A Major Explosion Shakes Central Baghdad

AP ^ | November 18 2005

[jmc1969]

A major explosion shook central Baghdad Friday morning near an interior ministry building where U.S. troops found detainees showing signs of torture, witnesses said. There was no immediate information about casualties.

The blast in the Jadiriyah neighborhood reverberated through the city center, sent a mushroom cloud hundreds of feet into the air and was followed by the sounds of sporadic small arms fire. The cause of the explosion was not immediately clear.

Earlier this week U.S. troops found up to 173 malnourished detainees, some showing signs of torture, in the building. Most were believed to be Sunni Arabs, the main group in the insurgency.

[jmc1969]

Just like Z-man trying to hit Abu Ghrieb last year to bring attention to it and himself.

[endthematrix]

I was curious to the story of four Iraq police who said they were interrogated by Interior Ministry and US troops released them. Any info on that?

[Marine_Uncle]

Second your thoughts. Gotta get some big explosions on tape to show the American public so they go along with the rotten decayed corpses in the beltway calling for a total withdraw.

[ConservativeStatement]

From Reuters:

Baghdad car bomb kills at least 4: police

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20051118/ts_nm/iraq_blasts_dc

[NormsRevenge]

Three birds fly in front of a column of smoke rising over Baghdad after two early morning explosions November 18, 2005. (Tim Wimborne/Reuters)

---

A mushroom cloud rises after two car bombs shook central Baghdad, Iraq, Friday, Nov. 18, 2005, near an Interior Ministry building where U.S. troops found detainees showing signs of torture, police said.The blast in the Jadiriyah neighborhood reverberated through the city center, sent a mushroom cloud hundreds of feet into the air and was followed by the sounds of sporadic small arms fire. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

[dan1123]

I'm more curious as to why the tortured detainees got any press at all in light of most stories that actually get out of Iraq begin with "X US soldiers died in Iraq bringing the body count to X milestone". I can imagine an AP reporter hoping that the poor jihadists were tortured by the US Army, or even better, by Dick Cheney himself, and was disappointed to find out that it was just by the new Iraqi government.

[dan1123]

I'm more curious as to why the tortured detainees got any press at all in light of most stories that actually get out of Iraq begin with "X US soldiers died in Iraq bringing the body count to X milestone". I can imagine an AP reporter hoping that the poor jihadists were tortured by the US Army, or even better, by Dick Cheney himself, and was disappointed to find out that it was just by the new Iraqi government.

[penelopesire]

(insert dark humor here)..

ZAW MAN: "Our brothers are being tortured at a Baghdad prison..let's go blow them up"

(rolling eyes)

[ARealMothersSonForever]

z-man is screwed, blued, and tatooed. The most dangerous animal in the world is the one that has no options, and nothing to lose. The only good news is he is just about spent.

[Alia]

Fascinating story, may be quite pertinent to this story about THESE abused detainees discovered by US Military, dated: 08/10/05 Baghdad Mayor Is Ousted by a Shiite Group and Replaced

snip:

Armed men entered Baghdad's municipal building during a blinding dust storm on Monday, deposed the city's mayor and installed a member of Iraq's most powerful Shiite militia. The deposed mayor, Alaa al-Tamimi, who was not in his offices at the time, recounted the events in a telephone interview on Tuesday and called the move a municipal coup d'état. He added that he had gone into hiding for fear of his life.

"This is the new Iraq," said Mr. Tamimi, a secular engineer with no party affiliation. "They use force to achieve their goal."

The group that ousted him insisted that it had the authority to assume control of Iraq's capital city and that Mr. Tamimi was in no danger. The man the group installed, Hussein al-Tahaan, is a member of the Badr Organization, the armed militia of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, known as Sciri.

Some interesting "tribal" background info from Christopher Hitchens. Hitchens: Tribal Ignorance, What you think you know about Iraq's factions is all wrong

This same tribal habit of mind—tribal on our part, I mean, not on the part of the Iraqis—allows some people to make the lazy assumption that the liberation of Iraq has created these differences, or intensified them, rather than sought to compose and heal them. The Saddam Hussein regime was based on a minority of a minority—a Mafia clique based in and around the city of Tikrit—and it stayed in power not by being "secular" or multiethnic but by being sectarian and by playing the card of divide and rule. It treated all the inhabitants of the country as its personal property, and it made lifelong enemies among all communities and all confessional groups. The differences between these groups are now specified in a constitution, perhaps a bit more than I would like, but are at least specified in order that no group is to be left out, or classified as second-class.

Since Iraq has no choice but to be a plural and various country, these diversities can be handled in only one of three ways: by a fascistic dictatorship of one faction over all others, by civil war leading to partition, or by federal democracy.

[railsplitter]

Reports (Yahoo news) coming in with... 65 dead

[stocksthatgoup]

Expect major increase in attacks following Bill Clinton, Murtha and MSM undermining of the war effort. Dont be shocked if we find attack on US soil. From Al Quaida's point of view this may be the time to strike hard, thinking Americans will fold up like the DEMS and the MSM.

[livius]

I think you're right. The nutcases just got a major boost from all of our domestic traitors, and I think it is going to give them renewed energy.