Now we have Sunnis and Shiites exchanging mortar fire inside Baghdad. If that is not standing on the precipice of a civil war, I don't know what is.
Gunmen Attack Iraqi Ministry,
Baghdad Suicide Bombings Kill 144
Associated Press
November 23, 2006 11:13 a.m.
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Hours after U.S. and Iraqi forces swept into Baghdad's Sadr City in an early morning raid, three suicide car bombers and two mortar attacks shook the Shiite slum, killing at least 144 people and wounding 236 others, police said.
Beginning at 3:10 p.m., the three car bomb attackers blew up their vehicles one after another, at 15 minute intervals, hitting Jamila market, al-Hay market and al-Shahidein Square in Sadr City. At about the same time, mortar rounds struck al-Shahidein Square and Mudhaffar Square, police said. Car bombs in Sadr City in the past months have killed and wounded hundreds.
The Shiites responded almost immediately, firing 10 mortar rounds at the Abu Hanifa Sunni mosque as Azamiya, killing one person and wounding seven people in their attack on the holiest Sunni shrine in Baghdad.
The explosions came after U.S. and Iraqi forces swept into Sadr City -- a Shiite slum -- in an early morning raid, killing four Iraqis, wounding eight and detaining five, police said.
The raid was the fourth coalition attack in six days on the slum, which is home to the Mahdi Army, the militia loyal to radical anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. The militia is also suspected of having kidnapped an American soldier last month and taken scores of Iraqi hostages during an attack on a government building in Baghdad on Nov. 14.
In a statement, the U.S. military confirmed the raid and said it was conducted in the continuing effort to find an American soldier who was kidnapped Oct. 23. It confirmed a vehicle was shot at by Iraqi forces after "displaying hostile intent," but did not report on casualties.
Police Capt. Mohammed Ismail said coalition forces searched houses at about 4:30 a.m. local time and opened fire on a minivan carrying Iraqi workers in the al-Fallah Street area, killing four of them and wounding eight. Iraqis often pay a small fee to crowd into such vehicles and travel early in the morning to sites where they hope to get work as day laborers. Mr. Ismail said the coalition raid also detained five Iraqis. The Americans confirmed that figure.
The raid came just weeks after Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite, had taken on the role of protector of the sprawling Sadr City district by ordering the U.S. military to lift a blockade of the slum.
American forces had sealed the district for several days looking for kidnapped U.S. soldier Ahmed Qusai al-Taayie, a 41-year-old Ann Arbor, Michigan resident. He was visiting his Iraqi wife in Baghdad on Oct. 23 when he was handcuffed and abducted by suspected rogue gunmen from the Mahdi Army.
Fighting at Health Ministry
In the afternoon, heavy clashes also broke out between suspected Sunni insurgent gunmen and guards at the Shiite-controlled Health Ministry building in north Baghdad, security officials said. State-run Iraqiyah television said the Health Ministry was being attacked with mortars by "terrorists who are intending to take control of the building."
Security officials said about 30 gunmen, believed to be Sunni insurgents, had launched the attack. Iraqi troops were being rushed to the area and all roads leading to the ministry in Bab al-Muadham neighborhood were closed, said the security officials on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to reporters.
Police Lt. Ali Muhsin said the attack began at 2:10 p.m. when three mortar shells hit the building, causing damage. After that, gunmen on the upper floors of surrounding buildings opened fire. Ministry workers were trapped in the building, but there were no immediate reports of casualties.
Health Minister Ali al-Shemari is a follower of the radical cleric Mr. Sadr, whose Mahdi Army militia is blamed for killing thousands of Sunni Muslims.
Ongoing Violence
Thursday's violence followed the bloodshed on Wednesday, when at least 101 Iraqis were killed, and the U.N. reported that 3,709 Iraqi civilians were killed in October, the highest monthly toll of the war and one that is sure to be eclipsed when November's dead are counted.
The U.N. figure for the number of killings in October was more than three times the 1,216 tabulated by the Associated Press and nearly 840 more than the 2,870 U.S. service members who have died during the war.
The United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq also said that citizens were fleeing the country at a pace of 100,000 each month, and that at least 1.6 million Iraqis have left since the war began in March 2003.
Life for Iraqis, especially in Baghdad and cities and towns in the center of the country, has become increasingly untenable. Many schools failed to open at all in September, and professionals -- especially professors, physicians, politicians and journalists -- are falling to sectarian killers at a fast pace.
Lynchings have been reported as Sunnis and Shiites conduct a campaign of revenge killings. Some Shiite residents in the north Baghdad neighborhood of Hurriyah claim that militiamen and death squads are holding Sunni captives in warehouses, then slaughtering them at the funerals of Shiites killed in the tit-for-tat murders.
The U.S. military on Thursday reported the deaths of three Marines who were killed while fighting in Anbar province, where many Sunni-Arab insurgents are based. So far this month, 52 American service members have been killed or died. |
