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| A case of thanksgiving |
paraclete |
11/23/06 |
as you give thanks you are not fighting terrorism at home, are you giving thanks for this, the consequence of carrying that fight to foreign shores?
Worst Iraq blast since war
Iraqis walk past the site of a car bomb explosion in the Sadr City district of Baghdad.
Iraqis walk past the site of a car bomb explosion in the Sadr City district of Baghdad.
Photo: AP
November 24, 2006 - 7:09AM
In the worst attack on Baghdad since the war to unseat Saddam Hussein, insurgents killed at least 152 people and wounded 236 in a series of car bombings in the Shi'ite district of Sadr City, security and medical sources said.
The attacks prompted the interior ministry to announce an indefinite curfew in the capital, effective from 8pm today (0400 AEDT Friday) .
Wounded clogged the hospitals of Sadr City, with dozens lying bleeding in the corridors as overworked staff struggled to tend to the casualties.
"Of those killed, 88 bodies are in the Imam Ali hospital and 55 in Sadr City hospital," a medic said, saying many of the bodies were burned beyond recognition.
A police official said other bodies were taken to hospitals outside the district.
Hospital security forces kept at bay hundreds of relatives struggling to see the dead and wounded.
The bloodiest bomb exploded in a crowded market in the Hay neighbourhood, targeting stores selling religious CDs, as well as electronics outlets selling mobile phones.
In the increasingly bitter sectarian war gripping the capital, crowded markets in Shi'ite neighbourhoods and villages have been popular targets for the bombers of the Sunni-led insurgency.
In the market, the twisted frame of a car carrying the explosives sat amid the wreckage of the shops, while everywhere the ground was littered with pools of blood and debris from the stores.
As ambulances rushed to attend to the wounded, pillars of black smoke billowed over the stricken neighbourhood and inhabitants collected the bits of flesh left by the dead.
Interior ministry spokesman Brigadier General Abdel Karim Khalaf told state television Al-Iraqiya that police believe a total of eight bombs were planted in Sadr City.
"Four of them exploded, one we have located and also arrested the driver of the car, but three are still to be detected," Khalaf said, without elaborating.
He also said 10 rounds slammed into Sadr City after the bombings and were expected to have caused casualties.
Minutes before the blasts about 100 masked gunmen attacked the Shi'ite-controlled health ministry clashing with guards and Iraqi soldiers, Deputy Health Minister Hakim al-Zamili said.
"First a series of mortars were fired at the building from the nearby Al-Fadhel neighbourhood, and then about 100 masked gunmen holding machine guns attacked the building," said Zamili.
"About 2,000 employees are trapped in the building. I am also in the building," he added. "The gunmen came in civilian cars and pick-up trucks and started shooting at the building and wounded a number of employees."
The attack was eventually dispersed, and only five people were wounded, he added.
On Sunday, gunmen kidnapped Deputy Health minister Ammar al-Assafar from his home in Baghdad's Adhamiyah district. Zamili himself escaped an assassination bid on Monday, but two of his guards were killed in the ambush.
The attack on the ministry mirrors a November 14 raid on the Sunni-controlled ministry of higher education, in which at least 150 people were kidnapped.
In the aftermath of the attacks in Sadr City and on the ministry, some 13 mortar rounds rained down on Adhamiyah, a Sunni neighbourhood, wounding 10 people.
Explosions continued to reverberate through Baghdad well into the night.
Sadr City, the impoverished district of followers loyal to radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, was also the site of an early morning incident involving American soldiers.
"US troops fired on a minibus carrying workers and killed a number of them in Al-Falah street at 6am," Imam Abdel Zahra al-Suwaidi from the Sadr movement said.
A medic at the Sadr City hospital said four people were killed and eight wounded, including two women.
But the US military said Iraqi forces fired on the vehicle during a raid to detain the leader of a kidnapping cell.
"A vehicle displaying hostile intent was identified as an immediate threat to Iraqi forces. Iraqi forces fired on the vehicle to neutralise the threat," the military said without mentioning civilian casualties.
US forces have regularly raided Sadr City to hunt for leaders of kidnapping cells alleged to be militiamen loyal to Sadr.
On Wednesday, a UN report said Iraq's sectarian conflict killed at least 3,709 people in October, the highest monthly death toll since the 2003 US-led invasion.
The figures, from data provided by the health ministry and morgues, compared with a previous high of 3,590 in July, which the United Nations at the time called "unprecedented."
The report came as US President George W. Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki prepared to meet in Jordan next Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the US military said three more soldiers were killed in Iraq, bringing its losses since the invasion to 2,866, according to Pentagon figures.
Police also recovered eight bodies near the central city of Diwaniyah, while 12 people were reported killed in the city of Baquba.
US Secretary of the Army Francis Harvey arrived in Baghdad today to visit troops on the Thanksgiving holiday, a military spokeswoman said.
AFP
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Clarification/Follow-up by tomder55 on 11/26/06 9:10 am:
Written by an Australian Dentist...
To Kill an American or an Canadian
You probably missed it in the rush of news last week, but there was
actually a report that someone in Pakistan had published in a
newspaper an offer of a reward to anyone who killed an American or
Canadian, any American or Canadian.
So an Australian dentist wrote an editorial the following day to
let everyone know what an American or Canadian is,
so they would know when they found one.
An American or Canadian is English, or French, or Italian, Irish,
German, Spanish, Polish, Russian or Greek. An American may also be
Canadian, Mexican, African, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean,
Australian, Iranian, Asian, or Arab, or Pakistani or Afghan.
An American or Canadian may also be a Comanche, Cherokee, Osage,
Blackfoot, Navaho, Apache, Seminole or one of the many other tribes
known as native Americans or Canadians.
An American or Canadian is Christian, or he could be Jewish, or
Buddhist, or Muslim. In fact, there are more Muslims in America or
Canada than in Afghanistan . The only difference is that in America
they are free to worship as each of them chooses.
An American or Canadian is also free to believe in no religion.
For that he will answer only to God, not to the government,
or to armed thugs claiming to speak for the government
and for God.
An American or Canadian lives in the most prosperous land in the
history of the world. The root of that prosperity can be found in
the Declaration of Independence (or in Canada, the Bill of Rights),
which recognizes the God given right of each person to the pursuit of
happiness.
An American or Canadian is generous. Americans or Canadians have
helped out just about every other nation in the world in their time
of need, never asking a thing in return.
When Afghanistan was over-run by the Soviet army 20 years ago,
Americans and Canadians came with arms and supplies to enable the
people to win back their country!
As of the morning of September 11, Americans had given more than
any other nation to the poor in Afghanistan.
Americans and Canadians welcome the best of everything, the best
products, the best books, the best music, the best food, the best
services. But they also welcome the least. The national symbol of
America, the Statue of Liberty, welcomes your tired and your poor,
the wretched refuse of your teeming shores, the homeless, tempest
tossed. These in fact are the people who built America .
Some of them were working in the Twin Towers the morning of
September 11, 2001 earning a better life for their
families. It's been told that the World Trade Center victims were
from at least 30 different countries, cultures, and first
languages, including those that aided and abetted the terrorists.
So you can try to kill an American or Canadian if you must.
Hitler did. So did General Tojo, and Stalin, and Mao Tse-Tung, and
other blood-thirsty tyrants in the world. But, in doing so you
would just be killing yourself. Because Americans and Canadians
are not a particular people from a particular place. They are the
embodiment of the human spirit of freedom. Everyone who holds
to that spirit, everywhere, is an American or a Canadian
Clarification/Follow-up by ETWolverine on 11/27/06 12:35 pm:
I am thankful that those unneccessary deaths weren't Americans. That is the point of fighting in Iraq rather than here.
Aren't you thankful that the unnecessary deaths weren't Australians?
Elliot
Clarification/Follow-up by ETWolverine on 11/27/06 12:40 pm:
>>>the Iraqi have nothing, the imperialists in Washington have taken whatever they had from them,<<<
Can you name one single thing that the "imperialists in Washington" have taken from the Iraqi people?
Not oil... we haven't seen a drop of Iraqi oil, especially not oil that has been "taken" and not paid for.
Not money... we're spending a ton there but have not taken one dime in return so far.
Not their freedom... the Iraqi people voted for their current government and their constitution with an 80% turnout rate that puts the Western World to shame.
Not their livelihoods... unemployment in Iraq is down by about 50%, average salaries are up significantly.
Not their military power... we've been training up their soldiers to western standards and equiping them properly.
So what, exactly, have the "Washington imperialists" taken from Iraq?
In other words, can you back up your rhetorric with facts?
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