At least 75 killed in Iraqi bombing

MSNBC.COM ^ | 8/29/03 | MSNBC NEWS SERVICES

[Smogger]

NAJAF, Iraq, Aug. 29 — A massive car bomb Friday at Iraq’s holiest Shiite shrine killed 75 people, including one of the country’s most important Muslim clerics, Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim, the chief doctor at the city’s central hospital reported. He said a survey of all the city’s medical facilities indicated that 140 people were wounded, many seriously.

DR. SAFAA AL-AMEEDI, who determined the death toll in telephone calls to local hospitals, said medical facilities were mobbed by people looking for relatives and loved-ones.

He said the car bomb outside the Imam Ali mosque was detonated as thousands were pouring out after noon prayers Friday, the Muslim day of rest.

The blast created crater about 3½ feet deep in the street in front of the mosque and destroyed nearby shops, witnesses said. Rescuers pulled the dead and injured from the rubble.

Shiites in Iraq are embroiled in a generational power struggle, but there was no evidence the bombing was the work of the younger Shiite faction, which has its strongest support in Baghdad’s Sadr City slum.

[reagandemocrat]

A Jihad on Muslims?!

RD

[SoulStorms]

Chalabli needs to quit running his mouth against his allies and start organizing Iraqis to defend Iraqis. The next bomb could have his name on it.

The day he stops talking s**t about us, and starts looking like he might actually help Iraq, a bomb will have his name on it.

[dmz]

Fox news is no more interested in fair and balanced than is Al Franken.

[KQQL]

Islam is Peace....so says W.......

[marron]

My memory is that we don't go near the shrine in Najaf. We couldn't provide security for it because we stay away from it.

The likely attackers are other Shia.

And the best solution is to continue as we are, recruiting Iraqi police and soldiers, and to deploy them as quickly as we can. UN sponsorship is not an answer, a few US specialists blended into a new Iraqi constabulary is the answer. And the quicker we get to it, the better.

Until then, we all just tough it out. No point complaining as long as we are moving in the right direction.

And I agree, if Chalabi gets to be too much trouble, he can be escorted from the country. Anyone remember the self-proclaimed "mayor" of Baghdad? Too much trouble = gone.

[Smogger]

The leader of the Iraqi National Congress and Ahmad Chalabi, a member of the provisional Governing Council, blamed coalition forces in an interview with al-Jazeera for failing to provide security and echoed Shiite accusations that the bombing was the work of loyalists of Saddam who were trying to create sectarian discord.
“I don’t hold the American forces responsible for the al-Hakim assassination,” he said. “But I hold the coalition forces responsible for security in Iraq. The Americans have taken responsibility for security in Iraq, and I appeal to them to keep the peace.”

[TexKat]

It's the relentlessly negative news media. Geraldo was on Hannity and Colmes last night saying that things were 100% better over there then is being reported.

Geraldo was not in the overall country of Iraq after his short cut honeymoon, so he can only speak for the areas that he was in. And besides I think that he was trying to CHA (cover his arse) on Hannity and Colmes. I watched his show this past Saturday and Sunday when he was in Iraq and he still rubs me the wrong way. I still think he does things that jeopardize our troops. On his show this past Saturday he interviewed Scott Ritter via satellite while he was with some of the troops in Iraq, and Scott Ritter was blabbing on about how GWB lied about the reasons for going to war and how illegitimate the war was. I'm sure this was something the troops wanted to hear sitting over there in 100 + degrees weather. Geraldo sucks as norm. All he cares about is himself.

[anglian]

The biggest problem is the other countries ie Syria, Iran and Saudi Arabia financing the rebel.

Not only that. As the Saudi's begin cracking down this will force those radicals like birds of a feather, to flock together and begin plotting their next move in a safer places in other countries. Hide and seek mode.

[TexKat]

PS

I guess this is Geraldo's way of being Fair and Balanced.

[TexKat]

We need Fox to get some reporters over there reporting the "fair and balanced".

Greg Kelly was over there a couple of weeks ago in the Baghdad + areas, and he did not have too much positive info to report. What he reported was pretty bleak.

[EaglesUpForever]

"Look how quick MSNBC was to report the
Al Jazeera's negative spin."

AMEN. This is no time to pass through whatever Al Jazeera happens to say, unedited. Hopefully someone at MSNBC will lose their job over this.