Suicide Bombers Kill 143 Shi'a Worshippers in Iraq

[Guest Cerebus]

Ok, let's keep the discussion on the impact this will have to Iraq and NOT the relative morality of the Iraqi invasion, religion, or conspiracy theories about WMD. If you want to talk about that, you're more than welcome to revive older topics.

 

From the AP:

 

Qaeda Blamed as Attacks on Shi'ites Kill 143 in Iraq   

 

By Suleiman al-Khalidi and Luke Baker

 

BAGHDAD/KERBALA, Iraq (Reuters) - Coordinated suicide bombs and mortars tore into vast crowds of Shi'ite worshippers Tuesday, killing at least 143 people on Iraq (news - web sites)'s bloodiest day since the fall of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites).

 

Leaders of the country's 60 percent Shi'ite majority said the bloodbaths were intended to ignite civil war. The Iraqi Governing Council blamed a Jordanian who Washington says is working for al Qaeda and trying to fuel chaos in Iraq.

 

The U.S. military said three suicide bombers killed 58 people in Baghdad around the Kadhimiya mosque, and a suicide bomber, mortars and concealed bombs combined to kill at least 85 in Kerbala, a Shi'ite holy city 70 miles to the south.

 

The near-simultaneous attacks ripped through an annual ritual -- banned under the Sunni Saddam regime -- during which Shi'ites beat their heads and chests and cut their heads with swords to honor a revered figure killed in battle 1,324 years ago.

 

In Kerbala, where at least two million worshippers had gathered, rescuers raced through the streets with bodies stacked two or three deep on wooden carts, desperately searching for a doctor or an ambulance.

 

Shi'ites who earlier had ritually gashed open their heads with swords queued up to give blood to the wounded.

 

Many of the victims were blown to pieces. A man's scalp and ear lay alongside rotting fruit.

 

IRAQI LEADERS BLAME AL QAEDA

 

Several Governing Council members blamed the blasts on Abu Musab Zarqawi, a Jordanian whom Washington suspects of being behind a series of major attacks in Iraq.

 

U.S. forces have placed a $10 million bounty on his head. They said last month they had intercepted a computer disc with a letter from Zarqawi urging suicide bomb attacks on Shi'ites to inflame sectarian tension in Iraq.

 

"This was a clear and tragically well-organized act of terrorism," Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, deputy chief of operations for the U.S. Army in Iraq, told a news conference.

 

He said a man strapped with explosives had been apprehended near the Baghdad mosque -- the capital's holiest Shi'ite shrine -- and several people had been arrested in Kerbala.

 

"In both cases they are being held by the Iraqi police service and we expect soon that they will be providing us information in terms of their nationality, and perhaps their motivation as well," Kimmitt said.

 

In a separate attack in Baghdad, guerrillas threw a bomb at a U.S. military vehicle, killing one American soldier and seriously wounding another, the army said. The death took to 379 the number of U.S. soldiers killed in action since the start of the U.S.-led war in Iraq nearly a year ago.

 

In southwest Pakistan, Shi'ites in a procession to mark the same festival as their Iraqi brethren were attacked by suspected Sunni radicals with guns and bombs. At least 37 were killed and more than 150 wounded, hospital sources said.

 

GOVERNING COUNCIL CALLS FOR CALM

 

Unsure who to blame, survivors in Baghdad hurled stones at U.S. troops who arrived on the scene.

 

In Kerbala, enraged Shi'ites turned on Iranian pilgrims after the blasts -- even though an Iranian Interior Ministry official said 40 to 50 Iranians were among the dead and wounded in the attacks on the two cities.

 

Shi'ites on the Governing Council called for calm and unity among all of Iraq's myriad religious and ethnic groups.

 

"The civil war and sectarian strife that Zarqawi wants to inflict on the people of Iraq will not succeed. Zarqawi failed, his gang and their evil plans have failed," Mowaffaq al-Rubaie, a Shi'ite Governing Council member, told a news conference.

 

"Sunnis, Shi'ites, Arabs, Kurds, Assyrians, all Iraqis are determined to move forward," he said. "United we stand and we go forward to build a new Iraq."

 

Hamid al-Bayati, a senior official in the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, a leading Shi'ite political group, blamed Saddam loyalists and al Qaeda.

 

"The people behind this act are what remains of the regime, backed by people like al Qaeda with the goal of igniting civil strife, but we and the rest of the Iraqi people are aware of this danger and will not succumb to it," he said.

 

The competing religious and ethnic groups in the Governing Council forged an interim constitution Monday, putting aside differences over the role of Islam, representation for women and Kurdish demands for autonomy.

 

The agreement was due to have been signed Wednesday but officials said this may be postponed out of respect for a three-day mourning period for the victims of Tuesday's attacks.

 

Shi'a and Sunni factions have never had much love for each other in Iraq and this will make things much worse and of course anything that makes the situation worse in Iraq makes it worse for the Americans which makes it better for...Al Queda! It may only be a matter of time before Shi'a begin to form paramilitary groups (probably supplied by Iran) to take things into their own hands and then the US will, in the words of R. Lee Ermey, be in a world of shit.

[NoCalMike 0]

well surely it is a great thing that all of our efforts over the past two years have been focused on bringing down Al Qaeda...

[Vern Gagne 0]

I'll be an optimist.

 

I don't think these Homicide Bombers will hinder the transition of the gov't into Iraqi hands. If I'm not mistaken an interim gov't is supposed to be in place around July, while elections will occur at the end of 2004.

[Justice 0]

well surely it is a great thing that all of our efforts over the past two years have been focused on bringing down Al Qaeda...

Well, Mike, there is a difference between crippling their international operations and their operations right in their backyard...

[Guest Cerebus]

Apparently the US had the opportunity to strike at Zarqawi but skipped out to prevent stirring the Iraqi pot before it was ready so to speak. That, or perhaps, the intelligence was shaky (which should surprise exactly no one) Unnamed military officials say it was airtight though this article doesn't name names besides for Roger Cressey, a fairly respectable name in intelligence circles nonetheless.

[Zorin Industries 0]

I'll be an optimist.

 

I don't think these Homicide Bombers will hinder the transition of the gov't into Iraqi hands. If I'm not mistaken an interim gov't is supposed to be in place around July, while elections will occur at the end of 2004.

That is the part i'm not worried about. What does worry me is that these attacks will hinder the ability for Sunni, Shia and Kurd to be able to work together. You only had to look at the aftermath of the bombings yesterday when Shia's attacked any foreginer they could get there hands onto to see what chaos this could potentially lead to.