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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings & Torture |
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June 25th,
2009 - Iraq Struck by a Wave of Bombings |
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Iraq Struck by a Wave of
Bombings By Alissa J. Rubin & Campbell Robertson New York Times June 25, 2009 Baghdad - At least seven
bombs exploded around the country Thursday amid a uptick in violence as
American troops prepare to withdraw from Iraqi cities on June 30. The attacks were widespread,
targeting Shiites and Sunnis, civilians, Iraqi security forces, and American
soldiers. There were at least five bombs in Baghdad. One, at a bus station,
killed two and wounded 30 in the late morning, security officials said,
though witnesses at the scene said the toll was higher. Nine members of the
coalition forces were wounded when two roadside bombs exploded near their
convoy in eastern Baghdad, an American military spokesman said. Iraqi
policemen were killed or wounded by attacks in Fallujah, Mosul and Baghdad,
officials said. “They’re exploiting this
time, the time of the American withdrawal, to prove that Iraqi forces are not
capable of handling security tasks,” Ali al-Mosawi, an advisor to the prime
minister, said of those behind the attacks. “They will escalate their attacks
over the days of the withdrawal, to commit as many crimes as they can.” While acknowledging that
security flaws led to the recent attacks, Mr. Mosawi said, “our forces will
control the situation, whatever the terrorists do.” While none of Thursday’s bombings
appeared to have caused more than a few fatalities, they underscored the
continuing vulnerability of Iraqi cities and towns to insurgent attacks.
American and Iraqi officials had warned that there would be a rise in
violence around the date of the scheduled pullout. Meanwhile, the death toll
from a bombing at a crowded market in the Sadr City section of Baghdad
Wednesday night continued to rise, with hospital officials saying on Thursday
that 76 had been killed and 158 wounded. That bomb, which was mounted
on a motorcycle, was at least the third in two weeks to cause double-digit
casualties in Iraqi Shiite communities. On Saturday, a truck bomb in Taza, a
Shiite Turkmen area in northern Iraq, killed at least 68 people. On June 10,
a car bomb exploded outside Nasiriya, the capital of a predominantly Shiite
province in southern Iraq where bombs are rare. That one killed at least 28
people and incited a near riot among survivors who threw stones at the
police, blaming them for lax security. Thursday’s bombings occurred
just five days before American forces are scheduled to withdraw from Iraqi
cities, towns and villages, as required under the Iraqi-American security
agreement. In Baghdad, many of the troops have already withdrawn, and
whatever preventive effect they had may well be fast evaporating. In their
absence, insurgent groups appear to be testing the security system now run
almost wholly by Iraqis. In 2005, similar attacks on
Shiite neighborhoods eventually prompted Shiites to form their own militias
to help protect themselves, setting off a cycle of sectarian violence. The
recent bombings have not resulted in reprisals, but in Iraq it is always
difficult to tell when the tipping point may come. On Thursday morning,
residents in Sadr City near the site of the Wednesday night’s bombing almost
universally blamed the Iraqi government for the attack, saying that it was
impossible for the bomber to have made it through nearby Iraqi Army
checkpoints without some help. Though some accused the Americans of having a
hand in the explosion, the fiercest reproaches were saved for Prime Minister
Nuri Kamal al-Maliki himself. “I accuse Maliki because he
is backed by Iran and they don’t want Iraq to be a stable country,” said
Mohammed Kanfoos, 31. Dismissing the Iraqi army as
both ineffectual and malicious, several of those interviewed said the Mahdi
Army, the Shiite militia that once controlled Sadr City and was pushed out by
American and Iraqi forces in the spring of 2008, would have provided better
security that than the Iraqi army. “I would like to ask Maliki
what he aims to achieve from such bombs,” said Ahmed Hasan, a 25-year-old
shoe store owner who saw the explosion firsthand. “Does he want to arrest
more Mahdi Army members? If the Mahdi Army were here, no bomb would have
happened.” A number of political
observers here say they believe the recent wave of attacks are intended to
discredit Iraq’s prime minister, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki. He has taken credit
for improving security, but the stance carries considerable political risk
when violence breaks out. The presence of the American
military has also been a significant factor in the nation’s stability, along
with the active participation of the largely Sunni neighborhood watch groups,
known as the Awakening. But now the American military is stepping back and
the Sunni guards, many of them former insurgents, are watching the government
with skepticism, uncertain whether they have a political voice. It remains to
be seen whether Mr. Maliki will be able to keep violence to an acceptable
level. “All this is against
al-Maliki,” said Muayad Hamed, a doctor who has watched the politics of
Shiite neighborhoods because he has worked on projects in Sadr City and other
Shiite communities in Baghdad. “The rumor on the street is that after 30 June
there will be more attacks to show that al-Maliki cannot work without the
Americans and that all his power came from the Americans,” he said. The scene on Wednesday
evening at Imam Ali hospital, the largest in Sadr City, was one of mourning
and chaos. Relatives and friends of the victims jammed the doors, pushing and
shoving as they pleaded with hospital employees to let them search for loved
ones. Many of those who had managed to enter received only sad news. Women
wailed in grief as they discovered that their sons or husbands had been
killed. “People who don’t fear God
did this, the terrorists,” said Ali Abbas, near tears as he stood next to one
of his brothers, who was badly wounded. He said he believed that another
brother had also been hurt in the attack. Haider Kadhim, 34, who had a
badly injured leg, spoke in a low tone as if he could not believe what
happened. “Me and my friend went to the market because there was no
electricity at home and it was too hot,” he said, “so we went out and were
just hanging out, and now I’ve lost my friend. He died. “We should have stayed
home,” he said. Atheer Kakan and Duraid
Adnan contributed reporting. External link: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/26/world/middleeast/26iraq.html |