A bomb blast ripped through a crowd of laborers lining up for work offers in a square in Baghdad's Shi'ite Sadr City enclave Oct. 29, killing at least 25 people and wounding 60. It was the most recent of several attacks by presumed Sunni insurgentsin Sadr City. In July, more than 60 people were killed when a car bomb blasted through a market in the district. (Reuters [1], Oct. 31) But this attack came as US troops are sweeping Sadr City and throwing up barricades and checkpoints in a search for a kidnapped US soldier. (WP, Oct. 30 via Electronic Iraq [2]) Sadr City residents demonstrated Oct. 30 against the siege of their district by US forces. Shi'ite MP Fallah Hassan Shanshal blaimed US troops for all attacks citizens in the district. Radical Shi'ite leaders Moktada al-Sadr's local office threatened a campaign of "civil defiance" if siege is not lifted. (Alsumaria TV [3], Iraq, Oct. 30)
Meanwhile, the missing soldier who worked as an interpreter, Iraqi-born Ahmed Qusai al-Taei, has allegedly married a local woman. A woman who identified herself as his mother-in-law but did not want to be named said Taei had married her 26-year-old daughter three months ago and showed pictures of the couple on their honeymoon in Egypt. US Army spokesperson Lt. Col. Josslyn Aberle said the military's fraternization policies prohibit active duty personnel from marrying local civilians. (UPI [4], Oct. 30)
See our last post on Iraq [5].
