Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Washington Post
December 14, 2007
Pg. 36
By Lori Hinnant, Associated Press
BAGHDAD -- A southern Shiite city hit by three synchronized car bombs buried its dead Thursday, while provincial officials lowered the death toll from 41 to at least 25. Families in Amarah buried their dead furtively, afraid of another attack and anxious for the wounded who remained hospitalized.
In the northern city of Mosul, meanwhile, a woman who ran a beauty parlor out of her home was killed by gunmen apparently angered by what they saw as a violation of Islamic tradition. Elsewhere in Mosul, two police checkpoints came under attack; at one, gunmen opened fire and killed four policemen, and at the other, insurgents tried to storm the roadblock but were shot to death before they reached it, police said.
Mosul, an ethnically mixed city 225 miles northwest of Baghdad, has seen a rise in violence that many blame in part on sectarian tensions there and an influx of insurgents who fled the security crackdown in the Iraqi capital.
By contrast, Amarah, an oil-rich city about 200 miles southeast of Baghdad, has largely escaped sectarian bloodshed.
Now, some officials fear attacks like Wednesday's in Amarah could ignite fighting between powerful Shiite factions in the region, which reverted from British to Iraqi control in April.
Hospitals in Amarah remained crowded with the more than 100 people who were wounded when the three car bombs exploded in quick succession at the city's main market. Relatives filled the hallways and tended to victims, young and old, who were missing limbs and suffering from major head wounds.
Provincial authorities on Thursday lowered their death toll from 41 to at least 25, blaming confusion in the immediate aftermath of the bombing for the conflicting numbers. [Local officials told The Washington Post on Wednesday that at least 46 people were killed.]
Elsewhere in Iraq, the U.S. military said soldiers carrying out operations Wednesday near Balad, 50 miles north of Baghdad, killed nine suspected terrorists in a gun battle. A woman nearby was also killed, and four children were wounded; the U.S. military said it was not immediately clear if they were shot by insurgents or American soldiers.
December 14, 2007
Pg. 36
By Lori Hinnant, Associated Press
BAGHDAD -- A southern Shiite city hit by three synchronized car bombs buried its dead Thursday, while provincial officials lowered the death toll from 41 to at least 25. Families in Amarah buried their dead furtively, afraid of another attack and anxious for the wounded who remained hospitalized.
In the northern city of Mosul, meanwhile, a woman who ran a beauty parlor out of her home was killed by gunmen apparently angered by what they saw as a violation of Islamic tradition. Elsewhere in Mosul, two police checkpoints came under attack; at one, gunmen opened fire and killed four policemen, and at the other, insurgents tried to storm the roadblock but were shot to death before they reached it, police said.
Mosul, an ethnically mixed city 225 miles northwest of Baghdad, has seen a rise in violence that many blame in part on sectarian tensions there and an influx of insurgents who fled the security crackdown in the Iraqi capital.
By contrast, Amarah, an oil-rich city about 200 miles southeast of Baghdad, has largely escaped sectarian bloodshed.
Now, some officials fear attacks like Wednesday's in Amarah could ignite fighting between powerful Shiite factions in the region, which reverted from British to Iraqi control in April.
Hospitals in Amarah remained crowded with the more than 100 people who were wounded when the three car bombs exploded in quick succession at the city's main market. Relatives filled the hallways and tended to victims, young and old, who were missing limbs and suffering from major head wounds.
Provincial authorities on Thursday lowered their death toll from 41 to at least 25, blaming confusion in the immediate aftermath of the bombing for the conflicting numbers. [Local officials told The Washington Post on Wednesday that at least 46 people were killed.]
Elsewhere in Iraq, the U.S. military said soldiers carrying out operations Wednesday near Balad, 50 miles north of Baghdad, killed nine suspected terrorists in a gun battle. A woman nearby was also killed, and four children were wounded; the U.S. military said it was not immediately clear if they were shot by insurgents or American soldiers.