.Rockets target Baghdad Shiites
BAGHDAD (AP) - Rockets and mortars rained down Thursday on an upscale, mostly Shiite Muslim area of Baghdad, collapsing an apartment house, shattering shops and killing at least 31 people - part of the rising sectarian violence President George W. Bush has promised to stop.
A car bomb also exploded during the attack in the commercial-residential district Karradah, an area that is home to several prominent Shiite politicians. More than 150 people were wounded in the blasts, police said.
Horrified survivors milled about the street hours later, surveying the damage and blaming Sunni Muslims from neighbourhoods across the Tigris River.
"We are not infidels. It seems that we are not even safe in our homes," said one man, who, like others on the street, refused to give his name because he was afraid.
A statement posted late Thursday on an Islamist website claimed responsibility in the name of the al-Sahaba Soldiers, a part of the Sunni extremist Mujahedeen Shura Council which also includes al-Qaida in Iraq.
The statement, whose authenticity could not be determined, said the attack was "in response to Shiite crimes" and warned "we are prepared for many such operations" to punish Shiites for supporting the "crusaders," or Americans, and the "treacherous" Iraqi government.
At least two rockets slammed into Karradah, including one that collapsed an apartment house, said Lt.-Col. Abbas Mohammed Salman, police commander in Karradah. Salman gave the tally of dead and wounded.
Two mortar shells exploded, one near an investment bank and another across the street near a row of shops. A car bomb went off minutes later near a gas station, shattering storefronts and spraying flaming gasoline onto homes and shops, the Interior Ministry said.
The blasts transformed a normally bustling, generally safe area of Baghdad into a scene from a war zone. Rescuers hauled a bloodsoaked boy who appeared no older than 10 years from the wreckage of the apartment building.
A woman dressed in black sank to the street, weeping uncontrollably, when neighbours told her two of her sons had been killed. Dazed survivors, some bleeding from their wounds, assisted one another from shattered shops and homes in search of medical aid.
Charred hulks of trucks lay on their sides in the blackened street. One of the detonations occurred about 200 metres away from the home of Vice-President Adil Abdul-Mahdi, a Shiite and a senior figure in the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki condemned the attack, saying it was carried out by "killers of women and children" including religious extremists and Saddam Hussein loyalists.
He said security forces would hunt down "those terrorists and killers who try to incite sectarian strife."
The attack occurred as al-Maliki, a former Shiite political activist, was en route to Iraq from Washington, where Bush agreed to send more American soldiers into the streets of the capital to curb the Sunni-Shiite reprisal attacks that have surpassed the Sunni-led insurgency as the No. 1 threat to Iraq's stability.
Sectarian attacks and intimidation began in Iraq shortly after the collapse of Saddam's government in April 2003, fanned in large part by the late Abu Musab al-Zarqawi who sought to trigger all out civil war before his death last month in a U.S. air strike.
However, sectarian violence surged after the Feb. 22 bombing at a major Shiite shrine in Samarra, which led to reprisal attacks against Sunni mosques and clerics countrywide. Sunni-Shiite violence is worst in Baghdad and other religiously mixed communities around the capital.
That has taken the spotlight away from the Sunni heartland north and west of the capital, where Sunni insurgents are strong but the Shiite population relatively small.
The bombings, shootings and execution-style killings have escalated despite the installation of al-Maliki's government of national unity May 20, dashing U.S. hopes that a coalition of Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds could win public trust and pave the way for the U.S. military to begin withdrawing substantial numbers of troops this year.
According to the United Nations, about 6,000 Iraqis were killed in May and June in political and sectarian violence.
Instead of send U.S. soldiers home, Gen. George Casey, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, is drawing up plans to put large numbers of American troops in Baghdad's streets to shore up the U.S.-trained Iraqi security force, whose performance has been disappointing.
Britain's ambassador to Iraq said Thursday that the security problem was made all the worse because Iraqis have lost confidence in the police.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today program, William Patey said some members of the police are believed linked to Shiite militias and Sunni insurgent groups.
"Undoubtedly the Iraqi people have lost confidence in the police," Patey said. "You move from optimism and pessimism. It's a fine dividing line."
CNEWS
To bad it was not Israel was not doing the bombing or the whole world would be coming down on the perps like fire and brimstone. Why are the Lebanese lives worth more than these Iraqi lives? Where is the outrage, and the indignation? Where are the calls for a cease fire? Or is all that just politically motivated and has nothing to do with life and death.
A car bomb also exploded during the attack in the commercial-residential district Karradah, an area that is home to several prominent Shiite politicians. More than 150 people were wounded in the blasts, police said.
Horrified survivors milled about the street hours later, surveying the damage and blaming Sunni Muslims from neighbourhoods across the Tigris River.
"We are not infidels. It seems that we are not even safe in our homes," said one man, who, like others on the street, refused to give his name because he was afraid.
A statement posted late Thursday on an Islamist website claimed responsibility in the name of the al-Sahaba Soldiers, a part of the Sunni extremist Mujahedeen Shura Council which also includes al-Qaida in Iraq.
The statement, whose authenticity could not be determined, said the attack was "in response to Shiite crimes" and warned "we are prepared for many such operations" to punish Shiites for supporting the "crusaders," or Americans, and the "treacherous" Iraqi government.
At least two rockets slammed into Karradah, including one that collapsed an apartment house, said Lt.-Col. Abbas Mohammed Salman, police commander in Karradah. Salman gave the tally of dead and wounded.
Two mortar shells exploded, one near an investment bank and another across the street near a row of shops. A car bomb went off minutes later near a gas station, shattering storefronts and spraying flaming gasoline onto homes and shops, the Interior Ministry said.
The blasts transformed a normally bustling, generally safe area of Baghdad into a scene from a war zone. Rescuers hauled a bloodsoaked boy who appeared no older than 10 years from the wreckage of the apartment building.
A woman dressed in black sank to the street, weeping uncontrollably, when neighbours told her two of her sons had been killed. Dazed survivors, some bleeding from their wounds, assisted one another from shattered shops and homes in search of medical aid.
Charred hulks of trucks lay on their sides in the blackened street. One of the detonations occurred about 200 metres away from the home of Vice-President Adil Abdul-Mahdi, a Shiite and a senior figure in the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki condemned the attack, saying it was carried out by "killers of women and children" including religious extremists and Saddam Hussein loyalists.
He said security forces would hunt down "those terrorists and killers who try to incite sectarian strife."
The attack occurred as al-Maliki, a former Shiite political activist, was en route to Iraq from Washington, where Bush agreed to send more American soldiers into the streets of the capital to curb the Sunni-Shiite reprisal attacks that have surpassed the Sunni-led insurgency as the No. 1 threat to Iraq's stability.
Sectarian attacks and intimidation began in Iraq shortly after the collapse of Saddam's government in April 2003, fanned in large part by the late Abu Musab al-Zarqawi who sought to trigger all out civil war before his death last month in a U.S. air strike.
However, sectarian violence surged after the Feb. 22 bombing at a major Shiite shrine in Samarra, which led to reprisal attacks against Sunni mosques and clerics countrywide. Sunni-Shiite violence is worst in Baghdad and other religiously mixed communities around the capital.
That has taken the spotlight away from the Sunni heartland north and west of the capital, where Sunni insurgents are strong but the Shiite population relatively small.
The bombings, shootings and execution-style killings have escalated despite the installation of al-Maliki's government of national unity May 20, dashing U.S. hopes that a coalition of Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds could win public trust and pave the way for the U.S. military to begin withdrawing substantial numbers of troops this year.
According to the United Nations, about 6,000 Iraqis were killed in May and June in political and sectarian violence.
Instead of send U.S. soldiers home, Gen. George Casey, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, is drawing up plans to put large numbers of American troops in Baghdad's streets to shore up the U.S.-trained Iraqi security force, whose performance has been disappointing.
Britain's ambassador to Iraq said Thursday that the security problem was made all the worse because Iraqis have lost confidence in the police.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today program, William Patey said some members of the police are believed linked to Shiite militias and Sunni insurgent groups.
"Undoubtedly the Iraqi people have lost confidence in the police," Patey said. "You move from optimism and pessimism. It's a fine dividing line."
CNEWS
To bad it was not Israel was not doing the bombing or the whole world would be coming down on the perps like fire and brimstone. Why are the Lebanese lives worth more than these Iraqi lives? Where is the outrage, and the indignation? Where are the calls for a cease fire? Or is all that just politically motivated and has nothing to do with life and death.
posted by madtom at 12:04 AM
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