Posted on 12/12/2007 11:38:32 AM PST by Froufrou
Three car bombs exploded in quick succession in the market district of a southern Iraqi city Wednesday, killing at least 41 people and injuring 150 in an oil-rich Shiite region that has largely escaped sectarian bloodshed, authorities said. It was the country's deadliest bombing in four months.
The police chief in Amarah was fired after the coordinated explosions, and Iraqi soldiers were deployed on the streets. Hospital were overwhelmed with the casualties, which mounted as bodies were pulled from the rubble, according to a provincial spokesman.
Violence has declined dramatically in the capital and elsewhere in Iraq in recent months, and insurgents driven out of Baghdad by the crackdown there have sought to gain a foothold in outlying regions. The Shiite area around Amarah, controlled by British forces until April, has suffered under violent power struggles between rival militias, but has had almost no al-Qaida presence.
The explosions in Amarah were about five minutes apart, beginning with a small blast at the entrance to the market, said Mohammed Saleh, a provincial council spokesman, elaborating on earlier accounts by police and an intelligence official.
-snip-
Most Baghdad markets, which have been hit by a succession of deadly bombings in recent years, are surrounded by blast walls, and shoppers are searched upon entering. In the capital and elsewhere, no cars are allowed to park nearby.
But Saleh said there were no security measures in the market Wednesday.
"There was not a single police car in the street at the time of the explosion," he said. "The provincial council complained many times to the police chief about the lack of security measures in the city, but he would not listen."
-snip-
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
This was to be expected once the British announced the War was Over and they are pulling out. Perfect example of the idiocy of the demonrats treasonous plans to affect timetables and give the enemy a plan. We are at war for the rest of our lifetimes. Get used to it!
I would sneer if you weren’t so spot-on!
Next generations won’t even remember what it was about but will be sufficiently brainwashed to strap bombs to themselves and keep fighting.
You are exactly right. They are going to get more people killed.
Two Shia factions bombing each other in an area that the British left in August of 2006!
Why post this garbage? Bombs go off all over the world, or do you have an agenda...........??
Some people cheer when bombs go off in Iraq thinking it means we are going to lose....
Oh.........I guess we are “losing” again.....
This is the common sense reason behind Herem and the Sicilian wisdom of, um, “taking care of the children”.
Sorry, for some reason I thought this was Basra. It was Amarah.
But the logic still applies. Can’t argue with you there.
Soft(er) target for AQ, just to keep things stirred up.
Um, no thanks. Or is that to be new 'conservative' mantra? Warfare is for the health of the State?
As these bombs weren't an attack on United States territory, I could care less what they do. As should any limited government conservative. They want to blow themselves up let 'em.
Reality check: no one wants it, but those who ignore the reality we are facing will repeat history - suicidally.
between rival militias, but has had almost no al-Qaida presence
It's nothing more than a common civil war they have to work out themselves. Now we can allow them to do it now (which would be the wise thing to do) or we can try to establish a western form of democracy fomenting even more anger against the West which they will eventually throw off. But you keep up with the 'reality' of things for us will you?
From By Bill Roggio of the Long War Journal
http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2007/12/coordinated_car_bomb.php
[snip]... The attack certainly fits the profile of an al Qaeda bombing: multiple, coordinated bombings against a Shia target designed to incite sectarian violence. Al Qaeda has conducted numerous attacks of this nature in Baghdad and Shia cities and towns in central Iraq. While al Qaeda is seeking new safe havens since it lost control of the central regions of Iraq, Amarah would be a difficult place for al Qaeda to reestablish a base and conduct a sophisticate attack.
Amarah is a Shia stronghold, with a strong presence of the Badr Corps, which supports the Iraqi government and fills the security posts in the city. The Mahdi Army also has a strong presence in the city and has clashed with the security forces in the past.
Iran’s Qods Force also uses Amarah as a command and control hub for its forward operations in southern Iraq. The Ramazan Corps, the Qods Force command assigned to direct operations inside Iraq, supports the Special Groups terror cells, which conduct attacks against Coalition and Iraqi security forces, as well as civilian and governmental targets.
The Special Groups recently attacked Shia civilians, using the same tactics as al Qaeda in Iraq. On November 24, the Special Groups bombed a busy pet market in Baghdad. The Special Groups used a “ball-bearing laden bomb” to simulate an al Qaeda in Iraq attack in order to increase Shia dependency on militias, Iraqi and US forces learned after capturing members of the network behind the attack.
“Based on subsequent confessions, forensics and other intelligence, the bombing was the work of an Iranian-backed special group cell operating here in Baghdad,” Rear Admiral Gregory Smith, the Deputy Spokesman for Multinational Corps Iraq said in a press briefing on November 25. “The group’s purpose was to make it appear al-Qaeda in Iraq was responsible for the attack. Despite killing innocent Shia and Sunni, the special groups aim was to demonstrate to Baghdadis the need for militia groups to continue providing for their security.”
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