Subversive Pessimist
28th July 2004, 14:24
By PAUL GARWOOD, Associated Press Writer
BAGHDAD, Iraq - A suicide car bomb exploded on a busy downtown boulevard in Baqouba on Wednesday, shredding a bus full of passengers and nearby shops and killing at least 68 people — almost all Iraqi civilians — in one of the deadliest single insurgent attacks since the U.S. invasion.
Dozens of burned bodies lay strewn across the street and piled on curbsides, and vehicles, fruit stalls and shops were turned into a bloody tangle of twisted metal after the blast, which targeted Iraqis lined up outside a police recruiting station.
"These were all innocent Iraqis, there were no Americans," one angry man shouted as Iraqis tried to cover the dead with pieces of cardboard.
The attack came three days ahead of a crucial national conference aimed at creating an interim assembly, widely considered a vital step toward democracy, and the blast demonstrated the willingness and ability of insurgents to carry out devastating attacks even after the handover of power to a new Iraqi government in June.
The bloodshed could fuel anger among some Iraqis over civilian casualties from attacks that insurgents say target the United States and the pro-U.S. administration. U.S. forces have been trying to lower their profile and put Iraqi security forces in the front lines of the fight with militants.
"(The bombing) was once again an attempt by murderers to deny the Iraqi people their dream of a peaceful country that rests on a solid foundation of freedom," Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) said during a news conference in Cairo. "We have to condemn it, we have to fight it. We must not let these kinds of tragic incidents deter us from our goal."
Iraqi officials — who said they expected attacks to intensify as the country tries to edge toward democracy — fear Saturday's national conference will be a major target for attack. During the conference, some 1,000 delegates are to put together an assembly that will work alongside Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's government.
"The terrorists' goal is to hamper the police work, terrorize our citizens and show that the government is unable to protect the Iraqi people, and this will not happen," said Hamid al-Bayati, a deputy foreign minister.
Southeast of Baghdad, Iraqi forces backed by U.S. and Ukrainian troops launched a search for guerrillas in the city of Suwariyah, sparking a gunbattle in which 35 insurgents and seven Iraqi police were killed. Another 10 soldiers from the Iraqi security forces were wounded, and 40 insurgents were captured, Polish Lt. Col. Artur Domanski, a multinational force spokesman, said.
The 10:13 a.m. bombing in Baqouba, an insurgent hotbed 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, shattered the bustling heart of a commercial district filled with shops, government buildings and the police station.
A white commuter bus on which 21 passengers were killed when the attack vehicle exploded near it was left a charred husk. Pieces of glass, twisted metal and abandoned shoes, all covered in blood and human remains, were scattered across the pavement, and a shop's white security gate was splattered with blood.
Witnesses said the bomb targeted men waiting outside the al-Najda police station trying to sign up for the force.
"While I was standing in the street the car with the bomb drove by, it went straight toward the young people queuing outside the police station and exploded," one witness told Associated Press Television News.
The blast killed 68 people and wounded 56 others, according to Saad al-Amili, a Health Ministry official. "It's all civilian casualties at this stage," U.S. Army Capt. Marshall Jackson said.
The local hospital was overwhelmed with the casualties. Every bed was filled, forcing many of the injured to sit on the floor, amid pools of blood, as they were treated by frantic health workers. One injured man sat against the wall, holding his head in his hands and weeping.
The blast was one of the deadliest single bomb attacks seen in Iraq (news - web sites) since the fall of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) more than a year ago. On Aug. 29, a car bomb exploded outside mosque in the southern Shiite Muslim holy city of Najaf, killing more than 85 people.
This year, militants have carried out a number of devastating attacks using multiple bombers. Coordinated attacks in north and central Iraq — including Baqouba — on June 24 killed 89 people, including three U.S. soldiers. On April 21, five suicide bombings near police stations and police academy in southern city of Basra killed 74 people and wound 160 others. A coordinated attack on Shiite Muslim shrines in Karbala and Baghdad on March 2 killed at least 181.
U.S. troops have had heavy battles with insurgents in the Baqouba area in recent months, the latest on Sunday, when U.S. and Iraqi troops conducted a raid in the nearby town of Buhriz that turned into a five-hour gunbattle in which 15 guerrillas were killed.
In other violence:
_ A U.S. soldier was killed and three others injured late Tuesday when a roadside bomb severely damaged their armored Humvee while they were on patrol in the town of Balad-Ruz, about 40 miles northwest of Baghdad, according to army spokesman Master Sgt. Robert Powell. The soldier's death raised the toll of U.S. military personnel killed in Iraq to 905 since the war began, according to an Associated Press tally.
_ An explosion tore through the densely populated Baghdad district of Rahmaniya, near the Green Zone, on Wednesday, killing one person and injuring five, an Interior Ministry official said.
_ In the turbulent city of Ramadi, west of Baghdad, a mortar apparently fired toward a U.S. base struck an apartment building, killing one Iraqi woman and injuring seven other people, according to Dr. Alaa al-Aani from Ramadi hospital.
_ In the northern city of Kirkuk on Wednesday, gunmen in a car killed policeman Udai Saddam as he waited for a taxi to get to work, Iraqi police official Col. Sarhat Qadr said.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor...n_re_mi_ea/iraq (http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=540&ncid=2100&e=&u=/ap/20040728/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq)
68 Iraqis dead... I mean, the insurgents are bombing their own people, civilians. Why are they doing this?
BAGHDAD, Iraq - A suicide car bomb exploded on a busy downtown boulevard in Baqouba on Wednesday, shredding a bus full of passengers and nearby shops and killing at least 68 people — almost all Iraqi civilians — in one of the deadliest single insurgent attacks since the U.S. invasion.
Dozens of burned bodies lay strewn across the street and piled on curbsides, and vehicles, fruit stalls and shops were turned into a bloody tangle of twisted metal after the blast, which targeted Iraqis lined up outside a police recruiting station.
"These were all innocent Iraqis, there were no Americans," one angry man shouted as Iraqis tried to cover the dead with pieces of cardboard.
The attack came three days ahead of a crucial national conference aimed at creating an interim assembly, widely considered a vital step toward democracy, and the blast demonstrated the willingness and ability of insurgents to carry out devastating attacks even after the handover of power to a new Iraqi government in June.
The bloodshed could fuel anger among some Iraqis over civilian casualties from attacks that insurgents say target the United States and the pro-U.S. administration. U.S. forces have been trying to lower their profile and put Iraqi security forces in the front lines of the fight with militants.
"(The bombing) was once again an attempt by murderers to deny the Iraqi people their dream of a peaceful country that rests on a solid foundation of freedom," Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) said during a news conference in Cairo. "We have to condemn it, we have to fight it. We must not let these kinds of tragic incidents deter us from our goal."
Iraqi officials — who said they expected attacks to intensify as the country tries to edge toward democracy — fear Saturday's national conference will be a major target for attack. During the conference, some 1,000 delegates are to put together an assembly that will work alongside Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's government.
"The terrorists' goal is to hamper the police work, terrorize our citizens and show that the government is unable to protect the Iraqi people, and this will not happen," said Hamid al-Bayati, a deputy foreign minister.
Southeast of Baghdad, Iraqi forces backed by U.S. and Ukrainian troops launched a search for guerrillas in the city of Suwariyah, sparking a gunbattle in which 35 insurgents and seven Iraqi police were killed. Another 10 soldiers from the Iraqi security forces were wounded, and 40 insurgents were captured, Polish Lt. Col. Artur Domanski, a multinational force spokesman, said.
The 10:13 a.m. bombing in Baqouba, an insurgent hotbed 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, shattered the bustling heart of a commercial district filled with shops, government buildings and the police station.
A white commuter bus on which 21 passengers were killed when the attack vehicle exploded near it was left a charred husk. Pieces of glass, twisted metal and abandoned shoes, all covered in blood and human remains, were scattered across the pavement, and a shop's white security gate was splattered with blood.
Witnesses said the bomb targeted men waiting outside the al-Najda police station trying to sign up for the force.
"While I was standing in the street the car with the bomb drove by, it went straight toward the young people queuing outside the police station and exploded," one witness told Associated Press Television News.
The blast killed 68 people and wounded 56 others, according to Saad al-Amili, a Health Ministry official. "It's all civilian casualties at this stage," U.S. Army Capt. Marshall Jackson said.
The local hospital was overwhelmed with the casualties. Every bed was filled, forcing many of the injured to sit on the floor, amid pools of blood, as they were treated by frantic health workers. One injured man sat against the wall, holding his head in his hands and weeping.
The blast was one of the deadliest single bomb attacks seen in Iraq (news - web sites) since the fall of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) more than a year ago. On Aug. 29, a car bomb exploded outside mosque in the southern Shiite Muslim holy city of Najaf, killing more than 85 people.
This year, militants have carried out a number of devastating attacks using multiple bombers. Coordinated attacks in north and central Iraq — including Baqouba — on June 24 killed 89 people, including three U.S. soldiers. On April 21, five suicide bombings near police stations and police academy in southern city of Basra killed 74 people and wound 160 others. A coordinated attack on Shiite Muslim shrines in Karbala and Baghdad on March 2 killed at least 181.
U.S. troops have had heavy battles with insurgents in the Baqouba area in recent months, the latest on Sunday, when U.S. and Iraqi troops conducted a raid in the nearby town of Buhriz that turned into a five-hour gunbattle in which 15 guerrillas were killed.
In other violence:
_ A U.S. soldier was killed and three others injured late Tuesday when a roadside bomb severely damaged their armored Humvee while they were on patrol in the town of Balad-Ruz, about 40 miles northwest of Baghdad, according to army spokesman Master Sgt. Robert Powell. The soldier's death raised the toll of U.S. military personnel killed in Iraq to 905 since the war began, according to an Associated Press tally.
_ An explosion tore through the densely populated Baghdad district of Rahmaniya, near the Green Zone, on Wednesday, killing one person and injuring five, an Interior Ministry official said.
_ In the turbulent city of Ramadi, west of Baghdad, a mortar apparently fired toward a U.S. base struck an apartment building, killing one Iraqi woman and injuring seven other people, according to Dr. Alaa al-Aani from Ramadi hospital.
_ In the northern city of Kirkuk on Wednesday, gunmen in a car killed policeman Udai Saddam as he waited for a taxi to get to work, Iraqi police official Col. Sarhat Qadr said.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor...n_re_mi_ea/iraq (http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=540&ncid=2100&e=&u=/ap/20040728/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq)
68 Iraqis dead... I mean, the insurgents are bombing their own people, civilians. Why are they doing this?