I can't say that reading this sort of thing inspires much confidence in the future of Iraq. So now Shiite Sunni reprisals are a bigger danger than the "insurgency"- and it's not as if that has gone away either. What a mess. :
By ROBERT H. REID, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 4 minutes ago
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Rockets and mortars rained down Thursday on an upscale, mostly Shiite area of Baghdad, collapsing an apartment house, shattering shops and killing at least 31 people — part of the rising sectarian violence President Bush has vowed to stop.
A car bomb also exploded during the attack in the commercial-residential district of Karradah, an area that is home to several prominent Shiite politicians.
More than 150 people were wounded in the blasts, police said.
Horrified survivors milled about the street hours later, surveying the damage and blaming Sunnis from neighborhoods across the Tigris River.
"We are not infidels. It seems that we are not even safe in our homes," said one man, who, like others on the street, refused to give his name because he was afraid.
At least two rockets slammed into Karradah, including one that collapsed an apartment house, said Lt. Col. Abbas Mohammed Salman, police commander in Karradah. Salman gave the tally of dead and wounded.
Two mortar shells exploded — one near an investment bank and another across the street near a row of shops. A car bomb went off minutes later near a gas station, shattering storefronts and spraying flaming gasoline onto homes and shops, the Interior Ministry reported.
The blasts transformed a normally bustling, generally safe area of Baghdad into a scene from a war zone. Rescuers hauled a bloodsoaked boy who appeared no more than 10 from the wrecked apartment building.
A woman dressed in black sank to the street, weeping uncontrollably, when neighbors told her two of her sons were dead. Dazed survivors, some bleeding from their wounds, tried to help each other get medical aid.
Charred hulks of trucks lay on their sides in the blackened street. One detonation occurred about 600 feet from the home of Vice President Adil Abdul-Mahdi, a senior figure in the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki condemned the attack, saying it was carried out by "killers of women and children" including religious extremists and Saddam Hussein loyalists.
He said security forces would hunt down "those terrorists and killers who try to incite sectarian strife."
Iraq's biggest Sunni political group, the Iraqi Islamic Party, said the attackers were bent on "sabotaging the national reconciliation plan, but they will fail" if Iraqis realize "the solution is in their hands."
The government ordered private vehicles off the streets Friday between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. to prevent car bombs against Sunni and Shiite worshippers on Islam's main day of worship.
Thursday's attack occurred as al-Maliki was en route home from Washington, where President Bush agreed to send more American soldiers into Baghdad to curb the Sunni-Shiite reprisal attacks that have surpassed the Sunni-led insurgency as the No. 1 threat to Iraq's stability.
Sectarian attacks and intimidation began in Iraq shortly after the collapse of Saddam's regime in April 2003, fanned in large part by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi who sought to trigger all out civil war before his death last month in a U.S. airstrike.
The sectarian violence surged after the Feb. 22 bombing at a Shiite shrine, which led to reprisal attacks against Sunni mosques and clerics nationwide. Sunni-Shiite violence is most prevalent in Baghdad and religiously mixed communities around the capital.
That has taken the spotlight away from the Sunni heartland north and west of Baghdad, where Sunni insurgents are strong and there a relatively few Shiites.
Bombings, shootings and execution-style killings have escalated despite the installation of al-Maliki's government of national unity May 20, dashing U.S. hopes that a coalition of Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds could win public trust and pave the way for the U.S. military to begin pulling back this year.
According to the United Nations, about 6,000 Iraqis were killed in May and June in political and sectarian violence.
Instead of sending U.S. soldiers home, Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the top U.S. commander in Iraq, is drawing up plans to put large numbers of American troops in Baghdad's streets to shore up the U.S.-trained Iraqi security force.
Britain's ambassador to Iraq said Thursday that the security problem was made all the worse because Iraqis have lost confidence in the police.
Speaking on BBC Radio, William Patey said some members of the police are believed linked to Shiite militias and Sunni insurgent groups.
"Undoubtedly the Iraqi people have lost confidence in the police," he said. "You move from optimism and pessimism. It's a fine dividing line."
An Iraqi soldier was killed and another wounded in a driveby shooting near Hawija, 150 miles north of Baghdad, police said. One civilian was killed and a woman and her 8-year-old son were wounded when police returned fire, officials said.
The body of a police major general was found Thursday in east Baghdad, one day after he was abducted, police said. His body was blindfolded, handcuffed and riddled with bullets.
Also Thursday, gunmen abducted three people walking near a Sunni mosque in north Baghdad, and a former member of Saddam's Baath Party was shot and killed in east Baghdad, police said.
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Associated Press correspondents Qais al-Bashir, Qassim Abdul-Zahra, Ryan Lenz and Rawya Rageh contributed to this report. |
