BAGHDAD, Iraq, Sept. 23, 2006
Sunni Bomb Attack Kills 37 Shiites
40 Others Wounded In Sadr City Blast On First Day Of Ramadan
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Iraqi civilians inspect the site of a bomb explosion in Baghdad's poor neighborhood of Sadr City Sept. 23, 2006. (AFP/Getty Images)
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Interactive Battle For Iraq The government, the insurgency, key players, background and photos.
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Who's Who Iraq Insurgency More on the militant groups behind the insurgency in Iraq and their motivations.
Al Qaeda in Iraq's leader also reappeared in an old video posted on the Internet just as Sunni Arabs declared the start of Ramadan.
Abu Ayyoub al-Masri, also known as Abu Hamza al-Muhajer, was shown killing a Turkish hostage — a possible signal to his Sunni Arab followers. In early September, he had called on Sunnis to step up attacks against American forces.
Iraq's armed forces said they made some headway against groups affiliated with al Qaeda in Iraq, announcing the arrest of a senior leader of Ansar al-Sunnah — a radical Sunni group responsible for deadly attacks against U.S. forces, kidnappings and beheadings.
A Sunni extremist group, Jamaat Jund al-Sahaba — or Soldiers of the Prophet's Companions — claimed responsibility for the attack against Shiites in Sadr City, a sprawling slum that is home to more than two million people and a stronghold of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
The group said it carried out the bombing to retaliate for a Friday attack by a death squad against Sunni Arab homes and mosques that killed four people in a mixed Baghdad neighborhood.
These attacks are part of the cycle of rising sectarian violence that has forced American and Iraqi troops to mount a massive security crackdown in the Iraqi capital, CBS News chief foreign correspondent Lara Logan reports.
But even that has so far failed to slow the killing, and the top U.S. General in charge of Baghdad says he still doesn't have the extra Iraqi troops he needs to get the job done, Logan reports.
In other developments:
©MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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- "Iraqi insurgents are no longer using just volunteers as suicide car bombers but are instead kidnapping drivers, rigging their vehicles with explosives and blowing them up, the Defense Ministry said Thursday. In what appears to be a new tactic for the insurgency, the ministry said the kidnap victims do not know their cars have been loaded with explosives when they are released."
I guess they're running out of idiots. They've gone to the draft. Who says were helping them recruit? - Reply to this comment
- We are into our second month of cracking down with more U.S. troops in Baghdad and the violence has not abatted.The Iraqi goverment and members of its military obviously have ties to the insurgents,militias and terrorist. How else could a member of the goverment be kidnapped with 19 bodyguards in broad daylight?No news organiztion has followed up on that story(this occurred about May).Iraq with the new death tolls for July and August has slipped past that thin grey line of civil war.We are caught in the quagmire and do not have the leadership to tell the Iraqi goverment and military to shape up.
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Best-selling author Mitch Albom on his first nonfiction work since "Tuesdays with Morrie."
