Nearly 300 killed,167 injured, in Iraq violence in one day

[babylonsister]

http://www.theolympian.com/101/story/81984.html

Nearly 300 killed in day's Iraq violence

Hussam Ali and Leila Fadel
McClatchy Newspapers

KARBALA, Iraq - Two months into the U.S.-led Baghdad Security Plan, at least 289 people were killed and injured across Iraq on Saturday, including 36 dead in a car bomb attack in the holy Shiite city of Karbala. The carnage of a crowd teeming with women and children set off an angry mob of hundreds against the governor and police.

The morning bombing outside a bus station and marketplace ripped through vendor stands near a Shiite shrine where a grandson of the prophet Mohammed is buried.

Bodies littered the street and body parts were found as far as 160 yards from the site of the explosion. Three buses of passengers were charred and storefronts lay in shambles.

At least 167 people were injured in the bombing, but the death toll was expected to increase because of still-unidentified bodies and serious injuries, said Saleem Kadhim, spokesman for the Karbala health directorate.

As police and ambulances approached to carry away victims, angry residents shot at them, witnesses said. The police responded, firing bullets into the air to dissipate the angry crowd. As the bullets rained down, a child and elderly man were killed, witnesses said.

A man screamed, "They added new victims and don't care about our losses. It's enough."

Aqeel al Khazaali, the governor of Karbala, blamed the Baghdad Security Plan for the attack inside the relatively safe city. Karbala is about 50 miles south of Baghdad.

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[The_Casual_Observer]

1. "Let Freedom Reign!"

I feel "safer" over here, don't you?

[babylonsister]

2. Nah, I just feel sick. nt

[Miss Chybil]

3. I just don't know how much more "progress" Iraq can take. nt

[az chela]

4. Read George Mcgoverns"OUT OF IRAQ"

Learn the truth about the horrible things that have happened to this country for over 40 years.
It is unbelievable!!!!!!!!

[wiggs]

5. Hate and resentment will last for a generation. Rightly so, because

this cannot be fixed, mitigated, apologized for, or forgotten.

[uppityperson]

6. k&r. It is enough.

[HughMoran]

7. This is ridiculous

I can't believe that jackass McCain is trying to run on a ticket of "I'll pick up the War President reigns when Bushco is gone" - what a nincompoop.

[ginnyinWI]

8. By all accounts we are not in control over there.

And the worse it gets, the more they lie and say we are winning. How Orwellian can it get! It's as if reality means nothing--it's only what you say that counts.

[frogcycle]

9. it is appalling and yet

it strengthens my opinion that we must get out now

we are clearly not able to stop these events from happening. Our troops DO disarm bombs, Do catch snipers and such... but there is no evidence that changes anything. The disarmed bomb does not kill anyone, but another takes its place. So if we are not helping, and MAY be exacerbating it (I think we are, as do many) then starting to "downsize" the force, retiring to a force-protection posture is every bit as valid a "new strategy" as the "surge" and Baghdad pacification effort which is clearly only serving to move the mayhem elsewhere.


They really need to partition the damned place for their own good. Hell, the Shia can treat the Sunnis the way we treated the Cherokee - march them off to Oklahoma! If the Sunnis squawk, it will be cheaper and easier for the Saudis to just give them money than to try to fight. Put them on a reservation and let the Saudis support them while they build an economy based on something other than oil. It may not be "fair" - but who ever said anything was fair? Just get them separated and stop the carnage!