48 Killed in Iraq Restaurant Attack

[sabra]

Source: NYTimes

BAGHDAD — At least 48 people were killed and 96 wounded when a suicide bomber in a vest blew himself up near Kirkuk in northern Iraq on Thursday inside a popular restaurant where hundreds of families were celebrating the end of a religious holiday, officials said.

The attack took place during a meeting of local Awakening leaders, mostly Sunni former insurgents who are now working with the government, who were discussing ways to end the violence that has plagued the oil-rich city. The attack is one of the worst in recent months in Iraq and the casualty figures may rise.

The explosion came at lunchtime on the final day of the three-day Muslim holiday of Id al-Adha, when the restaurant may have been filled with as many as 3,000 diners, the officials said.

The bombing appears to be a direct challenge to the Iraqi government of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki as the United States prepares to draw down its troops and there are questions about whether Iraq’s security forces can control the country.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/12/world/middleeast/12iraq.html?hp

[oberliner]

1. Update: 55 dead in bombing at restaurant in Iraq's north

BAGHDAD – A suicide bomber struck a crowded restaurant in northern Iraq on Thursday where Kurdish officials were meeting with Arab tribal leaders to discuss long-standing ethnic tensions, killing at least 55 people, police said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081211/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_iraq

[SpiralHawk]

2. "I wonder if the restaurant served pretzels, my fav. Smirk." - Commander AWOL (R)

"Oooops, almost forgot my republicon homelander propaganda-spin Talking Point of the day: 'Too bad about all the dead people and stuff. But I demand that History remember me as Iraq's LIBERATOR & as a veritable SAINT OF PEACE & PROFIT."

- Commander AWOL (R)

[High Plains]

3. This war has completely dropped off the radar.

Nobody cares about dead Iraqis.

[peacetalksforall]

4. It's the country of death, maiming, deformities, exile, destruction of a first civilization heritage

Brought to the planet by the U.S. of America and their international friends - oil, weapons making, serf and slave trade friends. Condoned and enabled by our leaders and the churches.

[otohara]

5. Heartbreaking

we did this.

[struggle4progress]

6. Iraq restaurant bomb kills 55: police (AFP)

... "At least 55 people were killed and 95 injured in the attack," according to Torhane Yussef, deputy chief of Kirkuk police ...

Outside the emergency room, a five-year-old boy was crying, saying he had lost both of his parents.

Reskiya Oji, a 49-year-old Turkmen who was wounded in the arm and the leg, said from a hospital bed that her daughter, four, had been killed.

"I don't know what happened to my two boys," she added, her clothes drenched in blood ...

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jDkfRSckdpdVCKUMQlJVqDyLknEw

[xchrom]

7. recommend -- this is what you get when you call the 'surge' a success. nt

[fbahrami]

8. more people care

about the plane that fell in San Diego than Iraq and Afghanistan combined (judging by the responses on DU).

[texshelters]

9. What would Iraq be like

if the "surge" wasn't "working"?

Peace,
Tex Shelters