Coordinated Bombings Kill at Least 101 in Baghdad

[Syrinx]

Source: New York Times



BAGHDAD — In what appeared to be a coordinated assault, a series of car bombings across Baghdad on Tuesday killed at least 101 people and wounded scores more, according to preliminary accounts by police and hospital officials.

Five bombs, including at least one suicide attack, struck near a university, a court, a mosque a market and in a neighborhood near the Interior Ministry. The blasts began shortly after 10 A.M. and reverberated through the city for the next 50 minutes, sending enormous plumes of black smoke into the air.

American helicopters, drones and airplanes circled the city in the immediate aftermath, while sporadic gunfire could be heard at one of the sites, near the main courthouse for western Baghdad and Zawra Park, which includes the city’s zoo and amusement areas.

A suicide car bomb in Dora, in southern Baghdad, struck a police patrol outside the main gate of the Technical Institution, a vocational college. Three police officers died there; many of the other victims were students.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/09/world/middleeast/09iraq.html?_r=1&hp

[maddezmom]

1. dear god

:(

[Hissyspit]

10. Will Pitt from earlier yesterday:

"Meanwhile..."

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/WilliamPitt

In Iraq, the war is far from over. According to a report by McClatchy Newspapers:

Military casualties have plummeted and sectarian violence has ebbed in Iraq, but the country's power struggles among Sunni and Shiite Muslim Arabs and between Arabs and Kurds are unfinished. The question is whether it will turn violent again.

The combatants appear to be repositioning themselves in anticipation of the planned US combat troop withdrawal next year. Iraq's neighbors - Iran, Turkey, Syria and others - could try to fill the vacuum, politicians and analysts warn.

"Those who feel their rights have been taken, and the weak, will ask the help of anyone who can give them a hand," said Burhan Muzhir al Asy. He's a tribal sheik and a member of the northern city of Kirkuk's provincial council representing Arab citizens, who've suffered political and demographic setbacks here since the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq. "We say, 'A drowning man will grasp at a straw.'"

Many Iraqis say they think that US attention already is waning.

[maddezmom]

13. thanks for posting, hadn't seen that and have to admit

it's depressing as hell reading it.

[muriel_volestrangler]

2. Now at least 118 dead - BBC

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/8400865.stm

[HysteryDiagnosis]

3. And not one in the U.S. in the past 9 years, imagine that.

[Skittles]

4. THE SURGE WAS A SUCCESS!

:cry:

[Mudoria]

5. It was indeed

[SergeStorms]

6. Just think........

this is the sort of "success" we can look forward to in Afghanistan in a few years. :cry:

These warring tribal nations will never be free from senseless violence. They believe it's their birthright, their religious and nationalistic duty. Until they're better educated and can shed the chains of regressive religious practices, nothing will ever change there. We're wasting our time, money, and most importantly - children's lives - in the middle east. We need to totally withdraw from that part of the world, NOW! To HELL with the pipelines. Let Exxon/Mobil fight their own wars. :grr:

[Knight Hawk]

8. YES

I could not agree more................

[jimlup]

7. Be prepared

The right will blame Obama

[Knight Hawk]

9. Maybe

But the left should blame Obama for what he just did in Afghanistan.We cannot help these people by bombing them.

[NecklyTyler]

11. Tell me again how George Bush won the war

Tell me again how George Bush won the war :sarcasm:

The war was illegal when it started; it is still illegal today.

Our mission objective should be to leave the region as quickly as possible

[demoleft]

12. Baghdad car bombs cause carnage

Source: bbc

A series of car bombings has killed at least 127 people and wounded 448 in the centre of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad.

The first blast targeted a police patrol in the Dora district of the city. Four others occurred near official buildings within minutes.

Iraqi national security adviser Mowaffaq al-Rubaie blamed al-Qaeda militants for the attacks.
...
"The aim is to show the government is unable to protect civilians and its own people and also to deter people from going to ballot boxes."

Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/8400865.stm

---

damn.

[diamidue]

14. I trust no one and no news source

re Iraq & Afghanistan. First of all, we always hear of Iraqi factions blowing each other up. The news usually neglects to tell us how many Iraqis are being killed by US soldiers - unless it was something obvious like a large wedding party.

Secondly, how do we know who was responsible for the recent bombings in Iraq - other than what the media tells us? Remember the British soldiers, dressed as Iraqis, who were captured after killing Iraqi policemen back in 2005?

[waterscalm]

15. At least 112 dead in string of Baghdad bomb attacks

Source: washington post




At least 112 dead in string of Baghdad bomb attacks

Scores killed in series of Baghdad bombings
Bombings reportedly targeting educational facilities and other crowded areas kill more than 100 people and injure hundreds more in Baghdad on Tuesday, Dec. 8, 2009, a day after a blast at a school in Baghdad's Sadr City.
» LAUNCH PHOTO GALLERY


By Ernesto Londoño
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, December 8, 2009; 1:12 PM

BAGHDAD -- A series of bombings apparently targeting educational facilities and other crowded areas killed scores of people Tuesday morning in Baghdad.
This Story

*
At least 112 dead in string of Baghdad bomb attacks
*
Some of the deadliest attacks in Iraq
*
Raw video: multiple Baghdad bombings kill 118
*
Scores killed in series of Baghdad bombings

View All Items in This Story

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/08/AR2009120800587.html?nav=hcmodule

---

The surge in Iraq only works if we continue to pour money in.

[BOSSHOG]

16. But we liberated them

bush turned the country into a Conservative Nirvana.

Wait a minute. They are "targeting educational facilities." Maybe it is a conservative Nirvana.

[waterscalm]

17. "Iraq's leaders are trying to shift attention away from a possible resurgence of Sunni insurgents"

not good to see this at all.==the rise of insurgent power.

new headline also:



http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/08/AR2009120800269.html?nav=hcmodule


Coordinated blasts hit Baghdad; kill at least 127

By BRIAN MURPHY
The Associated Press
Tuesday, December 8, 2009; 2:05 PM


..........But there are questions whether Iraq's leaders are trying to shift attention away from a possible resurgence of Sunni insurgents led by al-Qaida in Iraq. A rise in insurgent power could be a serious blow to the government's credibility before national elections, which were set Tuesday for March 7 - a more than seven-week delay from the original mid-January date because of political bickering on the voting rules.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs condemned the attacks, saying Iraqi leaders who recently passed an elections law were moving the country in the right direction and that "there are clearly those who are threatened by that."

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned the attack, calling the bloodshed "horrendous."

In a joint statement, U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Christopher Hill and Gen. Raymond Odierno, America's top commander in Iraq, called on Iraqis to unite against violence and pledged to assist the government "to bring to justice those individuals or groups responsible for such murder."

[avaistheone1]

18. This is just their way of showing the US how civil and democratic their society has become.

I shudder do think how they are going to express to us "Happy Holidays".

[superconnected]

19. And the Bush Legacy continues.... toppling a country that would be spun into chaos as warned by

every reputable person he asked including the CIA and every bigwig in defense except Rice. It's why Clinton and Bush Sr. didn't topple the gov in that country.

[elleng]

20. Coordinated Bomb Attacks in Baghdad Kill Scores of People.

Source: nyt

A series of car bombings devastated government institutions across Baghdad on Tuesday, provoking public and political denunciations of the country’s security forces. The attacks came as officials agreed at last to set a date in March for a national election.



Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/09/world/middleeast/09iraq.html?hp

[truthisfreedom]

21. sigh. we should never have stood by as the voting machines were rigged.

we should have taken to the streets.

[Jefferson23]

22. What a shit hole Iraq is, such a gift from the Bush legacy.