Posted on 06/30/2009 3:58:56 PM PDT by don-o
At least 27 people have been killed by a car bomb at a market in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, officials say.
The attack in the Shurja district came as Iraqis celebrated the withdrawal of US troops from towns and cities in Iraq, six years after the invasion.
US President Barack Obama said the move was an important milestone for Iraq, but that "difficult days" lay ahead.
The Kirkuk blast came 10 days after a truck bomb killed more than 70 in the city's deadliest attack in over a year.
Iraqi and US troops have been on alert for attacks during the pullback, which was declared a national holiday.
Police Brig Gen Sarhat Qadir told the Associated Press news agency that at least 40 people had been wounded in the latest blast, caused by an explosives-laden vehicle parked near the crowded outdoor Shurja market.
Volatile mix
A teeming maze of shops and stalls, Shurja is one of the country's best-known markets, attracting buyers and sellers from all over Iraq, say correspondents.
Kirkuk, about 250km (155 miles) from Baghdad, was also the scene of two suicide bombings last month, in which 14 people were killed.
The city is the centre of northern Iraq's oil industry, and home to a volatile mix of Kurds, Arabs, Christians and members of the Turkmen community.
The BBC's Jim Muir in Baghdad says Tuesday's car bomb appears to be just the kind of attack designed to stir up ethnic tensions between Kurds and Arabs.
Most of the other bombs that have killed around 250 people in the past fortnight have been aimed at Shia areas.
Our correspondent says the clear aim is to reignite the sectarian carnage that took the country to the brink of civil wa
(Excerpt) Read more at news.bbc.co.uk ...
The legacy of cut and run ... send thank you cards to Obozo.
Ping!
We now return to our regularly scheduled bloodbath.
I dunno about that. How long are we willing to keep OUR troops on THEIR streets?
There has to be a point in time when we pull back. If not today, when?
Free at last, to blow each other up without US interference.
It's their religion. Allah commands them to kill.
Ibn Ishaq: 327 - “Allah said, ‘A prophet must slaughter before collecting captives. A slaughtered enemy is driven from the land. Muhammad, you craved the desires of this world, its goods and the ransom captives would bring. But Allah desires killing them to manifest the religion.’”
But, the job really requires the eradication of demon possessed religion (or the perverted version that it spawned, if one prefers). We never included that in the mission objectives.
Think - cockroaches.
I have always looked at Iraq as another Vietnam, the way it was treated by the MSM. All went well as long as US troops were there.
It will be a miracle if Iraq could resemble more enlightened Western nations. Their drawback is Islam. Name one Muslim nation whose citizens do not have the desire to move to the West. With all their oil richness they’re still one unhappy bunch.
(Oops, we are the largest Muslim nation aren’t we? The donkeys say so.)
>But Allah desires killing them to manifest the religion.’”<
.
And then there are Christians who proclaim that Allah is the equivalent of our loving Triune God. Words fail me.
Allah is a moon god.
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