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| Iraq |
| Blasts kill 62 in Shiite area of Baghdad |
| 2006-08-14 |
| Let's try it again - this time with the link. Car bombs and a rocket barrage struck a predominantly Shiite neighborhood in Baghdad on Sunday, killing at least 62 people, a municipal official said. The rockets apparently were fired from a mostly Sunni district targeted by U.S. troops in a crackdown against the sectarian violence roiling the capital. About 140 were injured in the attack on the Zafraniyah neighborhood in southern Baghdad, which began about 7:15 p.m. with two car bombs and a barrage of an estimated nine rockets, Defense Ministry spokesman Col. Saddoun Abu al-Ula said. He said the barrage heavily damaged three buildings, including a multi-story apartment house that collapsed. Al-Ula said the rockets appeared to have been fired from the neighborhood of Dora, which has been the focus of thousands of U.S. troops sent to try to restore peace in Baghdad. The complex style of the assault was similar to a July 27 attack of mortars, rockets and car bombs on another mostly Shiite district, Karradah, which killed 31 people. Police said the rockets and mortars that struck Karradah also were fired from Dora. A Sunni extremist group, the al-Sahaba Soldiers, claimed responsibility for the Karradah attack to punish Shiites for supporting the "crusaders," or Americans, and the "treacherous" Iraqi government. Earlier Sunday, the U.S. command announced that soldiers of the 2nd Brigade, 101st Airborne Division had arrested a key terrorist cell leader who was "directly linked" to the July 17 attack on an outdoor market in Mahmoudiya, about 20 miles south of Baghdad. The statement said the arrest was made Thursday but did not give the suspect's name. Gunmen believed to be Sunnis opened fire on shoppers and vendors in the Mahmoudiya market during last month's attack, killing at least 51 people and wounding more than 70. Most of the victims were Shiites. On Sunday, Health Minister Ali al-Shemari, a member of a Shiite group that operates a militia, said American soldiers arrested seven of his bodyguards in a pre-dawn raid on his office. "There was no legal warrant, there was no prior warning to the ministry, How odd! there was no reason to arrest them. It is a provocation," said al-Shemari, a member of the movement led by radical Shiite cleric, Muqtada al-Sadr, head of the biggest Shiite militia, the Mahdi Army. However, a U.S. military statement said coalition forces received a tip from a resident that "15 criminals wearing Iraqi army uniforms" had kidnapped six people and taken them to the Ministry of Health building. Iraqi and U.S. soldiers searched the building and did not find any kidnap victims. But five detainees were taken in for questioning "based on their positive identification by the tipster," the statement said, without elaborating. It was not clear if the raid was linked to the June disappearance of a Sunni provincial health official, Dr. Ali al-Mahdawi, who vanished after a meeting with the minister. Just a coincidence? Sunnis claimed al-Mahdawi was kidnapped by Shiite militiamen. Al-Shemari denied any knowledge of al-Mahdawi's disappearance and said he had interviewed him for a senior post in the ministry. |
| Posted by:Bobby |
| #4 The secret plan....... Suicide by islam |
| Posted by: kelly 2006-08-14 17:03 |
| #3 BAGHDAD, Iraq - Residents dug through wrecked buildings and swept glass off the streets Monday in a predominantly Shiite neighborhood devastated by explosions that killed at least 47 people. Iraqis blamed bombs, but U.S. military experts pointed to a natural gas explosion. U.S. ordnance teams went to the Zafraniyah neighborhood and found “no evidence” of anything other than a “significant gas explosion” Sunday night followed by subsequent blasts related to a gas leak, the U.S. military spokesman, Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell, said. "If in fact there had been a hole in the ground, there would be some residue from a Katyusha rocket if one had been fired there,” he told reporters. Iraqi officials insisted the damage was caused by car bombs and a rocket barrage fired from Dora, a mostly Sunni district - evidence that sectarian violence roiling the capital shows no sign of stopping despite an additional 12,000 U.S. and Iraqi troops soldiers rushed in to enforce peace. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s office said in a statement that the attack started with a number of Katyusha rockets falling on a building followed by a car bomb, more rockets on a post office, a motorcycle bomb near a public library and mortar rounds near an Armenian church. The statement said 47 people were killed and 100 injured. “The terrorists planned this ugly crime so that it would inflict maximum harm on innocent civilians, and this is proof of their deep-rooted hatred for Iraq and their attempt to incite sectarianism,” al-Maliki said. |
| Posted by: Steve 2006-08-14 12:44 |
| #2 At least these Sunnis are better shots than Hizb'allah. |
| Posted by: ed 2006-08-14 08:07 |
| #1 Boy, Sahr's army is'nt very good is it. You'd think with the great training they get from Iran, they could do better than this in thier own land. Assuming Iran cares at all. |
| Posted by: plainslow 2006-08-14 08:04 |