View Full Version : Baghdad car bomb kills 136



betts
10-25-2009, 11:04 AM
I am very relieved, because I just heard from my son, who is in the Navy and working with the Iraqi election board in Baghdad. He's safe, but I'm sure some of the people killed or injured are acquaintances of his. I'm worried that, as the elections approach, the violence will increase. My heart goes out to anyone who had a family member killed or injured.

Baghdad car bombs near government offices kill 136

Published: October 25, 2009

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Two suicide car bombs exploded in downtown Baghdad Sunday, killing at least 136 people and delivering a powerful blow to the heart of the fragile city's government in the worst attack of the year, officials said.

While violence has dropped dramatically in the country since the height of the sectarian tensions, such bombings like Sunday's demonstrate the precarious nature of the security gains and the insurgency's abilities to still pull off devastating attacks in the center of what is supposed to be one of Baghdad's most secure areas.

Black smoke could be seen billowing from the frantic scene, as emergency service vehicles sped to the area. Even civilian cars were being commandeered to transport the wounded to hospitals.

"The walls collapsed and we had to run out," said Yasmeen Afdhal, 24, an employee of the Baghdad provincial administration, which was targeted by one of the car bombs. "There are many wounded, and I saw them being taken away. They were pulling victims out of the rubble, and rushing them to ambulances."

The car bombs, which targeted the Justice Ministry and the Baghdad provincial administration, come as Iraq is preparing for elections scheduled this January, and many Iraqi officials have warned that violence by insurgents intent destabilizing the country could rise.

There have been no claims of responsibility so far, but massive car bombs have been the hallmark of the Sunni insurgents seeking to overthrow the country's Shiite-dominated government.

At least 25 staff members of the Baghdad Provincial Council, which runs the city, were killed in the bombing, said council member Mohammed al-Rubaiey.

The area where the blasts occurred is just a few hundred yards from the Green Zone that houses the U.S. Embassy as well as the prime minister's offices. The street where the blasts occurred had just been reopened to vehicle traffic a few months ago, in what was supposed to be a sign that safety was returning to the once devastated city.

The devastating attacks occurred just hours before Iraq's top leadership was scheduled to meet with heads of political parties on Sunday and reach a compromise on the disputed election law ahead of a crucial parliamentary vote in January.

The explosive-laden vehicles were sitting in parking garages next to the two government building, police said.

"They are targeting the government and the political process in the country," Maj. Gen. Qassim al-Mousawi, spokesman for the city's operations command center, told The Associated Press. He said the blasts were the work of suicide bombers who drove the vehicles into the parking lots, before blowing them up.

The blasts, which surpassed coordinated attacks against two government ministries in August that killed more than 100 people, appeared to be a blow to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki who has staked his reputation and re-election hopes on returning security to the country.

Al-Maliki toured the blast sites later in the day.

Sunday's explosions also injured nearly 600 people who were taken to six area hospitals. Medical officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media, gave the death toll.

Video images captured on a cell phone showed the second blast going off in a massive ball of flames, followed by a burst of machine gun fire.

"This is a political struggle, the price of which we are paying," said provincial council member al-Rubaiey. "Every politician is responsible and even the government is responsible, as well as security leaders."

Three American security contractors, working for the U.S. embassy in Baghdad were injured in the blasts, but no American embassy personnel were killed, said Philip Frayne, an embassy spokesman. Frayne could not immediately provide details about who the contractors were escorting to the site, which company they worked for or, or the nature of their injuries.

The explosions were just a few hundred yards from Iraq's Foreign Ministry which is still rebuilding after massive bombings there in August. The bombings were a devastating blow for a country that has seen a dramatic drop in violence since the height of the sectarian fighting in 2006 and 2007.



Read more: NewsOK (http://www.newsok.com/baghdad-car-bombs-near-government-offices-kill-136/article/3411991?custom_click=headlines_widget#ixzz0Uy4h7XG C)

ronronnie1
10-25-2009, 03:02 PM
The Iraqis are so much better off since we "liberated" them. *sarcasm*

MadMonk
10-25-2009, 05:50 PM
Bravo! Hussein was such a kind and benevolent leader. The mass graves of dissidents and their families were all just a propaganda tool of the west.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Saddam_Hussein_on_his_throne.jpg

mugofbeer
10-25-2009, 05:58 PM
The Iraqis are so much better off since we "liberated" them. *sarcasm*

Has there ever been a place where freedom came cheaply?

ronronnie1
10-25-2009, 08:11 PM
If only there were a god to bring punishment onto those who started & cheered on the invasion of Iraq. I guess karma will have to take up the slack. I don't mind waiting.

kd5ili
10-25-2009, 08:20 PM
*Sigh*

If you took todays citizens and put them back in the 1700's, we would all be drinking afternoon tea and praising our Queen.

-Chris-

RedDirt717
10-25-2009, 08:28 PM
The Iraqis are so much better off since we "liberated" them. *sarcasm*

I'm sure they are, not that Saddam's killing of a millions Kurds means anything. I'm sure you're right.

RedDirt717
10-25-2009, 08:34 PM
If only there were a god to bring punishment onto those who started & cheered on the invasion of Iraq. I guess karma will have to take up the slack. I don't mind waiting.

Karma is a religious idea.

Thought you gave up on those "fairy tales" a long time ago?

mugofbeer
10-25-2009, 08:35 PM
If only there were a god to bring punishment onto those who started & cheered on the invasion of Iraq. I guess karma will have to take up the slack. I don't mind waiting.

It sounds as if you don't feel Iraqi's are worthy of being free people? Its OK for you to be able to vote for your own leader and live under our form of freedom but they shouldn't have their own form or level of freedom? You would prefer they live under a tyrant who worshiped Hitler and modelled his government after the Nazis? Sure the Iraqi's could have just waited until Saddam died but then there were his son's......

You might not mind waiting but I am sure the Shiite Muslims in Iraq and the Kurds didn't have quite the same patience for waiting that you do. If God had only given Bush W. the wisdom to tell the truth from the start of the war and the wisdom of how to have procured it properly.

Easy180
10-25-2009, 08:39 PM
It sounds as if you don't feel Iraqi's are worthy of being free people? Its OK for you to be able to vote for your own leader and live under our form of freedom but they shouldn't have their own form or level of freedom? You would prefer they live under a tyrant who worshiped Hitler and modelled his government after the Nazis? Sure the Iraqi's could have just waited until Saddam died but then there were his son's......

You might not mind waiting but I am sure the Shiite Muslims in Iraq and the Kurds didn't have quite the same patience for waiting that you do. If God had only given Bush W. the wisdom to tell the truth from the start of the war and the wisdom of how to have procured it properly.

They are definitely worthy mug...Problem is we don't have the dough to spend a decade or two in every country that needs to be liberated

mugofbeer
10-25-2009, 08:44 PM
The problem is, that if it had been a "politically correct" rescue of abused people such as in Darfur or Burma, the left would have been fine with it. The fact that Iraq has oil and that oil figured into a much larger geopolitical problem made Iraq politically IN-correct.

ronronnie1
10-25-2009, 10:40 PM
Karma is a religious idea.

Thought you have up on those "fairy tales" a long time ago?

Oh so nice to you see keeping tabs on me. I didn't think I was THAT irresistable, but whatever.

And this thread has predictably devolved into yet another echo chamber of conservatard hot air. Yall have fun.

MadMonk
10-26-2009, 06:36 AM
I'm so sorry your fellow Hussein fans didn't show up to assist you. Maybe they will the next time you post your inflammatory claptrap.

jc4455
10-26-2009, 09:22 AM
Why do you love Oppression ronronnie?

mugofbeer
10-26-2009, 09:33 AM
Oh so nice to you see keeping tabs on me. I didn't think I was THAT irresistable, but whatever.

And this thread has predictably devolved into yet another echo chamber of conservatard hot air. Yall have fun.

And predictibly, he/she bolts ........ like a chihuahua nipping at your heels, you turn to face him/her and she runs under the bed yelping.