish protest rally in northern Iraq on Monday, killing at least 57 people and wounding nearly 300, police said.
Three women detonated their explosive vests in the middle of pilgrims in Baghdad, moments after a roadside bomb attack, killing at least 32 people and wounding 102, Iraqi officials said.
In the oil-rich northern city of Kirkuk, 25 people were killed and 185 wounded when a blast tore through a crowd of Kurds protesting a draft provincial elections law, officials said.
Police spokesman Brig. Gen. Burhan Tayeb Taha said the bomber was a woman, saying he had seen the remains. The U.S. military confirmed a suicide bombing but said it had no indication the attacker was a woman.
Authorities clamped a 3 p.m.-6 a.m. curfew on the city, which is home to Kurds, Turkomen, Arabs and smaller groups.
The bombings — among the deadliest this year — were a devastating blow to the Iraqi public's growing confidence in recent security gains that have seen violence in Iraq drop to its lowest levels in more than four years.
Such attacks are increasingly carried out by women, who are more easily able to hide explosives under their all-encompassing black Islamic robes, or abayas, and often are not searched at checkpoints.
In a bid to improve the ability to search women, the U.S. military has stepped up recruitment and training efforts for women in the police force and as members of U.S.-allied Sunni groups that have joined forces against al-Qaida in Iraq.
Iraqi security forces deployed about 200 women this week to search female pilgrims near the northern Baghdad neighborhood of Kazimiyah, where the Shiite saint Imam Moussa al-Kadhim is buried in a golden domed shrine.
A senior U.S. military official blamed al-Qaida in Iraq for the attacks in Baghdad. The attacks come ahead of U.S. and Iraqi military operations in early August aimed at routing out insurgents from rural hideouts in northern Iraq and solidify recent security gains in urban areas.
"At about 8 a.m. three female suicide bombers detonated themselves among pilgrims heading to Kazimiyah," the main Iraqi military spokesman in Baghdad, Brig. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi, said in a statement posted on his Web site.
The pilgrims are marking the death of an eighth-century saint. The attacks took place in the mainly Shiite Karradah district, which is several miles away from the destination of the pilgrimage in Kazimiyah in northern Baghdad. Most of the dead were women and children, police and health officials said.
"I heard women and children crying and shouting and I saw burned women as dead bodies lied in pools of blood on the street," Mustapha Abdullah, a 32-year-old man who was injured in the stomach and legs, said from the hospital where he was being treated.
It was the deadliest attack in Baghdad since June 17, when a truck bombing killed 63 people in Hurriyah, a neighborhood that saw some of the worst Shiite-Sunni slaughter in 2006.
In Kirkuk, the suicide bomber targeted Kurdish demonstrators who were protesting a provincial elections measure blocked in parliament because of disagreement over a power-sharing formula in the disputed city of Kirkuk, an oil-rich area.
Maj. Gen. Jamal Tahir, a Kirkuk police spokesman, said police found a car bomb nearby and detonated it safely.
After the explosion, dozens of angry Kurds opened fire on the offices of a Turkomen political party, which opposes Kurdish claims on Kirkuk.
A police official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media, said no one was hurt in the attack and that the party offices were placed under police protection.
Since the 2003 ouster of Saddam Hussein, who was a Sunni, Shiite political parties have encouraged huge turnouts at religious festivals to display the majority sect's power in Iraq. Sunni religious extremists have often targeted the gatherings to foment sectarian war, but that has not stopped the Shiites.
In 2005, at least 1,000 people also were killed in a bridge stampede caused by rumors of a suicide bomber in Baghdad during the Kazimiyah pilgrimage.
Have a nice day.
88 More Iraqi Civilians Killed 7/20 - 7/26
Good morning,
Is the "surge" working or has it worked? According to McCain and Obama, apparently thing are going pretty darn well in Iraq since the "surge". With 88 Iraqi Civilians killed this last week, you can come to your own conclusion as to the state of affairs in Iraq.
Saturday 26 July, 4 dead
Baghdad: 1 body found
Ninewa
Mosul: 1 policeman during clashes
Tameem
Kirkuk: 1 policeman shot
Babylon
Hilla: 4-year-old girl shot
Friday 25 July: 5 dead
Baghdad: 1 body
Ninewa
Mosul: 3 shot dead, 1 woman shot dead in her home
Thursday 24 July: 18 dead
Diyala
Baquba: 8 by female suicide bomber, Awakening Council leader among those killed
Baghdad: 3 Awakening members in drive-by shootings, 1 body found
Babylon
Yusufiya: 2 bodies, a civilian and a policeman
Ninewa
Mosul: policeman shot dead in front of his home, 3 bodies
Wednesday 23 July: 7 dead
Baghdad: 2 bodies.
Diyala
Abu Saida: roadside bomb kills woman.
Ninewa
Mosul: gunmen kill 1; 2 die in clashes.
Tameem
Kirkuk: US soldiers kill journalist's son.
Tuesday 22 July: 8 dead
Baghdad: 3 bodies.
Tameem
Dibis: 1 body found.
Ninewa
Mosul: gunmen kill 2.
Wassit
Suwayra: 2 bodies.
Monday 21 July: 23 dead
Baghdad: 1 body found.
Diyala
Al-Bowashi: gunmen kill 1 Sahwa member.
Abu Saida: gunmen kill sheikh on his way to reconciliation meeting.
Sadiya: tractor bomb kills 7.
Tameem
Kirkuk: gunmen kill journalist; roadside bomb kills police chief.
Ninewa
Mosul: gunmen kill 2; 2 security contractors killed by suicide bomber; 1 body found.
Tal Afar: 3 policemen killed during clashes.
Wassit
Kut: gunemn kill 1.
Suwayra: 2 bodies found dismembered.
Sunday 20 July: 23 dead
Baghdad: bomb stuck on car kills 1, Adhamiya; roadside bomb kills 1, Karrada; car bomb kills 1, Damascus intersection; 3 bodies.
Diyala
Wajihiya: roadside bomb kills 2 policemen.
Bani Saad: roadside bomb kills 3 policemen.
Ninewa
Mosul: 4 killed in drive-by shootings; sniper kills policeman; 2 killed by suicide car bomber.
Salahuddin
Baiji: US forces kill son and nephew of Salahuddin governor in early morning raid.
Basra
Basra: body of young woman found.
Wassit
Suwayra: 2 bodies found floating in river.
Have a nice day.
Dozens of Iraqi Citizens are Killed
Good evening,
Is the "surge" working? Deaths continue on a daily basis, and Iraq political reconciliation is not happening. Please review the latest Iraq civilian deaths as reported by Iraq Body Count:
Wednesday 23 July: 7 dead
Baghdad: 2 bodies.
Diyala
Abu Saida: roadside bomb kills woman.
Ninewa
Mosul: gunmen kill 1; 2 die in clashes.
Tameem
Kirkuk: gunmen kill journalist's son.
Tuesday 22 July: 8 dead
Baghdad: 3 bodies.
Tameem
Dibis: 1 body found.
Ninewa
Mosul: gunmen kill 2.
Wassit
Suwayra: 2 bodies.
Monday 21 July: 23 dead
Baghdad: 1 body found.
Diyala
Al-Bowashi: gunmen kill 1 Sahwa member.
Abu Saida: gunmen kill sheikh on his way to reconciliation meeting.
Sadiya: tractor bomb kills 7.
Tameem
Kirkuk: gunmen kill journalist; roadside bomb kills police chief.
Ninewa
Mosul: gunmen kill 2; 2 security contractors killed by suicide bomber; 1 body found.
Tal Afar: 3 policemen killed during clashes.
Wassit
Kut: gunemn kill 1.
Suwayra: 2 bodies found dismembered.
Sunday 20 July: 23 dead
Baghdad: bomb stuck on car kills 1, Adhamiya; roadside bomb kills 1, Karrada; car bomb kills 1, Damascus intersection; 3 bodies.
Diyala
Wajihiya: roadside bomb kills 2 policemen.
Bani Saad: roadside bomb kills 3 policemen.
Ninewa
Mosul: 4 killed in drive-by shootings; sniper kills policeman; 2 killed by suicide car bomber.
Salahuddin
Baiji: US forces kill son and nephew of Salahuddin governor in early morning raid.
Basra
Basra: body of young woman found.
Wassit
Suwayra: 2 bodies found floating in river.
Saturday 19 July: 13 dead
Baghdad: 1 body found.
Ninewa
Mosul: gunmen kill policeman; gunmen kill man during kidnap attempt.
Tameem
Hawija: roadside bomb kills 2 Sahwa members.
Salahuddin
Tikrit: gunmen kill 3 policemen.
Diyala
Khalis: 3 brothers found beheaded.
Sulaimaniya
Sulaimaniya: 2 bodies found -mother and daughter.
Friday 18 July: 6 dead
Baghdad: 1 body found.
Tameem
Kirkuk: home-made mine kills 1.
Ninewa
Mosul: gunmen kill man outside his house; 1 body found.
Diyala
Baquba-Khalis road: roadside bomb kills 2.
Thursday 17 July: 8 dead
Baghdad: roadside bomb kills 1, New Baghdad; 2 bodies.
Diyala
Al-Nyi: roadside bomb kills 1.
Babil
Hilla: gunmen kill 1; body found.
Ninewa
Mosul: gunmen attack police checkpoint, kill 1 policeman.
Marga Mir:Iranian shelling of Kurdish region kills 8-year-old girl.
Have a nice day.
