Nighttime Baghdad bombings kill and wound hundreds celebrating Ramadan

[webfact]

Nighttime Baghdad bombings kill and wound hundreds celebrating Ramadan
By Natalie Huet | With AGENCIES



BAGHDAD: -- At least 120 people were killed and scores wounded when two nighttime bombings ripped through Baghdad on Sunday (July 3), when the streets were filled with families celebrating Ramadan.

The self-styled Islamic State militant group claimed responsibility for what it said was a suicide bombing. The attack comes just a week after it lost control of the nearby city of Fallujah to government forces and is the deadliest in the Iraqi capital so far this year.

The toll rose quickly on Sunday. At least 25 children were said to have been killed, and more than 150 people wounded.

Busy shopping district
Horror spread through Baghdad around midnight, when a refrigerator truck packed with explosives blew up in the busy shopping district of Karrada, sparking a massive blaze.

Shortly after, a roadside bomb went off in a popular market in al-Shaab, a Shi’ite district in the north of the capital.

PM’s convoy pelted with stones
Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi went to the scene of the blasts, which ravaged several buildings.

His convoy was reportedly pelted with stones and bottles by residents angry about what they felt were false promises of better security.

-- (c) Copyright Euronews 2016-07-04

[webfact]

Deadliest attack in a year kills 115 in central Baghdad
By SUSANNAH GEORGE and SINAN SALAHEDDIN

BAGHDAD (AP) — A devastating truck bombing on a bustling commercial street in downtown Baghdad killed 115 people early Sunday, brutally underscoring the Islamic State group's ability to strike the capital despite a string of battlefield losses elsewhere in the country.

It was the deadliest terror attack in Iraq in a year and one of the worst single bombings in more than a decade of war and insurgency, and it fueled anger toward Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi.

When al-Abadi visited the site of the suicide blast in the city's Karada district, a furious mob surrounded his convoy, yelling expletives, hurling rocks and shoes and calling him a "thief."

Many Iraqis blame their political leadership for lapses in security in Baghdad that have allowed large amounts of explosives to make their way past multiple checkpoints and into neighborhoods packed with civilians.

Karada, a mostly Shiite section, is lined with clothing and jewelry stores, restaurants and cafes. The blast struck during the holy month of Ramadan, with the streets and sidewalks filled with young people and families after they had broken their daylight fast.

Eleven people were missing and 187 were wounded, authorities said. Many of the victims were women and children who were inside a multi-story shopping and amusement mall. Dozens burned to death or suffocated, a police officer said.

IS swiftly claimed responsibility in a statement posted online, saying the organization had targeted Shiites. The Associated Press could not verify the authenticity of the statement, but it was posted on a militant website commonly used by the extremists.

A second bombing early Sunday on another busy commercial street in a Shiite-dominated neighborhood, this one in east Baghdad, killed five people and wounded 16, authorities said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

Hospital and police officials provided the death tolls and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Iraqi forces, supported by U.S.-led coalition airstrikes, have secured a string of victories against IS over the past year and a half, retaking the cities of Tikrit, Ramadi and Fallujah, which was declared fully liberated from the extremist group just over a week ago.

But IS has repeatedly demonstrated the ability to carry out large-scale operations in territory removed from the front-line fighting.

Iraqi officials have repeatedly linked the operation to retake Fallujah to improving security in and around Baghdad, citing the large numbers of bomb factories uncovered in Fallujah, less than an hour drive west of the capital.

However, within Baghdad, security forces that screen for explosives at the ubiquitous checkpoints in and around the city often rely on electronic wands that have been repeatedly discredited.

And security across the capital is fragmented. Baghdad is handled by an array of armed groups that are allied with the government but also loyal to political parties or militias and often do not coordinate or share information.

By early Sunday evening, the crowd at the Karada site had grown, but the yelling had largely ceased.

Exhausted family members sat on sidewalks silently awaiting news of missing loved ones as others began to hang freshly printed death notices for the police officers and shop owners killed. Young people lit candles on street corners.

Karim Sami, a 35-year-old street vendor in Karada, was just leaving work when the blast shook the ground beneath him. He said he saw a fireball rise from the blast site and immediately began trying to call his family and friends, but none of his calls went through.

Hours later he discovered one of his friends had been killed, one was wounded and another was missing.

"We are in a state of war," Sami said, but "the security can't focus on the war (against IS) and forget Baghdad."

It was the deadliest bombing in Iraq since July 2015, when a truck bombing in eastern Diyala province killed at least 115 people.

While the U.S.-led coalition conducts police training in Iraq as part of the battle against IS, the vast majority of resources go toward fighting the extremist group on the front lines.

U.S. Army Col. Christopher Garver said that while the coalition and Iraq are concerned about the Islamic State's insurgent abilities, the current anti-IS effort "is more of a conventional fight."

Before announcing the operation to retake Fallujah in late May, al-Abadi faced growing unrest sparked in part by anger at the state of security in the capital. In one month, Baghdad's highly fortified Green Zone, which houses government buildings and diplomatic missions, was stormed twice by anti-government protesters.

Al-Abadi issued a statement Sunday condemning the attack and describing the loss of life as a "painful tragedy" that "robbed Iraqis of the delight of their victories against the reprehensible (Islamic State group) in Fallujah."

"These attacks only strengthen our resolve to support Iraqi security forces as they continue to take back territory from ISIL, just as we continue to intensify our efforts to root out ISIL's terrorist network and leaders," White House National Security Council spokesman Ned Price said in a statement, referring to IS by an alternative acronym.

At the height of the extremist group's power in 2014, IS had driven the government from control across nearly one-third of Iraqi territory. Now the militants are estimated to control only 14 percent, according to the prime minister's office.

___

Associated Press writers Murtada Faraj, Ali Abdulhassan and Khalid Mohammed in Baghdad and Maamoun Youssef in Cairo contributed to this report.


-- (c) Associated Press 2016-07-04

[shirtless]

The religion of peace , at work again.

[bassman]

Lets hope they keep more of the terrorism Muslim on Muslim.

[phantomfiddler]

Does it get any better

[OccamsRazor]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5WCNfgX0oU

[metisdead]

An off topic nonsense post has been removed.

[spidermike007]

Democracy building, American style, courtesy of Tiny George II, and his misfit band of thieves and miscreants. Saddam was a bad man. His son Uday was even worse. But, there are alot of bad men in the world. Those guys kept Iraq stable, ISIL did not exist while they were still around, Syria was stable, and the entire region, though living under repressive regimes no doubt, was stable. Then we came in, and wala. Presto. Instability, increased terrorism, and just generally bad news. Nearly every country the US touches turns to crap. Disastrous foreign policy, under neophyte, wanna be leaders.

A word of advice to the US. Leave the damn world alone. You do not know what you are doing, you have no vision or wisdom, and these countries do not want your foreign policy.

In the movie Hyena Road, which is an excellent depiction of the futility of both the Iraqi and the Afghan war, one of the actors, who plays one of the intelligence officers says: "There is little understanding of what the government sent in its fellow citizens to do on the nation’s behalf, Gross says. “We don’t understand these places. The conflict in Afghanistan was never supposed to go on for 15 years. We are in Afghanistan longer than we were in the First World War, the Second World War and the Korean War combined,” he says. “I think one of the problems with these long counterinsurgencies, it’s difficult to know where the end is. ‘What is the end status?’ as Pete says. It just arrives. One day there’s a memo sent out: ‘Hey, we’ve done our job.’ ”

Another great quote from that movie: "These people here. They have no use for what we have on offer. They don't want Justin Bieber or Tom Jefferson or our fricking pornography. They just want our money and a little bit of stability. So how do we win? There is no winning. Just an end game laid down by our state department".

[sanukjim]

So, I guess that the Muslims will have to start "Profiling" Muslims ?

[ALLSEEINGEYE]

As the Muslims say for everything else....it's the will of Allah.

[DLang]

Does it get any better

than humans being blown to pieces?

[Friendly Stranger]

Things are starting to heat up in the M/E again. How muslim of these terrorists to hit a celebration of a very important part of their religion. I bet they yelled "god is great" before this atrocity.

The irony..

[Dagnabbit]

There's some very ignorant people posting on this thread. Almost happy that Muslims were the target.

Do you not realize that Muslims are killed in far greater numbers in terrorist attacks than westerners?

How anyone could be happy with this is beyond me.

[Andaman Al]

Does it get any better

At least 25 children murdered by being blown apart? You tell us phantomfiddler, does it get any better? Maybe with 30 kids, 50, 100? As exmples of what you comment on, here are some images of 'Does it get any better'. Anyone offended by the images, I hope you are far far more offended by phantomfiddlers post. Some more to notch up in the Bush and Blair family photo albums.

[MaxYakov]

Democracy building, American style, courtesy of Tiny George II, and his misfit band of thieves and miscreants. Saddam was a bad man. His son Uday was even worse. But, there are alot of bad men in the world. Those guys kept Iraq stable, ISIL did not exist while they were still around, Syria was stable, and the entire region, though living under repressive regimes no doubt, was stable. Then we came in, and wala. Presto. Instability, increased terrorism, and just generally bad news. Nearly every country the US touches turns to crap. Disastrous foreign policy, under neophyte, wanna be leaders.

A word of advice to the US. Leave the damn world alone. You do not know what you are doing, you have no vision or wisdom, and these countries do not want your foreign policy.

In the movie Hyena Road, which is an excellent depiction of the futility of both the Iraqi and the Afghan war, one of the actors, who plays one of the intelligence officers says: "There is little understanding of what the government sent in its fellow citizens to do on the nation’s behalf, Gross says. “We don’t understand these places. The conflict in Afghanistan was never supposed to go on for 15 years. We are in Afghanistan longer than we were in the First World War, the Second World War and the Korean War combined,” he says. “I think one of the problems with these long counterinsurgencies, it’s difficult to know where the end is. ‘What is the end status?’ as Pete says. It just arrives. One day there’s a memo sent out: ‘Hey, we’ve done our job.’ ”

Another great quote from that movie: "These people here. They have no use for what we have on offer. They don't want Justin Bieber or Tom Jefferson or our fricking pornography. They just want our money and a little bit of stability. So how do we win? There is no winning. Just an end game laid down by our state department".

Reading the reviews of "Hyena Road" (2015), a Canadian production about Canada's involvement in the Afghanistan war, I get the idea reading the IMDB reviews that it's a pretty war action movie, at least.

The questions I have are:

What are the Canadians doing there?

Does your advice apply to Canada and the other NATO countries as well as the U.S.?

Was it just that some statements in the movie agreed with your views?

Are you sure they got it right w/r to the "fricking pornography"?

Also, you must have stopped reading all news as of January 20, 2009 because you somehow failed to mention that, oh yeah, "Tiny George II" has not been U.S. Commander in Chief since then. So why don't you name some current "neophyte, wanna be leaders"? The "Blame Bush" card is looking very dog-eared at this point.

When quoting, it would have been helpful to identify the movie's character that was speaking, because I question whether a Canadian, NATO soldier would have referred to the "state department", since I can't find it listed under Official Canadian Departments and agencies.

I know, I know, I ask too many questions, but thanks for the "shoot 'em up" movie tip, anyway!

[spidermike007]

Democracy building, American style, courtesy of Tiny George II, and his misfit band of thieves and miscreants. Saddam was a bad man. His son Uday was even worse. But, there are alot of bad men in the world. Those guys kept Iraq stable, ISIL did not exist while they were still around, Syria was stable, and the entire region, though living under repressive regimes no doubt, was stable. Then we came in, and wala. Presto. Instability, increased terrorism, and just generally bad news. Nearly every country the US touches turns to crap. Disastrous foreign policy, under neophyte, wanna be leaders.

A word of advice to the US. Leave the damn world alone. You do not know what you are doing, you have no vision or wisdom, and these countries do not want your foreign policy.

In the movie Hyena Road, which is an excellent depiction of the futility of both the Iraqi and the Afghan war, one of the actors, who plays one of the intelligence officers says: "There is little understanding of what the government sent in its fellow citizens to do on the nation’s behalf, Gross says. “We don’t understand these places. The conflict in Afghanistan was never supposed to go on for 15 years. We are in Afghanistan longer than we were in the First World War, the Second World War and the Korean War combined,” he says. “I think one of the problems with these long counterinsurgencies, it’s difficult to know where the end is. ‘What is the end status?’ as Pete says. It just arrives. One day there’s a memo sent out: ‘Hey, we’ve done our job.’ ”

Another great quote from that movie: "These people here. They have no use for what we have on offer. They don't want Justin Bieber or Tom Jefferson or our fricking pornography. They just want our money and a little bit of stability. So how do we win? There is no winning. Just an end game laid down by our state department".

Reading the reviews of "Hyena Road" (2015), a Canadian production about Canada's involvement in the Afghanistan war, I get the idea reading the IMDB reviews that it's a pretty war action movie, at least.

The questions I have are:

What are the Canadians doing there?

Does your advice apply to Canada and the other NATO countries as well as the U.S.?

Was it just that some statements in the movie agreed with your views?

Are you sure they got it right w/r to the "fricking pornography"?

Also, you must have stopped reading all news as of January 20, 2009 because you somehow failed to mention that, oh yeah, "Tiny George II" has not been U.S. Commander in Chief since then. So why don't you name some current "neophyte, wanna be leaders"? The "Blame Bush" card is looking very dog-eared at this point.

When quoting, it would have been helpful to identify the movie's character that was speaking, because I question whether a Canadian, NATO soldier would have referred to the "state department", since I can't find it listed under Official Canadian Departments and agencies.

I know, I know, I ask too many questions, but thanks for the "shoot 'em up" movie tip, anyway!

Good questions. My guess is that it was a coalition of sorts that was being portrayed. The character in question is named Ryan Sanders. He is a Canadian sniper. The intelligence officer is named Paul Mitchell (played by Paul Gross, who I believe also directed the film). It was a Canadian film, and is excellent. The soldiers were primarily Canadian, as there are many serving in Afghanistan. About 2,500 at one point. And my guess is that the "advisor" character was a CIA spook. So, he was referring to the State Department, as they pretty much call the shots over there. Yes, the word fricking was substituted for a word that is not allowed on this forum.

And yes, I hold Obama equally responsible, as he has started other conflicts, that are equally inane. I blame Tiny George II for alot. He was an ignorant, careless, power hungry neophyte. But, Obama is not much of an improvement, so I spread the blame equally.

[dexterm]

Does it get any better

Callous racism/religionism along with posters shirtless, sanukjim and allseeingeye.

Speaks volumes about the character of these posters, who share the same inhumanity as the bombers.

[Scott]

Off-topic post removed.

[i claudius]

There's some very ignorant people posting on this thread. Almost happy that Muslims were the target.

Do you not realize that Muslims are killed in far greater numbers in terrorist attacks than westerners?

How anyone could be happy with this is beyond me.

Better they kill each other than us,

[F430murci]

Democracy building, American style, courtesy of Tiny George II, and his misfit band of thieves and miscreants. Saddam was a bad man. His son Uday was even worse. But, there are alot of bad men in the world. Those guys kept Iraq stable, ISIL did not exist while they were still around, Syria was stable, and the entire region, though living under repressive regimes no doubt, was stable. Then we came in, and wala. Presto. Instability, increased terrorism, and just generally bad news. Nearly every country the US touches turns to crap. Disastrous foreign policy, under neophyte, wanna be leaders.

A word of advice to the US. Leave the damn world alone. You do not know what you are doing, you have no vision or wisdom, and these countries do not want your foreign policy.

In the movie Hyena Road, which is an excellent depiction of the futility of both the Iraqi and the Afghan war, one of the actors, who plays one of the intelligence officers says: "There is little understanding of what the government sent in its fellow citizens to do on the nation’s behalf, Gross says. “We don’t understand these places. The conflict in Afghanistan was never supposed to go on for 15 years. We are in Afghanistan longer than we were in the First World War, the Second World War and the Korean War combined,” he says. “I think one of the problems with these long counterinsurgencies, it’s difficult to know where the end is. ‘What is the end status?’ as Pete says. It just arrives. One day there’s a memo sent out: ‘Hey, we’ve done our job.’ ”

Another great quote from that movie: "These people here. They have no use for what we have on offer. They don't want Justin Bieber or Tom Jefferson or our fricking pornography. They just want our money and a little bit of stability. So how do we win? There is no winning. Just an end game laid down by our state department".

Hello?!?!?!?! You do realize that Sadam and his minions committed mass scale human atrocities and genocide and is responsible for perhaps 500,000 deaths. His minions tortured people, burned people alive, melted people alive with vats of acid, gang raped women in fronton their families, impale victims with hot metal rods after smashing their toes and removing toenails, just burned off limbs so the victims would live, gouged eyes and forced millions of kurds into concentration camps where perhaps 1,000 a day would die and be tortured.

Yep, thing were real good and peaceful over the before the US involvement. . . . The fact is, these people are <deleted> idiots and animals and will behave like idiots and animals no matter what.

[arjunadawn]

So, I guess that the Muslims will have to start "Profiling" Muslims ?

In most muslim countries muslims are profiled relative to their past, their associations, online contacts, etc. Go to the GCC countries, etc. They know.

[arjunadawn]

There's some very ignorant people posting on this thread. Almost happy that Muslims were the target.

Do you not realize that Muslims are killed in far greater numbers in terrorist attacks than westerners?

How anyone could be happy with this is beyond me.

Agreed.

Most often, those muslims killed are not those that would have ever taken to violence. They are mostly people who are labeled apostate because of what they believe or practice. No, it is not a good thing that any humans kill other humans over choice, free will, and practices.

Muslims are the first target of jihad, then illegitimate muslim rulers, then external threats. This house cleaning is never a good thing. This distills jihad to a concentrated dose.

[spidermike007]

Democracy building, American style, courtesy of Tiny George II, and his misfit band of thieves and miscreants. Saddam was a bad man. His son Uday was even worse. But, there are alot of bad men in the world. Those guys kept Iraq stable, ISIL did not exist while they were still around, Syria was stable, and the entire region, though living under repressive regimes no doubt, was stable. Then we came in, and wala. Presto. Instability, increased terrorism, and just generally bad news. Nearly every country the US touches turns to crap. Disastrous foreign policy, under neophyte, wanna be leaders.

A word of advice to the US. Leave the damn world alone. You do not know what you are doing, you have no vision or wisdom, and these countries do not want your foreign policy.

In the movie Hyena Road, which is an excellent depiction of the futility of both the Iraqi and the Afghan war, one of the actors, who plays one of the intelligence officers says: "There is little understanding of what the government sent in its fellow citizens to do on the nation’s behalf, Gross says. “We don’t understand these places. The conflict in Afghanistan was never supposed to go on for 15 years. We are in Afghanistan longer than we were in the First World War, the Second World War and the Korean War combined,” he says. “I think one of the problems with these long counterinsurgencies, it’s difficult to know where the end is. ‘What is the end status?’ as Pete says. It just arrives. One day there’s a memo sent out: ‘Hey, we’ve done our job.’ ”

Another great quote from that movie: "These people here. They have no use for what we have on offer. They don't want Justin Bieber or Tom Jefferson or our fricking pornography. They just want our money and a little bit of stability. So how do we win? There is no winning. Just an end game laid down by our state department".

Hello?!?!?!?! You do realize that Sadam and his minions committed mass scale human atrocities and genocide and is responsible for perhaps 500,000 deaths. His minions tortured people, burned people alive, melted people alive with vats of acid, gang raped women in fronton their families, impale victims with hot metal rods after smashing their toes and removing toenails, just burned off limbs so the victims would live, gouged eyes and forced millions of kurds into concentration camps where perhaps 1,000 a day would die and be tortured.

Yep, thing were real good and peaceful over the before the US involvement. . . . The fact is, these people are <deleted> idiots and animals and will behave like idiots and animals no matter what.

I never said Saddam was a good guy. Never. But, what about Kim the Fat, or Mugabe, or the Castro brothers, or Hun Sen, or any of a number of other despot leaders around the world? What do we do? Start a war in each of their countries? There is something to be said for stability in a region. The pot that the US has stirred up in Iraq is something we will be contending with for the rest of our lives. It has created a staggering degree of instability, is primarily responsible for the enormous growth of terrorism in the region, and is generally a horrible situation that could have been easily avoided.

[spidermike007]

Democracy building, American style, courtesy of Tiny George II, and his misfit band of thieves and miscreants. Saddam was a bad man. His son Uday was even worse. But, there are alot of bad men in the world. Those guys kept Iraq stable, ISIL did not exist while they were still around, Syria was stable, and the entire region, though living under repressive regimes no doubt, was stable. Then we came in, and wala. Presto. Instability, increased terrorism, and just generally bad news. Nearly every country the US touches turns to crap. Disastrous foreign policy, under neophyte, wanna be leaders.

A word of advice to the US. Leave the damn world alone. You do not know what you are doing, you have no vision or wisdom, and these countries do not want your foreign policy.

In the movie Hyena Road, which is an excellent depiction of the futility of both the Iraqi and the Afghan war, one of the actors, who plays one of the intelligence officers says: "There is little understanding of what the government sent in its fellow citizens to do on the nation’s behalf, Gross says. “We don’t understand these places. The conflict in Afghanistan was never supposed to go on for 15 years. We are in Afghanistan longer than we were in the First World War, the Second World War and the Korean War combined,” he says. “I think one of the problems with these long counterinsurgencies, it’s difficult to know where the end is. ‘What is the end status?’ as Pete says. It just arrives. One day there’s a memo sent out: ‘Hey, we’ve done our job.’ ”

Another great quote from that movie: "These people here. They have no use for what we have on offer. They don't want Justin Bieber or Tom Jefferson or our fricking pornography. They just want our money and a little bit of stability. So how do we win? There is no winning. Just an end game laid down by our state department".

Hello?!?!?!?! You do realize that Sadam and his minions committed mass scale human atrocities and genocide and is responsible for perhaps 500,000 deaths. His minions tortured people, burned people alive, melted people alive with vats of acid, gang raped women in fronton their families, impale victims with hot metal rods after smashing their toes and removing toenails, just burned off limbs so the victims would live, gouged eyes and forced millions of kurds into concentration camps where perhaps 1,000 a day would die and be tortured.

Yep, thing were real good and peaceful over the before the US involvement. . . . The fact is, these people are <deleted> idiots and animals and will behave like idiots and animals no matter what.

On a certain level, you sound like you are reading from the White House script. Do you know how people feel on the ground, in Iraq these days? Read this article, and listen to some of the quotes of one of Saddam's harshest critics. A guy who spent time in prison for criticizing him. See how he feels now, after 14 brutal years of war in his country.

Kadhim, like many Iraqis, blames the invaders for starting a chain of events that destroyed the country. He longs for the certainties and stability of Saddam's time.

First, he says, he realised it was not going to be liberation, but occupation. Then he hated the corruption, mismanagement and violence in the new Iraq. Most of all he despises Iraq's new leaders. "Saddam has gone, and we have one thousand Saddams now," he says. "It wasn't like this under Saddam. There was a system. There were ways. We didn't like him, but he was better than those people."

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-36706265