Street turns into 'swimming pool of blood' 200 dead in Bagdad bomb

[N.O.R.F]

Street turns into 'swimming pool of blood'

Reuters

 

Baghdad: Car bombs killed nearly 200 people in Baghdad yesterday in the deadliest attacks in the city since US and Iraqi forces launched a security crackdown aimed at halting the country's slide into civil war.

 

One car bomb near a market in the mainly Shi'ite Muslim Sadriya district killed 140 people and wounded 150, police said.

 

"The street was transformed into a swimming pool of blood," Ahmad Hamid, a shopkeeper near the scene, said.

 

Wednesday's attacks killed a total of 191 people and wounded 250, police said. Witnesses said many of the dead were women and children.

 

The apparently coordinated attacks - there were five within a short space of time - occurred hours after Shiite Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki said Iraq would take security control of the whole country from foreign forces by the end of the year.

 

Al Maliki is under growing pressure to say when foreign soldiers will leave, but the attacks in mainly Shiite areas of Baghdad underscored the huge challenges for Iraq's security forces in taking charge of overall security from more than 150,000 US and British troops.

 

"I saw dozens of dead bodies. Some people were burned alive inside minibuses. Nobody could reach them after the explosion," said a Reuters witness at Sadriya, describing scenes of mayhem at an intersection where the bomb exploded near a market.

 

"Women were screaming and shouting for their loved ones who died," said the witness who did not wish to be identified, adding many of the dead were women and children.

 

One man waving his arms in the air screamed hysterically: "Where's Maliki? Let him come and see what is happening here."

 

US and Iraqi forces began deploying thousands more troops onto Baghdad's streets in February.

 

Sectarian death squad killings have declined, but car bombs are much harder to stop, US military officials say.

 

The bombings could inflame sectarian passions in Baghdad, especially among the Mehdi Army militia of anti-American Shiite cleric Moqtada Al Sadr, which has kept a low profile so far during the two-month-old Baghdad security offensive.

 

Al Qaida is blamed for most of the major bombings targeting Shiites in Iraq and there are fears the Mehdi Army may take to the streets to retaliate.

 

Epicentre of violence

 

The attacks came several hours after Al Maliki again appealed for reconciliation between majority Shiites and once-dominant minority Sunni Arabs who form the backbone of the insurgency.

 

"There is no magic solution to put out the fire of sectarian sedition that some are trying to set up, especially Al Qaida," Al Maliki said in a speech made on his behalf before the attacks.

 

Among the other attacks yesterday, police said a suicide car bomber killed 35 people at a checkpoint in Sadr City, stronghold of the firebrand cleric Al Sadr.

 

In a speech at a ceremony marking the handover of southern Maysan province from British to Iraqi control, Al Maliki said three provinces in the autonomous Kurdistan region would be next, followed by Karbala and Wasit provinces.

 

Gates' opinion

 

Iraq failure 'will be felt first in region before US'

 

Failure in Iraq will unleash sectarian strife and extremism and will be felt first in the Middle East, visiting US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said yesterday.

 

Speaking to a US Chamber of Commerce luncheon on the third day of his Middle East tour, Gates exhorted Arab countries to use their influence to dampen the insurgency and encourage political reconciliation in Iraq.

 

"Whatever disagreements we might have over how we got to this point in Iraq, the consequences of a failed state in Iraq - of chaos there - will adversely impact the security and prosperity of every nation in the Middle East and Gulf region," he said.

 

Gates also said that Iran and Syria need to become part of the solution by reducing the violence and helping promote reconciliation in Iraq.

 

source

[Ms DD]

Salaam North

 

Who on earth would do such a thing? It truly baffles me. How will this help acheive their goals?

[Jacaylbaro]

That is the US doing all this mess ,,,,, they want to kill more and blame the locals

[Ms DD]

^^ That was my first thought. Muslims couldnt possibly massacre these people because it will make the US stay even longer. An excuse.

If it muslims, what are they acheiving? I cant see it. This convinces me more that there are other forces at play.

[me]

Originally posted by Jacaylbaro:

That is the US doing all this mess ,,,,, they want to kill more and blame the locals

I couldn't agree more, the ones benifiting from it are prolly doint it.

[N.O.R.F]

This is not the US.

 

Its obviouse. Saudi Arabia/Jordan/Egypt vs Iran through financing and arming the malitias. The US and Brits have been simply allowing it to happen (they may be arming both sides aswell). It is now out of 'control' hence the latest security measures.

 

This is the secondary war in Iraq. Its Sunni vs Shia however much we trie to avoid saying it.

 

What is it achieving?

 

Its for the control of Iraq. For so long in the hands of a Sunni leader it is on the verge of being 'lost' to the Persians/Syrians.

[Caano Geel]

^ hear, hear, please say it again, so that it gets through ..

[N.O.R.F]

Moqtada Al Sadr pulled his Shia politicians out of the cabinet. Hold your breaths for what might come,,,,,

[me]

Northerner and caano geel, didn't the iraqi police catch in 2005 SAS soldiers disguised as Arabs in a car full of explosives? The BBC reported that story in the news at 6 and on the news at 9 that story was dead, a whole media blaclack out followed and the next day British soldiers stormed Basra police station where the SAS men were being held.

 

I have seen this news with my own eyes, I couldn't believe what the BBC news reader was saying, because everything fell on its place at that moment, that was the prove that the British and US soldiers were at least responsible for some of the bombings, I am not denying that the different factions are doing their share of teh bombings, but I am saying the British and US are fueling this conflict.

 

Ask yourself what would British SAS men disguised as Arabs be doing in a car full of explosives?

[N.O.R.F]

^^I'm aware of that saxib. But as i said, its out of control now. Everyday, first thing i hear about death in Iraq.

 

Iragiyinta wa la kala saarey (Sunni/Shia) and now they are both armed and very dangerous.

[Ms DD]

This was never about Shia and Sunni. I agree that there was resentment and distrust but this out and out war was the result of American/UK interference. I am not convinced that this is solely the work of Arabs/Persians. It would be ****** to deny an element of fanatics, committed to killing with impunity but I am certain that US/UK has a hand in these mass murders.

 

You onlu have to look at Somalia and how they have meddled into our affairs when things werent going as they wanted to. It is all done behind the scenes.

[Caano Geel]

me:

There is a difference between using and being used. Get as much money, weaponry intelligence as you like for the brits, americans french, what ever, but at the end of the day its the *muslim* militias and *muslims* that are kidnapping, blowing up, executing and are carrying out the depravities that we witness.. Lets not forget that now we have algerians and moroccans have a go at killing their own

[me]

Eedo,

 

their interverence in somalia hasn't started in 2006, they have been meddling with us since the 80's. There are even reports that Germany, Italy and the US were arming the oposition to Siyad Bare.....the gun torrets on technicals that the USC in the early 90's used were distrubuted by the German embassy in Xamar.

 

Somalia's war and the genocides commited in Xamar 1991 were not just angry moor-yans or jirri going on a rampage, this was a planned ethnic cleansing.

 

The path that Somalia took in the 90's is the path Iraq is on now. There are people who specialize in these sort of things and those people are now doing a good job. Its an art they mastered.

 

Somalia's war is being fueled by many interested parties, its not just ethiopia, but the US, the italians, the britts and the arabs are all playing their roles in keeping the Somali conflict going, what they want from us..god knows.

 

Just know that no one is 'helping' Somalia, everyone wants to impose their rules on us.

[me]

Originally posted by Caano Geel:

me:

There is a difference between using and being used. Get as much money, weaponry intelligence as you like for the brits, americans french, what ever, but at the end of the day its the *muslim* militias and *muslims* that are kidnapping, blowing up, executing and are carrying out the depravities that we witness.. Lets not forget that now we have

algerians

and moroccans have a go at killing their own

You don't have to go far to see brothers killing brothers for aparantly nothing, look at Somalia,what is the reasoning for our war?

 

How was the anymosity created? What I am saying is there are people who specialize in destabilization.

 

In Somalia they killed the trust, now they are killing the hope.

 

You kill the trust between individuals in a society, then the hope is gone. Our people are almost hopeless and they believe that they can't stop whats going on, the same goes for orinary Iraqis too, they feel hopeless, powerless and they hide behind those that claim to be helping them. This is fear at work.

[Ms DD]

Dear me

 

The question arises from your analysis is: Are the muslims so naive/ignorant that it is easy for the west to create mess between them? We arent giving Somalis/Muslims in general enough credit to wisen up.