Hide Article Text (OCR)
Rocket and mortar barrage kills 31 in IraqMore than150 peoplewere injuredBY ROBERT H. REIDASSOCIATED PRESS WRITERBAGHDAD, 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, policerHorrified 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.A statement posted late Thursday on an Islamist Web site claimed responsibility in the name of the al-Sahaba Soldiers, a part of the Sunni extremist Mujahedeen Shura Council which also includes al-Qaida in Iraq.The statement, whose authenticity could not be determined, said the attack was “inresponse to Shiite crimes” and warned “we are prepared for many such operations to punish Shiites for supporting the “crusaders,” or Americans, and the “treacherous” Iraqi government.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 streetnear 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 blood-soaked 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 seetar-Baghdad bombingMortar rounds followed by a car bomb blasted Baghdad’s Karradah district, killing dozens.DetailIRAQBaghdad' Greenr*s-^Zone02 mi0 2 kmKarradahdistrictTigrisRiverSOURCE ESRIAPian 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 moreAmerican 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 ex-ecution-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.5,000 more U.S. troopsmay be sent to BaghdadWASHINGTON (AP) — Military commanders in Iraq are developing a plan to move as many as 5,000 U.S. troops with armored vehicles and tanks into the country’s capital in an effort to quell escalating violence, defense officials saidThursday.As part of the plan, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld on Thursday extended the tours of some 3,500 members of the 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team. It was scheduled to be leaving now, but instead, most of its 3,900 troops will serve for up to four more months.It was unclear whether the Stryker troops, who are in northern Iraq, would be among those going to Baghdad.Under the plan to bolster security in Baghdad, U.S. troops would be teamed with Iraqi police and army units and make virtually every operation in the city a joint effort, one military official said Another said movement of some troops into Baghdad had already begun.All flights out for soldiers currently at the end of their deployment were canceled as of Tuesday, as commanders wrestled with the plan and how to supply troops needed for it, a third official said.All spoke on condition of anonymity because the plan had not been finalized and discussions were private.President Bush broadly outlined a plan to increase U.S. and Iraqi forces in Baghdad during Tuesday’s visit to Washington by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. But little detail was provided.Officials said it would involve shifting some U.S. forces to the capital from other locations in the country. There were about 130,000 U.S. troops in Iraq on Thursday, and about 30,000 were in Baghdad prior to the new plan.Assembling more troops and armor in Baghdad is aimed at calming violence that has only increased in the capital since mid-June, when al-Maliki launched the city’s biggestsecuritv crackdown since theU.S.-led invasion.As part of the new' plan, about four companies of military police, or about 400 soldiers, are moving to Baghdad, and the remainder of a reserve force that had been in Kuwait — equaling about another 400 troops — has also gone into Iraq, officialssaid earlier this week.Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman declined to give details of the plan, saying thetop commander in Iraq, Gen.George Casey, “is working through a very tough problem” on how to manage the security crackdown with the new resources planned.Defense experts inside and outside the Pentagon worry that diverting U.S. troops to Baghdad could weaken their ability in other parts of the country. And they say the plan reverses an earlier effort to make Americans less visible and put Iraqi forces out front in the fight.Others argued that Baghdad is the central problem at the moment and that Iraqis in the capital will feel safer with the heavier armored presence.British Ambassador to Iraq William Patey said Wednesday that the security problem was made worse because Iraqis have lost confidence in the police and that evidence suggests some members of the police are linked to Shiite militias and Sunni insurgent groups.Asked if bringing tanks and armor back to Baghdad would run counter to plans for reducing the visibility of U.S. forces, one military official said: “There is definitely a fine line between overwhelming amounts of combat power versus enough to make you feel safe.“I don’t think we’re talking a tank on every street corner,” the official said.The 172nd uses the lighter, faster Stryker troop-carrying vehicle and includes about 4,400 troops. At least 200 have returned to Alaska; others were in Kuwait awaiting transportation home. It wasn’t clear Thursday how many membersASSOCIATED PRESSFollowing attack: A resident makes a phone call from his apartment building after it was struck by a rocket attack in a Shiite-controlled area of Baghdad.
Newspaper Details
Jacksonville Daily News
Jacksonville, North Carolina, US
Fri, Jul 28, 2006
Page 4
Full Page
Clipped by
Guest G.
USA 20 Jan 2019
Other Publications Near Jacksonville, North Carolina
Jacksonville Onslow County News and Views
Jacksonville News and Views
Jacksonville Daily News
