Sunni Bomb Attack Kills 37 Shiites

40 Others Wounded In Sadr City Blast On First Day Of Ramadan

(CBS/AP) 
A masked al-Masri also reappeared late Friday on a video and his execution of a Turkish contractor was the terrorist leader's first reported appearance since he took over al Qaeda in Iraq after America's June killing of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. The video was originally released Aug. 2, 2004, but none of the three militants on it were identified at the time. Despite its age, the video could be a new signal from al-Masri to his followers.

The Sadr City bombing occurred as a large crowd gathered behind a kerosene truck as families sought to stock up on fuel for Ramadan, during which people gather just after sunset for a communal meal to break a daylong abstention from food and water, police said.

Dhiyaa Ali, a 24 year-old college student, said he heard the explosion from his nearby home and ran to the street to help people. He said bodies and blood were everywhere.

"I went into the flames just to get anyone left out of the fire," he told The Associated Press. "I saw a mother holding her child, both of them burned and dead."

The attack came on the first day of Ramadan for Sunni Arabs. Shiites and the government they dominate were expected to declare Sunday as the first day of Ramadan, a tangible sign of the differences separating the two Islamic sects.

The Jamaat Jund al-Sahaba extremist group blamed the Mahdi army for the attack that killed four in the northern Baghdad neighborhood of Hurryah, where a Shiite militia last week openly threatened members of the minority.

"This operation comes in retaliation for the crimes perpetrated by the Mahdi army against our Sunni people in Baghdad," it said warning of further attacks. The authenticity of the statement could not be independently verified.

Deputy Prime Minister Salam Zikam Ali al-Zubaie, a Sunni Arab, said the Hurryah attackers were dressed in police uniforms.

"There are some elements who have infiltrated the security system and who work according to the principle of blind revenge," he said in an announcement. "These elements violate all laws and calls for unity, peace and understanding instead of racial and sectarian cleansing."

He also warned residents of Baghdad to be careful of police impostors and those and "who forge official documents to deceive people."

A top U.S. general had warned in the days ahead of Ramadan that violence was expected to surge. Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell also said a spike in attacks by al Qaeda in Iraq may be due to a threat issued on Sept. 7 by its leader Abu Ayyoub al-Masri, also known as Abu Hamza al-Muhajer.

[ronniehm]

"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?

[drgoodwin12]

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.