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  • Huge bomb blasts in Baghdad..

    At least 132 people have been killed and 520 injured in two car bomb attacks in Baghdad, Iraqi officials say.

    The blasts hit the ministry of justice and a provincial government office near the heavily fortified Green Zone.

    They came in quick succession at 1030 (0730 GMT) as people headed to work during the morning rush hour.

    This is the deadliest attack in Iraq since August 2007 and comes three months after the US handed security control of cities to local forces.



    The Iraqi authorities say that they believe these two attacks today and those of the 19 August are linked. Damascus [accused by Iraq over the 19 August attacks] has strenuously denied any involvement.

    But there have been warnings that as Iraq approaches parliamentary elections, which are due in the middle of next January, that insurgents and other fighters will cause more attacks to try to destabilise the situation here.

    The Americans officially pulled back from urban areas at the end of June. The Iraqi security forces are now in charge. They have been trumpeting their success here. But these massive explosions and the ones on 19 August will raise serious questions about how capable they are of maintaining security.

    The attacks have drawn comparison with those of 19 August, when truck bombs hit two ministry buildings and killed at least 100 people.

    Iraq then blamed foreign fighters and accused Syria of involvement, demanding a UN investigation.

    Search for survivors

    Prime Minister Nouri Maliki visited the site of Sunday's provincial government office attack near Haifa Street and later issued a statement blaming al-Qaeda and supporters of former president Saddam Hussein.

    "These cowardly terrorist attacks must not affect the determination of the Iraqi people to continue their struggle against the remnants of the dismantled regime and al-Qaeda terrorists, who committed a brutal crime against civilians," he said.

    "They want to cause chaos in the nation, hinder the political process and prevent the parliamentary election."





    In pictures: Baghdad blasts
    Plumes of smoke were seen rising in Baghdad on Sunday morning after two vehicles packed with explosives blew up just outside the International Zone, or Green Zone, the administrative heart of the capital.

    There were conflicting reports from Iraqi police and other security officials about whether suicide bombers were involved.

    Iraqi officials say the number of dead and wounded is likely to rise, as rescue workers dig through the rubble to search for survivors.

    A number of workers for Baghdad's provincial council, which runs the city, were thought to be among the dead.

    "I don't know how I'm still alive," local shop owner, Hamid Saadi, told Reuters by telephone from near the justice ministry.

    "The explosion destroyed everything... it's like it was an earthquake, nothing is still in its place."

    A number of bystanders blamed the security forces and politicians for failing to keep order.

    Ambulance driver Adil Sami told Agence France-Presse: "We don't want the parliament any more - let them leave us alone, we can live in peace and solve problems ourselves."

    Baghdad provincial council member Mohammed al-Rubaiey said: "This is a political struggle... Every politician is responsible and the government is responsible, as well as security leaders."

    The BBC's Gabriel Gatehouse in Baghdad said he felt the force of the explosions, even though he was several miles away.

    He says the finger of blame is likely to point to insurgents or foreign fighters trying to destabilise the security situation ahead of Iraqi elections in mid-January.

    Overall, violence has dropped dramatically in Iraq compared to a year ago, but sporadic attacks still continue in several parts of the country.


    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8324546.stm
    Last edited by MIKEMUN; 25 Oct 09,, 17:13. Reason: Link
    "They want to test our feelings.They want to know whether Muslims are extremists or not. Death to them and their newspapers."

    Protester

  • #2
    That’s a terrible and very sad loss of life.

    Despite the gains Iraq is still one giant mess...and this is an unfortunate reminder that the Iraqi security forces have their work cut out for them.

    Nebula82.
    Last edited by nebula82; 25 Oct 09,, 17:55.

    Comment


    • #3
      Have their work cut out for them?

      From what I heard those trucks weren't even supposed to be in that area at that time of day. Did the security forces even show up for work? With the amount of security around that city you have to ask yourself whetether or not some of them weren't involved.

      I'd say they have a fight on their hands or something like that if they had intercepted those vehicles before they reached their targets and had a dramatic shootout or something.

      I have only 2 words to say at this moment. Epic Fail.

      Comment


      • #4
        A very grim reminder that there are those that will stop at nothing to see Iraq fall into kaos. They dont even give women and children a chance. Blights upon civilization is all they are, nothing more.:(
        Fortitude.....The strength to persist...The courage to endure.

        Comment


        • #5
          And again RIP





          Reuters Suadad al-Salhy

          Car bombs killed at least 112 people in Baghdad on Tuesday, police said, leaving pools of blood, charred buses and scattered body parts in a brutal reminder of the threat from Iraq's stubborn insurgency. Skip related content

          The blasts, most detonated by suicide bombers, ripped through crowded areas close to government buildings, which should have been under tight security after previous devastating attacks in the capital in recent months.

          The bombings undermine Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's claims to have brought security to the country before a national election now scheduled for March 6, and could rattle foreign oil chiefs due in Iraq this weekend for a major contract auction.

          "We had entered a shop seconds before the blast, the ceiling caved in on us, and we lost consciousness. Then I heard screams and sirens all around," said Mohammed Abdul Ridha, one of the 425 wounded in the series of at least four blasts.

          Baghdad security spokesman Major General Qassim al-Moussawi gave a lower death toll of 63. It was not possible to explain the discrepancy with the numbers provided by police sources. The Health Ministry said it was difficult to determine the exact number because many bodies had been blown to pieces.

          Smoke billowed and sirens wailed as emergency workers removed the dead in black body bags. Pools of blood had formed next to burnt-out minibuses, police vehicles and dozens of crumpled cars at one bomb site, the blast leaving a huge crater.

          "What these gangs are doing are criminal acts which express their bankruptcy and disappointment ... after what the Iraqi people and its political powers have achieved," Vice President Adel Abdul-Mahdi said in a statement.

          Analysts said the attacks, similar to spectacular bombings in the Iraqi capital in October and August, were meant to shake faith in Iraq's Shi'ite Muslim-led government.

          The earlier blasts were blamed on Sunni Islamist insurgents and members of Saddam Hussein's outlawed Baath party.

          "It's the same style and the same vital targets. There is one political motive -- to show that the government has failed to provide security," said analyst Hazim al-Nuaimi.

          OIL AUCTION STILL ON

          In one attack, a suicide bomber blew up his vehicle in the car park of a courthouse, after getting through a checkpoint, police said.

          Another blast, this time a parked car bomb and not a suicide bomber, struck a temporary building used by the Finance Ministry after its main premises were devastated in the August bombing.

          A third bomber blew himself and his car up near a training centre for judges.

          The first blast of the day struck a police checkpoint in south Baghdad about 30 minutes before the other three. It, too, was a suicide bomber in a car packed with explosives.

          Iraq's Oil Ministry said it would not cancel the planned tender of oilfield development contracts on December 11 and 12, which executives from the world's main oil companies are due to attend. The deals are seen as crucial to Iraq's efforts to raise the cash required to rebuild after years of war and destruction.

          NEW INSURGENT TACTIC

          Overall violence in Iraq has fallen sharply in the last two years, and November's monthly civilian death toll was the lowest since the 2003 U.S. invasion.

          But Iraq's security forces, now largely working alone after U.S. troops pulled out of urban centres in June, have struggled to prevent major attacks that experts say require strong intelligence-gathering to prevent.

          A handful of U.S. soldiers were at the scene of one blast site, collecting evidence, while Iraqi police looked on.

          Tuesday's attacks were the worst in Baghdad since October 25, when two massive truck bombs killed 155 people at the Justice Ministry and the offices of the governor of Baghdad.

          After each attack, the government ordered tighter security and Maliki promised the culprits would be captured.

          The bombings mark a change of tactics for Sunni Islamist insurgent groups such as al Qaeda. Rather than frequent, smaller-scale attacks against soft targets such as markets, they now appear to be aiming for spectacular and less frequent strikes against state targets

          Comment


          • #6
            The media analysts suspect this is the work of the Sunni insurgent group al Qaeda in Iraq, with more bombings to come before the national election in February or March next year.

            This time they target less of the government buildings and more of educational institutions which are much softer targets.

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