Bloodiest day in Baghdad Since Beginning of Surge
Iraqis bury victims from deadly attacks
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By LAUREN FRAYER, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 49 minutes ago
BAGHDAD - Grieving relatives retrieved bodies from hospital morgues Thursday, and passers-by gawked at the giant crater left by a market bomb in one of four attacks that killed 183 people on the bloodiest day since the U.S. troop increase began nine weeks ago.
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But violence did not abate Thursday, as a suicide bomber exploded in another mostly Shiite district, killing at least 11 people and wounding 28, police said. The car bomb exploded next to a fuel tanker in Karradah, setting fire to the truck. The death toll was expected to rise.
Many of the more than 230 Iraqis killed or found dead nationwide a day earlier were buried in quiet ceremonies before Thursday's noon prayer, according to Muslim tradition. Other bodies lay in refrigeration containers, still unidentified, at morgues across Baghdad.
In Sadr City, relatives flocked to Imam Ali Hospital to claim the bodies of loved ones. A man held his shirt over his mouth and nose as he moved past decaying bodies. Nearby, four men loaded a casket onto a minibus.
The most devastating blast struck the Sadriyah market as workers were leaving for the day, charring a lineup of minibuses that came to pick them up. At least 127 people were killed and 148 wounded, including men who were rebuilding the market after a Feb. 3 bombing left 137 dead.
On Thursday, collective wakes were being held for multiple victims in huge tents erected in narrow alleys and at nearby mosques within view of the blast site. Onlookers gathered around a crater about three yards wide and one yard deep, left by the force of the explosion.
One of them, 38-year-old Akram Abdullah, who owns a clothing shop about 200 yards away, fell to his knees in tears.
"It's a tragedy - devastation covers the whole area. It's as if a volcano erupted here," said Abdullah, the father of three boys.
"Charred dead bodies are still inside the twisted cars, some cars are still covered with ashes," he said, describing the scene before him in a phone interview.
Abdullah, whose shop was damaged by flying shrapnel, said he took part in 18 funerals Thursday morning. "I cried a lot," he said.
The car bombing appeared meticulously planned. It took place at a pedestrian entrance where tall concrete barriers had been erected after the earlier attack. It was the only way out of the compound, and the construction workers were widely known to leave at about 4 p.m. - the time of the bombing.
One builder, 28-year-old Salih Mustafa, said he was waiting for a bus home when the bomb exploded.
"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 take away the victims. It was really a horrible scene."
U.S. military spokesman Maj. Gen. William Caldwell told The Associated Press that al-Qaida in
Iraq was suspected in the bombing. "Initial indications based on intelligence sources show that it was linked to al-Qaida," Caldwell said in a late-night telephone interview.
Echoing those remarks, Defense Secretary Robert Gates called the bombings "horrifying" and accused al-Qaida of being behind them.
The attacks appeared to be yet another attempt by Sunni insurgents and al-Qaida to force Shiite militiamen back onto the streets. Radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr had ordered his Mahdi Army fighters to put away their weapons and go underground before the security crackdown began, leaving regions like those bombed on Wednesday highly vulnerable.
An outburst of violence from the Shiite militia would also ease pressure on the Sunni insurgents, creating a second front for U.S. and Iraqi soldiers struggling to diminish violence in the capital and provide time for the Iraqi government to gather momentum for sectarian reconciliation.
U.S. officials have reported a decrease in sectarian killings in Baghdad since the U.S.-Iraqi security crackdown was launched Feb. 14. But the past week has seen several spectacular attacks in the capital, including a suicide bombing inside parliament and a powerful blast that collapsed a landmark bridge across the Tigris River. The number of bodies dumped in the streets of Baghdad also has risen significantly.
Brig. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi, the Iraqi military spokesman, said, "We have not seen such a wave of attacks since the security plan began. These are terrorist challenges. Ninety-five percent of those killed today were civilians."
Late Wednesday, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki ordered the arrest of the Iraqi army colonel who was in charge of security in the region around the Sadriyah market. The colonel's name was not given.
"Our Iraqi people are being subjected to a brutal attack that does not differentiate between an old man, a child or a woman. This targeting of civilian populations brings back to our minds the mass crimes and genocide committed by the Saddamist dictatorial regime," said a statement from al-Maliki's office.
Scattered violence continued on Thursday. A policeman and a civilian woman were killed when gunmen opened fire on a police patrol in Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, police said. Five more policemen were wounded in the shooting.
An Iraqi soldier was gunned down near Kut, 100 miles southeast of Baghdad, according to officials at a nearby hospital where his body was brought.
In the northern oil-rich city of Kirkuk, seven employees of the North Oil Company, a state-run enterprise, were seriously wounded in another drive-by shooting, police said. Kirkuk lies 180 miles north of Baghdad.
The 127 deaths in Wednesday's market bombing were recorded by Raad Muhsin, an official at the al-Kindi Hospital morgue 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.
Besides the market attack, bombs struck Shiite targets in the capital at a police checkpoint, near a hospital and in a small bus.
Nationwide the number of people killed Wednesday or found dead 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.
Caldwell said militants were "attempting to destroy any sense of security the people of Baghdad were beginning to feel with the security operation in Baghdad."
He called insurgents a "vicious cancer on the body of Iraq. You've got to keep fighting it. We're not going to give up."
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yahoo.com
By LAUREN FRAYER, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 49 minutes ago
BAGHDAD - Grieving relatives retrieved bodies from hospital morgues Thursday, and passers-by gawked at the giant crater left by a market bomb in one of four attacks that killed 183 people on the bloodiest day since the U.S. troop increase began nine weeks ago.
ADVERTISEMENT
But violence did not abate Thursday, as a suicide bomber exploded in another mostly Shiite district, killing at least 11 people and wounding 28, police said. The car bomb exploded next to a fuel tanker in Karradah, setting fire to the truck. The death toll was expected to rise.
Many of the more than 230 Iraqis killed or found dead nationwide a day earlier were buried in quiet ceremonies before Thursday's noon prayer, according to Muslim tradition. Other bodies lay in refrigeration containers, still unidentified, at morgues across Baghdad.
In Sadr City, relatives flocked to Imam Ali Hospital to claim the bodies of loved ones. A man held his shirt over his mouth and nose as he moved past decaying bodies. Nearby, four men loaded a casket onto a minibus.
The most devastating blast struck the Sadriyah market as workers were leaving for the day, charring a lineup of minibuses that came to pick them up. At least 127 people were killed and 148 wounded, including men who were rebuilding the market after a Feb. 3 bombing left 137 dead.
On Thursday, collective wakes were being held for multiple victims in huge tents erected in narrow alleys and at nearby mosques within view of the blast site. Onlookers gathered around a crater about three yards wide and one yard deep, left by the force of the explosion.
One of them, 38-year-old Akram Abdullah, who owns a clothing shop about 200 yards away, fell to his knees in tears.
"It's a tragedy - devastation covers the whole area. It's as if a volcano erupted here," said Abdullah, the father of three boys.
"Charred dead bodies are still inside the twisted cars, some cars are still covered with ashes," he said, describing the scene before him in a phone interview.
Abdullah, whose shop was damaged by flying shrapnel, said he took part in 18 funerals Thursday morning. "I cried a lot," he said.
The car bombing appeared meticulously planned. It took place at a pedestrian entrance where tall concrete barriers had been erected after the earlier attack. It was the only way out of the compound, and the construction workers were widely known to leave at about 4 p.m. - the time of the bombing.
One builder, 28-year-old Salih Mustafa, said he was waiting for a bus home when the bomb exploded.
"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 take away the victims. It was really a horrible scene."
U.S. military spokesman Maj. Gen. William Caldwell told The Associated Press that al-Qaida in
Iraq was suspected in the bombing. "Initial indications based on intelligence sources show that it was linked to al-Qaida," Caldwell said in a late-night telephone interview.
Echoing those remarks, Defense Secretary Robert Gates called the bombings "horrifying" and accused al-Qaida of being behind them.
The attacks appeared to be yet another attempt by Sunni insurgents and al-Qaida to force Shiite militiamen back onto the streets. Radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr had ordered his Mahdi Army fighters to put away their weapons and go underground before the security crackdown began, leaving regions like those bombed on Wednesday highly vulnerable.
An outburst of violence from the Shiite militia would also ease pressure on the Sunni insurgents, creating a second front for U.S. and Iraqi soldiers struggling to diminish violence in the capital and provide time for the Iraqi government to gather momentum for sectarian reconciliation.
U.S. officials have reported a decrease in sectarian killings in Baghdad since the U.S.-Iraqi security crackdown was launched Feb. 14. But the past week has seen several spectacular attacks in the capital, including a suicide bombing inside parliament and a powerful blast that collapsed a landmark bridge across the Tigris River. The number of bodies dumped in the streets of Baghdad also has risen significantly.
Brig. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi, the Iraqi military spokesman, said, "We have not seen such a wave of attacks since the security plan began. These are terrorist challenges. Ninety-five percent of those killed today were civilians."
Late Wednesday, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki ordered the arrest of the Iraqi army colonel who was in charge of security in the region around the Sadriyah market. The colonel's name was not given.
"Our Iraqi people are being subjected to a brutal attack that does not differentiate between an old man, a child or a woman. This targeting of civilian populations brings back to our minds the mass crimes and genocide committed by the Saddamist dictatorial regime," said a statement from al-Maliki's office.
Scattered violence continued on Thursday. A policeman and a civilian woman were killed when gunmen opened fire on a police patrol in Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, police said. Five more policemen were wounded in the shooting.
An Iraqi soldier was gunned down near Kut, 100 miles southeast of Baghdad, according to officials at a nearby hospital where his body was brought.
In the northern oil-rich city of Kirkuk, seven employees of the North Oil Company, a state-run enterprise, were seriously wounded in another drive-by shooting, police said. Kirkuk lies 180 miles north of Baghdad.
The 127 deaths in Wednesday's market bombing were recorded by Raad Muhsin, an official at the al-Kindi Hospital morgue 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.
Besides the market attack, bombs struck Shiite targets in the capital at a police checkpoint, near a hospital and in a small bus.
Nationwide the number of people killed Wednesday or found dead 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.
Caldwell said militants were "attempting to destroy any sense of security the people of Baghdad were beginning to feel with the security operation in Baghdad."
He called insurgents a "vicious cancer on the body of Iraq. You've got to keep fighting it. We're not going to give up."
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got to hand it to saddam, he had them all corraled and he chose who lived and died.
sounded easier to me.0 -
What I can't figure out is why the Iraqi citizens put up with this. Somebody has to be able to identify persons from the groups that are doing this. I know that it is a big risk to talk but given what happens every day I'm not sure it is a much bigger risk than dialy life over there. They will never get along ...even with each other.
Our troops are doing a great job of keeping that stuff out of our "back yard" but thats about it. Other than that I don't think they are or ever will accomplish much over there. Sad fact of life. When you have nothing worth living for for you don't care how you treat others.0
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