Major Explosion in Baghdad - 20 dead(Breaking)

cnn ^ | feb 11th 2004 | cnn

[Eurotwit]

Huge Car bomb exploded outside the new Iraqi recruiting center.

[JudgemAll]

Bad rumoring right after explosions tell of enemy crowd embeded psy op combined with bombing.

Progressists NOTE: "it was a human disaster" They are also blaming "americans", instead of helping finding out who did that or of attacking their stupid customs of protecting their doctrines at the cost of unforgiving life and "actors". http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=490057 Burnt and twisted remains of cars littered the area in this small and dusty town south of Baghdad. "It was a human disaster," said Ali Abdullah, a local student who witnessed the attack. "The American soldiers would not let us into where it happened, but we used back ways. We found the bodies burnt and broken into pieces. We found pieces of flesh on the roof. We found body parts that we couldn't tell who they belonged to. There were pieces of women." Nervous American soldiers sealed off the compound where the blast occurred with razor wire, taking up positions kneeling on the ground, a few metres from an angry crowd of Iraqis. The Iraqis were blaming the Americans for the explosion, and the soldiers had their fingers on their triggers. According to the local police commander, Lieutenant-Colonel Abd al-Rahim Saleh, the explosion was caused by a red pick-up truck packed with an estimated 500lb of explosives. The driver set off the explosives as he passed the police station. That was the official version. But it was not accepted by the Iraqis on the scene. To a man, all the witnesses we spoke to claimed the blast was caused by an American air strike. They said they had heard a helicopter overhead, and the whoosh of a missile flying through the air just before the blast. Several witnesses claimed that the Americans brought a bulldozer and quickly filled in the crater caused by the explosion. If nothing else, it was an example of how the Americans are losing the battle for the trust and support of Iraqis, and how the bombers are succeeding. ...... The US claimed this week that its forces in Iraq had intercepted a letter to al-Qa'ida leaders from a Jordanian believed to be in Iraq asking for help with attacks against Shia Iraqis in the hope of inciting a civil war between Sunnis and Shias. The alleged author of the letter, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, boasted of organising 25 suicide bombings in Iraq so far. .... The residents we spoke to were fiercely anti-American, and proud of the attacks carried out by the resistance in the area. That is a sign of how far the resistance has spread beyond the so-called Sunni Triangle of Baghdad, Fallujah and Tikrit. Attacks on American soldiers now occur from Mosul in the north to Iskandariya, and occasionally further south. The bombers are becoming more proficient. And everyone fears there is more to come.

[JudgemAll]

Bad rumoring right after explosions tell of enemy crowd embeded psy op combined with bombing.


Progressists NOTE: "it was a human disaster"
They are also blaming "americans", instead of helping finding out who did that or of attacking their stupid customs of protecting their doctrines at the cost of unforgiving life and "actors".

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=490057

Burnt and twisted remains of cars littered the area in this small and dusty town south of Baghdad. "It was a human disaster," said Ali Abdullah, a local student who witnessed the attack. "The American soldiers would not let us into where it happened, but we used back ways. We found the bodies burnt and broken into pieces. We found pieces of flesh on the roof. We found body parts that we couldn't tell who they belonged to. There were pieces of women."

Nervous American soldiers sealed off the compound where the blast occurred with razor wire, taking up positions kneeling on the ground, a few metres from an angry crowd of Iraqis. The Iraqis were blaming the Americans for the explosion, and the soldiers had their fingers on their triggers.



According to the local police commander, Lieutenant-Colonel Abd al-Rahim Saleh, the explosion was caused by a red pick-up truck packed with an estimated 500lb of explosives. The driver set off the explosives as he passed the police station. That was the official version. But it was not accepted by the Iraqis on the scene. To a man, all the witnesses we spoke to claimed the blast was caused by an American air strike.

They said they had heard a helicopter overhead, and the whoosh of a missile flying through the air just before the blast. Several witnesses claimed that the Americans brought a bulldozer and quickly filled in the crater caused by the explosion.

If nothing else, it was an example of how the Americans are losing the battle for the trust and support of Iraqis, and how the bombers are succeeding.

......
The US claimed this week that its forces in Iraq had intercepted a letter to al-Qa'ida leaders from a Jordanian believed to be in Iraq asking for help with attacks against Shia Iraqis in the hope of inciting a civil war between Sunnis and Shias. The alleged author of the letter, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, boasted of organising 25 suicide bombings in Iraq so far.
....
The residents we spoke to were fiercely anti-American, and proud of the attacks carried out by the resistance in the area. That is a sign of how far the resistance has spread beyond the so-called Sunni Triangle of Baghdad, Fallujah and Tikrit. Attacks on American soldiers now occur from Mosul in the north to Iskandariya, and occasionally further south. The bombers are becoming more proficient. And everyone fears there is more to come.

[dennisw]

This is how depraved the Islamic religion makes them. Not content with bombing Jews in the most cowardly way, they also bomb their fellow Muslims. Making a terrorist Jihad on their Muslim brothers.

It all started back in the 7th century when Muhammad ordered three assassinations. Car bombs and suicide bombers are just an update on the old Muslim tactic of assassination as a prime tool of war. How did Saddam Hussein get his start? As an assassin!

[leadpenny]

Up to 47 Killed in Baghdad Car Bombing
50 minutes ago

By MARIAM FAM, Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A suicide attacker blew up a car packed with explosives Wednesday in a crowd of hundreds of Iraqis waiting outside an army recruiting center in Baghdad, killing up to 47 people, officials and witnesses said, in the second bombing in two days targeting Iraqis working with the American-led coalition.

The attack, which occurred a day after a suicide bombing against a police station south of Baghdad that killed up to 53 people, fueled warnings that insurgents are stepping up violence to disrupt the planned June 30 handover of power to the Iraqis.

"This could be ... part of the ongoing pattern of intimidation we've seen of late," Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, the military's deputy operations chief in Baghdad, told The Associated Press in an e-mail interview. "We have stated numerous times that in the lead-up to governance, there could be an uptick in the violence."

Col. Ralph Baker of the 1st Armored Division said there was no immediate indication who was behind Wednesday's attack, but he said it resembled "the operating technique" of al-Qaida or Ansar al-Islam, a radical Muslim group linked to Osama bin Laden (news - web sites)'s terror network.

The 7:25 a.m. blast tore into would-be army volunteers waiting outside the recruitment center less than a mile from the heavily fortified green zone, where the U.S. administration has its headquarters. Baker said a man driving a white 1991 Oldsmobile Cutlass Sierra detonated about 300 to 500 pounds of explosives.

Casualty reports varied. Maj. John Frisbie, spokesman of the 2nd Brigade 1st Armored Division, put the death toll at 36. Iraq (news - web sites)'s deputy interior minister, Ahmed Ibrahim, said 47 people were killed and 50 injured. He told reporters "this crime" will "not deter the people's march toward freedom." One hospital counted at least 37 bodies, while another reported one more.

Charred debris from the vehicle was scattered across the road in front of the center as a heavy rain soaked troops and FBI (news - web sites) agents looking for evidence at the blast scene.

The recruitment center was surrounded by barbed wire and had sandbagged posts in front of it. But around 300 Iraqis were gathered outside the center's locked gates, waiting for it to open, and were completely exposed. Some of them were lined up to join the military and others waiting to depart for a training camp in Jordan.

"I was just telling my buddy that it was very dangerous to be standing here," said Ali Hussein, 22, who was lined up with the others. He lay on a bed soaked in his blood at Karkh Hospital, his body shaking as he gasped for air. He said he saw a white Oldsmobile approaching the crowd. "Then I felt nothing but fire around me." His legs were covered in bandages, and he had broken bones.

Ghasan Sameer, 32, an officer in the new Iraqi army who was also among the wounded, said the car drove into the crowd and ran over some people before exploding.

It was at least the ninth vehicle bombing in Iraq this year. U.S. forces have been preparing the Iraqi police and military to take a larger role in battling the anti-U.S. insurgency that has been blamed on supporters of ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) and foreign Islamic militants.

Tuesday and Wednesday's blasts came as a U.N. team was visiting Iraq, trying to work out differences between Iraqi factions on how to pick a new government ahead of the planned transfer of sovereignty. Frisbie said the attackers seek to make the world think Baghdad is unstable "especially in the eyes of the visiting U.N."

In the city of Ramadi, west of Baghdad, a roadside bomb exploded when a U.S. convoy passed Wednesday morning. An SUV in the convoy was damaged, and witnesses said four people in the vehicle were injured.

Gunmen firing Wednesday from a car attacked an office of the Democratic Assyrian Party in Mosul, injuring one security guard, according to party member Napoleon Fatou. The party represents a Christian community and has a seat on the Iraqi Governing Council.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Tuesday that attacks on Iraqi security personnel have not deterred more from wanting to join. "We find people are still lining up, volunteering, interested in participating and serving," Rumsfeld told reporters in Washington.

At Karkh Hospital, relatives outside the gates shouted the names of missing loved ones to officials inside.

The morgue's two refrigerators were stacked full of bodies, wrapped in blood-soaked sheets and piled atop each other.

At least five more bodies lay outside in a hospital courtyard, with the rain pounding the plastic sheets they were wrapped in. Also strewn about the courtyard were plastic bags filled with body parts.

"I used to serve in the old Iraqi army, and I wanted to rejoin because I love my country, the great Iraq. There is no safety or security and I wanted to protect the people," said one of the wounded, Abbas Hussein, 39. "We were all happy and excited."

Tuesday's suicide bombing in the predominantly Shiite Muslim town of Iskandariyah, about 30 miles south of Baghdad, reduced parts of the police station to rubble and damaged nearby buildings. At least 53 people were killed.

Insurgents have mounted a string of car and suicide bombings in recent weeks. The deadliest so far has been in the northern city of Irbil on Feb. 1 when two suicide bombers blew themselves up at two Kurdish party offices celebrating a Muslim holiday, killing at least 109 people.

On Jan. 18, a suicide car bomb exploded near the main gate to the U.S.-led coalition's headquarters in Baghdad, killing at least 31 people

[Rebelbase]

Once the Iraqi military force becomes independently active, the jihaist bombers will no longer receive American mercy when they are captured.

They know this and are trying to stop it before it starts, IMO.

[Coop]

Those monsters are now going after Iraqi civilians!

Now?? The evil scumbags have been doing this all along.

[Dog]

Morning Coop!

I see the jihadists have struck again. Zarqawi needs to be caught ASAP.

[expatguy]

yes

Seriously, Where do I sign up.

[Rebelbase]

The British Press is spinning this into a possible Civil War, per Drudge headline.

[Dog]

I agree......they will step up the attacks now......this is going to get real bloody. They know once that June date passes its over for them the Zarqawi letter even makes that point.

Zarqawi's life isn't worth a bucket of warm spit if the Iraqi police or security forces get him before we find him.

[expatguy]

Halliburton's website says no jobs in the Middle East

Did you make this up?

http://www.halliburton.com/careers/

[AppyPappy]

Same rumor from DS 1

[demlosers]

Justin Huggler = Robert 'puke' Fisk

[Coop]

Howdy, Dog. Rather than Zarqawi being caught, I'd prefer he catch a Predator missile or a few dozen M-16 or M-2 rounds. I know, we might miss out on some intel, but in this scumbag's case I'm willing to take the risk. Grrrr!

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

I pinged the crew to a later thread, again. Sorry:

8 Suicide Car Bomb Kills 36 at Baghdad Army Center ~ Reuters | 2/11/04 | Bryson Hull

[serurier]

Thank you very much , Ragtime Cowgirl , I'm very sad , we lose more Iraq allies .

[GeronL]

I heard them talking about it on a radio talk show...

weird,

[Xenalyte]

Yo Allegra, you there?

[Owen]

As of this morning, Feb 11, the count for this month of US combat deaths is 3. The month is well past 1/3rd done. At this rate the month's number is going to plummet from previous months. And with Iraqi police taking over more functions, and an upcoming drawdown in troops and performing enforcement from the air, our casualty numbers are likely to fall further as the year progresses.

This is good.

[biblewonk]

Those monsters are now going after Iraqi civilians!

Yes they are. It's always been too hard for them to target the American military so they are hoping they can make Iraqis mad at us by blowing them up. They get a way bigger body count. What a bunch of nuts. Imagine how quickly they'd swarm in and take over the minute we leave.