posted on April 14, 2007 04:31:08 AM new
Dozens Slain in Baghdad, Karbala Attacks
Updated 6:49 AM ET April 14, 2007
Listen to Audio Clip
By SINAN SALAHEDDIN
BAGHDAD (AP) - A car bomb blasted through a busy bus station near one of Iraq's holiest shrines on Saturday, killing at least 56 people, police and hospital officials said. Separately, a suicide car bomb killed 10 people on a major bridge in downtown Baghdad _ the second attack on a span over the Tigris river this week, police said. The Jadriyah bridge suffered little damage.
The bus station bombing occurred about 200 yards from the Imam Hussein shrine in Karbala, where the grandson of Islam's Prophet Muhammad is buried _ one of the most important sites for Shiites.
State television aired footage from the scene, in which rescue workers could be seen evacuating casualties. The charred body of a child laid motionless on a stretcher.
At least six children were among the dead, according to an official at Al-Hussein Hospital. Iranian and Pakistani pilgrims were also among the casualties, he said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information.
"I want my father. Where is my father?" cried out 11-year-old Sajad Kadhim as he lay in the grounds of the hospital, where doctors were treating his burns.
"All I remember was we were shopping. My father was holding my hand and suddenly there was a big explosion. I don't know where my father is. I want my father," the boy cried.
A 72-year-old woman who called herself Um Hussein ran through the hospital corridors looking for her daughter and six-year-old grandson.
"They were near the bomb. They went to buy something for our lunch," she said, pounding her head in grief. "What did they do to deserve this. To whom should I complain. There is no government to protect us," she moaned.
Hundreds of people swarmed around ambulances, crying out and pounding their chests in grief. Police fired into the air to disperse crowds and clear roads for emergency vehicles, but angry mobs attacked them and set two police vehicles on fire.
Rioters surrounded the Karbala governor's office and demanded his and provincial council members' resignations _ blaming them for lax security. Mobs threw stones at the governor's office and set fire to the building.
A curfew was imposed in the area, and the city's entrances were sealed off while police and soldiers patrolled the streets.
More than 70 people were also wounded in the attack, said another official at Al-Hussein Hospital on the same condition of anonymity.
"The explosion was a huge one. It took place in a crowded area," said Khalid al-Daami, head of the city's security committee. Among the dead were several women and children, he said.
Karbala lies 50 miles south of Baghdad, and is the destination of an annual Shiite pilgrimage. Hundreds of Shiite faithful were killed traveling back and forth to the city during this year's pilgrimage, which took place last month.
In Baghdad, the suicide car bomb that killed 10 people on a major bridge in downtown Baghdad was the second attack on a span over the Tigris river this week, police said. The Jadriyah bridge suffered little damage. At least 15 people were wounded.
On Thursday, a suicide truck bomb collapsed the al-Sarafiyah bridge in northern Baghdad, killing 11 people and sending cars plummeting into the waters below.
Police said four would-be suicide attackers were killed Saturday in the northern city of Kirkuk when one of them detonated his explosives belt prematurely.
All four men were killed but no civilians were hurt, said police Brig. Adil Zain-Alabideen. He said all four were insurgents embarking on an attack mission, but did not elaborate.
Kirkuk lies about 180 miles north of Baghdad.
Also Saturday, gunmen attacked the western Baghdad house of Adnan al-Dulaimi, head of the largest Sunni bloc in Iraq's parliament, police said. Al-Dulaimi was not at home at the time of the attack, and is believed to be in Jordan.
Clashes erupted between his guards and the gunmen, lasting about half an hour. Five guards were wounded, police said.
Al-Dulaimi's group, the Iraqi Accordance Front, has 44 seats in parliament.
Three bodyguards of Mohammed Abdul Jabar, the deputy minister of industry, were injured in a drive-by shooting on his convoy in western Baghdad, police said. The minister was in the convoy but escaped injury.
In other violence, three civilians and a policeman were killed in drive-by shootings in Fallujah and Hillah, about 60 miles south of Baghdad, police said. Two policemen and a civilian died in a roadside bombing south of Baghdad, and another civilian died in a similar bombing in central Baghdad, police said.
A bomb planted in a garbage can missed a passing police patrol in Baghdad's southwestern Baya district Saturday, but injured three electricity workers who were working nearby, police said.
The U.S. military issued a statement saying American troops captured 17 suspected insurgents, including an alleged al-Qaida in Iraq member, during raids Saturday morning.
Eight suspected insurgents were killed by British forces late Friday west of Basra, Iraq's second-largest city, the British military said in a statement. The suspects had been planting bombs in the path of a British patrol, the statement said.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
posted on April 14, 2007 06:09:34 PM new
It must be wonderful to have such a clear (or perhaps empty) head that you can joke about the suffering of others. What a nightmare.
posted on April 14, 2007 06:31:43 PM new
CC - Same applies to those who want us to ADMIT DEFEAT and in doing so would only be allowing MORE of this murder to take place. If we weren't there...it would be MUCH worse.
And FWIW - Bear is a Vietnam VET. I think he knows a heck of a lot more about war and what it's all about than YOU could EVER even imagine.
"While the democratic party complains about everything THIS President does to protect our Nation": "What would a Democrat president have done at that point?"
"Apparently, the answer is: Sit back and wait for the next terrorist attack."
posted on April 14, 2007 06:46:59 PM new
Although I appreciate and am grateful to all veterans, you don't have to be one to see the suffering that is going on day after day. If it is that horrible on a CNN news clip, I can only imagine what it is like in person. Gen. Jack Sheehan is a Viet Nam vet, a Desert Storm vet and an Iraq War vet. Why is it you don't think he knows what he is talking about?
posted on April 14, 2007 07:01:01 PM new
Because he's just another one that is always telling everyone 'they don't know what they're doing'.
But then when the President gives HIM the opportunity to do it HIS WAY....a better way....he lacks the courage to take the responsibility.
Nope....just like most...it's easy to put blame....but they have no answers themselves.
"While the democratic party complains about everything THIS President does to protect our Nation": "What would a Democrat president have done at that point?"
"Apparently, the answer is: Sit back and wait for the next terrorist attack."
posted on April 14, 2007 07:06:12 PM new
LIAR_K and BEAR,
I am waiting for you both to give us another 60 year old history lesson from the LAST WAR the US AND ITS ALLIES WON.
VIET NAM 50,000 troops lost now American business is building factories there. America fought the war on COMMUNISM and lost. CHINA the biggest COMMUNIST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD and now they almost own us.
WHO ARE BOTH LIAR_K AND BEAR TRYING TO BULL ROAR ABOUT BUSHY AND HIS GANG?
We aren't winning THE BUSH CIVIL WAR IN IRAQ we are just losing more American lives getting MORE AMERICANS WOUNDED and SPENDING MORE AMERICAN MONEY THERE.
posted on April 14, 2007 07:23:04 PM new
"Because he's just another one that is always telling everyone 'they don't know what they're doing'.
But then when the President gives HIM the opportunity to do it HIS WAY....a better way....he lacks the courage to take the responsibility.
Nope....just like most...it's easy to put blame....but they have no answers themselves."
I believe it is Bush who is telling all these generals that they don't know what they are doing. You know darn well, if there is ever a War Czar, he won't be able to do it "his" way. General Sheehan does have an answer---get out of Dodge. A great general knows when to retreat.
posted on April 14, 2007 07:51:30 PM new
I disagree CC.
It's like you badgering me for years that I'm not rebuilding my garage the correct way. So I say...well then YOU do it. Show me how you can do it so much better....and you walk away.
To me that proves all you wanted to do was criticize me to begin with. You couldn't do it better and you knew it.
I don't agree with the 'ADMIT DEFEAT' like cowards and run people....no matter who they are.
Those people have learned NOTHING from what happened in VN when our enemies told us - a year or so after we brought our troops home....that they were just about ready to ADMIT DEFEAT TO US....when the anti-war american gave them the hope that IF they continued those anti-war people would get their way.
This war is now different. And the anti-war group is repeating the same mistake AGAIN.
Only this time it's different in the since that the AQ aren't going to stay in Iraq....etc....they've already come here....and they will again.
Running from them like cowards is NOT the answer.
But that's what the radical liberals are calling for.
So far they don't have enough support and they certainly lack the GUTS to just stop funding the war.
GUTLESS and cowards....who have the fools that believe they're going to stop this war convinced they will.
ROFLOL
"While the democratic party complains about everything THIS President does to protect our Nation": "What would a Democrat president have done at that point?"
"Apparently, the answer is: Sit back and wait for the next terrorist attack."
posted on April 14, 2007 08:05:23 PM new
General Sheehan has not been a spectator in this war. He was on the ground there following his CIC's orders. You can't call him a coward as he was there as well as in Viet Nam and Desert Storm too. He is a military expert, and not the only one who thinks this way. To me Bush is the coward. He is afraid to admit his mistake and get us out of this mess---and it is costing thousands of American lives.
posted on April 14, 2007 08:12:33 PM new
Again, we disagree.
This President is a man of his convictions. Something, imo, liberals aren't used to. They grew comfortable with a president who DID do what the polls told him to do...with POPULAR opinion.
This President doesn't go by polls. He believes the terrorists are a very real threat to our Nation. And he's going to do what he believe is best to prevent that from happening....no matter WHAT the polls say...no matter how low they go.
And whether he's right or wrong really doesn't matter. He's the one the american voters decided would make the BEST CIC....not the coward kerry....who also served in VN for 3-4 MONTHS> lol
We're there until the end of this Presidents term. Unless the gutless liberals find the courage of their conviction and actually DO what most who voted for them THOUGHT they were going to do...end the war.
I think we all know the ONLY way they can end the war is to stop funding. Do we at least agree upon THAT?
And as recently as yesterday the dem leaders are saying they will NOT stop funding.
So...they got all those voters to vote them in office....under FALSE pretenses. The voters bought it...and now their congress isn't following through.
And that's NOT this Presidents fault. It's YOUR congress'.
"While the democratic party complains about everything THIS President does to protect our Nation": "What would a Democrat president have done at that point?"
"Apparently, the answer is: Sit back and wait for the next terrorist attack."
posted on April 14, 2007 08:24:15 PM new
LIAR_K,
Can rant gutless and cowards all the old bag wants.
Now BUSHY wants "A WAR CZAR". Looks to America like BUSHY is finally admitting he is in way over his head in HIS IRAQ CIVIL WAR. So far the people BUSH has asked to become his "WAR CZAR" has turned him down its not easy to find someone to work for a loser.
The truth is the definition of crazy is to make the same mistakes over and over like BUSHY is doing in his IRAQ CIVIL WAR.
Year after Year BUSHY makes the same mistakes. Now leftover republican lawmakers are blocking the Democrats from ending THE BUSH CIVIL IRAQ WAR in an orderly way.
The Democrats have a plan to end this madness the republicans lawmakers are blocking the end to the BUSH IRAQ WAR. Its just more of "staying the course" for the republicans.
The republicans are the true cowards by not standing up and saying enough is enough to BUSH.
posted on April 14, 2007 08:30:47 PM new
Although, waco, you refuse to acknowledge that YOUR democratic congress is going right along with staying in Iraq because they REFUSE to stop funding the war.
That's a FACT.
Scream, yell continue with all your hissy fits...nothing's changing UNTIL your congress finds it's guts. They're still looking.
But hey...your posts are entertainment to classic....so continue to make him happy.
"While the democratic party complains about everything THIS President does to protect our Nation": "What would a Democrat president have done at that point?"
"Apparently, the answer is: Sit back and wait for the next terrorist attack."
posted on April 15, 2007 09:03:38 AM new
President Bush refuses to listen to the advice of MILITARY EXPERTS. We certainly will be in this war until Bush leaves office because he is too much of a coward to do something about it now. That is not conviction, that is being selfishly stubborn.
