BAGHDAD, Aug. 1, 2007
Scores Die In Fiery Baghdad Blasts
Suspected Suicide Attack Hits Fuel Tanker; Military Reports 3 GI Deaths
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Video 50 Dead In Iraq Blast CBS News RAW: A fuel tanker exploded at a gas station in western Baghdad killing at least 50 and injuring more. Police suspect the blast was a suicide attack. NO AUDIO
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Video Obama Criticizes Iraq Strategy CBS News RAW: At a press conference, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., criticized President Bush's Iraq strategy, saying as president he would fight terrorism in Pakistan's remote regions.
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Firemen extinguish a fuel tanker that exploded near a gas station in the primarily Sunni Mansour neighborhood of western Baghdad, killing at least 50 people and wounding 60, on Aug. 1, 2007. (AP Photo/Asaad Mouhsin)
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Younis Muhammad, age 7, is bandaged by a nurse after a parked car bomb in central Baghdad killed 12 civilians and wounded 17 on Aug. 1, 2007. (AP Photo/Adil al-Khazali)
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The aftermath of a car bomb explosion in Baghdad on Aug. 1, 2007, that hit at about 10 in the morning in pedestrian-packed al-Hurriyah square. (AP)
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Interactive Battle For Iraq The government, the insurgency, key players, background and photos.
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In the deadliest blast, a fuel tanker at a gas station was blown up by a suspected suicide attacker in western Baghdad, killing at least 50 people and wounding about 60 more, police said. The blast occurred in Mansour, a primarily Sunni neighborhood on the western side of the Iraqi capital.
Two police officers, both speaking on condition of anonymity out of security concerns, said the explosion was the work of a suicide attacker.
About four hours earlier a parked car bomb killed 17 civilians and left a gaping crater in a busy square in central Baghdad, police said.
Another 32 people were wounded by the blast, a police officer said on condition of anonymity out of security concerns.
An Associated Press reporter at the scene said the explosion ripped a hole one yard deep and 1 1/2 yards wide in the asphalt. Three minibuses and six cars were damaged by flames and flying debris. Blood pooled in the street.
The explosives had been planted in a vehicle in al-Hurriyah square in the mostly Shiite Karradah neighborhood, the police officer said.
U.S. military officials say three U.S. soldiers on patrol in eastern Baghdad died Tuesday when they were hit by a sophisticated armor-piercing bomb known as an EFP (explosively-formed penetrator). Six more troops were wounded in the attack.
Meanwhile, the head of Iraq's largest Sunni political bloc said Wednesday that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki had not met the group's demands and it would go ahead with a planned withdrawal from the Iraqi government.
The resignation of six Cabinet ministers from the Iraqi Accordance Front could erase the government's "national unity" status and diminish its legitimacy — a serious blow at a time when it needs to move swiftly on legislation the United States considers critical to reconciliation of Iraq's Shiite, Sunni Arab and Kurdish factions.
Adnan al-Dulaimi, head of the Accordance Front and a harsh critic of al-Maliki, told The Associated Press his bloc was "still insisting on withdrawing from the government if it doesn't meet our fair and objective demands."
"We don't want to take part in a government which claims it is a national unity one, but instead is sectarian rather than Iraqi," al-Dulaimi said. Al-Dulaimi himself has been accused by senior Shiite and Kurdish politicians of inciting sectarian strife.
The Sunni Arab bloc last week suspended its Cabinet membership and said it would quit Wednesday if al-Maliki did not meet its demands: to disband militias, pardon security detainees not charged with specific crimes and include all coalition partners in security decisions.
"The government has not contacted us up until this moment, and it appears that it will not respond," al-Dulaimi said.
In addition to its six Cabinet ministers, the Accordance Front holds 44 of the Iraqi parliament's 275 seats. But al-Dulaimi said Wednesday that his lawmakers would stay in the legislature.
"Withdrawing from the government doesn't mean that we will abandon the whole political process. We will continue our participation...through the parliament and we will contact other parliamentary blocs to achieve our demands," he said.
The Accordance Front scheduled a news conference for later Wednesday.
In other developments:
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- What in the hell is gonna take for us to get out of Iraq ?!!!!
Posted by tejasdemo at 06:48 PM : Aug 01, 2007,,,
Two large blasts rocked Baghdad Wednesday, killing at least 67 people and wounding dozens more, and the U.S. military said another explosion had killed three American troops on Tuesday. The Sunni Arab bloc last week suspended its Cabinet membership and said it would quit Wednesday and this is Wednesday and they did quit! The Bush administration has doubled down and bet the farm on Iraq and the farm is going up in smoke and taking the Republican Party with it! The Republicans can live in fantasy land all they want, the 2008 Elections will be such a slaughter, such an embarrassment, I may not even watch it. The news for Republicans keeps getting worst by the day, Alaska's Senator home raided, Cheney misquoting Hillary, Tillman killed from 10 meters, Gonzo on the ropes! It's not even funny any more, only a few Republicans should even bother putting their names on 2008 Ballots, why even waste their time!! This is a very ugly time for the Republican Party. - Reply to this comment
- 78 men killed in July is nothing to be smug and cheery about.
Posted by Iceman_1960 at 08:59 PM : Aug 01, 2007
Unless you're Bush, Cheney or one of their rich friends. After all, the people dying are not from their "class". Considering the obscenely huge profits of their buddies in the war industries and the oil companies, for them the war is going great! - Reply to this comment
- The people who should be complaining about the insecurity in Iraq and the perceptions of Muslims worldwide are the Muslims themselves for not speaking out and allowing their religion to be hijacked by radicals in the faith of Islam but also by those outside the faith who have characterized it as being a cult that wishes to dominate everyone else. Besides a few, the vast majority of Muslims have been silent about the extremist inside of their religion reminds one of our own political system in a way.
- Reply to this comment
- The number of Americans killed per month should have dropped to zero a h*ell of a long time ago.
78 men killed in July is nothing to be smug and cheery about. - Reply to this comment
- July 2007: 78 American troops killed
Above the average of 69 Americans killed per month since the war began.
78 may be "low" for the Surge, but not for the war. - Reply to this comment
- "U.S. casualties are down in Baghdad, but there is also positive news from Diyala province to the North."
U.S. casualties are NOT down in Iraq. July 2007 was the bloodiest July for Americans since the war began.
July 2003: 48 American troops killed
July 2004: 54 killed
July 2005: 54 killed
July 2006: 43 killed
July 2007: 78 American troops killed
Casualties are only down relative to the big increase that began in late 2006.
Saying that casualties are down is an ugly pro-war spin of the data.
Source:
http://icasualties.org/oif/US_chart.aspx - Reply to this comment
- Our leaders have made a total mess of that country and I'm not sure how they sleep at night.
Posted by dgwooster at 08:24 PM : Aug 01, 2007
It's called "indifference". They just don't care. - Reply to this comment
- Our leaders have made a total mess of that country and I'm not sure how they sleep at night.
"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."
Martin Luther King Jr. - Reply to this comment
- The way I see it, these so called extreme Isamists or terrorists or whatever you want to call them are the actual "infidels" that they say they hate. They are worse then just being infidels. They are desacrating an entire religion by force. Its not that they do not believe, its that they purposely misinterpret the Koran to suit their means which is an Islamist planet. I have no clue why there is no outrage from the Muslim world. Their silence implies agreement? We can blame Bush and/or Clinton but they did not start this. Bin Laden started this. They reacted to timidly until we got slammed. The problem lies in the mid east. We are in deep do do whether we stay in Iraq or not. We better do some soul searching as a nation before we start pulling levers in '08. Thats my word (to coin a phrase).
- Reply to this comment
- It's ok. No big deal. The surge is working. Gen. Pretaus will give us the load of BS in Sept.
Then, a few months and a few hundred deaths later he'll give us another load of BS.
What in the hell is gonna take for us to get out of Iraq ?!!!! - Reply to this comment
Author Thomas Friedman on Obama's Afghanistan plan and the war on terror.
