BBC: Car bombs kill dozens in Baghdad ( Two Bombs - one in Sunni area other in Shia area---Hmmm)

BBC ^ | Wednesday, 1 August 2007, 12:05 GMT 13:05 UK | BBC Staff

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Car bombs kill dozens in Baghdad

The Karrada bombing went off in a busy market area

At least 67 people have been killed and almost 100 have been wounded in two separate bombings in Baghdad, Iraqi police have said.

In one attack, a fuel tanker exploded near a petrol station in the mainly Sunni suburb of Mansour, killing 50.

Earlier, at least 17 people were killed and 32 injured in a blast in the mainly Shia shopping district of Karrada.

Elsewhere, US officials said three of its troops had been killed, and the UK said a British soldier had died.

The Karrada bomb was placed in a parked vehicle and went off in an area with many electronics stores and a popular ice-cream parlour, reports say.

A car bomb in the same area killed 25 people last week.

Karrada has been hit by a string of bombs in the past 10 days. On Monday of last week, four separate car bombs killed 16 people.

US and Iraqi forces have tightened security in Baghdad since earlier in the year in an attempt to stem such bombings.

Sunni withdrawal

In other developments, the main Sunni Arab political bloc in Iraq, the Iraqi Accordance Front, has said it is withdrawing from the government.

The group, which has six cabinet ministers, said the Shia-led administration had failed to meet a list of demands, including one urging tough action against Shia militias.

The Sunni leaders had also demanded a bigger say in security matters.

And Iraqi officials say more than 1,600 civilians were killed in July - an increase of about a third from the previous month.

The figure is also higher than the number of civilian deaths in February, when the US launched its so-called surge, which involved sending thousands more troops to Baghdad.

The US military says American casualties fell last month to their lowest level this year.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Someone is trying to get the “ Civil War” back on the Front Page....

[Brilliant]

Either al Qaeda trying to stir up trouble, Iran trying to stir up trouble, or both.

[Brilliant]

“The US military says American casualties fell last month to their lowest level this year.”

August is not off to a good start.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Could be either one....guess I would lean more toward Iran....

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

From Reuters:

Sunni bloc quits Iraq govt, truck bomb kills 50

************************************EXCERPT**************************

Sunni bloc quits Iraq govt, truck bomb kills 50

Wed Aug 1, 2007 7:49 AM EDT

By Mariam Karouny and Paul Tait

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The main Sunni Arab political bloc quit the Iraqi government on Wednesday in a blow to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, while a suicide bomber driving a fuel truck killed 50 people in one of several car bombs in Baghdad.

The Sunni Accordance Front announced its pull-out from Maliki's Shi'ite-led coalition over his failure to meet a list of about a dozen demands, including a greater say in security matters.

The front's 44 members will remain in the 275-seat parliament. Its withdrawal will have little practical effect on the 15-month-old government, which is virtually paralyzed by infighting but needs only a simple majority to keep functioning.

But the shaky coalition is under pressure from the United States and its allies to end sectarian strife between Shi'ites and Sunnis through national reconciliation.

Washington is unhappy at the slow progress towards political benchmarks meant to draw minority Sunni Arabs, dominant under Saddam Hussein, into the political process and away from an insurgency that has killed tens of thousands.

Police said the suicide bomber was driving a fuel truck packed with explosives in the attack in Mansour district of western Baghdad that wounded 60 people apart from the 50 killed.

They said the bomber lured motorists queuing for petrol to his truck after earlier saying he had rammed into the line of vehicles.

Separately, 20 people were killed and 40 wounded when a suicide bomber blew up his vehicle near a popular ice cream parlor in a bustling area full of electronics stores in Baghdad's predominantly Shi'ite district of Karrada.

In southern Baghdad, a parked car bomb killed three people and wounded five in Doura district, police said.

The U.S. military, which began a build-up of 30,000 extra troops this year in a bid to buy time for Maliki to meet his political targets, said three of its soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb in the east of the capital on Tuesday.

GOVERNMENT ALREADY WEAKENED

"StoryContinued"

[Allegra]

Yes, we heard them both this morning.

We'd had some quiet days. I'd like to see more of that.

Looks like some more rats need to be nabbed.

[Marine_Uncle]

One should expect the occasional IVEB attacks. But I would ask J. Biden. Is this a civil war. Have a great day. I have to get ready for work.

[tobyhill]

Al-Qaeda knows the media is on their side and will go all out to make the the death toll extremely high and give the impression of an out of control “civil war” right prior to the “end-all report”. Knowing the media in this country, it will work. Another impression trying to be portrayed is all these death cells dumping bodies by the dozens in Baghdad. These bodies are reported by anonymous sources inside the Interior Ministry or Health Ministry but no one ever sees the bodies much less the funerals. Do these bodies really exist or is it more propaganda to give an impression? The military needs to hire some internal Iraqis at the morgue and hospitals to make a real count and to counter what I think as pure exaggerations or flat out lies of the body count. The other thing that needs to be done is that if stopping all traffic stops the bombings then stop all traffic. Right now in Baghdad there are check points but they’re on a random basis trying to throw off the bombers. The bombers have scouts that monitor where the check points are and then the bombers just go around it. The stopping all traffic is not just my idea, it’s actually from at least one Marine friend of mine that just got back from Iraq so I know it’s what’s being thought out in the field. This is a crucial month that this administration needs to really take seriously. If they think they will have never ending support from the non-Rinos then that maybe the worst mistake this administration makes. For numbers of either civilian deaths or military deaths to increase this month will guarantee the money for our troops and reconstruction to be decreased next month. Even though the media won’t admit it, there is a built in acceptable level of violence as there is in our country but that level doesn’t include car bombs or alleged death cell killings. Those are two things expected to cease. People getting gunned down in the streets aren’t perceived any worse there than they are in the streets of Detroit.

[SunkenCiv]

...so-called surge...

which is different from a so-called journalist, because the surge is so called because it is exactly what it is called. Thanks E.

[rfp1234]

Bring back Allawi.

[sono]

AQ is afraid they’re losing the Democrats.

[princess leah]

Iraq should have elected Alawi, NOT Maliki...I believe Iranians and AQ undermined Alawi and puppeteered their man, Maliki into his position. For every car bomb, we need to drop a BIGGER bomb in Iran (accidentally of course) where it will really send a message! They’re the real enemy and need to be taken out sooner, rather than later!

[Chode]

i guess somebody in AQ didn't get the memo...

you blow them up a day or two apart so it looks like a strike and a retaliation.

this way you just played your selfs ya dumb goathumpers

[American in Israel]

Bombers are not the brightest bulbs in the pack.

[Austin Willard Wright]

Maliki (and his Sadr-like ally Al-Hakim) was the democratic choice of the Iraqis. Alawi was not. Isn’t “democracy” the whole lynchpin of the Bush doctrine?

[XR7]

Critics take aim at Bin Laden musical
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070802/od_afp/entertainmentbritain_070802182142

MUSLIM FURY AS 'JIHAD THE MUSICAL' COMES TO THE UK
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23406931-details/'Jihad+The+Musical'%3A+'Tasteless'+show+about+Islamic+terror

[PEACE ENFORCER]

Actually you’ve got Sunni (terrorists) coming in from Saudi Arabia travling through Demascus, and Shia (terrorists) flowing in through the Iranian border, Fighting over the future spoils (if the Rats can secure Defeat) of Iraq.........it’s truly disgraceful.

[Choose Ye This Day]

You’re a newbie to a CONSERVATIVE website, and you post crap from MOPAUL.COM???!??

I’m just not sure you’re in the right place.