Iraq: more mosque attacks

Submitted by WW4 Report on Mon, 10/06/2008 - 02:50

Suicide bombers targeting Shi'ite worshippers killed at least 20 people and injured dozens more at two Baghdad mosques Oct. 2. They attacks came as Shi'ites marked the first day of Eid, a three-day celebration that follows Ramadan, Islam’s holy month. A man strapped with explosives killed at least 12 worshipers as they left al-Rasoul mosque in Jadida, a largely Shi'ite district. Another struck a crowd of worshippers outside a mosque in Zafaraniyah, also in southern Baghdad. (McClatchy, Oct. 3; Bloomberg, Oct. 2)

See our last post on Iraq's sectarian war.

More terror in Diyala

Submitted by Bill Weinberg on Fri, 10/10/2008 - 02:04

From the New York Times, Oct. 9, buried at the bottom of page 12:

Iraqi Woman Carries Out Suicide Blast in Diyala
BAGHDAD — A suicide bomber blew herself up in the capital of Diyala Province on Wednesday, killing 10 people on a street that has already been attacked by suicide bombers at least 16 times in the last five years, including three times this year by women, according to the police in the province.

The American military had a lower toll than the Iraqi police, saying in a statement that the bomber killed seven people. But some bodies may have been taken away before the Americans arrived at the scene.

The bomber — the 17th woman to detonate a suicide bomb in Diyala this year, according to official statistics — detonated her explosives near the front of the Court of Appeals building in Baquba, Diyala’s capital, on a street that has a number of government buildings and is closed to cars. It has become known as the “street of suicide bombers and car bombers” because there have been so many explosions there.

Baghdad: (some) walls come down; terror continues

Submitted by Bill Weinberg on Sat, 10/11/2008 - 21:08

A front-page story in New York Times of Oct. 10 touts, "As Fears Ease, Baghdad Sees Walls Tumble." You've got to read well past the jump to page 14 before you are told:

The walls are not coming down in all, or even most, Baghdad districts. They still surround the Green Zone, the once notorious airport highway, government buildings, checkpoints and entire neighborhoods like the Sunni enclave of Adhamiya.

But they have already been dismantled in some parts of the city. At a recent ceremony during the closing days of Ramadan, Sunnis from the Fadhil District, east of the Tigris River, joined with Shiites from adjoining Abu Saifeen to celebrate the removal of sections of a 15-month-old American-built wall that had divided their neighborhoods.

A checkpoint operated by Awakening groups from both neighborhoods now stands in the gap.

So even where the walls are coming down, fundamentalist thugs with guns are still controlling the traffic. Meanwhile, a story below the fold on page 14 informs us that Sadrist legislator Saleh al-Ugaili was killed by a roadside bomb in Sadr City while on his way to the parliament building in the Green Zone. Moqtada al-Sadr spokesman Sheikh Salah al-Obeidi said he had no doubt the US had ordered the attack, citing the Sadr movement's opposition to the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA).