Posted on 09/30/2005 11:59:23 AM PDT by SJackson
BALAD, Iraq (Reuters) - Car bombs have killed more than 110 people, 25 of them children, in a surge of violence in Iraq ahead of an October 15 referendum on a new constitution.
One of the four car bombs ripped through a crowded market in the southern town of Hilla killing at least 12 people and wounding 47 on Friday, police and health officials said.
In the mainly Shi'ite town of Balad, north of Baghdad, the death toll from three huge car bombs on Thursday rose to 98 on Friday, hospital director Kassim Aboud said.
Furious residents in Balad blamed the attacks on "foreign fighters", long accused by the U.S. military of infiltrating Iraq from Syria to carry out attacks across the country.
"What have those Jordanians and Palestinians and Saudis got to do with us? Shame on them!" Abu Waleed, a hotel owner in Balad who said seven people staying in his hotel died in the blasts, shouted angrily.
"Why is this happening? This is a criminal act and the constitution is going to succeed in spite of them," he cried.
Outside a hospital a doctor, Dawoud Allam, posted lists of the dead and the 119 wounded on a wall. Of the dead, 25 were children under 15, while 14 could not be identified, he said.
Crowds voiced their defiance by chanting: "With our souls, with our blood, we sacrifice ourselves for the constitution".
Insurgents are waging a campaign of suicide bombings, shootings and assassinations to try to topple Iraq's U.S.-backed government. The constitution vote has raised sectarian tension between Iraq's Shi'ite majority and the Sunni Arab minority.
Five U.S. soldiers were also killed in one of the deadliest bombings on U.S. forces in weeks, near Ramadi, a bastion of the insurgency west of Baghdad, the U.S. army said on Thursday.
In Washington, the U.S. commander in Iraq told senators plans to cut troop numbers next year might be thwarted if violence continued through the referendum and an election due in December. The number of Iraqi troops able to operate without U.S. support had fallen to one battalion, he added.
The government, dominated by Shi'ites and Kurds, has faced intensified attacks by the Sunni-led insurgency since elections in January.
Minority Sunnis have dominated Iraq for decades but have lost most of their influence since Saddam Hussein, a Sunni, was ousted in 2003. They fear that if the constitution is approved their marginalisation will be sealed.
INSURGENT STRIKES
The leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, has claimed responsibility for the wave of bombings.
With the latest U.S. deaths, the total number of U.S. troops to have died in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion of March 2003 rose to at least 1,929, with more than 13,000 wounded.
The United States has 149,000 troops in Iraq, with about 20,000 from other countries, nearly half of them from Britain.
Pentagon planners have said they hope to begin withdrawing U.S. troops once Iraqi security forces, numbering about 190,000, are strong enough to handle the insurgency by themselves.
But the number able to operate without U.S. forces has actually shrunk since July, U.S. generals told U.S. senators.
Just one of the 120 U.S.-trained Iraqi army and police battalions could operate independently, General George Casey, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, and General John Abizaid, top commander in the Middle East, said.
The Pentagon said in July the number was three.
"We fully recognise that Iraqi armed forces will not have an independent capability for some time because they don't have the institutional base to support them," Casey said.
Casey had said earlier this year he hoped for a substantial reduction in the number of U.S. troops next year, but he said on Thursday that if things did not go well over the coming 2-1/2 months, troops would have to stay.
(Additional reporting by Habib al-Zubaidi in Hilla)
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"What have those Jordanians and Palestinians and Saudis got to do with us? Shame on them!"
Abu Waleed
Eating your own. Bump.
these chanting crowds had best stop yelling, and start picking up guns - because that the only way things are going to be cleaned up over there.
Crowds voiced their defiance by chanting: "With our souls, with our blood, we sacrifice ourselves for the constitution".
Maybe after the constitution is passed, Iraq can invade Syria so we don't have to.
Criminy, are these people wacked or what?
Sure looks like all my ravings on how the Iraqi forces are not only growning in efficiency but independent capabilities based on reports by some of our Army and Marine in country officers, is not the case. Surely that senate update hearing sort of put a lid on any wishfull thinking. Of course one can always with not making excuses believe that many of their units are close to working in independent actions. And close can be valid. They apparently by most of the reports we are hearing, doing well, in many raids where US Army, Marine units let them do the fighting and just stand by to cover them if need be. Novemeber could roll around and suddently find five or six Iraqi Bn's classified as fully self sufficient etc.. And that could include Iraqi airforce chopper air support in some cases, as well as Armored Bn's equiped with T72's, A1M1's, Bradely FV, etc.. They are still in the mode where we have to further train and equip them. So perhaps this is all spin/reporting as usual. The generals at the hearing did not elude to any failures in how they are moving along, only stated they have a ways to go yet.
We just have to wait and see. If Iraq is to develop into anything resembling even rudimentary "democratic" values, freedom of worship, womens rights, a free economy, they're facing determined enemies to the east and west, aided by "foreign" elements. They're going to have to develop the capability of maintaining order, I hope this is going better than it seems. Equally important, they're going to have to maintain the capability of defending their borders with Iran and Syria, something even the US presence at current levels can't do. It's a difficult, long term undertaking. One we could make easier by confronting the source of those "foreign", like we don't know who they are, fighters. Syria, Arabia, Jordan, and the new palestinian "state". For Iraq to succeed, the Great Satan may have to wake up and recognize the nature of the enemy.
"Equally important, they're going to have to maintain the capability of defending their borders with Iran and Syria, something even the US presence at current levels can't do."
And even if we had double or tripled our air recon of all variaties,e.g. Navy/Marine/Airforce manned and un-manned, satelite imagery, etc., last obviously not easy to just increase on the fly, and perhaps a full division of US Army and perhaps a regimental strength of Army etc., we still could not protect all the border areas. The linear distance along the Kuwaiti, Jordanian, Syrian, Turkish, Iranian border is just to vast. Well conditioned small groups of goons can enter in areas no vehicles whethered wheel or track could ever go. All we can do over a period of time is continue to finish the dozens of Iraqi border crossing buildings that have been in progress over the past six months, train and outfit as many border police and perhaps integrated special ops units as required depending on what area the buildings are erected and associated road grids, and threat levels, and hope over a long period of time as they get things under hand they will be able to start controlling the border crossing issues. Hopefully the political solutions shall take hold and the country continues to be able to rebuild anew, and prosper. Eventually they are going to have to, as you well understand, assume full control over their sovereinty. We can only do so much for them, as you ably commented. As I wrote about the senate hearing news, I also am aware that the operations now in progress to rid the Qaem area once and for all of scum bags is on. And the Forth Rail current articles should be read by all. Though the Iraqi's are not running the show, they sure have a lot of trained troops in on these multiple operations. And they will not be leaving the area once the sandscum are popping up daiseys this time around.
Trying to make peace between Muslims is like jumping in the middle of a rabid dogs with a steak backpack.
They all claim to want peace, but the blood runs from their jaws. They kill all before them, friend and foe alike, because Islam teaches that evil is good and good is evil.
Look at how they slaughter each other, why do we invite them to come live with us, are we nuts?!
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