What the hell is an alleged religious fanatic?
FR thread Mortars hit Iraqi girls' school; 5 dead
ap article Mortars hit Iraqi girls' school; 5 dead
SAMEER N. YACOUB, Associated Press Writer
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Mortar shells rained down Sunday on a girls' secondary school in a mostly Sunni area of western Baghdad, killing five pupils and wounding 20, witnesses and police said. At least seven other people died in a series of bombings and shootings across the capital, mostly in Shiite areas.
Elsewhere, Iraqi troops backed by U.S. helicopters battled insurgents 12 miles northeast of the Shiite holy city of Najaf, Iraqi officials said. Provincial Gov. Assad Sultan Abu Klil said a U.S. helicopter went down during the fighting, but U.S. officials would not confirm the report.
Klil said the operation was launched after reports that insurgents planned to assassinate Shiite clerics and pilgrims during the Ashoura festival, which reaches its climax Tuesday.
Two car bombs exploded within a half-hour of each other in the northern oil city of Kirkuk, killing a total of 11 people and wounding 34, police Brig. Gen. Sarhad Qader said. The first blast, which killed six and wounded 19, occurred at a popular car market and the second went off near a restaurant.
Also Sunday, U.S. troops captured 21 suspected terrorists including an al-Qaida courier in a series of raids in Baghdad and Sunni areas north and west of the capital, the U.S. command said. Three of the suspects were believed to have close ties to the leadership of al-Qaida in Iraq, the military said.
The U.S. military also reported the deaths of three more American service members — all on Saturday. A Marine died from wounds suffered in fighting in Anbar province, a stronghold of Sunni insurgents, and two soldiers were fatally injured in separate bombings in the Baghdad area, the military said.
Sunday's mortar attack occurred about 11 a.m. at the Kholoud Secondary School in the Adil neighborhood of western Baghdad, police and school officials said. Several projectiles exploded in the courtyard, shattering windows and spraying pupils with glass. AP Television News footage showed blood smeared on the stone steps and walkways.
Hours after the attack, grieving parents wept as the bodies of the victims were placed inside wooden coffins. Police said four girls were killed instantly and a fifth died later. AP television footage showed the fin from one of the mortars lying in a walkway.
The area has been the scene of reprisal attacks by Sunni and Shiite extremists that have persisted as U.S. and Iraqi soldiers prepare for a security crackdown. A Sunni group, the General Conference of the People of Iraq, accused Shiite militias and said the markings on the mortars indicated they were manufactured in Iran.
More than 150 people, mostly Shiites, have died in bomb attacks in the last week as the majority Islamic sect in Iraq celebrates a 10-day festival leading up to Ashoura, the holiest date in the Shiite calendar.
Elsewhere, a bomb exploded about 7:30 a.m. in a minibus carrying passengers to a predominantly Shiite neighborhood in Baghdad on Sunday, killing one and wounding five, police said.
The explosive device was hidden in a bag left by a passenger who got off the bus before it detonated in the Baladiyat neighborhood in eastern Baghdad. The bus was heading to the adjacent Shiite district of Sadr City, which has been targeted several times in the past.
A parked car bomb exploded in an intersection near an outdoor market in Sadr City about five hours later, killing at least four people, two of them women, and wounding 39, police said. The sprawling Shiite slum is a stronghold of the Mahdi Army that is loyal to radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and has blamed for much of the country's spiraling violence.
About five minutes later, a bomb hidden in a bag exploded in an outdoor market in the Baiyaa neighborhood in western Baghdad, an area that is mostly Shiite, although a significant number of Sunnis live there. At least two people were killed and 17 wounded, including two children, police said.
Outside the capital, a car bomb exploded near a mosque in the Sunni city of Fallujah, 40 miles west of Baghdad, killing two civilians and wounding four, police said.
Iran, meanwhile, closed several border crossings with Iraq for Ashoura, which culminates on Tuesday with processions and ceremonies, including self flagellation, to mark the Shiite saint Imam Hussein's death in a battle.
Iranian state television said the crossings were closed to "contain the large number of pilgrims" bound for the Shiite holy city of Karbala in southern Iraq who were planning to cross into Iraq without "legal documents." The report indicated that not all border crossings had been closed and that some pilgrims were allowed through elsewhere.
Also Sunday, drive-by shooters killed a high-ranking Shiite official at the Iraqi industry and mines ministry, along with his 27-year-old daughter and two other people.
Insurgents have frequently targeted high-ranking Iraqi officials who are seen as collaborators with the U.S. forces. Last Wednesday, Iraq's higher education minister, a Sunni, escaped an assassination attempt after gunmen opened fire on his motorcade as he was traveling in southern Baghdad, killing one of his guards and seriously wounding another.
Alleged religious fanatic = "Radical [i.e. mainstream] firebrand* Islamic cleric"?
*Fireband is Arabic for "raving maniac".
Took the words right out of my mouth.
How about someone who's in reality an Iranian agent but is pretending to be a religious fanatic?
"alleged religious fanatic" is the term cowardly editors use for "religious fanatic."
"What the hell is an alleged religious fanatic?"
I don't know but Ithought we stopped with
"The Holy City Of____(fill in the blank__)" along time ago. Total BS.
There are no "Holy" cities in IRAQ. Them days are over.