Iraq Mosque bomb kills 14

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A suicide car bomber has killed 14 Shi'ite worshippers as they were leaving a Baghdad mosque, ratcheting up tension between's Iraq's religious communities just nine days before landmark elections.

In a sign of the insurgents' confidence, a group beheaded an Iraqi soldier in broad daylight in the restive rebel town of Ramadi. They left the body, still dressed in army fatigues, in the street with the severed head placed on the torso and a note warning other Iraqi troops to quit.

The bomb, which exploded at a small green-domed mosque in western Baghdad on Friday as the faithful finished praying, wounded 40 people including children, doctors said. The emergency room of a nearby hospital was filled with bloodied bodies.

Militants threatening to kill eight Chinese hostages said in a new video tape they would treat them "mercifully" if China, which opposed the U.S.-led war to overthrow Saddam Hussein, banned all Chinese nationals from entering Iraq.

China responded by appealing to "friendship between the Chinese people and the Iraqi people" and pointed out it had already advised its nationals to leave Iraq.

The men, who came to Iraq in search of work, were abducted earlier this month. Their captors have threatened them with death unless Beijing explains what they were doing in Iraq.

Islamist militants have stepped up violence ahead of Iraq's first multi-party election in nearly half a century, scheduled for January 30. They have also targeted the mosques of rival Muslims in what officials say is a bid to plunge Iraq into a sectarian civil war.

The Baghdad mosque bombing, timed to coincide with the Muslim feast of Eid al-Adha, is the latest in a string of attacks targeting leaders, mosques and parties representing Shi'ites, who make up 60 percent of Iraq's population.

Shi'ites are expected to finish on top in the election to the 275-seat national assembly after decades of oppression during Saddam's Sunni-dominant rule.

Several Sunni Arab parties say they will boycott the poll because it is not safe for supporters to vote in Sunni areas.

In the last month, a dozen people died in a car bomb outside the offices of a leading Shi'ite political party and two people considered close to Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's foremost Shi'ite cleric, have also been killed.

Sistani has overseen the formation of a Shi'ite-led alliance to contest the poll and has ordered his followers to vote.

Leaders of both communities have urged Iraqis to oppose militants such as Jordan's Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

Zarqawi, who is allied to al Qaeda and active in Iraq, told Washington in an audio tape posted on the Internet on Thursday that the war would drag on for "months and years", and he dismissed Sistani as an "imam of atheism".

His group has claimed responsibility for many of the most deadly attacks in Iraq over the past year, including the beheading of several foreign hostages.

Iraq's Justice Minister Malek Dohan al-Hasan said his own Shi'ite community should allow the Sunni minority a share in Iraq's leadership after next Sunday's vote.

"I ask the Shi'ites to look around them. You are in an Arab Sunni region. Who will come to your aide if you monopolise power?," he told Reuters in an interview.

In southern Iraq, an Italian soldier was killed when the helicopter he was travelling in was hit by ground fire near Nassiriya, an Italian defence official said.

Italy has around 3,200 soldiers based in Iraq, the largest contingent after the United States and Britain. The death was the first among Italian troops since May last year.

Many Iraqis are likely to regard the election as a distraction from the problems they face on a daily basis.

It hasn't taken us long to become desensitized to this sort of stuff. A few months ago a thread like this would have hundreds of posts, but it's so common now that hardly anyone even notices anymore. I almost didn't click on the thread myself.

No more wondering why Iraqi's put up with terrorists killing them every day. I still don't know why they do it, but I have ceased caring. If they want to live in fear and terror what can I do about it?

It's obvious they do or they would put a stop to the violence. Perhaps they lived in fear and terror while Saddam was ruling and they miss it?

re: wondering why Iraqi's put up with terrorists killing them every day

I have pondered this point frequently during this war. In my mind it's because this kind of life, filled with fear and an almost total lack of control over their fate, is all most of these people have ever known. It's so easy to look at their lives and try to understand their emotions, but to take that look using our eyes and our circumstances. A large part of the continued success of a regime such as pre-war Iraq is to convince the people that resistance is useless, in fact may worsen their situation and that they have no choice but to accept their lot in life. Their religion is of little help in the situation, telling them that bad things happen to you because you are guilty of angering god and that's your religious 'duty' to suffer what god sends your way. Look how fast America 'got over' 9/11! We tolerate our MSM refusing to replay the ghastly scenes of that day 'for our own good'. We were never even permitted to see a single jumper's body hit the ground or what was left after falling 100 stories. Add to all this the absolute lack of dependable communications among the masses. They hear week after week, year after year exactly what their tormentors want them to hear. And you never know who your enemy is. Confide someone you thought you knew and could trust only to find out they turn you in as an enemy of the state. The man comes by dark of night, forces you watch as your daughters and wife are raped, your sons beheaded and then you're fed feet first into an industrial grade plastic shredding machine. One day you're a relatively normal, for that part of the world, family trying to get along as best you can. The next day you and your entire family are gone. Poof. Vanished, never to be heard from again. This is all you've EVER known. Now comes the United States who, according to your government, is going to do worse to you than the government did!

I can not say enough prayers for these people and the life they've suffered. I have absolutely NO idea of what it must be like to live under those circumstances. The promise of 'self determination' or 'freedom' aren't even understood by these people. They have no idea what to expect. They remember our last offer to help them. We encouraged them to rise up against Saddam, that we would support them. We didn't, and thousands died. Why should they put their lives on the line now? Besides, just making it day by day takes everything they have, there's precious little left over to fight with.

What we are doing there is tough. You can't undo thirty years of terror in a few short months by promising elections while they see their relatives and friends being killed in bombings every day.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.