Rescuers call off search for survivors... in Baghdad that killed 17

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) Rescue crews on Thursday called off their search for survivors of a massive suicide bombing of a hotel in Baghdad that killed 17 people, just days before the anniversary of the start of the U.S.-led war in Iraq.

The military had earlier said that 27 people were killed, but U.S. Army Col. Jill Morgenthaler on Thursday put the death toll at 17. She gave no explanation for why it was revised downward.

Elsewhere, gunmen opened fire on a minibus, killing three Iraqi journalists and wounding nine other employees of a coalition-funded TV station in northeastern Iraq, police said.

Rebels often target Iraqis perceived as collaborators with the Americans and the attacks underlined the continued vulnerability of Iraqi civilians nearly a year after Saddam Hussein was ousted.

~snip~
more: http://www.boston.com/dailynews/078/world/Rescuers_call_off_search_for_s:.shtml

CNNI just reported that the numbers of deaths may even be lower.

Are these dead peoples' kin going to get the big $5,000 payoff?

according to Walt Rogers on CNNI, the latest from the Iraqi police is that 7 died. :shrug:

Pretty good, an entire hotel was leveled and only 7 people died.

I know I do. :eyes:

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=578&ncid=578&e=1&u=/nm/20040318/ts_nm/iraq_dc

<snip>
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq (news - web sites)'s interior minister said on Thursday a car bomb that devastated a central Baghdad neighborhood three days before the anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion killed six people -- well below U.S. estimates of 27.


..... gee, I wonder whom to believe?

<<The U.S. army said Wednesday night's attack, which tore through the small Mount Lebanon hotel and neighbouring residential buildings, bore the hallmark of the Ansar al-Islam militant group or of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian accused by Washington of working for al Qaeda to sow chaos in Iraq.>>

The death toll was decreasing 10 at a time.

27 - 10 = 17
17 - 10 = 07
07 - 10 = -3

New reports claim -3 people died in the bombings but grieving family members may say otherwise.

An interesting read in the current “National Catholic Reporter" by Ashley Merryman

Is Baghdad another Belfast?: Canceled elections in Northern Ireland raise questions about democracy-building in Iraq.

I would post a link but the article is not available except to members. Merryman has spent some time in Northern Ireland researching for a book.

Lacking WMD”s “…what remains for the justification for taking over Iraq is of course that we freed the Iraqis from a tyranical dictatorship with the promise of democracy. In Belfast, all summer long, every time President Bush or Prime Miniser Blair made such a statement, people on both sides of the peace walls started to laugh. It mattered not if they were unionist or nationalist, Protestant or Catholic. The reaction was the same. The put their hands up in the air and cried, ‘Excuse me, Mr. Blair! When’s our turn for democracy? How are you going to bring democracy to the Middle East when you have ended it in the UK?’”

The article recounts how the Blair government has suspended democracy in Northern Ireland because he wasn’t pleased with the outcome such elections would have. The Blair government is manipulating the process there the same as Bush and Blair in Iraq, not to mention Haiti, Venezuela and other budding democracies. Merryman finishes with, “No Iraq isn’t a new Vietnam. But Baghdad could be our Belfast.”