Five churches, hospital bombed in Baghdad

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Bombs exploded outside five churches in Baghdad and mortar rounds hit near a hospital and a hotel frequented by foreigners, as U.S. forces loosened a cordon around the Sunni insurgent stronghold of Fallujah after several days of clashes with rebels there.

Meanwhile Saturday, the U.S. military said the deadline for Shiite militiamen to turn in their weapons in the Baghdad district of Sadr City had been extended for two days. Friday had been the deadline for militiamen loyal to radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr to exchange guns for cash under a deal to end weeks of fighting with U.S. troops there.

Once the handover is complete, the U.S. military will verify that no major weapons caches remain and Iraqi forces will assume responsibility for seecurity in Sadr City. The Americans hope the deal will enable them to focus on the more dangerous Sunni Muslim insurgency.

But over the last couple of days their fears have been more immediate: that like last year, insurgents will ratchet up violence in timing with Ramadan, which Iraqi Sunni Muslims and many Shiites began on Friday. Other Iraqi Shiites start fasting Saturday.

In Fallujah, the center of the Sunni insurgency, residents said the Americans had relaxed a cordon they threw up around the city after stepped up air and ground attacks this week against insurgents, including those loyal to terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

U.S. troops were allowing residents to leave the city through the northern exit and people were walking freely about the streets Saturday, residents said.

U.S. jets and artillery had pounded targets in the southern and eastern part of Fallujah around sundown Friday as residents were taking the traditional meal that breaks the daily fast during Ramadan.

One resident, Salah Abd, said American troops had sealed off major roads out of the city, 65 kilometers (40 miles) west of Baghdad, preventing residents from leaving.

The attacks began Thursday after peace talks between the Iraqi officials and city leaders broke down over the government's demand that they hand over terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, believed responsible for suicide bombings and beheading foreign hostages.

Khaled al-Jumeili, an Islamic cleric who served as the city's top negotiator in the talks, was arrested as he left a mosque after Friday prayers in a village about 10 miles south of Fallujah, witnesses said. There was no confirmation from U.S. authorities.

Fallujah fell under control of radical clerics and their armed mujahedeen fighters after the Marines lifted their three-week siege of the city in April.

On Friday, the Association of Muslim Scholars, a Sunni group with ties to some insurgents, called upon political parties to withdraw from the government to protest bloodshed in Fallujah, Samarra and other cities.

In a separate statement read Friday in Sunni mosques in Baghdad and elsewhere, Fallujah clerics threatened a civil disobedience campaign across the country if the Americans try to overrun the city.

The clerics said if civil disobedience were not enough to stop a U.S. assault, they would proclaim a jihad, or holy war, against all U.S. and multinational forces "as well as those collaborating with them."

They insisted that the Jordanian-born al-Zarqawi was not in Fallujah, claiming his alleged presence "is a lie just like the weapons of mass destruction lie."

"Al-Zarqawi has become the pretext for flattening civilians houses and killing innocent civilians," the statement said.

Al-Zarqawi's Tawhid and Jihad group claimed responsibility for Thursday's twin bombings inside Baghdad's heavily guarded Green Zone _ home to U.S. officials and the Iraqi leadership _ which killed six people, including three American civilians, and wounded 27 others, mostly Iraqis. A fourth American was missing and presumed dead.

In the Baghdad violence, a mortar round exploded in the garden of the Ibn al-Betar hospital, killing one person. Officials said the blast at the hospital could have been far worse _ The building was under renovation at the time and there were no patients there.

Col. Adnan Abdul-Rahman of the Interior Ministry said a mortar round hit the parking lot of al-Mansour Hotel, where some foreign journalists and diplomats stay. There were no reports of casualties there.

The explosion shattered glass in the lobby, said Bian Zhiqiang, interim charge d'affairs for the Chinese Embassy, which is located inside the hotel. Bian's comment was cited on Xinhuanet.com, the Web site of China's official government news agency.

The bombs at the churches also hirt no one, the Iraqi Interior Ministry said. The explosions rang out in quick succession over an hour and half starting at 4:00 a.m., said ministry spokesman Col. Adnan Abdul-Rahman.

Abdul-Rahman said the churches all had some exterior damage, with windows blown out.

"It is a criminal act to make Iraq unstable and to create religious difficulties," Rev. Zaya Yousef of St. George's Church said. "But this will not happen because we all live together like brothers in this country through sadness and happiness."

# The U.S. military said a U.S. soldier assigned to Task Force Olympia died of wounds suffered in a car bomb attack in the northern city of Mosul, the U.S. military said Saturday. A statement by the U.S. command said the blast occurred Friday in the east-central area of Mosul, 225 miles north of Baghdad. No other details were provided.

Al-Jazeera television said a car bomb exploded near an American convoy headed to the city of Tal Afar but the U.S. military had no confirmation.

# A member of the Turkoman Front political group was assassinated in northern Iraq while driving his children to school, police said. Col. Burhan Taha said politician Ghafour Abu Bakr was killed at 8:30 a.m. in Kirkuk when unknown attackers opened fire, killing him and slighting injuring his two children.

Taha said the four assailants stole the victim's vehicle after pushing his two children out of the car.

Churches, hospitals, police stations, school buses... obviously, all Michael Moore's "freedom fighters" want to do is to "liberate" their country from the "occupation" so they can make Iraq a safe place for kite flying again.

Well, nothing says Holy month of Ramadan like bombing churches and hospitals. What a way to open the holy month, what possible ending could top that? It's hard to think of those responsible as belonging to a religion of peace.

And what better way to send a message to the nasty occupiers than to bomb the churches and hospitals? Moore and his movie are trash. It's hard to think of his poor freedom fighters (said with a sneer) as the victims when they open their holy month with the killing of ~~innocents~~ infidels. Doesn't Moore realize he is an infidel, and a massive tool at that? He doesn't seem to realize that when his usefulness to them is finished, he could well suffer the same fate.

Our enemies step up their attacks using another of many Muslim 'holy days' (and I use the term loosely)....

Our enemies escalate close to the US elections they are MOST WORRIED ABOUT...the thought of Pres Bush being reelected puts FEAR into them..

They want someone they can push around..they want a cream puff...they want John F Kerry

imo

Hammorabi
http://hammorabi.blogspot.com/
Iraq - 'The Past, Present and Future of the Cradle of Civilization'!

Saturday, October 16, 2004Targeting Iraqi Churches & Hospitals!

Another bloody day is in Iraq today and as usual by the barbaric terrorists whose vision unable to go beyond their asses.

About 5 Churches have been targeted by different ways by the groups of the beheadings and kidnappings of Al-Zarqawi and his supporters among the Wahabis.

On the same time the same groups attacked by rockets Ibn Al-Baytar Hospital in Baghdad!

Today's attacks are nothing but indicate the failure of the terrorists and their dirty attitudes.

The same thugs killed the children in Baghdad, bombed Imam Ali Shrine, killed the pilgrimages to Karbala in 2003, and killed many innocents in the name of their God if they got God.

The Iraqis will stay hand in hand, Christians and Muslims and others as one unit. The terrorists will not succeed to divide us.

These terrorists are not even equal to the heels of the old shoes of the civilised Iraqi Christians.
Posted by: Sam / 10/16/2004 02:37:24 AM

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