Explosions in Bagdad and possibly Karbala as well (At Least 85 Killed)

CNN ^ | 2 march 2004 | CNN

[Eurotwit]

just breaking on CNN...seems to be targetting Shias. Many people out for their holy celebrations..

[Dane]

Why the first reacation from the Iriquis that it is Americans or Iriquis police? I don't get it.

Agitators and terroist symapthizers, acting as victims with CNN cameras more than willing to show anybody with an anti-American sentiment, IMO.

[My Dog Likes Me]

I wonder if your average Iraqi will rise up against the foreign Arabs in their midst...

[leadpenny]

Don Teague, NBC News, reporting live from Baghdad, just said on Early Today that at least two more explosions two to three minutes ago in Baghdad.

[TexKat]

Smoke rises from the Nairobi City Hall, after it was gutted by fire early Tuesday, March 2, 2004. The cause of the fire was not known. (AP Photo/Sayyid Azim)

PLUS

Many Feared Dead in Attack on Shi'ites in Pakistan

QUETTA, Pakistan (Reuters) - Several people were feared dead in an attack on Shi'ite Muslim mourners in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta Tuesday, witnesses said.

An explosion occurred in the heart of the city while Shi'ite Muslims were holding traditional Muharram processions to mark the seventh century slaying of Hussein, grandson of the Prophet Mohammad.

The explosion was followed by fierce gunfire, witnesses and doctors said, adding they feared several people had been killed. Doctors said at least six people were admitted to hospital with bullet wounds.

[windchime]

The imam could be on the wrong side.

I was thinking of the letter and those it addressed who are the ones with the most to gain from this murder of innocent people. Hope we can determine and expose the true culprits soon.

Yes, the Zawahiri tape was a go signal. Wasn't the timing up to 72 hours?

Fox reporting suicide bomber and mortar shells. Maybe exaggeration, but some reporting as many as 200 dead. 4-6 blasts in Karbala were mortar shells. One explosion from garbage can.

The U.S. is guilty of failing to protect Shias according to Sistani. Governing council says this an act against all Iraqis and was committed by criminals.

[windchime]

Zawahiri's tape was broadcast last Tuesday.  When I was looking for the timing, noticed this.  It also brings Pakistan further into the mix.

Interrogators squash report on arrest of Zawahiri's son

[Prodigal Son]

Reporter notes from BBC (follows a time line this morning, interesting insights)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/3524789.stm

Paul Wood :: Karbala :: 0930GMT
The city's pretty dazed now. Huge crowds are praying at the main mosque. There are many many rumours now on the streets about how the attacks were carried out. Some believe they were mortars, some believe they were hidden in rubbish containers.

The crowd is turning on anybody who is not a Shi'ite or Iraqi. I just spoke to a badly beaten Italian photographer. It's very tense here.


Jo Floto :: Baghdad :: 0912GMT
In the mosque in a big Shia district we are hearing of more casualties but it's a very confused picture.

There is a history of attacks using rockets and mortars in this city. Two major hotels in Baghdad were attacked like that and the arsenal is available to anyone who cares to look for it.

What we're seeing here for the first time is politicians sat round a table and compromising - something wholly new for Iraq and that could be a factor, but this is such a key day in the Shia calendar. You couldn't pick a worse day to attack the Shia community or a better one to provoke discord among the muslims of Iraq.


Paul Wood :: Karbala :: 0900GMT
A few minutes ago they began to appeal for blood over the loudspeaker.

A human hand was just flung some thirty feet into the air onto the roof of the building where we are standing. There is a rumour mill beginning now. Local sources are saying one car has just been recovered with a bomb still intact.

We're seeing tremendous scenes of anger here now. It's very difficult to film - we were told to put our cameras away by the religious police. People are looking for someone to blame now.

There's a sense of shock and anger as you would expect. This is the first time the festival has been held on this day in a free Iraq and everything has been transformed by this attack.


Caroline Hawley :: Baghdad :: 0850GMT
We've heard a series of explosions. One was apparently at the main shrine in Baghdad.

There are casualties but we're not exactly sure what caused it.

There are ambulances at the scene. A strike at almost the same time as the explosions in Karbala.

This is no coincidence - militants are trying to target this religious festival. Militants have often struck on very important and sacred days.

When you speak to Iraqis they want to keep things together and they blame outsiders, saying these kind of things could not be the work of Iraqis.

The mood will be one of shock at what's happened, despite the fears this festival could be targeted. The clerics will urge their followers to stay calm. After so many years of conflict the people want to stay safe and have an ordinary normal life here, so I think the aim will be to keep things together.


Paul Wood :: Karbala :: 0825GMT
We counted about six explosions around 45 minutes ago preceded by automatic fire, which took place at the same time as the ones in Baghdad.



There is a fairly contained fury in the crowd. Ambulances are still racing through the streets. There's a measure of calm being restored but not completely by any means.

Anyone who is an outsider is immediately treated as a figure of suspicion.

An Iranian here in my hotel who was injured in the explosion was headbutted by the crowd, and he was at severe risk of being killed even as he was being taken into an ambulance. People brought out their ceremonial swords and tried to stab the man.


Paul Wood :: Karbala :: 0820GMT
We have no firm idea of casualties, not even the authorities do.

There's a theory these explosives were placed in piles of rubbish around here and there was a frantic search for more devices after the blasts.

We saw a number of injured on wooden carts, among them many women and children, as this was a family occasion. Many had feared that this religious festival would be targeted.

The Coalition believe al-Qaeda are trying to foment a civil war here and the co-ordinated nature of this attack lends credibility to the theory.

This is the apparition haunting Iraq since the coalition came here. The fear was the deep ethnic and religious divisions would be opened by somebody like al-Qaeda and there would be a civil war here.


Barbara Plett :: Karbala :: 0724GMT
People have stopped running now.

Some of them are hiding, others are standing in the street. Men, possibly plain-clothes security forces, are trying to establish order.

They're going through boxes by the pavement. It seems the bomb was in a rubbish bin.

Six explosions were heard as well as some gunfire, and I saw a flash as one of the bombs went off.

Casualties are being removed from the scene of the blast in wooden carts normally used for transporting luggage.

They're bloodied, possibly limbs have been lost. The security presence has been tight for the festival of Ashura but tens of thousands of people are milling around and it's almost impossible to check them all.


Paul Wood :: Karbala :: 0710GMT
A few minutes ago, a series of explosions hit the centre of Karbala, which is packed with pilgrims for the festival. We counted six separate explosions.

The last explosion was just a few seconds ago. It began with some automatic fire about 200 metres from the position where we were standing.

That presumably was the guards, the security guards for this religious festival trying to stop the bombers from getting near to the pilgrims. People are fleeing through the streets in panic.

I saw a couple of people who appeared to be injured, whether that was from bomb debris. In fact I can see somebody now being carried in a makeshift stretcher made out of a blanket rushed through the streets to one of the ambulances here.

Another man is semi-conscious being dragged by two people through the road. One or two people were also crushed in the stampede. I can see women trying to get children away.

The centre of Karbala was absolutely packed. This is apparently what everybody feared, that somebody would try to target this religious festival.

The coalition has long feared that al-Qaeda or the foreign fighters, whichever groups have been carrying out what are described as terrorist attacks, would try to bring about a sectarian conflict and use the festival at Karbala to try to achieve that end.

There's another wave of panic just hit the crowd, maybe something else has gone off.

[TexKat]

Gunmen Kill Adviser to Palestinian Leader

By IBRAHIM BARZAK, Associated Press Writer

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Gunmen killed an adviser to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in a street ambush early Tuesday, feeding fears of growing lawlessness and chaos ahead of a possible Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.

Khalil al-Zaben, 59, was hit by 12 bullets as he left his Gaza City office. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the killing, seen as one of the most serious challenges yet to Arafat. Security officials said they had no suspects.

The Palestinian Authority has been weakened by more than three years of Israeli-Palestinian fighting, and armed gangs, included gunmen with ties to Arafat's Fatah movement, are increasingly controlling the streets.

Al-Zaben, a local publisher, had recently criticized the growing chaos and spoken out against the rogue armed gangs roaming Gaza. He was the best-known Palestinian to be killed in the internal fighting and power struggles in Gaza City.

The Palestinian Cabinet and national security council were to discuss the killing at a meeting Tuesday, said minister Saeb Erekat.

"This chaos will not be tolerated. I believe the Palestinian government and security forces must take all action to end this chaos," Erekat said. "It is really undermining the Palestinian struggle to establish an independent state."

The shooting was the latest in a string of violent confrontations in Gaza and the West Bank.

On Saturday, about 15 masked, armed Palestinians barged into the Gaza City offices of the Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation, demanding jobs.

In a similar incident last Wednesday, about 20 masked men armed with submachine guns and hand grenades raided the Gaza City office of the Palestinian Land Authority, demanding land deeds be transferred to their names, employees said.

On Friday, the mayor of the West Bank's largest city, Nablus, resigned amid growing chaos and infighting between armed militias. Mayor Ghassan Shakaa accused Arafat of not doing enough to prevent Nablus from plummeting into lawlessness. In November, Palestinian gunmen shot and killed Shakaa's brother.

At Gaza police headquarters recently, rival groups opened fire on each other after an armed man slapped the police chief. A policeman was killed in the exchange that followed, which involved Arafat's forces and men loyal to Gaza strongman Mohammed Dahlan, an Arafat rival. Later, Arafat and Dahlan met in an attempt to stop the violence.

There is concern that chaos will follow a planned Israeli pullout from most of the Gaza Strip. Islamic militant opposition groups could try to seize power.

In more than three years of fighting, Israel has attacked and destroyed the headquarters and infrastructure of many branches of the official Palestinian security forces. In most places, the uniformed men barely function. In some cases, security forces are active in militant activities.

Al-Zaben joined forces with Arafat in the 1960s and held a number of positions, including media adviser and personal secretary. He returned to Gaza along with Arafat and other exiled Palestinian leaders in 1994, under terms of Israeli-Palestinian interim peace accords.

More recently, he published a weekly magazine devoted to Palestinian affairs and human rights. In a recent article, he criticized "killer gangs" he said were behind the chaos.

Two of his brothers are Palestinian ambassadors in South America, and his son works as an airline pilot there. He is also survived by his wife and three daughters.

The Gaza journalists' association condemned the killing and called for the Palestinian attorney general to resign for his "failure" to protect civilians. The group urged Arafat to bring the attackers to justice.

"Everyone will remember March 1 as a black day in the history of freedom and democracy," said Tawfiq Abu Khoussa, deputy chairman of the Palestinian Journalists' Syndicate.

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a militant group, also condemned the killing. "We hold the Palestinian Authority responsible for the continuation of attacks against journalists and other sectors of the Palestinian civil society," the group said.

Meanwhile, Israeli forces killed an unarmed Palestinian man as they surrounded the home of a fugitive in the West Bank village of Yatta, an army spokeswoman said. The man fled the home and was shot after he refused to halt, she said.

In Washington, an Israeli delegation headed by Dov Weisglass, the head of Sharon's office, met National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of State Colin Powell to outline and discuss the prime minister's plan to unilaterally withdraw from parts of the Gaza Strip.

[TexKat]

Fox News: At least 75 dead in Baghdad.

[TexKat]

American Soldier Killed in Baghdad

BAGHDAD, Iraq - An American soldier was killed Tuesday when insurgents tossed a grenade at an Army Humvee as it drove down a road Baghdad, the military said.

Another soldier was injured and taken to a military hospital where he was listed in serious condition. There was no word on Iraqi casualties.

Both soldiers were part of the 1st Armored Division. Their names were being withheld.

The military said it didn't believe the attack was related to the bombings at Shiite shrines in the capital in Karbala, which left several dead and injured.

The latest death brings to 548 the number of U.S. service members who have died since the United States launched the Iraq war in March. Most have died since President Bush declared an end to active combat May 1.

[Prodigal Son]

At least 30 in Karbala, 75 in Baghdad. Apparently 25 in Quetta, Pakistan.

Grim morning.

[Prodigal Son]

Correction. 6 in Quetta, 25 injured there. My bad.

[tomakaze]

re:Correspondents said this year's event coincides with the growing dominance of Shia in post-Saddam Iraqi - which led to fears that disgruntled Sunni militants might target the celebrations.
 
This statement is nothing more then the BBC trying to stir up sh*t.
The smart money is that this was done by remnant "saddamists" for lack of a better term - and who are still more than likely being funded by our "good buddies" the saudis.
They've been pulling this crap, trying to get the different factions at each others throats and start a civil war so they can try and reclaim power in the chaos.

[TexKat]

Very grim Prodigal Son.

[LdSentinal]

Either way this won't stop the growing number of Kurds pushing southward and the Shi'ites moving northward toward the Sunni Triangle squeezing the Sunnis.

[libtoken]

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/040302/140/enfil.html Tuesday March 2, 09:48 AM

Iraq Blasts Kill 125 On Sacred Day
At least 125 people have been killed and hundreds more injured in a series of attacks in the Iraqi capital Baghdad and the city of Karbala.The simultaneous attacks came as Shi'ite Muslims celebrated Ashura, the holiest day of their religious calendar.More than 50 people are reported to have been killed and dozens more injured in the southern city of Karbala where around two million worshippers had gathered.

As many as five explosions were reported close to the city's two most sacred shrines. It is unclear if the attacks were suicide bombings or if the devices had been planted.

Civil war

Shi'ites also appear to have been the target in Baghdad, where witnesses say a rocket was fired at a crowd of thousands at the Khadimiya mosque in the north west of the city.

At least 75 people have been killed and 200 wounded including many women and children, hospital officials say.
(snip)

[Trinity_Tx]

Grim morning, indeed. And sitting here in the wee hours, unable to sleep, I feel the future looks dim too.

Sometimes I'm tempted to cover my eyes and ears and pretend none of this is going on in this world. It isn't hard to do, over here as we are. It's like they're in a time warp - or just stalled in an era of barbarism the rest of us look back upon in horror.

Can we really bring them enlightenment? Or will they just suck us into the mire with them?

[TexKat]

Al-Qaida letter documents ‘race against time’ strategy

February 11, 2004

By Hamza Hendawi

Associated Press

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Foreign Islamic fighters in Iraq want to accelerate their anti-U.S. campaign by attacking Kurds, kidnapping U.S. soldiers and trying to “control land at night,” according to a letter from an operative to al-Qaida leaders intercepted by the U.S. military. The Associated Press obtained a copy of the letter, which the military announced Monday it had found on an al-Qaida operative captured in Iraq.

The letter’s author says the insurgency is in a “race against time” to wreck American plans to hand over sovereignty to the Iraqis on June 30. If it fails to prevent that, “then there will be no choice but to pack our bags and move to another land where we can once again carry our banner.”

He also complains that Iraqi insurgents battling the Americans have not cooperated enough with foreign fighters and outlines a strategy to attack Shiites in order to spark a sectarian war that Sunni Muslims will join.

The military believes Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian militant thought to be linked to al-Qaida, wrote the document. The letter, 11 pages long in Arabic, is written in flowery prose and addressed to “our two kind brothers,” whom it also refers to as the “men in the mountains.”

It is thought to have been sent to senior al-Qaida leaders, perhaps Osama bin Laden and his deputy Ayman al-Zawahri, who are believed hiding in the mountains of Afghanistan or western Pakistan.

Insurgents must act quickly to prevent the handover of power to Iraqi police and military forces, since Iraqi fighters would be less willing to attack them, the letter’s author says. “The noose is beginning to tighten around the necks of the mujahedeen, and the future is frightening with the future deployment of more troops and police,” he writes.

“Our hope is for the pace of our work to accelerate, to form brigades and battalions that have experience and perseverance and to wait for zero hour, when we begin to appear in public and control the land at night and, God willing, also during the day,” he says.

The document vows to target “symbols” of the Kurdish community and to increase attacks on troops, police men and “collaborators” — Iraqis who work with the U.S.-led coalition.

It calls Americans “the most cowardly of God’s creatures,” saying, “We ask God to enable us to get at them, either through killing them or capturing them to swap them for our sheiks and brothers in detention.”

But it says the “only solution” is to repeatedly attack the Shiites to prompt them into retaliating against Sunnis.

“If we succeed in dragging them into the sectarian battlefield, the slumbering Sunnis will wake up,” the letter says.

The author rails against Kurds and Shiites, saying Kurdish leaders have turned northern Iraq into a “Trojan horse for Israelis.” It brands Shiites as “heretics” aiming to create a Shiite state “extending from Iran, passing by Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon and ending with the cardboard kingdom of the Gulf” — an apparent reference to Saudi Arabia.

He also says Iraqi fighters are hesitant about carrying out suicide attacks and restrict themselves to planting explosives and firing rockets. Some Iraqi fighters “brag among themselves that none of them had been killed or captured. We have repeatedly told them that safety and victory don’t go together.”

[TexKat]

CNN just showed a clip of some of the moslems throwing bottles and stones at our military who was there to help out. Our guys could not even get in to help. CNN also reporting that some of the deceased were Iranians.

[TexKat]

12 Shiite Worshippers Killed in Pakistan

By MOHAMMED ARSHAD, Associated Press Writer

QUETTA, Pakistan - Armed men opened fire on Shiite Muslim worshippers during a religious procession in a city in southwestern Pakistan on Tuesday, killing at least 12 people and wounding 33, authorities told The Associated Press. The mayor declared a curfew.

Officials reported an explosion and gunfire in a congested area of Quetta, the main city in southwest Baluchistan province, as a procession of hundreds of Shiite Muslims marking the Muharram holiday passed by.

Soon after, a Sunni Muslim mosque, a television network office and several shop were set afire as Shiites rioted in parts of the city, and an exchange of gunfire took place near the scene of the initial attack, police said.

Riaz Khan, a Quetta police official, put the death toll at 12.

Samim Durrani, medical superintendent at the central government hospital, said it had received 10 dead and 33 injured, some in critical condition. Other hospitals in the city were also believed to have received casualties.

Mayor Abdul Rahim Kakar told AP that he had imposed an immediate curfew in the city of 1.2 million to maintain law and order. He said troops and paramilitary forces had been deployed and were bringing the situation under control.

"I was present near the procession when we first heard an explosion and then some people fired shots," he said. "We still do not know what kind of explosion it was."

Ambulances were quickly called in to ferry the wounded to local hospitals.

No arrests have been made.

The violence occurred hours after a series of coordinated blasts in Iraq struck major Shiite Muslim shrines in Karbala and Baghdad, killing scores of religious pilgrims.

Meanwhile, two people — one Shiite and one Sunni — were killed and 40 other people wounded in a clash between Shiite and Sunni Muslims in Phalia, a town in Punjab province, about 100 miles east of Islamabad, said Nisar Ali Shah, a local police official.

The shootout happened during a Shiite procession, and people from the two sides then set several houses on fire, Shah said.

In Quetta, gunshots continued to ring out in the city nearly an hour after the killings, said Khyzar Hayyat, a local police official.

"The situation is very bad," he said. "I can hear gunshots."

Khan said that a Sunni mosque was set afire and was partially destroyed. Also, there was an exchange of fire between Shiite Muslims and unidentified rivals, he said.

Ijaz Khan, a reporter for the private GEO television network, said six unidentified people entered the GEO office there and set it afire. The office was empty and no one was injured. Last week, the network had run a talk show that allegedly aired offensive comments against Shiites.

Quetta was the site of one of the deadliest acts of sectarian violence in years in Pakistan. Attackers armed with machine-guns and grenades stormed a Shiite Muslim mosque in the city in July, killing 50 people praying inside.

Allama Hassan Turabi, a senior Pakistani Shiite leader, demanded that President Gen. Pervez Musharraf — who has repeatedly vowed to defeat extremism in the Islamic country — sack government officials including the interior minister for failing to prevent Tuesday's attack.

"This is not the first attack against us. Our people are not safe at homes. They are not safe in mosques," he told AP by telephone from Karachi.

Security had been stepped up nationwide in anticipation of Muharram, a month of mourning when Shiite Muslims recall the seventh-century death of Hussein, grandson of Islam's prophet, Muhammad.

Shiites mark the occasion with religious processions, wearing black clothes as a sign of mourning and whipping themselves, in a sign of penitence over Hussein's death.

Most of Pakistan's Sunni and Shiite Muslims live peacefully together, but small radical groups on both sides are responsible for frequent attacks. About 97 percent of Pakistan's population is Muslim, and Sunnis outnumber Shiites by a ratio of about 8-to-2.

On Saturday, a suicide attacker blew himself up at a Shiite mosque in Rawalpindi, injuring two worshippers. The explosives appeared to go off prematurely.