Outbreak of Violence Kills More Than a Hundred Iraqis in 2 Days

[buzzsaw_23]

Outbreak of Violence Kills More Than a Hundred Iraqis in 2 Days

By SABRINA TAVERNISE
Published: September 30, 2005

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Sept. 30 - A car bomb detonated today near a fruit and vegetable market in Hilla, a Shiite town south of Baghdad, killing at least eight people and wounding 41, the second strike in two days of bloodletting that has left 110 people dead.
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The bomb was remotely detonated about 10:15 a.m., in the al-Sharia market in central Hilla and tore into a crowded area of people shopping for food. The attack was almost identical to three others that took place just 16 hours before in Balad, north of Baghdad.

In those bombings, two of which were also in a crowded marketplace frequented mostly by Shiites, the death toll rose sharply overnight and by this afternoon had reached 102, including 18 children, according to Dr. Qasim al-Qaisi, the manager of Balad Hospital. In all, 150 people were wounded, he said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/30/international/middleeast/30cnd-iraq.html?hp&ex=1128139200&en=d05f8ca2e9e58ccc&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[deutsey]

1. Ah, progress

:evilfrown:

[lcordero2]

2. hmmmm sounds awfully similar to

what was going to happen in Basra.

[BlueEyedSon]

3. "last throes"

[zanne]

4. When do we start calling it "civil war"?

I don't know the official Webster's definition of civil war, but when Shiites are bombing Sunni's, Sunni's are bombing Shiites, different Shiite factions are bombing each other and bodies are being dumped in dry river beds, it sounds an awful lot like civil war to me. Am I wrong?

[norml]

5. Bombings kill 110 Shiites over two days

Posted on Fri, Sep. 30, 2005

Bombings kill 110 Shiites over two days

ALI AL-FATLAWI

Associated Press


HILLAH, Iraq - Sunni insurgents hit two Shiite towns in two days with brutal bombings that killed more than 110 people, apparently aiming to scare Shiites away from a crucial vote on Iraq's new constitution. In the latest attack, a car bomb ripped through a fruit and vegetable market crowded with Friday morning shoppers.

Destroyed stalls lay in pools of blood in the al-Sharia market in the southern city of Hillah, in Iraq's Shiite heartland. The scenes mirrored the devastation in Balad, the Shiite town in the middle of a Sunni region north of Baghdad hit by a triple suicide bombing Thursday, a far more lethal attack.

Unidentified bodies in bags or under pieces of cardboard lay on the ground in a Balad hospital courtyard Friday. Weeping women went from body to body searching for loved ones. The blasts reduced nearly an entire block in the market district to a giant mound of twisted metal and bricks strewn with bananas, tomatoes and other produce.

"Why does such a thing happen to us? We ask the government and Arab countries to help us," cried Mohammed Mahdi Jassim, a Balad resident.

Both attacks seemed staged to kill or maim as many civilians as possible, tearing through busy markets and commercial streets. At least 10 people were killed in Hillah and 102 in Balad. At least 22 of those killed both days were women and children.


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