[From the diaries by susanhu.]
newly named leader of Al Qaeda – the Syriar Al Zarqawi :
“He who has warned is excused.”
AL-QAEDA CLAIM FOR BOMBINGS TODAY ::
Day of Vengeance
– Number killed upped to 180 persons
– 11x suicide bombings, targeting:
– 7x coalition forces
– 2x Iraqi police
– 1x civilian, at market 108 died
– 1x near hospital where wounded were taken
– in 50% of attacks, it was a Shia neighborhood
– a number of shootings combined with bomb attacks.
From Jan. 1, 2005 over 6,000 civilians have died in Iraq. The Baghdad metropolitan area has a population of 6 million, half of Iraqi people are < 20 years old. Unemployment rate is estimated at 50%.
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In Northern Baghdad, or North of Baghdad, 17 men were dragged from their homes and executed by unknown gunmen, some dressed in Iraqi Army uniforms.
More ugly violence as more than 40 were killed when a suicide car bomb exploded in central Baghdad as men were waiting for a day’s employment.
More to follow below the fold »»
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Another Bomb in Central Baghdad – Live Video on CNNi sees black smoke billowing to the sky – more to follow!
Bombs, Gunmen Kill over 114 in Baghdad
A man clutches the bloodied clothes and shoes of a relative who was killed by a suicide car bombing in a residential part of Baghdad today. Witnesses said the bomber was targeting the nearby offices of radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. REUTERS/Kareem Raheem
Explosions amd Attacks in Central Iraq Kill at Least 169 and Wounding 542
BAGHDAD, Iraq – More than a dozen explosions ripped through the Iraqi capital in rapid succession, killing at least 152 people and wounding 542 in a series of attacks that began with a suicide car bombing that targeted laborers assembled to find work for the day. Al-Qaida in Iraq claimed responsibility.
The one-day death toll was believed to be the worst in the capital since major combat ended in May 2003, and Al-Jazeera said Al-Qaida in Iraq linked the attacks to the recent killing of about 200 militants from the city of Tal Afar by U.S. and Iraqi forces.
Today’s worst bombing killed at least 104 people and wounded 227 in the heavily Shiite neighborhood of Kazimiyah where the day laborers had gathered shortly after dawn.
The carnage was the worst single day of bloodshed since March 2, 2004, when coordinated blasts from suicide bombers, mortars and planted explosives hit Shiite Muslim shrines in Karbala and in Baghdad, killing at least 181 and wounding 573.
Recently on bridge over Euphrates river of Baghdad, a 1000 Shia pilgrims died after fear caused a stampede and people were trampled or pushed off bridge into river.
Wounded Iraqis are treated in hospital following a suicide car bomb attack in Baghdad. The blast killed mostly labourers who had gathered to look for work in the Shi'ite district of Kathimiya. Ceerwan Aziz/Reuters
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) — Deadly violence rocked central Iraq early today, killing at least 104 people and wounding 186 others, police said.
At least one suicide car bomb exploded near a gathering of laborers in Kadhimiya — a Shiite area of north-central Baghdad. A driver of a small van capable of carrying personnel, called out to a group of Iraqis waiting to be employed, that he was looking for workers. The terrorist – suicide bomber – blew himself up with the van filled with explosives …
Hospital officials told police that at least 80 people have been killed, and another 162 wounded. The bombing took place around 6:50 a.m. (10:50 p.m. ET Tuesday).
About three hours later, another suicide car bomb targeted shoppers in the busy Shiite neighborhood of Shu’la in northwestern Baghdad, killing four people and wounding 22 others.
In Taji, about 10 miles (16 kilometers) north of Baghdad, men wearing Iraqi army uniforms stormed homes and pulled 17 Shiite men from their homes, shooting them execution style, police said.
The men were killed around 4 a.m. Taji is a mixed Sunni-Shiite community.
Attacks were also staged on at least three military convoys.
A suicide car bomb targeted an Iraqi army convoy in the al-Adil intersection in western Baghdad around 9:40 a.m. (1:40 a.m. EDT). According to police, three Iraqi soldiers were killed and two of their vehicles were damaged.
About 40 minutes earlier, another suicide car bomber hit a U.S. military convoy in eastern Baghdad, wounding two soldiers and destroying their Humvee.
for U.S. | Iraqi attacks on Tal Afar?
US and Iraqi soldiers patrol Tal Afar, and carried out a house-to-house search for insurgents in the northern town after rebels melted away in the face of a large-scale operation. AFP/Ali Khalil
The Islamic Army in Iraq, which has previously claimed responsibility for kidnappings and killings of foreigners, made a bounty offer for the assassination of key Iraqi officials.
The group called in a website posting for its “holy fighters to strike the infidels with an iron fist.” It offered $100,000 to the killer of al-Jaafari, $50,000 for the interior minister and $30,000 for the defence minister.
on the Rafidha (a pejorative term for Shiites), wherever they are in Iraq.”
Zarqawi, who has a 25 million dollar US price on his head, also urged Sunni Arabs to “wake up from your slumber… the war to exterminate Sunnis will never end.”
Iraqi leaders were challenged to leave Baghdad’s highly fortified “Green Zone” to challenge his mujahedeen, or holy warriors.
The voice on the tape demanded that Iraq’s other religious groups and its tribes disavow the government of Shiite Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari or face attack.
Jaafari himself, speaking on Iraqi state television from New York, where he was attending a UN summit, said a Palestinian and a Libyan had been detained over the attacks.
He was determined “to pursue the war against terrorism and remove it from all corners of the country”.
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