a***@freemail.com
2005-09-15 04:02:30 UTC
http://makeashorterlink.com/?F25052DCB
Insurgent Attacks Target Scores of Poor Shiites
By Borzou Daragahi, Times Staff Writer
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- At their uncle Hamid Ghatti Fares' behest, the Rashid
brothers left the desperation and unemployment of Nasiriya down south to
look for construction jobs in the Iraqi capital.
And under their uncle's care, the two bothers, Hossein, 33, and Tahseen,
27, were returned to their home in the south Wednesday, their mangled
bodies laid side by side in simple wooden coffins strapped atop a
Korean-made minibus.
ADVERTISEMENT
"What can I say? How can I describe this feeling?" said Fares, a 57-
year-old Baghdad cigarette vendor, whimpering as he boarded the vehicle
and prepared to deliver his nephews' remains to their father -- his
brother -- in Nasiriya. "It will be a long ride."
The brothers were killed when a massive car bomb exploded in a crowd of
day laborers in the largely Shiite Muslim district of Kadhimiya on
Wednesday, one of the deadliest days of insurgent attacks in the capital
since the March 2003 U.S.-led invasion.
By nightfall, at least 141 Iraqis had been killed and 228 injured in the
bombings and ambushes in Baghdad, most of the victims members of Iraq's
Shiite majority. Between 6:50 a.m. and 2:10 p.m. local time, 10 car
bombs were set off in the capital.
Another 17 people were shot execution-style in a massacre in a Shiite
enclave near Taji, north of the capital.
The barrage of explosions plunged the capital once again into fear and
despair. Gunfire and sirens rang out as black smoke rose into the sky.
Police and soldiers choked traffic with checkpoints. In eastern Baghdad,
automatic weapons fire continued into the night.
The violence appeared to be retaliation for a recent joint U.S.-Iraqi
offensive against rebels in the northern city of Tall Afar that Iraqi
officials said killed at least 150 insurgents. The attacks also seemed
designed to stoke tension between the country's Shiite majority and
Sunni minority, which along with Sunni Arab fighters from abroad is
spearheading the insurgency.
The group of Jordanian-born Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, an insurgent leader,
claimed responsibility for the day's assaults in an Internet posting.
"Al-Qaida Organization in Iraq ... has declared war against Shiites in
all of Iraq," the audio recording said. "As for the government, servants
of the crusaders headed by (Prime Minister) Ibrahim Jafari, they have
declared a war on Sunnis in Tall Afar. You have begun and started the
attacks, and you won't see mercy from us."
A senior U.S. military official, speaking on condition of anonymity,
said the attacks were evidence of insurgents' weakness against Iraq's
nascent security forces. "(The insurgents) failed to stand up to the
assault up north, so they slink away and kill civilians in Baghdad," he
said. "It is astonishing that they can try to claim some victory from
pure murder."
John Arquila, a counter-insurgency specialist at the Naval Postgraduate
School in Monterey, Calif., offered a similar assessment.
"The insurgent networks in Iraq have repeatedly demonstrated their
ability to mount substantial operations on short notice, particularly
when the targets are `soft' (i.e., innocent civilians). ... It takes the
insurgents much longer to mount operations against coalition forces,
when they choose to do anything more than plant bombs or run suicide
attacks."
Five of Wednesday's car bombs targeted U.S. patrols, injuring at least
two Americans. In one foiled attack, a man of Syrian origin rammed a car
bomb into an American tank, but it failed to explode and he was
captured, a U.S. military officer said. Three bombs targeted Iraqi
security officials, killing three soldiers and police officers.
But ordinary Iraqi civilians, almost all Shiites, bore the brunt of the
attacks. One car bomb in the mostly Shiite Shuala district targeted a
group of people waiting for a bus. At least four were killed, according
to the Interior Ministry.
In Taji, according to one witness, a group of at least 50 men in Iraqi
army uniforms pulled 17 members of the mostly Shiite Tamimi tribe out of
their homes, lined them up against a wall and executed them before
firing off flares and escaping into the dense palm groves along the
Tigris River.
"The people who were killed have nothing to do with the Americans, the
government or security forces," Mohammad Baqer Tamimi, a Taji produce
wholesaler, said in a telephone interview. "Some sold vegetables, some
sold ice and some were taxi drivers."
The car bomb in Kadhimiya, though, was the day's deadliest incident,
killing 112 people, the Interior Ministry said.
Some witnesses said the suicide bomber posed as a potential employer;
dozens of poor, mostly Shiite young men crowded around the vehicle in
hopes of landing a job.
Hours after the explosion, women walking by the scene covered their eyes
and gasped, overwhelmed by the smell of burnt flesh. Slick pools of
blood covered the pavement. Farm tractors hauled away piles of charred
debris.
The lobby of nearby Kadhimiya hospital had been turned into an overflow
emergency room. Stacks of saline bags and bandages lay atop the
receptionist's counter. Flies swarmed the bloodied, half-conscious
patients lying on hospital beds.
Many of the victims said they were unemployed bricklayers, painters and
construction workers from Iraq's south. The young men told similar
stories of paying $7 or so for a taxi ride up to Baghdad and staying in
$1-a-night flophouses for the chance to earn up to $10 a day working on
building projects in the capital.
"What is the reason for killing those innocent people? They work to eat.
If they don't work they will not eat for the day," said Hashim Naji, a
23-year-old employee of a shoe factory, recovering from wounds he
sustained in the Kadhimiya attack. "They are not officials. They don't
represent a threat to anyone."
Times staff writers Saif Rasheed and Shamil Aziz contributed to this
report.
--
Posted via NewsDemon.com - Premium Uncensored Newsgroup Service
------->>>>>>http://www.NewsDemon.com<<<<<<------
Unlimited Access, Anonymous Accounts, Uncensored Broadband Access
Insurgent Attacks Target Scores of Poor Shiites
By Borzou Daragahi, Times Staff Writer
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- At their uncle Hamid Ghatti Fares' behest, the Rashid
brothers left the desperation and unemployment of Nasiriya down south to
look for construction jobs in the Iraqi capital.
And under their uncle's care, the two bothers, Hossein, 33, and Tahseen,
27, were returned to their home in the south Wednesday, their mangled
bodies laid side by side in simple wooden coffins strapped atop a
Korean-made minibus.
ADVERTISEMENT
"What can I say? How can I describe this feeling?" said Fares, a 57-
year-old Baghdad cigarette vendor, whimpering as he boarded the vehicle
and prepared to deliver his nephews' remains to their father -- his
brother -- in Nasiriya. "It will be a long ride."
The brothers were killed when a massive car bomb exploded in a crowd of
day laborers in the largely Shiite Muslim district of Kadhimiya on
Wednesday, one of the deadliest days of insurgent attacks in the capital
since the March 2003 U.S.-led invasion.
By nightfall, at least 141 Iraqis had been killed and 228 injured in the
bombings and ambushes in Baghdad, most of the victims members of Iraq's
Shiite majority. Between 6:50 a.m. and 2:10 p.m. local time, 10 car
bombs were set off in the capital.
Another 17 people were shot execution-style in a massacre in a Shiite
enclave near Taji, north of the capital.
The barrage of explosions plunged the capital once again into fear and
despair. Gunfire and sirens rang out as black smoke rose into the sky.
Police and soldiers choked traffic with checkpoints. In eastern Baghdad,
automatic weapons fire continued into the night.
The violence appeared to be retaliation for a recent joint U.S.-Iraqi
offensive against rebels in the northern city of Tall Afar that Iraqi
officials said killed at least 150 insurgents. The attacks also seemed
designed to stoke tension between the country's Shiite majority and
Sunni minority, which along with Sunni Arab fighters from abroad is
spearheading the insurgency.
The group of Jordanian-born Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, an insurgent leader,
claimed responsibility for the day's assaults in an Internet posting.
"Al-Qaida Organization in Iraq ... has declared war against Shiites in
all of Iraq," the audio recording said. "As for the government, servants
of the crusaders headed by (Prime Minister) Ibrahim Jafari, they have
declared a war on Sunnis in Tall Afar. You have begun and started the
attacks, and you won't see mercy from us."
A senior U.S. military official, speaking on condition of anonymity,
said the attacks were evidence of insurgents' weakness against Iraq's
nascent security forces. "(The insurgents) failed to stand up to the
assault up north, so they slink away and kill civilians in Baghdad," he
said. "It is astonishing that they can try to claim some victory from
pure murder."
John Arquila, a counter-insurgency specialist at the Naval Postgraduate
School in Monterey, Calif., offered a similar assessment.
"The insurgent networks in Iraq have repeatedly demonstrated their
ability to mount substantial operations on short notice, particularly
when the targets are `soft' (i.e., innocent civilians). ... It takes the
insurgents much longer to mount operations against coalition forces,
when they choose to do anything more than plant bombs or run suicide
attacks."
Five of Wednesday's car bombs targeted U.S. patrols, injuring at least
two Americans. In one foiled attack, a man of Syrian origin rammed a car
bomb into an American tank, but it failed to explode and he was
captured, a U.S. military officer said. Three bombs targeted Iraqi
security officials, killing three soldiers and police officers.
But ordinary Iraqi civilians, almost all Shiites, bore the brunt of the
attacks. One car bomb in the mostly Shiite Shuala district targeted a
group of people waiting for a bus. At least four were killed, according
to the Interior Ministry.
In Taji, according to one witness, a group of at least 50 men in Iraqi
army uniforms pulled 17 members of the mostly Shiite Tamimi tribe out of
their homes, lined them up against a wall and executed them before
firing off flares and escaping into the dense palm groves along the
Tigris River.
"The people who were killed have nothing to do with the Americans, the
government or security forces," Mohammad Baqer Tamimi, a Taji produce
wholesaler, said in a telephone interview. "Some sold vegetables, some
sold ice and some were taxi drivers."
The car bomb in Kadhimiya, though, was the day's deadliest incident,
killing 112 people, the Interior Ministry said.
Some witnesses said the suicide bomber posed as a potential employer;
dozens of poor, mostly Shiite young men crowded around the vehicle in
hopes of landing a job.
Hours after the explosion, women walking by the scene covered their eyes
and gasped, overwhelmed by the smell of burnt flesh. Slick pools of
blood covered the pavement. Farm tractors hauled away piles of charred
debris.
The lobby of nearby Kadhimiya hospital had been turned into an overflow
emergency room. Stacks of saline bags and bandages lay atop the
receptionist's counter. Flies swarmed the bloodied, half-conscious
patients lying on hospital beds.
Many of the victims said they were unemployed bricklayers, painters and
construction workers from Iraq's south. The young men told similar
stories of paying $7 or so for a taxi ride up to Baghdad and staying in
$1-a-night flophouses for the chance to earn up to $10 a day working on
building projects in the capital.
"What is the reason for killing those innocent people? They work to eat.
If they don't work they will not eat for the day," said Hashim Naji, a
23-year-old employee of a shoe factory, recovering from wounds he
sustained in the Kadhimiya attack. "They are not officials. They don't
represent a threat to anyone."
Times staff writers Saif Rasheed and Shamil Aziz contributed to this
report.
--
Posted via NewsDemon.com - Premium Uncensored Newsgroup Service
------->>>>>>http://www.NewsDemon.com<<<<<<------
Unlimited Access, Anonymous Accounts, Uncensored Broadband Access