BAGHDAD, July 28, 2008
5 Bomb Attacks Kill Scores In Iraq
Triple Suicide Blasts Kill 28 Shiite Pilgrims In Baghdad, 15 Dead At Kurdish Rally In Kirkuk
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A youth injured in a bomb attack gets treatment in a hospital in Baghdad, Iraq, July 28, 2008. (AP Photo/Adil al-Khazali)
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Play CBS Video Video Hagel, Reed On Iraq Trip Returning from a visit to Iraq with presidential candidate Barack Obama, Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) and Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) speak with "Face The Nation" host Bob Schieffer about the War on Terror.
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Video Obama Claims Consensus On Iraq Sen. Barack Obama claims there is a "consensus" In Iraq for setting a timetable for troop withdrawals after getting a virtual endorsement by Iraqi Prime Minster Nouri al-Maliki. Katie Couric reports.
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Video Eye To Eye: Obama's Iraq Tour "Only On The Web": Katie Couric speaks with Richard Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations, about the short and long term implications of Barack Obama's tour of Iraq.
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Photo Essay Iraq Suicide Attacks Bombs strike Shiite pilgrimage in Baghdad and Kurdish rally in Kirkuk.
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Interactive Iraq: 5 Years At War Five years after the U.S.-led invasion, the war wears on.
The attacks occurred in quick succession as tens of thousands of Shiite worshippers streamed toward a shrine in northern Baghdad for an annual event marking the death of an eighth-century saint. The event climaxes on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, officials said at least 15 people had been killed and 54 wounded when a suicide bomber struck a Kurdish rally in the disputed city of Kirkuk in Iraq's north.
Police and hospital officials said the attack occurred as demonstrators gathered to protest a draft provincial elections law that is being debated in parliament. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to release the information.
Kurdish objections over a proposed power-sharing formula on the provincial council in Kirkuk have blocked the law from being passed. Kirkuk is in an oil-rich area and many Kurds consider it to be part of their historical land. The area is home to Kurds, Turkomen, Arabs and smaller groups.
Police said there were indications that the Baghdad suicide bombers were women. At least two children were among the dead, said police officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
The attacks took place in the mainly Shiite Karradah district, which is several miles away from the site of the pilgrimage in Kazimiyah, northern Baghdad. The majority of the dead were women and children, police and health officials said.
Mustapha Abdullah, a 32-year-old man who was injured in the stomach and legs, said the blasts took place when pilgrims from Baghdad's predominantly Shiite neighborhood of Zaafaraniyah reached the district's Kahramanah Square.
"I heard women and children crying and shouting and I saw burned women as dead bodies lay in pools of blood on the street," said Abdullah, speaking at the hospital where he was being treated.
Insurgents have increasingly been using women this year to stage suicide bombings in a bid to avoid security measures. Women are more easily able to hide explosives under their all-encompassing black Islamic robes, or abayas, and they often are not searched at checkpoints.
Security forces have deployed about 200 women volunteers this week to search female pilgrims near the Baghdad district of Kazimiyah, where the Shiite saint is buried in a golden domed shrine.
In other developments:
On Sunday, at least seven pilgrims were killed south of Baghdad in an ambush by gunmen near a Sunni town, Madain, south of the capital.
The marchers were commemorating the death in 799 A.D. of Imam Moussa ibn Jaafar al-Kadhim, one of the 12 principle Shiite imams.
Since the 2003 ouster of Saddam Hussein, who was a Sunni, Shiite political parties have encouraged huge turnouts at religious festivals to display the majority sect's power in Iraq. Sunni religious extremists have often targeted the gatherings to foment sectarian war, but that has not stopped the Shiites.
In 2005, at least 1,000 people were killed in a bridge stampede caused by rumors of a suicide bomber in Baghdad during the Kazimiyah pilgrimage.
But recent pilgrimages have been relatively peaceful as a U.S. troop buildup, a Sunni revolt against al Qaeda in Iraq and a Shiite militia cease-fire helped drive violence down to its lowest level in more than four years.
Sunday's ambush occurred in a former al Qaeda in Iraq stronghold that has been touted by the U.S. military as a success story with its streets now patrolled by U.S.-allied Sunni groups known as Awakening Councils.
The main Iraqi military spokesman in Baghdad, Brig. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi, on Sunday said 100,000 Iraqi security forces will be deployed along with U.S. reinforcements and air support to protect the ceremonies in kazimiyah.
Vehicles have been banned from the area and most Baghdad bridges would be closed to traffic, al-Moussawi said, adding that pilgrims were banned from carrying weapons or cell phones - rules that have been widely flouted in the past.
The Kazimiyah ceremonies have in the past attracted around 1 million pilgrims. They have often been chaotic, with the task of protecting the pilgrims stretching police resources.
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Add a Comment See all 190 Comments
- You can''t stop these crazy MF.How can you stop someone who is willing to blow themselves up. Nasty site afterwards.
- Reply to this comment
- shock and awe,he,he america is doomed,at war with no end in sight,and their economy is about to collapse,get your pop corn folks,and enjoy the horror movie! HA,HA,HA
- Reply to this comment
- I find that what the generals say is a lot closer to what Obama is saying.
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Posted by hadenough43 at 10:18 PM : Jul 28, 2008
+ report abuse
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Me too. And besides, the Iraqis want us out. Sounds good to me. - Reply to this comment
- Its a lovely day in the nayyyy-bor-hood,
A lovely day in the nayyyy-bor-hood.......... - Reply to this comment
- Oh ***!!!
The neo cons JUST TOLD me that we were "winning" in Iraq!
Does this now mean that they were wrong, and we''''re STILL losing?
Posted by hungry1968 at 11:17 PM : Jul 28, 2008
I don''t remember seeing this. What people have said, I think, is that the military is doing a lot of good.
The fanatic Muslims are still killing each other and will keep doing so until the end of time.
They still live by tribal rules and that makes them kill, kill,kill. They want to avenge a death that happened 109 years ago. And for what purpose? If we did that kind of thing in this Country our population would be one half of what it is now....:-) - Reply to this comment
- I know you are making a joke but in all honesty can anyone tell me exactly what the position is of the leader of the SS? He''''s put forward just about all of them at one time or another and honestly after the flip flop between the CNN interview and the ABC one, can anyone tell me what it actually is?? Sieg Heil McSame
Posted by MCVet-1 at 09:59 PM : Jul 28, 2008
I have no idea. I follow Obama, and have NO IDEA what McCain is up to.
Maybe someday he''ll be steady and consistent like Obama, and he can actually TAKE a position, and hold it. - Reply to this comment
- "5 Bomb Attacks Kill Scores In Iraq
Triple Suicide Blasts Kill 28 Shiite Pilgrims In Baghdad, 15 Dead At Kurdish Rally In Kirkuk"
Oh ***!!!
The neo cons JUST TOLD me that we were "winning" in Iraq!
Does this now mean that they were wrong, and we''re STILL losing? - Reply to this comment
- No General yet! has flatly stated that the surge is working!! In an unqualified, unambiguious flat statement.
This has been a consistent observation since the "surge" started.
Yet McCain tries to these same Generals to bolster his argument that it is. And the press condinues to hammer away at Obama about it.
I find that what the generals say is a lot closer to what Obama is saying.
Posted by hadenough43 at 10:18 PM : Jul 28, 2008
What I have heard one or two say was that WE THINK THAT IT IS WORKING TO SOME EXTENT. How well is up to anyones guess. And we will have to depend on the men on the ground in Iraq to say one way or another. - Reply to this comment
- Posted by hbevis at 09:37 PM : Jul 28, 2008
You are WRONG and dead WRONG!! The Fascist Republican''''s are responsible for the mess we''''re in and that''''s all there is to it. We have a President Obama or President Kerry or President Gore, with a Democrat Congress, we have a Balanced Budget, we''''re NOT in Iraq and Bin Laden is dead or Captured. To hid from this reality is to bury your head in the sand. Sieg Heil McSame
Posted by MCVet-1 at 09:56 PM : Jul 28, 2008
I know that you have some really good points about what has and is going on with this war that we are in.
But, on some points you are kind of wrong. You are to bitter to see beyond where you stand. You know as well as I do that almost everyone in Washington has had some part in this mess we call a WAR. And all we have now is the worse mess than I have ever seen and I am 74 years old. - Reply to this comment
- After the bombing in Kirkuk, the angry Kurds burned down the headquarters of the Turkoman Front and attacked an Arab politicians house. The Turkoman Front said that Baghdad needed to take over security of the city from the Kurds, while the Arab politician threatened to call in the Sunni Sons of Iraq to protect the city''s Arabs. A Kurdish politician got into the act by saying that the political parties that passed the election law in parliament were responsible for the bombing. These kinds of divisions were probably just the response the bombers wanted. For more see: http://musingsoniraq.blogspot.com/
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Author Thomas Friedman on Obama's Afghanistan plan and the war on terror.
