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At Least 30 Dead in Iraq Triple Suicide Bombing
A string of three deadly suicide bombings in Iraq killed at least 30 people in the former insurgent stronghold of Baqouba today, including an attack in which the bomber rode in an ambulance with the wounded before blowing himself up at a hospital, police said.
An Iraqi police commando inspects damage at the site of a suicide bombing in the restive city of Baquba, northeast of Baghdad. Three suicide bombings, including one carried out by an attacker who rode in an ambulance to hospital before blowing himself up, killed 33 people in central Iraq, just days before nationwide elections.
(AFP) The bombings - Iraq's deadliest in weeks - come as the country is preparing for elections on Sunday that will decide who will oversee the country as US forces go home and help determine whether Iraq can overcome the deep sectarian tensions that have divided the country since the 2003 American-led invasion.
US and Iraqi officials have warned repeatedly that insurgents were expected to launch such attacks in an attempt to disrupt the vote.
A police spokesman, Captain Ghalib al-Karkhi, said the blasts struck in quick succession and wounded another 40 people in Baqouba, a provincial capital 35 miles north-east of Baghdad.
First, a suicide car bomb targeted a local government housing office next to an Iraqi army facility, al-Karkhi said. Within minutes, another suicide bomber driving a vehicle struck the headquarters of the provincial council.
A third suicide bomber, wearing an explosives vest, rode in an ambulance with the wounded to the city's emergency hospital as rescuers and victims from the first two blasts were being taken in for treatment.
Most of the victims came from the blast at the hospital, al-Karkhi said. Police later safely detonated a fourth car bomb about 200 metres from the hospital.
An official in the Diyala police department who did not want to be identified because he was not authorised to speak to the media confirmed the death toll.
One witness described being thrown against a wall by the first blast and said that immediately after the explosion, Iraqi security forces began firing their weapons. The witness said she hid in a nearby building, then when the situation appeared to have calmed down, went outside only to hear another blast go off seconds later.
"The place was covered with dust and the smell of TNT powder was all over the area, where panicked people were running and cars were colliding with one another," said the witness, who asked to remain anonymous for security reasons.
The provincial police chief, Major General Abdul-Hussein al-Shimari, was in the hospital at the time of the blast, but was unharmed, Al-Karkhi said.
Baqouba is a mixed Shia and Sunni city and capital of Diyala province. Both the city and the province were flashpoints of the insurgency, although they have quietened since the height of attacks in 2006 and 2007.
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11 Comments so far
Show All"the deep sectarian tensions that have divided the country since the 2003 American-led invasion"
That's why it invaded, isn't it?
Exactly.
The more Iraqis die, the fewer people there will be to oppose the theft of Iraqi wealth (be it oil or other stuff) by U.S. and other foreign interests.
What a God awful situation!
I have a question. How is it that, in bombings as devastating as these, the press, or the military authorities from whom the press gets its "information," can immediately say that it was these were "suicide bombings?" Never is any evidence given for the assertion. Normally police work involves gathering evidence before such statements can be made, and I would imagine that after such powerful explosions, the gathering of evidence would take some time. But not in the War on Terra!
For example, the article opens, no less, with this very assertion of suicide bombings, "...including an attack in which the bomber rode in an ambulance with the wounded before blowing himself up at a hospital, police said."
How convenient for the invading forces, and especially for these forces' coach and cheerleader, Israel! I guess the IDF were justified, after all, in bombing all those ambulances and hospitals in Gaza, Lebanon and elsewhere, and not letting emergency cases through checkpoints! No telling what those shifty Ay-rabs won't stoop to in order to kill innocents.
As for this latest triple "suicide" attack, I wonder. We know for a fact that overwhelming majority of Iraqis want the "coalition" to get the hell out of their country. We know for a fact that the US has been saying they can't leave the place until order returns, meanwhile building many, many military bases. We know for a fact that the different sects and ethnicities of Iraq generally got along before Bush's invasion, frequenting one another, intermarrying, etc., even if the Sunni Arabs remained the dominant group and the Kurds the most dispossessed. We also know that the "Clean Break" paper drafted in the mid-90s for the Nit-and-Yahoo government of Israel by the hard core of the neocon clique explicitly stated one of its desired goals to be the breakup of Iraq along sectarian/ethnic lines, which is exactly what has been happening since Bushco's invasion. Finally, we know as well that insurgent groups need the support of the population if they are to succeed in their aims of repelling invaders, and that blowing up innocent, potential supporters in marketplaces is not the best of strategies.
So I ask: Who really benefits from this? Is there more than meets the eye in the black ink of the lying mainstream press? Black ink for black ops?
And for those who will say, correctly, that I have no evidence--other than circumstantial--for my inferences, I reply with what I said at the start of this post, that neither is any evidence EVER given for the assertion that these attacks on fellow Iraqis (or Afghans, or Pakistanis) are "suicide" bombings. (Bombings such as the suicide attack inside the CIA base are another matter, since in such cases the motive, purpose, and modus operandi are clear.)
clovis: Excellent point.
Die-hard supporters of Mr. Obama are wont to compare him to FDR or JFK. Given that General Odierno has lately caused an enormous rise in distrust and anger in Iraq with his statements on delaying the retreat of combat troops from Iraq and on prolonging the Iraq occupation after January 1, 2012 apparently without the president's approval, they should inform him of HST's firing of recalcitrant generals because Mr. Obama seems to have forgotten. Odierno must go because he has repeatedly stepped over the line that separates policy-making by the President from that of the military. It is absolutely beyond sanity that Mr. Obama allows this insubordination to continue. What is he afraid of? A military coup?
Wouldn't it be great if all of these people that are so full of hatred would simply blow themselves up?
yeah and after we liberated them and all
But what about the pictures of the Saddam statue being pulled down? Surely that demonstrated the righteousness of our cause, right?
Sorry.
From Meet the Press, March 16 2003
Vice President Cheney: Now, I think things have gotten so bad inside Iraq, from the standpoint of the Iraqi people, my belief is we will, in fact, be greeted as liberators. And the president's made it very clear that our purpose there is, if we are forced to do this, will in fact be to stand up a government that's representative of the Iraqi people, hopefully democratic due respect for human rights, and it, obviously, involves a major commitment by the United States, but we think it's a commitment worth making. And we don't have the option anymore of simply laying back and hoping that events in Iraq will not constitute a threat to the U.S. Clearly, 12 years after the Gulf War, we're back in a situation where he does constitute a threat.
Mr. Russert: If your analysis is not correct, and we're not treated as liberators, but as conquerors, and the Iraqis begin to resist, particularly in Baghdad, do you think the American people are prepared for a long, costly, and bloody battle with significant American casualties?
Vice President Cheney: Well, I don't think it's likely to unfold that way, Tim, because I really do believe that we will be greeted as liberators. I've talked with a lot of Iraqis in the last several months myself, had them to the White House. The president and I have met with them, various groups and individuals, people who have devoted their lives from the outside to trying to change things inside Iraq. And like Kanan Makiya who's a professor at Brandeis, but an Iraqi, he's written great books about the subject, knows the country intimately, and is a part of the democratic opposition and resistance. The read we get on the people of Iraq is there is no question but what they want to the get rid of Saddam Hussein and they will welcome as liberators the United States when we come to do that.
All the violence is bullshyte.
the bbc has an article today about the birth defects in fallujah that the doctors are witnessing at least 2 cases per day.........................
the voilence against the iraqis will never end, even if these bombings stop.................