Suicide Bomber Kills 30 Outside Baghdad Mosque

An explosion during Friday prayers outside a Shiite mosque in southern Baghdad killed more than a dozen people, officials said, an attack during a Shiite festival that mirrored deadly explosions a year ago. Witnesses said a second bomb exploded outside a mosque in western Baghdad.


An Iraqi National Guard officer said about 30 people died in the blast in southern Baghdad. Police, however, said that initial reports had 13 people killed and 23 injured.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=514&u=/ap/20050218/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_explosion_4

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-1489953,00.htmlF

February 18, 2005

Up to 30 dead in Baghdad mosque bomb
By Chris Johnston, Times Online


As many as 30 people are believed to have died in an suicide bombing during Friday prayers at a Shia mosque in Baghdad today.


A further 22 people have been wounded, although that total is expected to rise.

The blast occurred in the Dora neighborhood near the al-Khadimain mosque, but other details of the explosion remain unclear.

... insurrection as the beginning of civil war. *sigh*

and officially move this chickenshit war into the QUAGMIRE category.

and I would bet the Rummy's SS squads have more to do with this than any infighting among Iraqis. Just cynical me.

The only thing Sunnis and Shias agree on is that the US should quit Iraq. The Shias aren't part of the insurgency? Yes, they are. They called it an election. They and the Kurds won, the US stooge Allawi lost and the Sunnis boycotted.

One might start to imagine what Iraq would have looked like if the US had not invaded and Saddam had died of a sudden heart attack (or a well-deserved case of lead poisoning) in April 2003. The Kurds would be trying to decide among themselves whether they want autonomy or independence; the Shias would be demanding a government that reflects their numerical majority (a situation that did not exist when Saddam came to power); and the Sunnis would be trying to resist the prospect of Shia domination for fear that a Shia republic would be no better to them than Saddam was to the Shias.

In short, pretty much what we have now, only with the Bushies and their puppets out of the equation.

. . . like the bataan death march.

Any ideas?

...and some oppose anyone who cooperates with the Occupation.

IRR 021705

Hit declared “free of US forces” as Americans pull out following hours of bloody fighting.

The Iraqi Resistance on Wednesday night announced that
the city of Hit in western Iraq had been completely freed of
US occupation forces. The correspondent of Mafkarat al-Islam
in Hit reported that the declaration followed fierce battles
that lasted four hours, after which the US troops pulled out of
the city entirely.

The fighting was centered on the neighborhoods of al-
Hamam and al-Mu‘allimin and in the villages of al-Bu
‘Assam and az-Zawiyyah. Six giant US tanks and four
armored vehicles were destroyed and two armored
vehicles disabled in the fighting. The Resistance also shot
down an Apache helicopter. The Mafkarat al-
Islam correspondent who covered the actual
fighting independently estimated that at least 40
American troops were killed. A correspondent of the US-
funded al-Hurrah TV company covered the fighting
“embedded” with US occupation
troops.

and keep iraq on the boil, even spark a civil war. i wonder who would desire that?
iran? i doubt it, they would be the winners if a shia govt comes to power in iraq.
The American Oligarchy (+ Israel)? Now that's another matter... sometimes I believe, reading abt and watching the situation, that they want to carve up Iraq...

even before 'Shock and Awe'. That it's happened is anti-climactic. But with Negroponte on the scene, we'll never really know who's doing what because that guy likes killing, and he thinks it's a useful tool to get what corrupt American administations want (meaning control). And he has absolutely no problem with killing innocent people to stir up shit if he thinks it's a way to undermine on party that's getting just a little too powerful.

Anything is possible.

http://www.breakingnews.ie/2005/02/18/story189915.html

Second bomb blast in Baghdad after 30 killed outside mosque
18/02/2005 - 10:59:52

Witnesses say a second bomb has exploded at a mosque in western Baghdad.

In the first blast this morning, a suicide bomber killed about 30 people when he blew himself up outside one of Baghdad’s main Shiite mosques during Friday prayers, a National Guard officer said.

The attack took place near the al-Khadimain mosque in the capital’s Dora district, Lieutenant Ahmad Ali said.

Shiites are celebrating the Islamic holy month of Muharram and tomorrow is Ashoura - the holiest day of the year for them.

During Ashoura last year, twin blasts ripped through crowds of worshippers at Shiite Muslim shrines in Baghdad and Karbala, killing at least 181 people.

Seems that there are various types of assults being carried out. The ones on police and Iraqi military seem obvious as do the IEDs but blowing up people at Mosques isn't a clear msg. Over 40% of Kurds are Sunnis yet it seems that the Kurds have been working with the U.S. Do the Sunni Kurds view themselves as being seperate from Iraqi Sunnis? I read that the Shi'ites are purging Ba'athists but many Sunnis are not Ba'athists. If the new Iraqi Govt. were to include a fair representation of Sunnis in the Govt. would this not lessen the violence? If the new Iraqi Govt. set a basic time for the U.S Troops to leave, say within a year wouldn't that lessen the violence? If a Govt. was set up that homnored Shira Law wouldn't that lessen the violence? I am still confused as to what is going on in Iraq.

Text from Abu Mus’ab al-Zarqawi Letter

"3 . The Shi`a

the insurmountable obstacle, the lurking snake, the crafty and malicious scorpion, the spying enemy, and the penetrating venom." etc. (...)

"Fourth: The Work Plan (...)

4. The Shi`a

These in our opinion are the key to change. I mean that targeting and hitting them in religious, political, and military depth will provoke them to show the Sunnis their rabies … and bare the teeth of the hidden rancor working in their breasts. If we succeed in dragging them into the arena of sectarian war, it will become possible to awaken the inattentive Sunnis as they feel imminent danger and annihilating death at the hands of these Sabeans. (...)

5. The Work Mechanism

1 – They, i.e., the Shi`a, have declared a secret war against the people of Islam. They are the proximate, dangerous enemy of the Sunnis, even if the Americans are also an archenemy. The danger from the Shi`a, however, is greater and their damage is worse and more destructive to the nation than the Americans, on whom you find a quasi-consensus about killing them as an assailing enemy. (...)

3 – Our fighting against the Shi`a is the way to drag the nation into the battle."

More:
http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/library/news/iraq/2004/02/040212-al-zarqawi.htm

A civil war looks almost inevitable. The Shi'ite government will have to find Sunni allies against Zarqaqi in order to prevent it.

Oil executives say they have no choice but to try alternatives
to drilling because there is not much more crude to be found
in their current fields.

``We're damn close'' to the peak in conventional oil
production, Boone Pickens, who oversees more than $1
billion in energy-related investments at his Dallas hedge
fund firm, said in an interview in New York Feb. 16. ``I think
we're there.'' Suncor Energy Inc., the world's second-
biggest oil-sands miner, is his largest
holding.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000102&sid=aZ6yVeyLhzkE&refer=uk

On December 22, Mahdi - with US Under Secretary of State
Alan Larson by his side - told the National Press Club
in Washington in so many words, and to the delight of
corporate US oil majors, that a new oil law would privatize
Iraq 's oil industry. The new law would allow investment in
both downstream and "maybe even upstream"
operations, meaning foreigners could become de facto
owners of Iraqi oilfields.

Muqtada al-Sadr is just waiting to pounce. It's
increasingly possible that the Sadrists who contested
the elections may capture something like 7% of the seats in
the new assembly. They've already said they will demand
an immediate timetable for total  US withdrawal. Muqtada
wants the Americans out and he wants them out now.
That's also exactly what disgruntled, religious Sunnis
want.

What the Kurdish tribal chiefs really want is the ultimate
prize: they want independence (it could even be some kind
of US-Israeli protectorate) and they want Kirkuk 's oil. All of
this, for them, is non-
negotiable-see latest Turkey-

http://www.dunyagazetesi.com.tr/news_display.asp?upsale_id=208691&dept_id=87

an overwhelming number of moderate, secular Sunnis
and Shi'ites are convinced that "arch terrorist" Abu
Musab al-Zarqawi is being exploited in a CIA black-
ops designed to exacerbate ethnic tensions (see
latest Shia Mosque bombings).

Moreover, the majority of Iraqis - those who voted and
especially those who didn't - are not willing to surrender their
oil, their economy and their land to corporate America .
The popular resistance, on a national level, tends only
to increase. Shi'ites - from Sistani to the SCIRI - better not
enter into a Faustian
pact.

http://globalresearch.ca/articles/ESC502A.html

From the BBC Online
Dated Friday February 18 14:18 GMT (6:18 am PST)

Blasts target Iraq`s Shia Muslims

A series of attacks against Shia Muslim targets have killed at least 18 people in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad.
At least 15 people died at a Shia mosque, where a suicide bomber mingled with worshippers during prayer time before detonating his explosives.

Around the same time, suicide attackers struck another mosque, killing at least one person, while at least two people died in a blast at a cafe.

The attacks came on the eve of Ashura, the holiest day of the Shia calendar.

Read more.

I had almost totally forgotten about the Ashura bombings last year. And it seemed such a huge thing then. There has been so much, so much killing. It all seems pointless to me. I can only imagine what it would be like to be a grandmother in Baghdad today. Every day a new horror. Yet, in my life, people still bitch about somebody stealing the cream from the office fridge or the color of the new carpet and few even mention that hundreds are being butchered every day in Iraq.

From the BBC Online
Dated tuesday March 2, 2004

Iraq Shias massacred on holy day

More than 140 people have been killed in blasts targeting Iraqi Shias as they celebrated the climax of a holy ritual in the cities of Karbala and Baghdad.

US military officials say 400 were hurt in the near-simultaneous attacks of the bloodiest day since the war began.

The carnage was soon blamed on a man accused of links to al-Qaeda.

There has been confusion over what caused the blasts, but mortars may have been used in what correspondents say is an alarming new method for insurgents.

Read more.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&e=1&u=/ap/20050218/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq

:(

By PATRICK QUINN, Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Four explosions aimed at Shiite worshippers ripped through Baghdad during Friday prayers and killed at least 29 people and injured dozens, officials said, in the deadliest attacks since the election on the eve of Shiite Islam's most important holiday.

The explosions took place across Baghdad, mostly in Shiite neighborhoods. Suicide bombers struck at two Shiite mosques after Friday prayers ended, another explosion took place near a Shiite religious procession and a third suicide bomber detonated himself at an Iraqi police and National Guard checkpoint in a Shiite neighborhood.

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050218/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_050218151206

On edit:

CNN just reported that the third suicide bombing took place at a checkpoint in a Sunni neighborhood.

How much longer will the Shiites put up with this before they start striking back and we have a Sunni/Shia civil war?

AS for "terrorism", according to Baghdad sources,
an overwhelming number of moderate, secular Sunnis
and Shi'ites are convinced that "arch terrorist" Abu
Musab al-Zarqawi is being exploited in a CIA black-
ops designed to exacerbate ethnic
tensions.

. . . than US-imposed martial law?