Deadly Day in Baghdad

iVillage Member
Registered: 07-20-2003
Deadly Day in Baghdad
32
Thu, 09-30-2004 - 1:55pm
Reality once again crashes headlong into Bush's glib contention that things are getting better in Iraq.

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Baghdad bomb attacks leave 35 children dead

7 adults also killed during ceremony for new sewage treatment plant; U.S. soldier, 2 others die in suicide blast; 10 new hostages seized

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- A series of bombs killed 35 children and seven adults today as U.S. troops handed out candy at a government ceremony to inaugurate a new sewage treatment plant. Hours earlier, a suicide blast killed a U.S. soldier and two Iraqis on the capital's outskirts.

The bombs in Baghdad's al-Amel neighborhood caused the largest death toll of children in any insurgent attack since the conflict in Iraq began 17 months ago.

"The Americans called us, they told us, 'Come here, come here,' asking us if we wanted sweets. We went beside them, then a car exploded," said 12-year-old Abdel Rahman Dawoud, lying naked in a hospital bed with shrapnel embedded all over his body.

Two bombs went off in quick succession at the ceremony about 1 p.m., then were followed by a third explosion a short distance away, said Interior Ministry spokesman Col. Adnan Abdul-Rahman. He said there were two suicide car bombs and one roadside bomb; the Americans said all three were car bombs.

The explosions killed 42 people and wounded 141, including 10 U.S. soldiers. The wounded included 72 children under the age of 14, said Dr. Mohammed Salaheddin.

The day of violence across Iraq, including insurgent attacks and U.S. airstrikes in Fallujah, left a total of 46 people dead and 208 wounded.

In the northern city of Tal Afar, a car bomb targeting the police chief killed at least four people and wounded 16, Iraqi and U.S. officials said. The chief, whose name was only given as Col. Ismail, escaped the assassination attempt, police said.

Also today, the Arab news network Al-Jazeera showed video of 10 new hostages seized in Iraq by militants. Al-Jazeera said the 10 -- six Iraqis, two Lebanese and two Indonesian women -- were taken by The Islamic Army in Iraq, a group that has claimed responsibility for seizing two French journalists.

A Lebanese official later said kidnappers had released one Lebanese captive, although it was not clear if he was among the 10.

In the al-Amel bombings, grief-stricken parents wailed over the bodies of their children at the Yarmouk Hospital morgue. One woman tore at her hair before pulling back the sheet covering her dead brother and kissing him.

One man carried his younger brother -- both legs bandaged -- to the hospital, where some children were put two to a bed because of the many wounded. Outside, women sat on the ground and wept as they awaited news about their children.

The hospital received 42 bodies -- including those of 35 children -- and 131 wounded, said Iyhsan Nasser, head of the facility's statistics department.

At the site of the blasts, body parts were strewn in the streets amid pools of blood. A U.S. helicopter evacuated some of the wounded while other aircraft circled overhead and soldiers sealed off the area.

Lt. Col. Jim Hutton, spokesman for the U.S. 1st Cavalry Division, said 10 American soldiers were among the wounded.

American troops were taking part in the ceremony to inaugurate the sewage plant, said Maj. Phil Smith, another division spokesman, calling the attacks "despicable." Officials earlier had said a U.S. convoy was passing through the area.

Smith said the first two explosions targeted the ceremony, while the third was aimed at a nearby Iraqi National Guard checkpoint.

The children were at the ceremony because the school year in Iraq has not yet begun.

"This attack was carried out by evil people who do not want the Iraqis to celebrate and don't want (reconstruction) projects in Iraq," said Iraqi National Guard Lt. Ahmad Saad.

Hours earlier, a suicide car bomber struck in the Abu Ghraib area outside of Baghdad, killing the American soldier and at least two Iraqis, and wounding 60, Iraqi and U.S. officials said.

That bomb targeted a compound housing the mayor's office, a police station and other buildings, police 1st Lt. Ahmed Jawad said. A U.S. Bradley fighting vehicle parked in front of the compound was hit, Hutton said.

Elsewhere, insurgents fired a rocket Thursday at a logistical support area for coalition forces on the outskirts of Baghdad, killing one soldier and wounding seven, the military said. No further details was disclosed -- including whether or not it was a U.S. soldier.

Meanwhile, the United States targeted a suspected terrorist safehouse in Fallujah. The military said intelligence reports indicated the house was being used by followers of Jordanian terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi to plan attacks against U.S.-led forces and Iraqi citizens.

At least four Iraqis were killed -- including two women and one child -- and eight were wounded, said Dr. Ahmed Khalil of the Fallujah General Hospital. Witnesses said two houses were flattened and four others damaged in the strike.

"Significant secondary explosions were observed during the impact, indicating a large cache of illegal ordinance was stored in the safehouse," the military statement said. Explosions continued for hours.

American jets, tanks and artillery units repeatedly have targeted al-Zarqawi's network in Fallujah recently as U.S.-led forces seek to assert control over insurgent enclaves ahead of elections slated for January. The military says the attacks have inflicted significant damage on the network, which has claimed responsibility for bombings, kidnappings and other attacks.

Doctors say scores of civilians have been killed and wounded in the strikes.

Al-Zarqawi's group, Tawhid and Jihad, has claimed responsibility for several beheadings and kidnappings.

Al-Jazeera's video of the latest hostages showed three captives, who were not identified, and two masked men pointing weapons at them. There was no mention of demands by the militants or when or where they were captured. The network said the 10 were employees of the Jib electricity company.

Gen. Hussein Ali Kamal, Iraq's deputy interior minister in charge of intelligence, later confirmed that two Lebanese had been kidnapped along with a group of others that included women.

More than 140 foreigners have been kidnapped in Iraq and at least 26 have been killed.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nationworld/iraq/bal-iraq0930,1,1571907.story?coll=bal-nationworld-headlines

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-05-2004
Thu, 10-07-2004 - 1:32pm
I've just heard some people (various places) say that people in Iraq just want to kill us. *shrug* I've seen some of the palaces (pictures) and they do look very pretty (on the outside). I'm sure the places inside are just as pretty.
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-24-2004
Fri, 10-08-2004 - 1:14am
Tell me a place that people dont want to kill Americans!!! That is the world we live in now. Do you know when I left one of the camps our bus runs the fence line. On the fence line there are watch towers with military inside of them keeping a lookout. Below them on the other side of the fence is Iraqi land. They grow corn and stuff. Well under one of the towers were a bunch of kids none of them older than 7 yelling at the soldiers and throwing things. Their parents, we could see, were in the field working.

This is so distressing for me, becuase how can I defend this kind of action? Every day i feel the need to defend muslims and Islam but this is undefendable. All I can say is that we do not know how we would feel if we were under occupation. Just look at how some act when the government changes laws that they do not like, can you imagine being under a foreign occupation???

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Fri, 10-08-2004 - 8:05am
I have, on my lap as I type this, a book on Ireland, publisted in 1985. In it are scenes from Northern Ireland taken at that time. One of the pictures shows children, gathered around the propaganda painted on a wall by Sinn Fein. I also remember seeing pictures of children throwing rocks at British personell carriers, and sassing British troops. I also remember the bombings, the prison scandals, kidnappings, the knee-cappings, and the fact that the British were there for about thirty years, trying to bring a peace to that country. When we invaded Iraq, I told my family, "We've gone into Northern Ireland in 1970. I don't think America is ready for this."

I'm amused today that "terrorist" has come to be associated with "Islamic." During most of my life, it meant Catholic. Wonder what people will think if the peace process in Northern Ireland breaks down, and bombs start going off there again? Will they say that the Catholic religion is a religion of war and death?

How soon Americans forget. Or never learned, as the case may be.

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-12-2004
Fri, 10-08-2004 - 10:05am
I think it's never learned.
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-24-2003
Fri, 10-08-2004 - 10:36am
Some seem to love misery, seem to live to fight. It need not be this way. It takes one person meeting another and they convince another. Soon others. We can stop these nonsensical cycles of hate.
iVillage Member
Registered: 08-12-2004
Fri, 10-08-2004 - 12:14pm
Well said, I agree.
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-24-2004
Sun, 10-10-2004 - 3:51am
Very good points olddude!!! I have not seen you around lately, where have you been hiding???
iVillage Member
Registered: 08-07-2004
Sun, 10-10-2004 - 11:28am
Right after we took over Baghdad peace activists were saying bring the troops home now. The "reasoned" response was that if we left Iraq would "descend into chaos". I was swayed by that line of reasoning, I thought like others did that we have an obligation to stabilize the country after invading. Yet Iraq is surely in chaos now, with insurgency bombings in Baghdad, & even in the Green Zone.
iVillage Member
Registered: 08-07-2004
Sun, 10-10-2004 - 11:38am
OK, I'll pick a war. I pick Bush's war in Iraq. Which war have you picked?

What does abortion have to do with Iraq? Nothing that I can determine. Are you saying because women have abortions that killing innocent civilians in Iraq is OK? I can't fathom how your religion endorses that logic. Killing is killing, isn't it? Isn't it all wrong?

What does falling asleep in your car have to do with Iraq?

What do car accidents have to do with Iraq?

Actually these both are linked to Iraq, through oil.

If we weren't dependent on mideast oil for our personal vehicles we wouldn't have gone to war in Iraq. Yes, yes, I know you don't agree. But there are dozens of countries in the world with leaders just as bad & some worse than Saddam. The reason we went after him was for oil. If we had better public transportation, we would use fewer cars, & have fewer accidents. Furthermore, we wouldn't need to attack oil rich countries. That would result in fewer deaths all around.

That's one of the points Kerry has made that really pleased me. He said we should be using American ingenuity to become less dependent on foriegn oil.

KERRY/EDWARDS :)

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Sun, 10-10-2004 - 9:29pm
My life has been in the toliet lately. Really.

I took up the last of the carpet that was put over the hardwood floor before we bought our house. When it came up, my wife said, "Why don't you do the bathroom. Some new fixtures would look very nice." I had never done a bathroom before, so I said, "Sure. How hard can it be?" Famous last words.

Take up the old carpet and padding, take out the tacks that held both down, sand the floors, color the wood, put down poly, and cut new baseboard. Oh, and paint the walls, since the place is torn up anyway.

But the last of the '70's Harvest Gold carpet is gone, the bathroom is repainted, the floor is redone, and at new sink and stool is finally installed. Oh, did I mention the new furniture that had to be assembled?

Now, just iron the curtains, maybe put in a new medicene chest, and, if I have any energy left, a new light for the bathroom.

"This Old House." Ha!