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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
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August 13th,
2009 - Double Suicide Bombing Kills More than 20 in Iraq |
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Double Suicide
Bombing Kills More than 20 in Iraq By Kim Gamel Associated Press August 13, 2009 Baghdad - A double suicide
bombing devastated a cafe packed with young people in northwestern Iraq on
Thursday, killing at least 21 people, officials said, in the latest attack
against a minority community. The blast capped a deadly
week in which nearly 150 people have been killed in bombings concentrated
near the volatile northern city of Mosul and Baghdad, heightening fears that
Sunni insurgents are stepping up efforts to stoke ethnic and sectarian
tensions. Thursday's attack occurred
shortly after 5 p.m. in Sinjar, a city dominated by members of the
Kurdish-speaking Yazidi religious group that is concentrated near the Syrian
border. It came two years after a
village near Sinjar was hit by one of the worst insurgent attacks since the
2003 U.S. invasion. Four suicide truck bombers exploded nearly simultaneously
in Qahataniya on Aug. 14, 2007, killing as many as 500 Yazidis. The bombers detonated their
explosives Thursday inside the Ayoub cafe as the popular sunset destination
was packed with people drinking tea and playing dominoes. City officials imposed a
curfew and said some of the most seriously wounded were evacuated to
hospitals in the nearby semiautonomous Kurdish region. "What has happened this
afternoon is a catastrophe that hit our city," said municipal council
member Meiysar Subhi. "Young people were murdered while they were just
trying to have a nice time." The attack killed 21 people,
including an Egyptian resident, and wounded 32, said the director of Sinjar
hospital, Dr. Kifah Mahmoud. The top commander of U.S.
forces in northern Iraq, Army Maj. Gen. Robert Caslen, said Tuesday that
recent attacks show the resilience of al-Qaida in Iraq and other Sunni
insurgents despite numerous military operations against them. Tensions are especially acute
along the sensitive fault line of territory disputed by Kurds and Arabs where
the Yazidis live. Kurdish checkpoints guard entrances to Sinjar, and the
city's mayor, Dakhil Qassim Hassoun, recently called for it to be
incorporated into the nearby semiautonomous Kurdish territory. Several top U.S. defense
officials have identified the split between Iraq's majority Arabs and the
Kurdish minority as probably a greater long-term threat to Iraq's stability
than the more familiar Sunni-Shiite conflict. They have warned that
conflict between the two groups over land and oil could explode into a new
front in the Iraq conflict even as overall levels of violence decline - a
dangerous prospect as U.S. forces prepare to withdraw by the end of 2011.
Tensions also have been rising ahead of national elections scheduled for
January. The competition between
Arabs and Kurds could lead to "an ethnic, lethal-force engagement,"
Caslen told reporters, but added he was encouraged by political movement on
both sides. Addressing the recent spasm
of violence, Caslen said al-Qaida is using the new attacks to draw attention
but so far has not been able to provoke a large-scale sectarian retaliation. Caslen said the number of
insurgent attacks has dropped in Mosul since the handover of control of the
city to Iraqi forces on June 30. Weekly attacks averaged 42 before the
handover. They now average 29, Caslen said. At the same time, high-profile
attacks and attacks on Iraqi security forces are up, producing a higher
number of casualties, he said. Bombers in the area
surrounding Mosul have mainly targeted ethnic minorities, indicating that
insurgents are seeking out vulnerable, relatively unprotected targets to
maximize casualties as the strapped Iraqi army focuses its efforts on more
central areas. Bombings struck mainly
Shiite communities on the fringes of Mosul last Friday and Monday, targeting
a mosque used by Shiite Turkomen and a Shabak community. Baghdad also has faced a
spate of high-profile attacks. A motorcycle bomb exploded
late Thursday near a restaurant in a Shiite enclave in southern Baghdad,
killing at least two civilians and wounding 10 others, police said. Associated Press Writer
Sameer N. Yacoub contributed to this report. Copyright © 2009 The
Associated Press. External link: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hwK_CSpBxsNuVUEaDuOwmSSCiqGwD9A26HBO1 |