| Submit your comments on this article |
| Iraq |
| Bomb Kills 26, Ends Three-Day Respite |
| 2007-03-05 |
| BAGHDAD, Iraq - A suicide car bomber struck a busy commercial district Monday, killing at least 26 people and injuring more than 50, police said. The attack near the well-known Mutanabi book market in central Baghdad was the first major blast in the city in several days — sending a huge pillar of black smoke as flames spread to shops, cars and book stalls. The death toll from police was preliminary and could rise. At least 54 people were injured. The commercial zone is mixed between Sunni- and Shiite-owned businesses and shoppers. "Papers from the book market were floating through the air like leaflets dropped from a plane," said Naeem al-Daraji, a Health Ministry worker who was driving about 200 yards from the blast and was slightly injured by broken glass from his car window. "Pieces of flesh and the remains of books were scattered everywhere," he said. People began driving the injured to hospitals in private cars without waiting for ambulances to arrive. Sporadic car bombs and attacks have hit the capital in recent days, but none with mass casualties since a blast Friday killed at least 10 people. West of Baghdad, U.S. soldiers described a raid last week that uncovered a suspected Sunni "torture site" and rescued of two Iraqi captives, who apparently had been spared immediate execution because the militants' video camera broke and they wanted to film the killing. Sadr City Wrapup The quiet but dramatic advance in Sadr City — involving nearly 1,200 U.S. and Iraqi forces who didn't fire a shot — marked one of the most significant developments in the security clampdown in Baghdad since it took effect nearly three weeks ago. But it only received the green light after drawn-out talks between U.S. commanders and political allies of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and his powerful Mahdi Army. Both sides are watching each other for any wrong moves on the same streets where they battled in the past, including intense urban warfare in 2004. Al-Sadr's militiamen lowered their profile under intense government pressure to give the security operation a chance to root out both Sunni and Shiite extremists. U.S. military leaders, however, must walk a fine line as part of the tacit truce. They are seeking suspected Shiite death squads leaders, but must keep from squeezing al-Sadr's militia too hard — and risk collapsing the entire drive to reclaim Baghdad from extremists and gangs. "The indication that we are getting is a lot of the really bad folks have gone into hiding," said Lt. Col. David Oclander shortly after troops moved into Sadr City's teeming grid of low-rise buildings in northeast Baghdad. Oclander said "not a shot was fired" as troops entered the area, which was constructed in the 1960s to house poor Shiites seeking work in the capital and was known as Saddam City until the former Iraqi leader's fall in 2003. As the insurgency picked up steam in the past few years, Sadr City became the site of frequent battles. Among the U.S. casualties was Spc. Casey Sheehan, whose death on April 4, 2004, began the anti-war campaign of his mother, Cindy Sheehan. Last week, U.S. and Iraqi forces began pinpoint raids into Sadr City seeking suspected leaders of Shiite death squads blamed for thousands of execution-style slayings of Sunni rivals in recent years. Since Friday, military planners have worked inside a Sadr City police station in apparent preparations to create a permanent outpost, police said. Despite the calm crossing into Sadr City, some quickly protested the strong U.S. presence. An al-Sadr ally, lawmaker Falah Hassan, claimed the Sadr City pact called for Iraqi forces to lead the searches and only call in U.S. units if they faced resistance. He called the front-line U.S. role a "provocative act." Al-Sadr, too, has complained about the heavy U.S. role in the raids around the city. In a statement last week, he also decried the security plan's inability to stop car bombs and other attacks blamed on Sunni insurgent groups against Shiite civilians. The comments raised worries that he could order his Mahdi Army to confront forces carrying out the security operation. But he didn't attempt to raise the stakes — a possible sign of newfound caution from al-Sadr. "We don't know if he has a change of heart, but certainly there is a change of tactic," the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, told CNN. |
| Posted by:Bobby |
| #5 Have Boooom, will travel. Wire Mamhoud el Rat, Gaza Hilton |
| Posted by: Shipman 2007-03-05 12:49 |
| #4 Books... why do they hate them so? |
| Posted by: Abu do you love 2007-03-05 12:44 |
| #3 Have Muslims, Will Terror. Great name for a TV show. Maybe they could rename 24 and get Richard Boone to head CTU. Except he died long ago. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2007-03-05 09:52 |
| #2 The obverse is true as well: "No Muslims, no terror." |
| Posted by: mac 2007-03-05 06:50 |
| #1 Iraq reminds me of car sticker we've had in Israel a few years ago (verboten by courts as racist). It translates as "Have Arabs, have terror." |
| Posted by: gromgoru 2007-03-05 06:33 |