[MossadConspiracy]

Iraqi Military Says 175 Killed, 200 Wounded in 4 Bombings
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

BAGHDAD (AP) -- Four suicide bombers hit Kurdish Yazidi communities in northwest Iraq with nearly simultaneous attacks on Tuesday, killing at least 175 people and wounding 200 others, the Iraqi military said.

The death toll was the highest in a concerted attack since Nov. 23, when 215 people were killed by mortar fire and five car bombs in Baghdad's Shiite enclave of Sadr City.

The bombs tore through the districts near Qahataniya, 75 miles west of Mosul, Iraq's third-largest city, said Abdul-Rahman al-Shimiri, the top government official in the area, and Iraq army Capt. Mohammed Ahmed.

Yazidis are members of an ancient, primarily Kurdish, religious sect that worships an angel figure some that Christians and Muslims believe to be the devil.

Al-Shimiri and Ahmed said at least 30 homes were destroyed in the bombings.

Dhakil Qassim, mayor of Sinjar, a town near where the attacks occurred, said al-Qaida in Iraq was behind the bombings, citing what he said were Kurdish government intelligence reports.

"This is a terrorist act and the people targeted are poor Yazidis who have nothing to do with the armed conflict," Qassim said. "Al-Qaida fighters are very active in this area near the Syrian border."

U.S. helicopters swooped into the area to evacuate the wound to hospitals in Dahuk, a Kurdish city near the Turkish border about 60 miles north of Qahataniya.

Civilians cars and ambulances also rushed the wounded to hospitals in Dahuk, police said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/14/wo...gewanted=print

[MossadConspiracy]

now over 250 are confirmed to be dead and the death toll is still rising

Death Toll in Iraq Bombings Rises to 250
By DAMIEN CAVE

BAGHDAD, Aug. 15 — The death toll following a series of bomb attacks on two Iraqi villages near the Syrian border rose to 250 today, with 300 to 350 wounded, and the number of dead could rise further as rescuers continued to dig through the rubble, local Iraqi officials said.

The authorities could still not estimate the full magnitude of the attack because there were areas with collapsed houses that the recovery workers had not yet been able to reach.

Four truck bombs exploded in the two villages in a Kurdish-speaking district of the country on Tuesday, destroying houses and sending the hundreds of wounded to at least six hospitals as far as 150 miles away, the authorities said.

In the hours after the blasts, victims were still buried in dusty rubble as American helicopters ferried away the wounded.

“Half the houses are completely collapsed because they were made from clay,” said Capt. Mohammed Ahmad of the Iraqi Army’s 3rd Division. He said scores of families were obliterated in the blast that wiped out a market and a bus station.

Another Iraqi officer described the scene as apocalyptic: “It looks like a nuclear bomb hit the villages,” he said.

The bombs — including at least one rigged to a fuel tanker — detonated in quick succession around 8 p.m. in Qahtaniya and Jazeera, two towns populated mostly by Yazidis, a Kurdish-speaking sect that mixes elements of Islam with the teachings of an ancient Persian religion.

The group has long been a minority in Iraq, and after some Yazidis stoned a Yazidi woman to death for dating a Sunni Arab man in April, members of the sect became frequent targets of Sunni attacks. When a video of the Yazidi woman being stoned appeared on the Internet, gunmen stopped minibuses full of Yazidi laborers and killed 23 of them. Many Yazidis have recently moved to villages farther west, where they make up a majority. The deadly assault on Tuesday crushed the hope that there would be safety in numbers — especially near the border with Syria, which American officials have long described as an entry point for foreign fighters.

The blasts capped one of the worst days of violence in months and raised further questions about whether the American military effort has pushed insurgents into less populated areas.

The explosions also came only a few hours after Iraqi leaders met for lunch in advance of a “crisis summit” meeting to discuss how to solve their sectarian divisions and smooth out their knotted government.

The gathering, like many before it, produced no results. An aide to President Jalal Talabani called the lunch “an icebreaker,” but Adnan Dulaimi, leader of the largest Sunni bloc, said nothing political was discussed.

“It was only an invitation for lunch,” he said. “We didn’t engage in any negotiations.”

American officials have been pushing Iraqi leaders to hammer out a grand compromise on several outstanding issues, from a new oil law to provincial elections. But in the midst of the continued stalemate — with the Shiite-led government of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki missing 11 cabinet ministers who have quit in protest — violence and the American effort to stop it continued to shudder through the country.

In an attack on Tuesday that seemed destined to heighten political tensions, at least 100 gunmen in Iraqi Army uniforms kidnapped several senior Oil Ministry officials from their homes in a fortified government compound. The captives — the deputy oil minister, Abdul Jabar al-Wagaa, three department heads and one of the officials’ sons — were abducted from a guarded area that sits about 300 yards from an Iraqi Army checkpoint often manned with tanks.

The motives for the kidnappings remained unclear. Mr. Wagaa, the most senior deputy minister, is a Sunni Muslim from Baiji, where Iraq’s oil refining is concentrated. Attacks by gunmen wearing army or police uniforms are typically attributed to Shiite militias that work within the security forces.

But the Iraqi oil minister, Hussain al-Shahristani, said the abduction did not appear to be sectarian because at least two of the victims were Shiites.

“The goal of this operation is to stop the work of the government and to damage the political process,” he told the state news channel, Iraqiya.

Elsewhere in Iraq on Tuesday, a truck bomb in Taji, north of Baghdad, killed at least 10 people and destroyed a bridge on the main highway connecting the capital with northern cities like Mosul.

Witnesses said the explosion destroyed the bridge, which was damaged in May by a car bomb, and sent several vehicles into a canal. Afterward, American and Iraqi divers could be seen trying to pull people out of the water.

Military officials said the cause of a helicopter crash on Tuesday that killed five Americans in Anbar Province, west of Baghdad, was still under investigation. A statement said the dual rotor CH-47 Chinook went down “while conducting a routine post-maintenance-check flight.”

Three American soldiers also died from a roadside bomb on Monday near Mosul, the military said in a statement. Two others died from attacks in western Baghdad, one on Tuesday, another on Monday.

Meanwhile, in Diyala Province, roughly 10,000 American soldiers and 6,000 Iraqis continued to push through villages surrounding Baquba in what commanders described as a large-scale offensive aimed at Sunni extremists.

The operation follows a major effort in June to seize control of Baquba, the area’s main city, from organizations like Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, a homegrown Sunni Arab extremist group with some foreign operatives. Many gunmen fled when the American and Iraqi troops arrived in force.

Military officials said the latest phase, named Lightning Hammer, began Monday and sought to attack the insurgents where they found refuge, especially among villages outside Baquba.

“The Iraqi Army and Coalition Forces are committed to the people of Diyala, they are committed to fighting for the Iraqi people’s security,” said Maj. Gen. Benjamin Mixon, commander of Multinational Division North, which covers the area. “We will aggressively and persistently target Al Qaeda, an organization that brings nothing but hatred, destruction and disregard for the very foundation of the Iraqi peoples’ principles and faith.”

Military officials did not say whether the truck bombings could also be a result of their efforts in other areas.

Residents in and around Qahtaniya said the area held many members of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia. Past operations have pushed insurgents to new locations only to return later, but it is not clear where the attackers on Tuesday were based.

[FMROMMEL]

Originally Posted by MossadConspiracy

now over 250 are confirmed to be dead and the death toll is still rising

It could be 500 dead. I am really suprised that there are no replies in this thread...........

There never are alot of replies to threads that contain info muslim on muslim violence.

[TrentReznor858]

Ever since the war started I have had this uneasy feeling about who is actually commiting these atrocities and wether American forces are doing what they say they are doing, rather than destabilizing the entire middle east for profit.

[Arabesque]

Originally Posted by FMROMMEL

It could be 500 dead. I am really suprised that there are no replies in this thread...........

There never are alot of replies to threads that contain info muslim on muslim violence.

You know how you silently condemn the killings done by your government?

It's the same.

[FMROMMEL]

Originally Posted by Arabesque

You know how you silently condemn the killings done by your government?

It's the same.

No, I don't know how "I" silently do anything.

So you are saying that you silently condemn killings by muslims on other muslims?

[FMROMMEL]

Originally Posted by TrentReznor858

Ever since the war started I have had this uneasy feeling about who is actually commiting these atrocities and wether American forces are doing what they say they are doing, rather than destabilizing the entire middle east for profit.

Oh yes, the US is making ssoooooo much money off the Iraq fiasco.

[MossadConspiracy]

Originally Posted by Arabesque

You know how you silently condemn the killings done by your government?

It's the same.

yeah but that comment is implying that a silent condemnation is tantamount to support (or at least is an inadequate condemnation), and this would apply in both cases, right?