Bomb Blasts Rip Baghdad, Over 40 Killed

(AP)  Two car bombs tore through a crowded commercial district in Baghdad's main Shiite district on Wednesday, killing at least 41 people, Iraqi police said.

The blasts went off in quick succession less than a week after bombings claimed more than 150 lives over a two-day span. The attacks have raised fears that suspected Sunni insurgents are regrouping and trying to reignite sectarian strife as the U.S. military begins to withdraw.

Sadr City is a former Shiite militia stronghold heavily guarded by Iraqi military. An offensive last year broke the control of militias over the district, and the area has been relatively quiet in recent months.

Angry young men gathered around the bloodstained pavement and twisted heaps of metal from the cars, which had been parked near a restaurant and an ice cream stand.

Saadi Rashid, 35, said he had just bought some new clothes for his children at a nearby store when the blast went off, sending shrapnel piercing through his shoulder and his leg.

"I saw my blood covering the clothes that I had planned to take to my kids," he said from his hospital bed. "What a disaster when I felt that I couldn't bear to walk or even to stand."

The increase in high-profile attacks in recent weeks has raised questions about the ability of Iraq's forces to sustain security gains as they increasingly take over from the Americans.

The blasts also followed the announcement by the Iraqi government that it has captured the alleged leader of an al Qaeda front group. On Tuesday, the Iraqi military presented the first image of the man it says is Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, saying his arrest would deal a major blow to the insurgency.

Iraqi military spokesman Maj. Gen. Qassim al-Mussawi said three other explosives-laden cars had been found but defused near the site along with three more in Shiite areas elsewhere in the city.

He blamed the attacks on followers of al-Baghdadi, saying "absolutely it is a message of reprisal by these terrorist gangs."
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The U.S. military, however, said al Qaeda was behind the recent high-profile attacks targeting Shiites, saying it was a bid to provoke the kind of sectarian violence that nearly tore the country apart in 2006 and 2007.

"They are very emotionally charged targets. They are meant to go after a vulnerable aspect of society, to just literally kill as many innocent civilians as they randomly can," Maj. Gen. David Perkins told The Associated Press Wednesday. "From al Qaeda's point of view, they are trying to generate a retribution attack and start ethno-sectarian violence up again."

However, Perkins insisted the insurgents remained unable to carry out such attacks on a daily basis.

"We have seen a couple of recent high-profile attacks, which obviously are a concern. But we don't think that's a fundamental shift," he said.

Sadr City, a sprawling Shiite slum in eastern Baghdad that contains about 2.5 million people, has been the site of several attacks by suspected Sunni insurgents as well as clashes between Shiite militiamen and U.S. forces.

There were conflicting death tolls Wednesday, as is usual in the chaotic aftermath of bombings.

Police and hospital officials said 41 people died and more than 60 people also were wounded. An Interior Ministry official gave a slightly higher figure, saying 45 people had died.

The officials all spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't allowed to release the information.

Nobody claimed responsibility for the attack, but car bombs and suicide attacks bear the hallmark of al Qaeda in Iraq and other insurgent groups.

On Nov. 23, 2006, mortar rounds and five car bombs killed 215 people in Sadr City in one of the deadliest attacks of the war.

Tensions also rose Wednesday near the northern disputed city of Kirkuk when U.S. troops opened fire after being ambushed while distributing grants to Iraqi businesses.

Iraqi officials said two civilians were killed when the Americans returned fire, but the U.S. military said those killed were enemy fighters.

The shooting came as the Iraqi government has expressed anger over a deadly U.S. raid in southern Iraq that it says violated a security agreement.

U.S. spokesman Maj. Derrick Cheng said several people launched a grenade and began shooting Wednesday as the patrol was handing out U.S. military funds as micro-grants to stimulate small businesses in the town of Riyadh.

He said reports indicate "two enemy killed and one wounded." He says one American was also wounded.

[runningralph]

You gotta chuckle when Islamic freaks blow each other up. The democrats have had the ability to get American troops out of Iraq since they got the majority of Congress in 2006. Indeed, many of the dem's candidates got elected by saying they would defund the Iraq war. Three years later and Cindy Sheehan is still outraged.

[promaclaura]

"The evidence indicates that Iraq is reconstituting its nuclear weapons program ... Iraq has attempted to purchase high-strength aluminum tubes and other equipment needed for gas centrifuges, which are used to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons." -- President Bush, Oct. 7, 2002, in Cincinnati.

This story, reported by Judith Miller in the New York Times, has turned out to be a complete fabrication. Department of Energy officials, who monitor nuclear plants, say the tubes could not be used for enriching uranium. One intelligence analyst, who was part of the tubes investigation, angrily told The New Republic: "You had senior American officials like Condoleezza Rice saying the only use of this aluminum really is uranium centrifuges. She said that on television. And that's just a lie."
Posted by nancy_naive at 11:15 AM : Apr 29, 2009

There's a lot more to this story then your brief snippet. The concern for the tubes was shared by "many" including other countries and attempts were made to block said "tubes" purchase. It would have been irresponsible of the Bush Admin. to not take this information seriously and different groups "do" have different opinions on the "intent" of the tubes. Read the full story on the tubes and decide for yourself.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraqi_aluminum_tubes

[motown67usa]

Unfortunately attacks are going up in Iraq again, but they are still below the levels seen in 2008. What happened was that attacks and deaths went down across the country as the Jan. 09 provincial elections neared. Jan. saw the fewest attacks and deaths since the war began. Since then both have crept back up, but they still haven't reached what they were before. In Dec. 08 there were 521 deaths, so far in April 09 there have been 457. If casualties creep up to 600 in a month then you may see a new security trend, if not, it's just back to normal sad to say. musingsoniraq.blogspot.com

[sandy19731]

Obama is right. Let's get out of there and let the ba$tards take care of their own country for themselves, and if they want to kill each other, so be it.
Posted by nikosk11

When they get really sick of it, they'll have a revolution or a civil war and someone will rise up to lead them. That's how it works. Or they can just have it like it has always been. Let's get rid of our oil addiction and leave them to sort it out on their own.

[fedup12]

Maybe bagdadshere was over there at the time.

[inventagod]

Same shiite, different day...

[jxknowles]

We need to step aside and let Iraqis take control of their country. Provide any training or resources they need. Our troops can only delay the inevitable,

[nikosk11]

If you think a 1,500 years hate, based on religion, is going to go away, everybody "kiss and make up" and "live happily ever after, just because stupid Bush said so, you are out of your f@*&n tree.

IT WILL NEVER HAPPEN.

Obama is right. Let's get out of there and let the ba$tards take care of their own country for themselves, and if they want to kill each other, so be it.

[ajjaxtheleast]

May sound like a joke,,,,but it truely was to go like this:,,,

After we democratized and pacified Iraq our democracy-spreading machine
was to rumble on to syria,,, Takeing care of business there we were to leave the
democratized and pacified Syria to finish our couple-months-long democratizing
and pacifying job in Iran following which we'd make a brief stop off back in Iraq
to inform of the benefits to all should they open oil contract bids to the
world,,, with attention given to a certain area of the world,

His "memoirs" will have to be a work of art.

[pepperwood2]

Yep as Hagliarty & BO would say Iraq is on the right track. So Sad for the Iraqi people.