Dozens Of Sunnis Killed In Iraq Rampage

(CBS/AP)  Shiite militants and police enraged by deadly truck bombings went on a shooting rampage against Sunnis in a northwestern Iraqi city Wednesday, killing as many as 70 men execution-style in the latest eruption of sectarian violence outside the capital.

The gunmen began roaming Sunni neighborhoods in the city, shooting at residents and homes, according to police and a local Sunni politician.

Ali al-Talafari, a Sunni member of the local Turkomen Front Party, said the Iraqi army had arrested 18 policemen accused of being involved after they were identified by the Sunni families targeted. But he said the attackers included Shiite militiamen.

He said more than 60 Sunnis had been killed, but a senior hospital official in Tal Afar put the death toll at 45, with four wounded.

The hospital official, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to security concerns, said the victims were men between the ages of 15 and 60, and they were killed with a shot to the back of the head.

Police said earlier dozens of Sunnis were killed or wounded, but they had no precise figures, and communications problems made it difficult to reach them for an update. The shooting continued for more than two hours, the officials said.

Army troops later moved into the Sunni areas to stop the violence, and a curfew was slapped on the entire town, according to Wathiq al-Hamdani, the provincial police chief and his head of operations, Brig. Abdul-Karim al-Jibouri.

Meanwhile, suicide truck bombers carrying highly toxic chlorine were blocked from attacks on the government center in Fallujah on Wednesday but detonated their explosives, wounding about 15 U.S. and Iraqi security forces, the American military said.

The statement did not give a breakdown of Iraqi and U.S. forces wounded but said other "Iraqi soldiers and policemen were being treated" for breathing troubles, nausea, skin irritation and vomiting — symptoms of chlorine gas inhalation.

No U.S. or Iraqi forces were killed, the military said.

Tal Afar, located 260 miles northwest of Baghdad, is in the province of Ninevah, of which Mosul is the capital.

"The situation is under control now," said al-Hamdani. "The local Tal Afar police have been confined to their bases and policemen from Mosul are moving there to replace them."

Al-Jibouri said he was heading to Tal Afar to take charge of the situation.

Two truck bombs hit markets in Tal Afar on Tuesday, killing at least 63 and wounding 150 in the second assault in four days on a predominantly Shiite Muslim city hit by a resurgence in violence a year after it was held up as a symbol of U.S. success.

After Tuesday's bombings, suspected Sunni insurgents tried to ambush ambulances carrying the injured out of the northwestern city but were driven off by police gunfire, Iraqi authorities said.

The carnage was the worst bloodshed in a day of attacks across Iraq.

Meanwhile, hundreds of Iraqis detained in the U.S.-led security crackdown in Baghdad are being held in two detention centers designed to hold at most a few dozen people, The New York Times reported Wednesday, citing an Iraqi monitoring group.

The report said 705 people were packed into an area built for 75 at one of the detention centers, in the town of Mahmudiya, south of Baghdad. The other center, on Muthana Air Base, held 272 people, including two women and four boys, in a space designed to hold about 50.

Officials from the monitoring group said they did not know the sectarian composition of the detainee populations.

In other developments:

Suicide truck bombers carrying highly toxic chlorine were blocked from attacks on the government center in Fallujah on Wednesday but detonated their explosives, wounding about 15 U.S. and Iraqi security forces, the American military said.

U.S. commanders in Iraq won't know until at least autumn when they can begin to bring troop levels back down, the chief spokesman told the Associated Press on Wednesday. The overall U.S. commander, Gen. David Petraeus, will want to sustain the momentum that has been gained in the Baghdad security offensive by keeping five added Army combat brigades in place, Maj. Gen. William C. Caldwell said.

In Baghdad, a U.S. soldier and an American working as a U.S. government contractor were killed by a rocket attack on the heavily guarded Green Zone, U.S. officials said. Another contract worker suffered serious wounds and three were slightly wounded. A soldier also was wounded. A U.S. Marine died during combat operations in Anbar province, a hotbed of Sunni Arab insurgents west of Baghdad, the military said in a statement.

U.S. soldiers foiled two suicide truck bombers trying to attack their base in a small town 50 miles west of Baghdad and killed as many as 15 attackers, the military said. It said eight soldiers suffered wounds, all but one of them slight, during the firefight in Karmah.

President Bush accused Congressional Democrats on Wednesday of meddling in Iraq war policy and setting a deadline for a U.S. pullout that would have disastrous repercussions for both countries.

RandalDS wrote:

"He was a shi*tty president when he was in office and just because he's dead now that doesn't change anything."

Indeed.

[randalds]

Have you ever noticed that most of the negative situations the United States has found itself in today, were as a result of decisions made during Ronald Reagans presidency?

Of course, because he was President as the Soviet Union began collapsing, he has been held up as a hero by the Republicanazis.

But the truth is that much of the turmoil the world has found itself in today has been as a direct result of bad decisions made by Reagan.

Saddam Hussein, Bin Laden etc - all were helped and assisted by Reagan.
Posted by mcdazz at 11:50 PM : Mar 28, 2007

Reagan is easily and far away the single most over-rated president in modern times. His administrations economic policies were the beginning of the end of the middle-class and he happily support several dictators around the world, thereby helping their people to grow their hate for America more. He ran guns and weapons to the Iranians and at the same time sold "fertilizer" to Saddam to make into gas to kill Iranians with (and supplied them with satellite photos to show them exactly where they were). He was the 2nd worst president in modern times. Second only to the current as*shole in the white House now. I'm sick of this myth that many republicans are building around Reagan. He was a shi*tty president when he was in office and just because he's dead now that doesn't change anything.

feelfree1:

Have you ever noticed that most of the negative situations the United States has found itself in today, were as a result of decisions made during Ronald Reagans presidency?

Of course, because he was President as the Soviet Union began collapsing, he has been held up as a hero by the Republicanazis.

But the truth is that much of the turmoil the world has found itself in today has been as a direct result of bad decisions made by Reagan.

Saddam Hussein, Bin Laden etc - all were helped and assisted by Reagan.

[feelfree1]

Let's not forget that John Negroponte, former Iran/contra criminal conspirator, and our current Assistant Secretary of State, is responsible for many of the death squads we now see in Iraq, as well:

"Under the "Salvador Option", Negroponte had assistance from his colleague from his days in Central America during the 1980s, retired Colonel James Steele. Steel, whose title in Baghdad was counselor for Iraqi security forces, supervised the selection and training of members of the Badr Organization and Mehdi Army, the two largest Shi'ite militias in Iraq, to target the leadership and support networks of a primarily Sunni resistance."

"Planned or not, these death squads promptly spiraled out of control to become the leading cause of death in Iraq. Intentional or not, the scores of tortured, mutilated bodies that turn up on the streets of Baghdad each day are generated by the death squads whose impetus was Negroponte. And it is this US-backed sectarian violence that largely led to the hell-disaster that Iraq is today."

www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/IA11Ak03.html

[elz523]

Wow this is great! I can see obvious signs of improvement here.

RandalDS wrote:

"I'd be more then happy to install him as king of Iraq and then pull out. That way he really could be a king instead of just trying to act like one here. He could also make laws there, instead of just ignoring ours here."

Well, he's certainly got the form for it.

Killed his own people? Yes.
Allows torture of prisoners? Yes.
Attempts to suppress opposition? Yes.
Corruption rife in Gov & Business? Yes.
Puts his own people into power? Yes.
Begins illegal wars? Yes.
Has WMD's? Yes.

GW Bush would be perfect for the job.

[cruzn66]

How many morons does it take to run a country??? If the Bushies had run a business the way they are running the country, the stock holders would have booted them along time ago......so what the Hell is the delay in impeaching this two-faced imbecile. Whether we leave now or later, the religious factions in Iraq are going to continue to kill each other because that is what they have done for 1500 years. Gee, did we learn nothing from watching the Soviet Union, now Russia, struggle for 12 years in Afghanistan. Those who don't learn from history, often end up repeating it!!!

[randalds]

yeah, why dont we invade all the other nations in the me and install king georges reign???
Posted by usadvisor101 at 07:08 PM : Mar 28, 2007

I'd be more then happy to install him as king of Iraq and then pull out. That way he really could be a king instead of just trying to act like one here. He could also make laws there, instead of just ignoring ours here.

[me4prezz]

I am so glad that Bush and his administration has made such a campaign over putting in Iraq police and military and training them to take over the job we are doing when they first chance they get they go on a shooting rampage in revenge of a bombing that is happening everyday all over that nation. Wow. Go Bush. Real progress. I can really see where spending BILLIONS of our tax dollars to fund a war that was over before it began to bulge his greedy pockets full of money from the oil that is making RECORD BREAKING profits since this war began is making such progress. Impeach, reestablish and remake the image of America that is so horribly distorted and damaged from the likes of Bush.

[obiquital]

Saudi Arabia - #1 in oil production
Pakistan - #60 in oil production - will still be invaded if the Taliban and other insurgent militias decide to overthrow the Pakistani government.
Turkey - #62 in oil production - why would we invade a country that is trying to join the European Union anyways?
Syria - #33 in oil production
Egypt - #27 in oil production
Iraq - #14 in oil production - 14? Certainly not the best choice if we just went in there for oil... why not Kuwait, Nigeria, UAE, Venezuela, Canada, Norway, Mexico, China, Iran, or Russia (order from #13-#2 with the US being #3)? Oh thats right, we are allies with most of those countries and they mostly don't have oppressive dictatorships. But hey, Venezuela is above Iraq in oil production and Chavez hates us and its a lot closer and I bet there wouldn't be as much sectarian violence considering it's 96% Roman Catholic.
Afghanistan - no oil

Even if it was originally all about the oil and even if Bush still is only interested in the oil (which actually still doesn't really make sense because if it WAS all about the oil, we would just level some cities to show the insurgents that we won't take any more of their ***. But of course we do care about the Iraqi people, something you clearly don't care about because if we do pull out, the Iraqi people will see a sharp rise in violence and the country will be thrown into chaos and the hundreds of Iraqi civilians dead in a day due to violence will turn into thousands.