Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
New York Times
January 23, 2007
Pg. 1
By Marc Santora
BAGHDAD, Jan. 22 — Two powerful car bombs ripped through a market in central Baghdad on Monday, turning an area crowded with shoppers and commuters into one of the worst scenes of carnage since the war began.
The bombs killed at least 88 people and wounded 160 others even as the first of some 21,000 extra American troops ordered by President Bush began arriving in Baghdad, and as other troops took up positions on SunniShiite fault lines as part of a new strategy to secure the city.
After a weekend in which 27 American soldiers were killed in Iraq, the attacks underscored the challenges that even an augmented American force faces in trying to quell the sectarian attacks. Military officials privately expressed concerns that a renewed period of intense sectarian fighting could easily overwhelm their efforts.
In addition to the market attacks, a bombing in a Shiite town north of Baghdad killed 15 people on Monday. Elsewhere, Iraqi government officials and members of security forces continued to be shot, blown up and kidnapped.
The blasts at the Baghdad market were in a Shiite area and seemed to have been timed to inflict maximum damage, occurring at noon, one of the busiest times of day. The explosions left so many bodies that they had to be loaded one on top of another on wooden carts, according to witnesses. Other victims were simply blown to pieces.
Ali Hussein 47, a biologist who was on his way home, said he had been knocked off his feet. The force of the blasts, which went off just seconds apart, turned everyday items like lotions and DVDs into deadly projectiles.
“Bottles of perfumes and deodorants were flying in the air like small rockets,” Mr. Hussein said outside Kindi Hospital, which was quickly overwhelmed with victims. “I was wounded in my right leg.”
Police officials said the blasts had been so large that each of the cars used must have carried a huge amount of explosives. From the eastern banks of the Tigris nearby, the two explosions could be heard in quick succession.
Massive clouds of smoke billowed high into the sky, and as the fires caused by the explosion engulfed at least a dozen cars, the cloud drifted over the heavily fortified Green Zone, about a half-mile away.
In the past such Sunni aggression has been met by swift reprisals by Shiites, a cycle of violence that left some 34,000 Iraqis dead last year. Monday’s bombings, directed so specifically at civilians, seemed intended to elicit a reprisal, much like the bombings in the Shiite neighborhood of Sadr City one day last fall, which killed 144 people.
Late Monday, a Sunni mosque in the Dora section of Baghdad was blown up. There were no reports of casualties. Residents said the attack was likely to have been retribution for the bombing of a Shiite mosque in the same neighborhood last week.
Elsewhere, the Sunni mayor of Baquba, Khalid al-Sanjari, was abducted Monday, and after armed gunmen took him way from his office they burned it to the ground, according to a local police official.
Residents in Baquba, about 25 miles northeast of Baghdad, said Mr. Sanjari had close ties with armed groups formerly affiliated with the Saddam Hussein government.
“It is strange that this man was kidnapped,” one resident said. “The Iraqi police and army have arrested him more than once, and he was released because of lack of evidence.”
Although it is far from clear who abducted the mayor, another resident said, “This is a punishment for him, because armed groups tend to get rid of the person who is no longer useful for them.”
Late Monday evening, just north of Baquba, at least 15 people were killed and 39 wounded in coordinated bomb and mortar attacks in the Shiite town of Khalis, according to a local police official.
In Tal Afar, the police were attacked in a bombing that left three dead and nine wounded. The town is considered to be one of the few success stories of the American occupation, a place where violence was largely quelled after intensive intervention. It is being used as the model for the new strategy to secure Baghdad.
Meanwhile, a group claiming to represent Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia took responsibility for shooting down an American Black Hawk helicopter northeast of Baghdad on Saturday. Local Iraqi officials at the site of the crash, which killed all 12 people on board, said the helicopter had been attacked, but American officials here said there an investigation was in progress and did not confirm those accounts.
Monday’s bombing in Baghdad was followed by prolonged gun battles. The fighting could be heard across the city, although officials did not release any casualty figures from the ensuing skirmishes.
At the site of the car bombings, the popular market in Bab al Sharji, next to the Museum of Modern Art, Iraqi Army troops spotted someone on a nearby rooftop shortly afterward filming the carnage.
They went after him as he tried to escape by jumping from rooftop to rooftop before he was shot dead, according to an Iraqi Army official. The official said the man was Egyptian and was filming the attack to use as propaganda for the Sunni insurgents.
The scene after the fact was all too familiar: charred human remains, pools of blood, unrecognizable body parts strewn among the used electronic equipment, CDs and vegetables.
Many of the shops on the square sell used goods at discount prices and are popular among working-class residents. Although the area is mainly Shiite, Sunnis often shop at the market, residents said.
Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki condemned the attack. “The violent terrorists who committed this crime have illusions that their bloody ideology to kill large numbers of civilians will break the will of the Iraqis and tear their unity and to raise sectarianism,” he said in a statement.
But on the streets of Baghdad, people said they had little hope for their country at the moment.
Outside the morgue, families lined up looking for loved ones. Bodies were lined up on the street, some covered in blue blankets. Near the dead there was a grim pile of arms and legs and other body parts.
Ahmad Fadam, Wisam A. Habeeb and Qais Mizher contributed reporting.
January 23, 2007
Pg. 1
By Marc Santora
BAGHDAD, Jan. 22 — Two powerful car bombs ripped through a market in central Baghdad on Monday, turning an area crowded with shoppers and commuters into one of the worst scenes of carnage since the war began.
The bombs killed at least 88 people and wounded 160 others even as the first of some 21,000 extra American troops ordered by President Bush began arriving in Baghdad, and as other troops took up positions on SunniShiite fault lines as part of a new strategy to secure the city.
After a weekend in which 27 American soldiers were killed in Iraq, the attacks underscored the challenges that even an augmented American force faces in trying to quell the sectarian attacks. Military officials privately expressed concerns that a renewed period of intense sectarian fighting could easily overwhelm their efforts.
In addition to the market attacks, a bombing in a Shiite town north of Baghdad killed 15 people on Monday. Elsewhere, Iraqi government officials and members of security forces continued to be shot, blown up and kidnapped.
The blasts at the Baghdad market were in a Shiite area and seemed to have been timed to inflict maximum damage, occurring at noon, one of the busiest times of day. The explosions left so many bodies that they had to be loaded one on top of another on wooden carts, according to witnesses. Other victims were simply blown to pieces.
Ali Hussein 47, a biologist who was on his way home, said he had been knocked off his feet. The force of the blasts, which went off just seconds apart, turned everyday items like lotions and DVDs into deadly projectiles.
“Bottles of perfumes and deodorants were flying in the air like small rockets,” Mr. Hussein said outside Kindi Hospital, which was quickly overwhelmed with victims. “I was wounded in my right leg.”
Police officials said the blasts had been so large that each of the cars used must have carried a huge amount of explosives. From the eastern banks of the Tigris nearby, the two explosions could be heard in quick succession.
Massive clouds of smoke billowed high into the sky, and as the fires caused by the explosion engulfed at least a dozen cars, the cloud drifted over the heavily fortified Green Zone, about a half-mile away.
In the past such Sunni aggression has been met by swift reprisals by Shiites, a cycle of violence that left some 34,000 Iraqis dead last year. Monday’s bombings, directed so specifically at civilians, seemed intended to elicit a reprisal, much like the bombings in the Shiite neighborhood of Sadr City one day last fall, which killed 144 people.
Late Monday, a Sunni mosque in the Dora section of Baghdad was blown up. There were no reports of casualties. Residents said the attack was likely to have been retribution for the bombing of a Shiite mosque in the same neighborhood last week.
Elsewhere, the Sunni mayor of Baquba, Khalid al-Sanjari, was abducted Monday, and after armed gunmen took him way from his office they burned it to the ground, according to a local police official.
Residents in Baquba, about 25 miles northeast of Baghdad, said Mr. Sanjari had close ties with armed groups formerly affiliated with the Saddam Hussein government.
“It is strange that this man was kidnapped,” one resident said. “The Iraqi police and army have arrested him more than once, and he was released because of lack of evidence.”
Although it is far from clear who abducted the mayor, another resident said, “This is a punishment for him, because armed groups tend to get rid of the person who is no longer useful for them.”
Late Monday evening, just north of Baquba, at least 15 people were killed and 39 wounded in coordinated bomb and mortar attacks in the Shiite town of Khalis, according to a local police official.
In Tal Afar, the police were attacked in a bombing that left three dead and nine wounded. The town is considered to be one of the few success stories of the American occupation, a place where violence was largely quelled after intensive intervention. It is being used as the model for the new strategy to secure Baghdad.
Meanwhile, a group claiming to represent Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia took responsibility for shooting down an American Black Hawk helicopter northeast of Baghdad on Saturday. Local Iraqi officials at the site of the crash, which killed all 12 people on board, said the helicopter had been attacked, but American officials here said there an investigation was in progress and did not confirm those accounts.
Monday’s bombing in Baghdad was followed by prolonged gun battles. The fighting could be heard across the city, although officials did not release any casualty figures from the ensuing skirmishes.
At the site of the car bombings, the popular market in Bab al Sharji, next to the Museum of Modern Art, Iraqi Army troops spotted someone on a nearby rooftop shortly afterward filming the carnage.
They went after him as he tried to escape by jumping from rooftop to rooftop before he was shot dead, according to an Iraqi Army official. The official said the man was Egyptian and was filming the attack to use as propaganda for the Sunni insurgents.
The scene after the fact was all too familiar: charred human remains, pools of blood, unrecognizable body parts strewn among the used electronic equipment, CDs and vegetables.
Many of the shops on the square sell used goods at discount prices and are popular among working-class residents. Although the area is mainly Shiite, Sunnis often shop at the market, residents said.
Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki condemned the attack. “The violent terrorists who committed this crime have illusions that their bloody ideology to kill large numbers of civilians will break the will of the Iraqis and tear their unity and to raise sectarianism,” he said in a statement.
But on the streets of Baghdad, people said they had little hope for their country at the moment.
Outside the morgue, families lined up looking for loved ones. Bodies were lined up on the street, some covered in blue blankets. Near the dead there was a grim pile of arms and legs and other body parts.
Ahmad Fadam, Wisam A. Habeeb and Qais Mizher contributed reporting.