Attacks in Iraq Kill at Least 60

A very interesting post from http://www.hughhewitt.com/ about problems in Iraq due to our pulling out of this country prematurely. This was a country that was threatening regional stability and hid WMDs from U.N. Inspectors such as Hans Blix. This follows this post about a bombing of Christians in Nigeria.   This follows this article about American energy independence and preventing money from going to hostile countries such as Iran and Venezuela. For more that you can do to get involved click HERE and read this very interesting book HERE!

Attacks on Shiites in Iraq Kill at Least 60


Michael Kamber for The New York Times

Family members comforted Saif Abdulasada, whose leg was amputated after a motorcycle bomb explosion in Baghdad's Sadr City on Thursday.

By MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT

Published: January 5, 2012

 BAGHDAD — Insurgents unleashed a fierce string of bombings against Iraq’s Shiites on Thursday, attacking pilgrims marching through the desert and neighborhoods in Baghdad, in an attempt to stir sectarian violence. The attacks come amid a political crisis that has brought the government to a halt less than three weeks after American troops withdrew.



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Michael Kamber for The New York Times

Iraqis grieved in Baghdad on Thursday after a bomb attack claimed the life of a family member.

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Ahmad Al-Rubaye/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Iraqi soldiers stood guard at the site of a bomb attack in Sadr City on Thursday.




According to security officials, 68 people were killed in the attacks and more than 100 wounded, marking the second devastating and apparently coordinated attack in Iraq over the past month. The most lethal attack occurred near the southern city of Nasiriya where a suicide bomber detonated an explosive vest amid a crowd of pilgrims as they waited to pass through a check point, killing 44 and wounding dozens, including several Iraqi army officers, according to security officials.



The pilgrims were making a trip to the holy city of Karbala leading up to holiday of Arbaeen, which marks the end of the 40-day mourning period for the death of Imam Hussein ibn Ali, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad.



Photographs of the bombing scene posted on the Web site of Dhi Qar Province, where the attack occurred, showed dozens of bloody bodies strewn across the ground. One photo was of a young boy with a charred shirt and pants laying face down covered in blood. Another photo was of just four fingers and what appeared to be the remnants of a hand.



No group claimed responsibility for the attacks but they appeared similar to ones conducted by Al Qaeda in Iraq, the Sunni insurgent group which has tried to plunge the country back to the brink of civil war by pitting the country’s sectarian groups against each other.



Al Qaeda in Iraq killed more than 63 people on Dec. 22 in a series of explosions across Baghdad, the deadliest day in the capital in more than a year. The attacks, however, did not reignite sectarian violence.



The violence began early on Thursday morning in Baghdad when explosives strapped to a motorcycle were detonated near a group of day laborers who had congregated by the side of the road in the slum of Sadr City, according to security officials.



Moments later, two improvised explosive devices were detonated near rescuers who were taking the wounded to a nearby hospital, the officials said. Nine people were killed in the explosions and 35 were wounded.



An hour after the Sadr City attack, two car bombs were detonated in bustling squares in the neighborhood of Kadhimiya, killing 15 people and wounding 31, according to security officials.The political crisis was set off a day after the United States withdrew its last combat troops, when the Shiite government of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki accused the country’s Sunni vice president of running a death squad.



The vice president, Tariq al-Hashimi, fled Baghdad for the country’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region where Mr. Maliki’s security forces have less authority. Meanwhile, in Baghdad Sunni and Kurdish politicians have accused Mr. Maliki of trying to use the episode to consolidate his power and have boycotted sessions of Parliament.



“When politicians have a problem, the citizens are usually the ones who pay,” said Abu Sajad, a minibus driver who was near the attack in Sadr City. “This has happened before and continues to happen.”



On Wednesday, eight people were killed in attacks across the country. In the restive province of Diyala, where the local government has expressed desires for more autonomy from the central government, insurgents blew up the home of a police officer, killing his six-year old daughter and two others.



A 22-year old laborer said that at the time of the Sadr City attack he was sitting on the side of the road with other laborers around a fire. “We were sitting waiting for a job,” said the laborer, Yasir Rasul. “I saw three people inside the bus who were killed instantly,” when the motorcycle bomb exploded near a minibus, he said.



Yasir Ghazi and Zaid Thaker contributed reporting.