| Submit your comments on this article |
| Iraq |
| Suicide bomber kills 36 at Shi'ite funeral in Karbala |
| 2006-01-05 |
| A suicide bomber killed 36 people and wounded 40 at a Shia funeral yesterday and a car bomb exploded in the lately peaceful city of Karbala, ratcheting up tension between Iraq’s sects. A car bomb also went off in a district of Baghdad, killing three. The bombers defied a major security operation, launched to find the kidnapped sister of a government minister, to detonate the vehicle in the north of the city. The violence was the worst since the largely peaceful on December 15 election and came as Shia, Sunni and Kurdish politicians pledged to plough on with efforts to form a national unity government capable of stemming the bloodshed. The funeral attack took place in Miqdadiya, 100km northeast of the capital, where people were mourning a bodyguard to a local leader of the Dawa party, headed nationally by Prime Minister Ibrahim Al Jaafari. In Iraq’s bloodiest single attack since earlier December, assailants fired mortars on the mourners, forcing them to take cover in the cemetery. A bomber wearing an explosive vest then blew up among them, security officials said. The area around Miqdadiya, in Diyala province, has seen mounting violence in recent weeks and security officials have said hardline groups such as Al Qaeda have been increasingly active in the area. The massacre came just hours after Baghdad’s first fatal car bomb attack of 2006. The bombers appeared to have targeted two passing police cars but the three dead and 13 wounded were all civilians, hit by shrapnel from a blast which damaged at least 10 cars. While Baghdad’s beleaguered inhabitants have grown used to such attacks, the blast in Karbala was a rarity of late — the first of its kind in the Shi’ite holy city since December 2004 when a car bomb killed 12 and wounded 30. Police said three civilians were injured. In March 2004, coordinated suicide bombings during the annual religious festival of Ashura killed more than 90 people in Kerbala, an act blamed on militant Abu Musab Al Zarqawi, head of Al Qaeda in Iraq. But since then, the city has been relatively quiet. Any attack there is likely to have had some sectarian motive. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #6 Where have you been? This is about the fifth or sixth time Michael Moore's Resistance/Freedom Fighters have bombed a funeral. Brave jihadis in Italy planned on attacking a WWII cemetary. In Spain, a jihadi dug up, beheaded, and burned the body of an officer killed by terrorists. I suspect jihadis like attacking corpses; they're even less likely to fight back than women and children. |
| Posted by: Robert Crawford 2006-01-05 12:08 |
| #5 I wonder just how long it's going to take Iraq's Shiites to seriously reassess Iran's track record of terrorist sponsorship and overall regional mayhem. The sooner they do this and thereby reach a major disconnect with the Qom bloodsuckers, the better. Yes, the violence being done to them is of Sunni origin, but Iran's constant hyper-violence is also setting the tone for regional strife. When Iraq's Shiites finally reject Iranian-style terrorism and seek true resolution of sectarian strife, only then will they be able to point a blameless finger at Sunni attackers. Until then, all of this is essentially one extremely brutal pissing contest and nothing more. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2006-01-05 11:53 |
| #4 Howard UK: Where have you been? This is about the fifth or sixth time Michael Moore's Resistance/Freedom Fighters have bombed a funeral. I guess they believe that sometimes you're only partially dead so booming a funeral procession is a way to make sure the dead are very DEAD. |
| Posted by: The Happy Fliegerabwehrkanonen 2006-01-05 10:32 |
| #3 I thought the weddings were something, but the funerals... man. |
| Posted by: Howard UK 2006-01-05 06:57 |
| #2 I would check on the Iranians. They could be trying to stir up fecal matter. They don't care about Iraqis of any sect. It's part of their terrorist war on the "Great Satan." Iraq must fail for them to have a win. |
| Posted by: Sock Puppet O´ Doom 2006-01-05 01:41 |
| #1 Sunni terrorists usually keep out of Karbala. The Shis might go for serious payback. |
| Posted by: CaziFarkus 2006-01-05 01:37 |