Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
New York Times
June 18, 2008
Pg. 1
By Richard A. Oppel Jr. and Ali Hamid
This article was reported by Richard A. Oppel Jr., Mudhafer al-Husaini and Ali Hameed, and written by Mr. Oppel.
BAGHDAD — Explosives stowed in a minibus obliterated part of a bustling marketplace and set ablaze a crowded apartment building in the heavily Shiite Huriya district of northwest Baghdad, killing at least 51 people and wounding 75 late Tuesday afternoon, Iraqi security officials said.
There were immediate and angry calls for revenge from Shiites, a display of sectarian tensions that had been ebbing as the overall violence dropped in Iraq. The blast occurred in the heart of a neighborhood where Sunnis had been brutally driven out — and some of the current residents blamed the displaced Sunnis for the attack.
In their rage, others faulted the new pro-American neighborhood patrols, brought in from outside the area, for not preventing the attack. It was the deadliest bombing in Baghdad in more than three months.
“Now the Americans are bringing outsiders to secure our neighborhood, and look what happened!” screamed a man named Muhammad who said his wife and child were killed. “Maybe we should bring back the old days.”
What he meant was that perhaps the time had come for the Mahdi Army, the militia of the anti-American Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr to re-emerge from its self-imposed retreat and begin more active patrols and protection of fellow Shiites.
The explosion at a crowded bus terminal just before 6 p.m. seemed timed to kill people heading home from work, as well as those leaving their homes to do evening shopping at the market that surrounds the terminal. The precision of the explosion, aimed to kill so many, raised the possibility that it was set off specifically to fan sectarian tensions, as has often been the case in this war.
The strong sentiment in the crowd was that the attack was the work of Sunni extremists. But Lt. Col. Steven Stover, an American military spokesman in Baghdad, said that shortly after the attack “a special group extremist claimed responsibility, saying the cell was targeting coalition forces.” In military parlance “special groups” refers to Shiite militants who have broken off from large Shiite militias, or who are suspected of receiving weapons and training from Iranian sources.
While a number of survivors said American troops had been near the explosion, Colonel Stover said “no coalition forces were injured or present during the attack.” He suggested in a e-mail statement that that called into question “the validity of the claim” of responsibility made by the Shiite militants.
“This is simply an evil act,” he said.
In the bombing, some victims burned to death or died from smoke inhalation in the apartment building, according to an Interior Ministry official. Bystanders climbed onto rooftops 20 to 30 yards away to gather flesh strewn by the force of the blast. Iraqi policemen stacked bodies several feet high in a pickup truck, but some fell out of the truckbed when they drove away. Other people rushed to the street to drape the bodies with sheets.
Interior Ministry officials said the death toll, which was expected to grow, was the worst for any attack in Baghdad since March 6, when two bombs in the Karada shopping district killed more than 60 people.
At Kadhimiya Hospital, frantic relatives unable to find out what happened to family members cursed the Iraqi government for allowing the blast and called on God for revenge. At the hospital morgue, victims were placed in two rooms: one for bodies that were recognizable and could be examined by relatives, and one for charred and unidentifiable remains.
Huriya once had a large population of Sunnis, but after the American-led invasion, Shiite militias and death squads in the neighborhood killed or drove out thousands of Sunnis. The raw and unresolved emotions from the bloodshed and convulsions that swept the district during those years poured out after Tuesday’s attack.
But even amid the rage and anger, some residents said the solution was not vengeance, but for the neighborhood to go back to the way it was before the death squads — when Iraqis lived together regardless of sect.
“Don’t think we like the Mahdi Army,” said Jassim Abbas, a resident. “I want the Sunnis to come back, so we won’t be an easy target for the terrorists.”
The blast site was at the heart of the market that was the scene of two huge explosions in 2005 and 2006 that killed a total of more than 100 people.
Ali Mustafa, 25, was in his clothing store during the explosion. “My shop collapsed on my head,” he said. Dazed but still conscious, he scrambled and clawed his way outside.
“There was a huge hole and a lake of blood and the burnt flesh of men and women and kids,” he said, adding that an American patrol was nearby. “They went crazy, but they tried to help the people.”
According to one Iraqi policeman at the scene, the bomber struck as Iraqi and American troops attended a neighborhood meeting. Afterward, the policeman said, some people surrounded Humvees and angrily started throwing rocks and other objects. A rumor swept the crowd of frantic survivors that there was still one car bomb left that had yet to be detonated.
People near the blast site said there had been two bombs, not the single explosion that Iraqi officials described. Iraqi forces sealed off the area and allowed in only ambulances and police vehicles. One worker at the Kadhimiya Hospital morgue said 35 to 40 bodies were delivered during the first two hours.
Outside the morgue, one man was stopped by three others who asked him if he had seen one of their relatives. “I’m sure he’s all right,” the man said. After the three men rushed off, the man revealed that he had seen the body of their relative cut in half by the blast. “I couldn’t tell them the truth,” he explained.
Riyadh Muhammad and Anwar J. Ali contributed reporting.
June 18, 2008
Pg. 1
By Richard A. Oppel Jr. and Ali Hamid
This article was reported by Richard A. Oppel Jr., Mudhafer al-Husaini and Ali Hameed, and written by Mr. Oppel.
BAGHDAD — Explosives stowed in a minibus obliterated part of a bustling marketplace and set ablaze a crowded apartment building in the heavily Shiite Huriya district of northwest Baghdad, killing at least 51 people and wounding 75 late Tuesday afternoon, Iraqi security officials said.
There were immediate and angry calls for revenge from Shiites, a display of sectarian tensions that had been ebbing as the overall violence dropped in Iraq. The blast occurred in the heart of a neighborhood where Sunnis had been brutally driven out — and some of the current residents blamed the displaced Sunnis for the attack.
In their rage, others faulted the new pro-American neighborhood patrols, brought in from outside the area, for not preventing the attack. It was the deadliest bombing in Baghdad in more than three months.
“Now the Americans are bringing outsiders to secure our neighborhood, and look what happened!” screamed a man named Muhammad who said his wife and child were killed. “Maybe we should bring back the old days.”
What he meant was that perhaps the time had come for the Mahdi Army, the militia of the anti-American Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr to re-emerge from its self-imposed retreat and begin more active patrols and protection of fellow Shiites.
The explosion at a crowded bus terminal just before 6 p.m. seemed timed to kill people heading home from work, as well as those leaving their homes to do evening shopping at the market that surrounds the terminal. The precision of the explosion, aimed to kill so many, raised the possibility that it was set off specifically to fan sectarian tensions, as has often been the case in this war.
The strong sentiment in the crowd was that the attack was the work of Sunni extremists. But Lt. Col. Steven Stover, an American military spokesman in Baghdad, said that shortly after the attack “a special group extremist claimed responsibility, saying the cell was targeting coalition forces.” In military parlance “special groups” refers to Shiite militants who have broken off from large Shiite militias, or who are suspected of receiving weapons and training from Iranian sources.
While a number of survivors said American troops had been near the explosion, Colonel Stover said “no coalition forces were injured or present during the attack.” He suggested in a e-mail statement that that called into question “the validity of the claim” of responsibility made by the Shiite militants.
“This is simply an evil act,” he said.
In the bombing, some victims burned to death or died from smoke inhalation in the apartment building, according to an Interior Ministry official. Bystanders climbed onto rooftops 20 to 30 yards away to gather flesh strewn by the force of the blast. Iraqi policemen stacked bodies several feet high in a pickup truck, but some fell out of the truckbed when they drove away. Other people rushed to the street to drape the bodies with sheets.
Interior Ministry officials said the death toll, which was expected to grow, was the worst for any attack in Baghdad since March 6, when two bombs in the Karada shopping district killed more than 60 people.
At Kadhimiya Hospital, frantic relatives unable to find out what happened to family members cursed the Iraqi government for allowing the blast and called on God for revenge. At the hospital morgue, victims were placed in two rooms: one for bodies that were recognizable and could be examined by relatives, and one for charred and unidentifiable remains.
Huriya once had a large population of Sunnis, but after the American-led invasion, Shiite militias and death squads in the neighborhood killed or drove out thousands of Sunnis. The raw and unresolved emotions from the bloodshed and convulsions that swept the district during those years poured out after Tuesday’s attack.
But even amid the rage and anger, some residents said the solution was not vengeance, but for the neighborhood to go back to the way it was before the death squads — when Iraqis lived together regardless of sect.
“Don’t think we like the Mahdi Army,” said Jassim Abbas, a resident. “I want the Sunnis to come back, so we won’t be an easy target for the terrorists.”
The blast site was at the heart of the market that was the scene of two huge explosions in 2005 and 2006 that killed a total of more than 100 people.
Ali Mustafa, 25, was in his clothing store during the explosion. “My shop collapsed on my head,” he said. Dazed but still conscious, he scrambled and clawed his way outside.
“There was a huge hole and a lake of blood and the burnt flesh of men and women and kids,” he said, adding that an American patrol was nearby. “They went crazy, but they tried to help the people.”
According to one Iraqi policeman at the scene, the bomber struck as Iraqi and American troops attended a neighborhood meeting. Afterward, the policeman said, some people surrounded Humvees and angrily started throwing rocks and other objects. A rumor swept the crowd of frantic survivors that there was still one car bomb left that had yet to be detonated.
People near the blast site said there had been two bombs, not the single explosion that Iraqi officials described. Iraqi forces sealed off the area and allowed in only ambulances and police vehicles. One worker at the Kadhimiya Hospital morgue said 35 to 40 bodies were delivered during the first two hours.
Outside the morgue, one man was stopped by three others who asked him if he had seen one of their relatives. “I’m sure he’s all right,” the man said. After the three men rushed off, the man revealed that he had seen the body of their relative cut in half by the blast. “I couldn’t tell them the truth,” he explained.
Riyadh Muhammad and Anwar J. Ali contributed reporting.