BAGHDAD, May 1, 2008
Suicide Attack On Wedding Kills 35 In Iraq
Iraqi Police Say Double Suicide Bombing Wounds 65; Car Bomb Kills At Least 10 In Baghdad
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U.S. Army soldiers secure the area of a car bomb attack in central Baghdad, Iraq, Thursday, May 1, 2008. A parked car bomb aimed at a U.S. patrol Thursday in Baghdad killed at least nine Iraqi civilians and wounded 26, police said. (AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed)
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Photo Essay Week In Iraq Photos A daily diary with scenes of the latest attacks and snapshots from the effort to rebuild a nation.
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Photo Essay Protesting 5 Years Of War Demonstrations mark the fifth anniversary of U.S. invasion of Iraq.
In Baghdad, a car bomb aimed at a U.S. patrol in Baghdad on Thursday killed an American soldier and least nine Iraqi civilians and wounded 26, police and military said.
The first attack on the wedding convoy in the town of Balad Ruz was carried out by a female suicide bomber, said Army Maj. Gen. Abdul-Karim al-Rubaie, an official with the Diyala provincial operations center that oversees the town.
About 10 minutes later, a man detonated his explosives as rescue workers were trying to help the victims of the first attack, Al-Rubaie said.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility but the attack bore the hallmarks of al Qaeda in Iraq.
The Baghdad explosion occurred about 9:15 a.m. in a crowded commercial area in the eastern part of the city, police officials said. The U.S. military said a soldier died of wounds sustained in the blast.
Three women and a child were among the nine Iraqis killed in the attack, police said.
The soldier's death raises to at least 4,064 members of the U.S. military who have died since the Iraq war started in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
Health officials also said clashes in Baghdad's Shiite militia stronghold of Sadr City killed eight people, including two women and a child, and wounded 22 others, including women and children.
The Iraqi officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to release the information.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has accused fighters of the anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army of using residents as human shields during close combat in the teeming slum, which has become the epicenter of fighting since a government crackdown triggered clashes in late March.
The militants have no choice but to lay down their weapons, al-Maliki said Thursday. He called on Shiite clerics and lawmakers to try to prevent the militants from using innocent people as cover.
In fighting Thursday, U.S. forces killed a senior member of what they say Iranian-backed forces in Sadr City in an airstrike, the military said.
In a raid, U.S.-backed Iraqi forces seized a large stockpile of ammunition including 10 roadside bombs at a mosque in Abu Dshir, the military said. Iraqi police said 45 mortar rounds and 42 rockets were also seized in the raid in the Shiite-dominated neighborhood.
In fighting late Wednesday and early Thursday in Sadr City, U.S. soldiers killed 18 militants in a series of clashes. Several of the militants had fired on the military or were preparing to. Other militants were killed while planting a roadside bomb. The fighting was reported in statements issued Thursday by the military.
A roadside bomb struck an Iraqi patrol car on Thursday, killing two Iraqi soldiers in the northern city of Mosul, police said.
Lt. Col. Steve Stover, a military spokesman for American troops in Baghdad, blamed the militants for putting civilians at risk by staging attacks from populated areas.
"We will exercise all precaution when returning fire; however, we will defend ourselves against violent aggression," Stover said.
Stover blamed what he called Iranian-backed groups of launching attacks on U.S. troops, adding that U.S. troops were working hard to specifically target the enemy and avoid civilian casualties.
The Iraqi government, meanwhile, sent a delegation of five Shiite politicians to Iran carrying documents and other material they claim indicates that Tehran is supplying weapons and training fighters who are locked in a violent standoff with U.S. and Iraqi troops, a government official said. The official spoke on condition because he wasn't authorized to release the information.
The visit comes as U.S. military has stepped up its allegations that Iran is continuing to train and arm Shiite militias despite Tehran's insistence that it is not fueling violence in Iraq but trying to promote stability in the neighboring country.
The fighting in Sadr City - a base for the powerful Mahdi Army militia - intensified after al-Sadr last week threatened to unleash an "open war" against U.S.-led forces who try to exert control, with the help of Iraqi forces, over an area containing nearly half of the Baghdad's population.
The U.S. military reported early Thursday that a soldier had been killed by an explosion Wednesday near a patrol in Ninevah province.
Around Iraq, at least 1,080 Iraqi civilians and security forces were killed nationwide last month, or an average of 36 a day, according to an AP tally. That's down from March's total of 1,269, or an average of 41 per day.
Officials reported at least 479 deaths in Sadr City but they could not break down the number of militants, Iraqi Security forces and civilians.
In other developments:
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Add a Comment See all 90 Comments
- Islamic suicidal terrorists in their great desire to die, cause many bystanders to suffer, whether they are suicide bombing shoppers and bystanders or stockpiling weapons in schools, mosques and hospitals, to hide behind woman and children while committing horrific crimes.
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- "My friends, I will have an energy policy that we will be talking about, which will eliminate our dependence on oil from the Middle East that will prevent us from having ever to send our young men and women into conflict again in the Middle East," McCain said.
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- These Al Qada and Taliban fight like teasing prostitute. They would prefer French perfume and fish net stockings over a rifle. Coalition has no problem with a gay enemy. A.Q. and Taliban should just get the transexual surgery.
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- Poor Afghanis...when they fought a hit and run guerilla war against the Soviets they were heroes in Margueritaville...now, they''re fighting the Americans and suddenly they are ''girls''.
Withdraw the troops and let them be! Afghanistan for Afghanis!! - Reply to this comment
- Al Qada and Taliban refuse to face Coalition. A.Q. and Taliban hide in gay closets to avoid a fight. This dress-up tactic won''t work. Jewelry and perfume will not fool Coalition. They know real women from fake.
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- The object of taking out Iraq was to take out their oil production. The same reason they didn''t want to drill in Alaska--and as late as 2005 voted down proposals to open up the Wildlife ''Refuge'' there to drilling...not to mention the capped discoveries there and elsewhere...including Saudi Arabia where the King admitted that they had made huge discoveries and capped them ''for future generations.''
The Rockefellers and their friends, like the scoundrels behind ENRON and the California Energy rip off, are making hay while the sun shines...and you ain''t seen nuthin'' yet!--just wait till they hit Iran!...but don''t feel bad...we''ve obligated ourselves by treaty to supply Israel with oil, regardless of how bad it gets for us...Israel will have oil. - Reply to this comment
- Evil strikes again,what type of murder attacks weddings, funerals,a losing desperate one.All this in the name of a Fairy tale .they call, God.
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- Let''''''''s see you address one single fact without trying to weasel away.
Posted by Prinzowhales
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I''''m not answering this prinzonwales as I told you before....and you couldn''''t take it as an answer. So let me tell you again:
You are going to believe what you want to believe, and I''''m going to believe in the Bible.
You choose what you want to believe. All I need is my faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. He is my life.
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I''m sorry...that post should have been directed to ''BaghdadsHere''. - Reply to this comment
- "Mission Accomplished"!!!! LMAO!!!!!
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- yeah...Jeb Bush...the guy who had all the records from the flight schools in Venice Florida seized and flew with them personally to Washington....talk about getting rid of the evidence. Both Dutch nationals at the CIA-connected flight school had near fatal crashes shortly after the truth began coming out about them and their connections.
Jeb has his good old drug buddies as business partners...why not Marvin Bush for President? Wasn''t his security company in charge of security at the wtc until 9-11-01? As far as I know, he has only had one maid die under suspicious circumstances - Reply to this comment
- Posted by libagenda at 07:31 PM : May 01, 2008
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Then you deny that Mohammed Atta was sent $100,000 by the ISI general? Let''s see you address one single fact without trying to weasel away. - Reply to this comment
- Posted by libagenda at 07:31 PM : May 01, 2008
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Unless I am mistaken, Christ was a Judean...He condemned the Jews--the Pharisees--as being the children of Satan. Didn''t the Davidic line come out of Judeah?
The "Jews" are not synonymous with the "Judeans". The Jews placed more importance on the teaching of the rabbins than on Holy Torah...this teaching later formed the Talmud and the Babylonian Talmud became the most authoritative book in the new religion-- Christ condemned the oral traditions that formed the basis for it.
The Zionists, who have and will betray the Jews, are heading in the direction the Bible suggests. Only the Torah True, remain true...it was not them that Christ chastized... - Reply to this comment
- Bush''s Elmer Fudd Hayden will blame it on Iran -- Another dufas who shouldn''t have a secuity clearence
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- And then there''s Bush 3 who still has no idea who we are fighting --- Here we go again
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- BagdadsHere,,,, Not even the imaginations of Arthur C. Clark & Herbert George Wells combined could contrive a good legacy for Bush
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- No that wasnt the reason at all, His hero was Dr. Josef Mengele -- Bush wants to retire like he did
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- AL CIADA again !
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- dragonwagon5,,,, Bush doesn''t have a bong, I looked in his dresser drawer, under the kiddie porn mags he''s got a glass pipe & a big bag of meth
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- libagenda-singinrick,,,, While you''ve got your Bible out, look up the 1st Commandment --- Jesus didn''t give Moses the Commandments & God said he couldn''t be a god or a lord
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- dragonwagon5... Thanks for reminding me, I guess I''ll just have to stick with my 1st idea -- A wood bong as a gift
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Best-selling author Mitch Albom on his first nonfiction work since "Tuesdays with Morrie."
