posted on August 15, 2007 12:09:31 AM new
Four Suicide Bombings Kill 175 in Iraq
Updated 2:32 AM ET August 15, 2007
By KIM GAMEL
BAGHDAD (AP) - Four suicide bombers struck nearly simultaneously at communities of a small Kurdish sect in northwestern Iraq late Tuesday, killing at least 175 people and wounding 200 more, Iraqi military and local officials said.
The death toll was the highest in a concerted attack since Nov. 23, when 215 people were killed by mortar fire and five car bombs in Baghdad's Shiite Muslim enclave of Sadr City. And it was most vicious attack yet against the Yazidis, an ancient religious community in the region whose members are considered infidels by some Muslims.
The bombings came as extremists staged other bold attacks: leveling a key bridge outside Baghdad and abducting five officials from an Oil Ministry compound in the capital in a raid using gunmen dressed as security officers. Nine U.S. soldiers also were reported killed, including five in a helicopter crash.
The U.S. military, meanwhile, sought to press its gains against guerrillas. Some 16,000 U.S. and Iraqi soldiers began a sweep through the Diyala River valley north of Baghdad in pursuit of Sunni insurgents and Shiite militia fighters driven out of strongholds in recent weeks.
U.S. officials believe extremists are attempting to regroup across northern Iraq after being driven from strongholds in and around Baghdad.
Such a retrenching could increase pressure on small communities such as the Yazidis, a primarily Kurdish group with ancient roots that worships an angel figure considered to be the devil by some Muslims and Christians. Yazidis, who don't believe in hell or evil, deny that.
The Islamic State in Iraq, an al-Qaida front group, distributed leaflets a week ago warning residents near the scene of Tuesday's bombings that an attack was imminent because Yazidis are "anti-Islamic."
The sect has been under fire since some members stoned a Yazidi teenager to death in April. She had converted to Islam and fled her family with a Muslim boyfriend, and police said 18-year-old Duaa Khalil Aswad was killed by relatives who disapproved of the match.
A grainy video showing gruesome scenes of the woman's killing was later posted on Iraqi Web sites. Its authenticity could not be independently verified, but recent attacks on Yazidis have been blamed on al-Qaida-linked Sunni insurgents seeking revenge.
The suicide bombings came just after sundown near Qahataniya, 75 miles west of Mosul, Iraq's third-largest city, said Abdul-Rahman al-Shimiri, the top government official in the area, and Iraq army Capt. Mohammed Ahmed.
At least one of the trucks was an explosives-laden fuel tanker, police said. Shops were set ablaze and apartment buildings were reported crumbled by the powerful explosions.
"My friend and I were thrown high in the air. I still don't know what happened to him," said Khadir Shamu, a 30-year-old Yazidi who was injured in Tal Azir, scene of two blasts.
Witnesses said U.S. helicopters swooped in to evacuate wounded to hospitals in Dahuk, a Kurdish city near the Turkish border about 60 miles north of Qahataniya. Civilian cars and ambulances also rushed injured to hospitals in Dahuk, police said.
"I gave blood. I saw many maimed people with no legs or hands," said Ghassan Salim, a 40-year-old Yazidi teacher who went to a hospital to donate blood. "Many of the wounded were left in the hospital garage or in the streets because the hospital is small."
The Bush administration denounced the bombings as "barbaric attacks on innocent civilians," White House deputy press secretary Dana Perino expressed sympathy to the families of those killed or wounded.
There was no claim of responsibility, but the attack bore the hallmark of al-Qaida in Iraq, which has been regrouping in the north after being driven from safe havens in Anbar and Diyala provinces.
"This is a terrorist act and the people targeted are poor Yazidis who have nothing to do with the armed conflict," said Dhakil Qassim, mayor in the town of Sinjar near the attacks who blamed al-Qaida in Iraq.
Two weeks after the Yazidi woman was stoned to death, gunmen killed 23 Yazidis execution-style after stopping their bus and separating out followers of other faiths in what was believed to have been retaliation for the woman's death.
The bodies of two Yazidi men who had been stoned to death turned up in the morgue in the northern city of Kirkuk on Tuesday, six days after they had been kidnapped while en route to Baghdad to sell olives, police said.
"We are still paying the price of a foolish, wrong act conducted by small number of Yazidis who stoned the woman," said 44-year-old Sami Benda, a relative of one of the slain men.
The center of the Yazidi faith is around Mosul, but smaller communities exist in Turkey, Syria and other places.
Elsewhere, a U.S. transport helicopter crashed near an air base in western Iraq, killing five troopers, the military said. The CH-47 Chinook helicopter was conducting a routine post-maintenance test flight when it went down near Taqaddum air base, the U.S. military said.
Four other U.S. soldiers were reported killed in combat _ three in an explosion near their vehicle Monday in the northwestern Ninevah province. The fourth died of wounds suffered in western Baghdad.
The deaths raised to at least 3,700 the number of U.S. military personnel who have died since the Iraq war started in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
Baghdad was spared major violence in another sign that a six-month-old security crackdown in the capital is disrupting extremists' firepower. But the brazen daylight raid on the Oil Ministry complex showed that armed gangs can still embarrass authorities.
Dozens of gunmen wearing security force uniforms stormed the compound and abducted a deputy oil minister and four other officials who were spirited away in a convoy of military-style vehicles.
The kidnappings _ similar to a commando-like raid on Iraq's Finance Ministry in May _ included Abdel-Jabar al-Wagaa, a senior assistant to Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani, said Assem Jihad, the oil ministry spokesman.
Al-Wagaa and four other officials with the State Oil Marketing Organization were taken away by more than 50 gunmen in military-style vehicles, said an Interior Minister official, speaking anonymously because he was not authorized to release the information. Five bodyguards were wounded in the raid, the official said.
On May 29, five Britons were seized in a similar raid on Iraq's Finance Ministry. They were taken by gunmen wearing police uniforms and have not been found.
Both government organizations are near Sadr City, a stronghold of the Mahdi Army militia loyal to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
The raids were reminiscent of an attack by Mahdi Army fighters, dressed as Interior Ministry commandos, who stormed a Higher Education Ministry office Nov. 14 and carried off as many as 200 people. Dozens of those kidnap victims were never been found.
Just north of the capital, a suicide truck bomber devastated a key bridge on the highway linking Baghdad with Mosul. Police said at least 10 people died. The Thiraa Dijla bridge in Taji _ near a U.S. air base 12 miles north of the capital _ also was bombed three months ago, leaving only one lane open.
The violence punctuated a day when 16,000 U.S. and Iraqi soldiers began a sweep through the Diyala River valley in a new operation north of Baghdad in pursuit of Sunni insurgents and Shiite militiamen driven out of Baqouba and Anbar province over the past several weeks.
Lt. Col. Michael Donnelly, a military spokesman in northern Iraq, said the force included 10,000 Americans and 6,000 Iraqis. He said U.S. aircraft used more than 30,000 pounds of munitions to block routes and destroy known and suspected heavy machine gun positions.
The Air Force also dropped 9,000 pounds of bombs to attack an al-Qaida in Iraq training camp, which included bunkers, living quarters, weapons and ammunition caches, Donnelly said.
Three suspected militants had been killed and four booby-trapped houses destroyed, he said, citing preliminary reports.
In Washington, Defense Department spokesman Bryan Whitman said the new operation was one in a series planned over the next 30 days to try to blunt expected attempts by al-Qaida in Iraq to influence events during "this critical period" as the top U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, plans his assessment for Congress.
"We fully expect that al-Qaida in Iraq would like to increase their attacks during this critical period," Whitman said Tuesday.
"And this increased intensity in offensive operations ... will take the fight to the enemy with the purpose of improving the overall security situation in Baghdad" as well as increase "pressure on al-Qaida in Iraq countrywide and prevent the enemy from conducting their own operations."
___
Associated Press writers Qassim Abdul-Zahra, Sameer N. Yacoub and Yahya Barzanji contributed to this report.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
posted on August 15, 2007 10:49:17 AM new
Major attacks decline in Iraq
Military credits troop increase, civilian tipsters
By Jim Michaels
USA TODAY
The number of truck bombs and other large al-Qaeda-style attacks in Iraq have declined nearly 50% since the United States started increasing troop levels in Iraq about six months ago, according to the U.S. military command in Iraq.
The high-profile attacks — generally large bombs hitting markets, mosques or other "soft" targets that produce mass casualties — have dropped to about 70 in July from a high during the past year of about 130 in March, according to the Multi-National Force-Iraq.
Military officers say the decline reflects progress in damaging al-Qaeda's networks in Iraq. The military has launched offensives around Baghdad aimed at al-Qaeda sanctuaries and bases.
"The enemy had the initiative and the momentum in '06," said Jack Keane, a retired general who is a chief architect of the increase in troop levels and mentor to Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq. "We've got it now."
Keane spoke from Iraq.
Al-Qaeda militants generally attempt large, headline-grabbing incidents aimed at symbolic targets or mass casualties. Al-Qaeda in Iraq, for example, claimed responsibility for an April suicide bomb attack on the parliament.
Successes against al-Qaeda have also been helped by shifting Sunni public opinion and a growing number of insurgent defections, the military says.
"Tribes and people are starting to stand up and fight back," said Brig. Gen. Mick Bednarek, deputy commander of the U.S. division north of Baghdad. "They are turning against al-Qaeda."
Some of the groups have provided intelligence on their former al-Qaeda allies, Lt. Col. Rick Welch, a staff officer who works with tribes, has said.
The increased security in many neighborhoods has also prompted more civilians to come forth with tips, officers said. The U.S. military gets 23,000 tips per month from Iraqis, four times more than last year, said Army Col. Ralph Baker, a former brigade commander in Iraq now assigned to the Pentagon.
Petraeus, who will give his assessment of the boost in troop levels in mid-September, said hundreds of al-Qaeda leaders have been killed or captured in the past month. He cautioned that al-Qaeda still has the "ability to carry out sensational attacks."
Al-Qaeda is generally behind the massive publicity-seeking attacks, but much of the sectarian violence and attacks on coalition forces is the work of Shiite militias, according to the U.S. military.
Violence from Shiite militias remains strong in some areas. In Baghdad, attacks from powerful armor-piercing roadside bombs, called explosively formed penetrators (EFPs), increased to 35 in July from an average of 23 per month between March and June, said Maj. Steven Lamb, a spokesman for the U.S. division in Baghdad.
The U.S. military says the EFPs are supplied by Iran primarily to Shiite militias. Iran has denied the allegation.
Targeting militias has proved more sensitive than attacking al-Qaeda, since Iraq's Shiite-dominated government draws some of its support from Muqtada al-Sadr, the anti-American Shiite cleric whose followers form one of Iraq's largest militias.
In the past, the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki had sometimes blocked or criticized U.S. raids in Shiite strongholds. U.S. officers say that kind of interference has diminished. Petraeus said coalition and Iraqi forces have made inroads against Shiite extremist groups.
It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived.George S. Patton
posted on August 15, 2007 11:46:34 AM new
Petraeus Says He Will Propose Troop Cuts
Aug 15, 2:14 PM (ET)
By STEVEN R. HURST
BAGHDAD (AP) - The top American commander in Iraq said Wednesday he was preparing recommendations on troop cuts before he returns to Washington next month for a report to Congress, and believes the U.S. footprint in Iraq will have to be "a good bit smaller" by next summer.
But he cautioned against a quick or significant U.S. withdrawal that could surrender "the gains we have fought so hard to achieve."
Gen. David Petraeus said the "horrific and indiscriminate attacks" that killed at least 250 Yazidis, an ancient religious sect, in northwestern Iraq Tuesday night were the work of al-Qaida in Iraq. That would bolster his argument, he said, against too quickly drawing down the 30,000 additional U.S. troops deployed in the first half of the year.
The general issued his comments to a small group of reporters who accompanied him to the headquarters of a group of former Sunni insurgents who are now working with American and Iraqi forces against al-Qaida in western Baghdad's Amariyah neighborhood.
Petraeus listened intently as the so-called Freedom Fighters' 40-year-old leader, who uses the nom-de-guerre Abu Abed, explained his transformation and said he switched sides because al-Qaida was ravaging the neighborhood and trying to impose its austere version of Islam.
Gee, AQ in Iraq? Locals see THEM as being their biggest threat. But our liberals don't. tsk tsk tsk
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"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."
Ann Coulter
[ edited by Linda_K on Aug 15, 2007 11:48 AM ]
posted on August 15, 2007 01:42:27 PM new
Jobs gone and schools closed. Marriages delayed and children mourned. Markets bombed and clean water in short supply. Speaking freely now a dangerous act.
And hope lost.
Four years after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, Iraqis describe daily lives that have been torn apart by spiraling violence and a faltering economy. The bursts of optimism reported in a 2004 public-opinion survey taken a year after the invasion and another in 2005 before landmark legislative elections have nearly vanished.
Face-to-face interviews with 2,212 Iraqis — a survey sponsored jointly by USA TODAY, ABC News, the British Broadcasting Corp. and ARD, a German TV network — find a nation that in large measure has fragmented into fear. Six in 10 Iraqis say their lives are going badly. Only one-third expect things to improve in the next year.
That represents a dramatic deterioration in just 16 months, a reflection of how the security situation and quality of life in Iraq have unraveled. In an ABC News poll in November 2005, seven in 10 Iraqis said their lives were good and nearly as many predicted things would get better.
Now, said Zaid Hisham, "You worry about everything." The 29-year-old Shiite engineer has postponed plans for his wedding until he can find a job. He and other Baghdad residents were interviewed by USA TODAY to supplement the poll findings. "When I go out, my family calls me every five minutes or whenever there is an explosion — there are many — to see if I am still alive. It's worry, worry all the time. You can't see your future, and you can't even try to put an outline for your future."
"We are in hell," said Solaf Mohamed Ali, 38, a Shiite woman who works in a bank.
Not every Iraqi makes such dire assessments. There are significant differences in outlook within the country and among its groups.
Kurds, who make up 15%-20% of the population and are largely independent in northern Iraq, describe the fewest problems and express the most optimism about progress in the next year. Shiites, who make up about 60% of the population and suffered discrimination and brutality under Saddam Hussein, say they're struggling, but many remain hopeful about Iraq's long-term future. Sunni Arabs, another 15%-20% of the population and the group that lost power when Saddam was ousted, express almost universal desperation.
Conditions in Baghdad are worse than elsewhere for Sunnis and Shiites. Of the 429 Baghdad residents surveyed, not one felt safe in his or her own neighborhood. Everyone interviewed in the capital said he or she often avoided even going outside because of violence.
Beyond Baghdad, the security situation was better, albeit only relatively so. One-third called their neighborhoods safe; two-thirds said they weren't. Outside the capital, 38% said they often avoid leaving home; 42% stay away from markets, and 59% watch what they say.
Across the country, Iraqis say the basics of day-to-day living have deteriorated. On each of 13 aspects of life — from security to the availability of cooking fuel and medical care — a majority rated conditions as bad. In not a single case did a majority predict things would get better in the next year.
The poll, taken Feb. 25-March 5, has a margin of error of +/—2.5 percentage points.
The Sunday Times in London published a poll Sunday of 5,019 Iraqis taken by a British firm, Opinion Research Business, from Feb. 10-22. It found that Iraqis by 49%-26% preferred life under the new government to life under Saddam.
In the USA TODAY/ABC News Poll, Iraqis by 43%-36% said life was better than before the invasion. That's a decline from the optimism in the November 2005 survey, however, when by 51%-29% Iraqis said life was better.
A search for safety
The survey focused in large part on Iraqis' daily lives.
SIGHTS AND SOUNDS: Taking a poll in Iraq
Most Iraqis say they have altered their daily routines to accommodate the realities of violence:
•More than two-thirds are careful about what they say about themselves to other people.
•Fifty-five percent try to avoid passing by public buildings, often the target of suicide bombers.
•Fifty-four percent stay away from markets and crowded areas.
Four years of upheaval have taken a toll on Iraqis' mental health. Most report symptoms of post-traumatic stress. Three in four say they have feelings of anger and depression, trouble sleeping and difficulty concentrating on work.
Nadeem Nustafa Ahmed, 31, a Sunni, hides the fact he has a job to avoid being robbed — or worse. "I haven't changed my car despite wanting to badly, but people were killed when they started to have new cars and showed they were well paid," he said.
"I can say that my house is like a police station now," said Samer Jaleel, 22, a Sunni student. "The outer wall is 2.5 meters (just over 8 feet) high. We changed the doors into higher and stronger ones. Not only us, but all the houses in the street did the same. Before, we had a very nice street where you could walk and see the gardens. Now it looks like many small jails in one street."
By far, Iraqis rate security concerns as the biggest problem facing their nation and themselves. Four in five say they have encountered violence near their homes:
•Close to half, 44%, say U.S. or coalition forces have been involved in unnecessary violence nearby.
•Four in 10 report kidnappings for ransom in their neighborhoods.
•Three in 10 have had car bombs explode or snipers' crossfire erupt close to home.
Kurds are relatively sanguine: Two-thirds say they feel "very safe" in their neighborhood. In contrast, fewer than one-third of Shiites and only 3% of Sunnis agree.
"I don't feel safe even at my home," says Munaf Mahmood Lafta, 35, a Sunni taxi driver. "My brother was taken from his house by people wearing Iraqi commando uniforms. That was on Jan. 12, 2006, and we don't know where he is even now. My mother died from her sadness. So where is the safety you speak about? No safety at all and no security — not in our neighborhood, nor in my house."
Lafta blames the disappearance of his 22-year-old brother, now presumed dead, on Americans and Shiites. "If you want the truth, now in Iraq every Sunni is hating every Shia, and vice versa," he said.
Hasoon Alak Saheen, 33, no longer feels free to take his donkey cart to sell kerosene in Sunni neighborhoods. "From the way I look, they will know I am Shiite and they will kill me," he said — a fate he has seen befall other vendors.
He returned to selling kerosene after enlisting with the Iraqi police in 2005. Although he appreciated the paycheck and the way people treated him, his wife protested that the police job was too dangerous.
To deal with security concerns, 13% of those surveyed have changed jobs and 15% have moved; 18% of those with children have changed their schools.
In all, more than one in six Iraqis say someone in their own household has been physically harmed by violence, and nearly half have a close friend or immediate family member who has been injured.
Past 'like a nice dream'
Even some of those whose sect suffered under Saddam recall that time fondly. "I miss those good old days," said Jasim Mahmood Rajab, 60, a Shiite businessman. "I had my work and my social life, and now — nothing. I'm ready to pay everything I have to sit at Abo Nowas Street and eat fish at night."
Before the war, Abo Nowas Street, which runs along the Tigris River, was lined with outdoor cafes. They are shuttered now.
"I always talk to other girls in the bank remembering our old days when we were going shopping, or even walking in the streets," Solaf Mohamed Ali said. "Now we speak about all those things like a nice dream that is hard to get."
And the next generation?
Shiites are the most optimistic that their children will have a better life than they have had; two-thirds express optimism about that. So do half of the Kurds polled. But seven of 10 Sunnis predict that their children's lives will be worse.
The pessimism was universal among the Sunnis who live in Baghdad: 100% of those surveyed said their children would have a worse life than they have had.
Some Iraqis say they regret having borne children to be brought up amid such hardship.
Zina Abdulhameed Rajab, a Shiite doctor, is so alarmed by the children she has treated who were injured on their way to school that she is keeping her 2- and 4-year-old sons at home. Her mother has moved in to help babysit.
"Whenever I watch my kids laughing or playing, I can't be so happy from inside my heart because I don't know what the next day will bring," she said. "I really regret the birth of my kids here."
She added: "I wish I could put them back inside me so I would know all the time where they are and how they are doing."
Many Iraqis have curtailed their ambitions for their children, and some yearn to leave their native land. Three in 10 say they would move to a different country if they could. Not quite half of those say they are making plans to go.
"Before the war, my aspirations were to watch my kids growing up, going to the best schools and to have the best education," said Hana' Kareem, 40, a Shiite teacher whose children are 20, 17 and 13.
"My biggest hope now is only one thing: I wish if I had more money so I could offer to move them outside Iraq, so they can have a better life and a better education — just like every kid outside Iraq."
Absolute faith has been shown, consistently, to breed intolerance. And intolerance, history teaches us, again and again, begets violence.
---------------------------------- The duty of a patriot in this time and place is to ask questions, to demand answers, to understand where our nation is headed and why. If the answers you get do not suit you, or if they frighten you, or if they anger you, it is your duty as a patriot to dissent. Freedom does not begin with blind acceptance and with a flag. Freedom begins when you say 'No.'
Absolute faith has been shown, consistently, to breed intolerance. And intolerance, history teaches us, again and again, begets violence.
---------------------------------- The duty of a patriot in this time and place is to ask questions, to demand answers, to understand where our nation is headed and why. If the answers you get do not suit you, or if they frighten you, or if they anger you, it is your duty as a patriot to dissent. Freedom does not begin with blind acceptance and with a flag. Freedom begins when you say 'No.'
posted on August 15, 2007 03:22:33 PM new
"Just how good are things in Iraq."
We've been reading how YOUR party is coming around on not pulling out of Iraq so quickly. Your liberal MSM is also.
Obviously they see things MUCH differently than YOU do. They see progress being made and they're 'singing a much different song' now. They've changed their tunes.
Did you serve in our Armed Forces, ld??? LOL LOL LOL
Or are you just wanting to tell THEM what their children SHOULD be doing...when YOU were too much of a coward to serve?
Oh, by the way....where IS your list of all the children of the dems/libs who voted FOR this war, who have ALSO served?
Can't answer that one either, it appears.
Don't ask, don't tell...wasn't enough for you? Come on, answer etex's question. LOL LOL LOL
Tell him how you REALLY feel about our Armed Forces, ld. lol lol lol
posted on August 15, 2007 06:40:26 PM newDid you serve in our Armed Forces, ld??? LOL LOL LOL
Did you Linda. I have answered that question many years ago. It is not my fault you can not remember tsk tsk tsk.
Or are you just wanting to tell THEM what their children SHOULD be doing...when YOU were too much of a coward to serve?
This coming from the one that supports the Republican party that is full of cowards - Dick, Mitt, Rudy. They are ording people to go to war when they were to chicken themselves.
And you who do not think women are up to serving in the military. I do not see you do anything to support the troops. Some patriot you are.
Absolute faith has been shown, consistently, to breed intolerance. And intolerance, history teaches us, again and again, begets violence.
---------------------------------- The duty of a patriot in this time and place is to ask questions, to demand answers, to understand where our nation is headed and why. If the answers you get do not suit you, or if they frighten you, or if they anger you, it is your duty as a patriot to dissent. Freedom does not begin with blind acceptance and with a flag. Freedom begins when you say 'No.'
posted on August 15, 2007 06:47:11 PM newwhere IS your list of all the children of the dems/libs who voted FOR this war, who have ALSO served?
Just another lazy ass who wants other people do to the work she wants done. You are the Goggle Queen go find your own answers Linda or are you to lazy to get off your behind. That would be asking a lot from you. You don't want to work for anything. You think you are entitled to everything. Now why don't you go live off your husband's SS that he worked for and earned.
Absolute faith has been shown, consistently, to breed intolerance. And intolerance, history teaches us, again and again, begets violence.
---------------------------------- The duty of a patriot in this time and place is to ask questions, to demand answers, to understand where our nation is headed and why. If the answers you get do not suit you, or if they frighten you, or if they anger you, it is your duty as a patriot to dissent. Freedom does not begin with blind acceptance and with a flag. Freedom begins when you say 'No.'
Are YOU a Bunghole?
Locals see THEM as being their biggest threat. But our liberals don't. tsk tsk tsk
