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RandalFlagg
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Insurgents Target Iraqi Police; 59 Dead
#3134636 - 09/14/04 02:04 PM (19 years, 6 months ago) |
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"Noble" and "honorable" mujahideen strike in Iraq again....
BAGHDAD, Iraq - A car bomb Tuesday ripped through a busy market near a Baghdad police headquarters where Iraqis were waiting to apply for jobs on the force, and gunmen opened fire on a van carrying police home from work in Baqouba, killing at least 59 people total and wounding at least 114.
The attacks were the latest attempts by militants to wreck the building of a strong Iraqi security force, a keystone of the U.S. strategy for ending the unflagging insurgency ahead of nationwide elections slated for January and for allowing an eventual withdrawal of American forces.
Despite U.S. claims that Iraqi forces are showing more resolve to fight, insurgents have only grown stronger and have shown they can strike at will, particularly in Baghdad. Tuesday's attacks came only two days after a surprise insurgent offensive in the capital that saw mortars pounding downtown Baghdad and left 60 dead.
The Tawhid and Jihad group, headed by Jordanian militant Abu Musab al- Zarqawi, posted a Web statement claiming responsibility for the car bomb in the capital. The al-Qaida-linked group said earlier it carried out Sunday's campaign of attacks and boasted that it had the upper hand in the fight against the Americans and their Iraqi allies.
Tuesday's car bomb exploded by a bustling row of shops and cafes and left a gaping 10-foot crater in Haifa Street — the same central avenue where much of Sunday's violence took place.
The blast devastated buildings and gutted cars near the western Baghdad police headquarters. Though the attack apparently targeted police, many of the 47 dead were people who had been shopping or having a morning meal. At least 114 were wounded, Health Ministry spokesman Saad Al-Amili said.
Paramedics and residents picked up body parts scattered across the street and put them into boxes. Anguished men lifted bodies burned beyond recognition and lay them gently on stretchers. Helicopters circled.
Afterward, angry crowds of young men pumped their fists in the air and denounced President Bush (news - web sites) and interim Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, saying they had failed to protect Iraqis. "Bush is a dog," they chanted.
In Baqouba, gunmen in two cars opened fire Tuesday on a van carrying policemen, killing 11 officers and a civilian, said Qaisar Hamid of Baqouba General Hospital.
It was at least the second recent attack on security forces in Baqouba: On July 28, a car bomb exploded outside a police recruiting center in the eastern, Sunni-dominated city, killing at least 68 people.
In the western city of Ramadi, clashes between U.S. troops and insurgents killed at least eight civilians and wounded 18 on Tuesday, medical officials said. Ramadi is a predominantly Sunni Muslim city where anti-American sentiments are high and U.S. troops and bases in the region come under almost daily attacks.
Also Tuesday, the military said three American soldiers were killed and eight others wounded in separate attacks in Iraq (news - web sites) in the past 24 hours.
Meanwhile, saboteurs blew up a junction where multiple oil pipelines cross the Tigris River in northern Iraq on Tuesday, setting off a chain reaction in power generation systems that left the entire country without power, officials said.
Firefighters struggled to put out the blaze after the pre-dawn attack near Beiji, 155 miles north of Baghdad. Crude oil cascaded down the hillside into the river. Fire burned atop the water, fueled by the gushing oil.
The morning car bomb in Baghdad ripped through would-be recruits waiting in line at the police headquarters and market-goers. The bomb was inside a Toyota vehicle parked near the market and a short distance down the road from the police headquarters, which was closed to traffic, said Interior Ministry spokesman Col. Adnan Abdel-Rahman.
"Seconds earlier, people were drinking tea or eating sandwiches and then I could see their remains hanging from trees," said Mahdi Mohammed, 30, who was standing outside his barber shop when the explosion went off. "I could see burning people running in all directions."
Ali Abul-Amir had been waiting in line to join the police force but had gone around the corner to buy a drink when the explosion went off.
"Such places were targeted before," he said. "I blame Ayad Allawi's government for what happened because they did not take the necessary security measures."
Others, however, directed their anger at the militants.
"Such acts cannot be considered part of the resistance (against American forces). This is not a jihad, they are not mujahideen," said Amir Abdel Hassan, a 41-year-old teacher. "Iraq is not a country, it's a big graveyard," he said.
The violence has escalated despite the installation of Allawi's government in June and now raises worries over the January elections.
The U.S. military has been training Iraqi police and the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps members for more than 18 months. But the Iraqis have still been unable to take over the main duties in fighting the insurgency.
Attacks on Iraqi security forces and police officers — seen as collaborators by militants — have left hundreds of people dead since insurgents began a 17-month campaign to expel U.S.-led forces.
From April 2003 to May 2004, 710 Iraqi police were killed out of a total force of 130,000 officers, authorities said. Since May, at least another 180 people have been killed in attacks targeting police facilities. Insurgents have also kept up a steady drumbeat of smaller scale attacks on police checkpoints and assassinations of police officials.
The forces' weakness were highlighted in April, when police largely abandoned their stations in the face of an uprising by Shiite militiamen in Baghdad and southern cities. When the militia rose up again last month, U.S. forces carried out the vast majority of the fighting.
After the April disaster, the Army general formerly in charge of training, Maj. Gen. Paul D. Eaton, acknowledged that misguided U.S. methods had wasted almost a year's worth of training.
U.S. commanders now say they're beefing up their training efforts, trying to improve the Iraqi officer corps and supply the security forces with the sort of heavy machine guns and rocket-propelled grenade launchers that they have lacked but that insurgents have had in plentiful supply.
Bush administration officials have also been insisting they have a plan for stopping the insurgency.
Bathsheba Crocker, an analyst with the U.S.Center for Strategic and International Studies, questioned whether U.S and Iraqi leaders have a workable strategy.
"The security situation is chaotic and it seems to be deteriorating," she said, adding that the insurgents' attacks in the capital were "probably very deliberate. No security in Baghdad means there is no security in the country."
"It signifies that the insurgency is growing in sophistication and organization. It is more capable of carrying out all these major and synchronized attacks," she said.
In other developments Tuesday:
_Four kidnapped policemen were released in the southern city of Basra, said an aide to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. A militant group had threatened to kill the four policemen captured earlier this month if Iraqi authorities did not issue a statement ordering a stop to activities against al-Sadr and his followers. The head of al-Sadr's office in Basra said the kidnappers responded to an appeal he made for the release of the captives.
_The Arab television network Al-Jazeera broadcast footage of a Jordanian truck driver purportedly taken hostage in Iraq. The footage showed three masked men standing behind the kneeling hostage, who held his passport in front of him. The group, which called itself "Brigades of Al-Tawhid Lions," gave the man's employer 48 hours to suspend its activities in Iraq.
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JesusChrist
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Re: Insurgents Target Iraqi Police; 59 Dead [Re: RandalFlagg]
#3134812 - 09/14/04 02:45 PM (19 years, 6 months ago) |
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Muslims killing other muslims. They can blow up a bus load of children and they think that is a good idea. It is tough to fight against a foe that likes to kill children as part of their strategy.
If I was an Iraqi, I would be pissed off that terrorists are coming in from other countries and blowing up my children. At some point public opinion will turn. The terrorists need to be blamed for the killings.
-------------------- Tastes just like chicken
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Zahid
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Re: Insurgents Target Iraqi Police; 59 Dead [Re: RandalFlagg]
#3135189 - 09/14/04 04:16 PM (19 years, 6 months ago) |
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Collateral damage.
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Mad_Buhdda_Abuser
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Re: Insurgents Target Iraqi Police; 59 Dead [Re: RandalFlagg]
#3135194 - 09/14/04 04:17 PM (19 years, 6 months ago) |
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This is good proof that militants don't just hate the 'Non-Believers'. I would say 95% of the people involved were muslims. That doesn't justify the means but it clearly shows militants extreme hate for the states.
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Divided_Sky
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Re: Insurgents Target Iraqi Police; 59 Dead [Re: RandalFlagg]
#3135202 - 09/14/04 04:18 PM (19 years, 6 months ago) |
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I'm worried that the terrorists really might succeed. If they can destroy their countries infrastructure, kill it's leaders and policemen, intimidate citizens and voters, make life living hell and somehow direct anger against the US instead of themselves we have a SERIOUS problem.
We need to kill them at any cost. So far it seems more civilians have been killed as result the Coalitions attempts to avoid civilian casualties and piss off Iraqis. If security is most important it should be okay if we have to pull all the stops to take out these terrorists.
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Zahid
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Re: Insurgents Target Iraqi Police; 59 Dead [Re: Divided_Sky]
#3135220 - 09/14/04 04:21 PM (19 years, 6 months ago) |
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Iraq is another Afghanistan. This is only the start of the jihad. The mujahideen already have cities held for operations, and they will fight and give their blood for their Muslim brethren for another 9 years if needed to drive the American invaders out.
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Divided_Sky
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Re: Insurgents Target Iraqi Police; 59 Dead [Re: RandalFlagg]
#3135271 - 09/14/04 04:30 PM (19 years, 6 months ago) |
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Are these guys really Mujahedeen Zahid? Is beheading hostages, kidnapping women, blowing up hundreds of innocent Iraqis, blowing up 700 Iraqi police officers and destroying Iraq's living conditions, what good Muslims do? If these Mujahadeen really represent Islam then Islam is the most disgusting and abomnible religion the world has ever seen. You say these people will give blood for their muslim brethren, well so far they spilt plenty of it. THOUSANDS of people, thousands of Iraqis killed by your holy warriors. It may well be true that they have killed more innocent Iraqis than the coalition has. This not resistance it is terrorism. I hope Iraq is another Afghanistan.
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Zahid
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Re: Insurgents Target Iraqi Police; 59 Dead [Re: Divided_Sky]
#3135335 - 09/14/04 04:43 PM (19 years, 6 months ago) |
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Quote:
Divided_Sky said: Are these guys really Mujahedeen Zahid? Is beheading hostages, kidnapping women, blowing up hundreds of innocent Iraqis, blowing up 700 Iraqi police officers and destroying Iraq's living conditions, what good Muslims do? If these Mujahadeen really represent Islam then Islam is the most disgusting and abomnible religion the world has ever seen.
You say these people will give blood for their muslim brethren, well so far they spilt plenty of it. THOUSANDS of people, thousands of Iraqis killed by your holy warriors. It may well be true that they have killed more innocent Iraqis than the coalition has.
This not resistance it is terrorism. I hope Iraq is another Afghanistan.
You do not understand that there are THREE units of resistance in Iraq. There are the Sunni Mujahideen in Fallujah, the Shi'ate Mujahideen in Najaf, and the Salafi foreigners of Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi. So far, clerics around the Muslim world have constantly condemned Abu Musab's group in fatwa but with conditions of fatwa... i.e., out of respect for those who observe jihad when other Muslims are not giving their blood for Muslims and Allah. Often, but rarely noted, is the praise for the other two units of resistance.
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luvdemshrooms
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Re: Insurgents Target Iraqi Police; 59 Dead [Re: Zahid]
#3135365 - 09/14/04 04:53 PM (19 years, 6 months ago) |
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I think you mean FOUR.
You forgot the group that makes excuses for the killers.
-------------------- You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity. What one person receives without working for another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for that my dear friend is the beginning of the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it. ~ Adrian Rogers
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Divided_Sky
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Re: Insurgents Target Iraqi Police; 59 Dead [Re: RandalFlagg]
#3135367 - 09/14/04 04:54 PM (19 years, 6 months ago) |
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Well it just so happens that Zarqawi is taking credit for this attack.
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Zahid
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Re: Insurgents Target Iraqi Police; 59 Dead [Re: luvdemshrooms]
#3135413 - 09/14/04 05:02 PM (19 years, 6 months ago) |
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If they're not holding a gun, they're not of concern for the Coalition.
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luvdemshrooms
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Re: Insurgents Target Iraqi Police; 59 Dead [Re: Zahid]
#3135424 - 09/14/04 05:04 PM (19 years, 6 months ago) |
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Quote:
Zahid said: If they're not holding a gun, they're not of concern for the Coalition.
They should be of enough concern to other Muslims that they stop making excuses for those who deliberately kill innocents.
-------------------- You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity. What one person receives without working for another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for that my dear friend is the beginning of the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it. ~ Adrian Rogers
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Zahid
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Re: Insurgents Target Iraqi Police; 59 Dead [Re: Divided_Sky]
#3135429 - 09/14/04 05:05 PM (19 years, 6 months ago) |
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Even if it was, the target can be considered legitimate for some as the target of this attack was a unit of (Coalition installed police) the Infidel invaders.
There are many controversies around Muslims about Zarqawi.
But those in Fallujah, and Najaf, few Muslims will make a critique of these heroes.
Perhaps you might remember when Iraqi mujahids wanted Zarqawi dead for making Muslims look bad on the international scene.
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Zahid
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Re: Insurgents Target Iraqi Police; 59 Dead [Re: luvdemshrooms]
#3135443 - 09/14/04 05:07 PM (19 years, 6 months ago) |
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No, the innocents who died in this attack are collateral damage. Innocent people were not at target, a unit of the Invaders (Coalition installed police) was attacked. This is a far leap from a pizza parlor or a cafe.
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luvdemshrooms
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Re: Insurgents Target Iraqi Police; 59 Dead [Re: Zahid]
#3135446 - 09/14/04 05:08 PM (19 years, 6 months ago) |
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So..... excuses it is then.
No surprise I guess.
-------------------- You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity. What one person receives without working for another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for that my dear friend is the beginning of the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it. ~ Adrian Rogers
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Zahid
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Re: Insurgents Target Iraqi Police; 59 Dead [Re: luvdemshrooms]
#3135465 - 09/14/04 05:11 PM (19 years, 6 months ago) |
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Excuses? Try justification.
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luvdemshrooms
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Re: Insurgents Target Iraqi Police; 59 Dead [Re: Zahid]
#3135651 - 09/14/04 05:52 PM (19 years, 6 months ago) |
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-------------------- You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity. What one person receives without working for another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for that my dear friend is the beginning of the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it. ~ Adrian Rogers
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Zahid
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Re: Insurgents Target Iraqi Police; 59 Dead [Re: luvdemshrooms]
#3135666 - 09/14/04 05:57 PM (19 years, 6 months ago) |
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I take it you agree with me. I'm glad to see a change of heart.
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luvdemshrooms
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Re: Insurgents Target Iraqi Police; 59 Dead [Re: Zahid]
#3135690 - 09/14/04 06:02 PM (19 years, 6 months ago) |
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Weak.
When you start condeming the asswipes who deliberately wander into crowds and kill.... I'll agree with you.
Until then, keep dancing.
-------------------- You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity. What one person receives without working for another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for that my dear friend is the beginning of the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it. ~ Adrian Rogers
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Zahid
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Re: Insurgents Target Iraqi Police; 59 Dead [Re: luvdemshrooms]
#3135723 - 09/14/04 06:10 PM (19 years, 6 months ago) |
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