Bombings Kill 140 In Sadr City

• November 24, 2006

Ugh…

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) — A savage string of apparently coordinated bombings erupted Thursday in Sadr City, a Shiite slum of Baghdad, killing more than 140 people.
Police called it the deadliest single strike in Iraq since the war began more than three years ago.
Bombs and mortar shells struck Sadr City at 15-minute intervals, beginning about 3 p.m., according to The Associated Press, with the first bombing hitting a vegetable market.
Shiites responded almost immediately, the AP reported, firing 10 mortar rounds at the holiest Sunni shrine in Baghdad, the Abu Hanifa Sunni mosque in Azamiya. The attack killed one person and wounded 14 others, the AP said.
Leaders from Iraq’s Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish communities issued a televised appeal for calm, according to the AP.
Witnesses told CNN that people on loudspeakers at Shiite mosques in urged residents to donate blood for the wounded in Sadr City.
Police had different numbers for those killed and wounded, but Iraqi Health Minister Ali Shammari put the death toll at 144, with 206 wounded. He said there were six car bombs and a missile fired.
Shammari said many women and children were killed and the death toll could rise because people were seriously wounded.
“This is a bloody day,” he said.

There are a couple of things to keep in mind about this attack.
First, it is clearly an effort by the terrorists to further undermine the representative government in Iraq and foment civil war. That’s all this is. The terrorists attack, and then sit back and hope the Shiites blame the Sunnis (and vice versa) so that there will be fighting and chaos.
Second, I wonder if the terrorists would be keeping these intense attacks up if they didn’t get the idea from the media and Democrats that the attacks are working to undermine our support for the war effort. This is, after all, the only effective tactic the terrorists have in their bag of tricks. They can’t defeat us in a conventional military battle. They can’t force our troops out of Iraq. All they can hope for is to keep up their almost daily attacks so that the endlessly slanted-to-the-negative media coverage of the situation will cause America to just want to give up.
And it’s working too, to an extent. You rarely hear from the media about things like rebuilt schools, rebuilt hospitals, rebuilt infrastructure or even the fact that our troops are absolutely slaughtering the terrorists in terms of casualty-to-kill ratios. All you hear about is terrorists exploding bombs and killing people. As though that were the only news-worthy story coming out of Iraq.
I firmly believe that if the media coverage of Iraq were different, if it were more balanced and painted a better picture of what is actually going on in that country, we’d be in a much different situation both in terms of the political environment here in the U.S. and in terms of public support for the war.
Update: Howie from the Jawa Report:

Contrary to the Lefties argument that our presence in Iraq creates more violence, the terrorist’s morale and appetite for the blood of innocents has only been heightened by the anticipation of a US withdrawal promised by Nancy Pelosi.
Good job Democrats. You’ve really turned things around for Iraq.

Quite right, though we can’t forget the media’s contribution to this either.

Tags: Media, Politics, War On Terror

http://Array aNONOMISLY

First, your report doesn’t refute the fact that it is reported to be the highest single daily death toll since the beginning of the war. If you want to pick that semantic nit, please give us the real highest daily death toll, if this isn’t it. My point about the total civilian death number still holds, nevertheless.

can you please cite such report?

p.s. yesterday may have been the the day with the single daily death toll, but you have to also remember that many other people were killed in other places in addition to the 215 killed in the al-Sadr assault.
robert108

Here’s an interesting aspect to today’s report:
This attack is being presented as the largest one day total since the beginning of the Iraq war. If this was the average total, that makes about 160,000 total deaths for the entire war. In other words, if the daily death toll was as many as this latest one, the total of Iraqi deaths would be 160,000 for the entire war. This means the claim of “hundreds of thousands” of Iraqi casualties, as claimed by the lefties, is totally wrong. Not only is this an unusually high amount of deaths for a single day, so the total, whatever it is, is much lower, but it would be impossible to have “hundreds of thousands” of deaths in this war without anyone noticing. It’s mathematically impossible, at the present rate.
We know, having found the mass graves, that Saddam killed at least 300,000 Iraqis during his reign, so the claim that things are worse now is pure BS. Typical of the lefties. Lefties lie.
If the real average daily death toll is 20, that yields a little over 20,000 total deaths for the war. Not great(most of them killed by the terrorists, btw), but nothing like the claim of “hundreds of thousands” by the lying lefties. Think about it.
robert108

Just guessing, but I bet you believe you are the smartest guy in the room. What does anything you wrote have to do with the topic here?
anon

So um, just guessing, but I bet you a) believe in personal responsibility, and b) have never admitted you were wrong about anything in your life.
Pilgrim

Ah, the Religion of Peace.

The bitch about this is that we had Al-Sadr (Iranian proxy) bottled up a couple of years ago, his army destroyed or ineffective, and him pissing his pants and wanting a truce.

Like idiots we gave him one. I knew then that it was a mistake. He used the truce to re-arm and re-establish his base. And today he’s threatening to pull his 30-odd seats out of government if Maliki meets with Bush. We should have killed him or expelled him when we could and weathered the political storm of the moment.

It’s now becoming a civil war fueled by Al-Sadr on one side and Syria backed terrorists on the other. We’ve tried to help these barbarians who slaughter their own people by the hundreds. THEY ARE NOT WORTH ONE MORE AMERICAN LIFE. Fuck them.

Pull out now and watch them devour each other.
aNONOMISLY

Here’s an interesting aspect to today’s report:
This attack is being presented as the largest one day total since the beginning of the Iraq war. If this was the average total, that makes about 160,000 total deaths for the entire war. In other words, if the daily death toll was as many as this latest one, the total of Iraqi deaths would be 160,000 for the entire war. This means the claim of “hundreds of thousands” of Iraqi casualties, as claimed by the lefties, is totally wrong. Not only is this an unusually high amount of deaths for a single day, so the total, whatever it is, is much lower, but it would be impossible to have “hundreds of thousands” of deaths in this war without anyone noticing. It’s mathematically impossible, at the present rate.

The most death in a single attack; not the most death in a day’s period..
aNONOMISLY

yes, it was a coordinated assault consistint of “five bombings and two mortar rounds which killed 215 in Sadr City on Thursday”. The reported number was the highest killed in a single assault; it does NOT included other killed in attacks in other places of Iraq. The number given (140, yesterday) was for the number of people killed in this particular assault and NOT the number of people killed in the entire country ..i.e. it excludes does killed in other attacks in Iraq that occured outside this assault in Sadr City.
Pilgrim

Hotel, you could well be right.

I wouldn’t put it past these sub-human animals to butcher their own people like that. I was all for us being there at first. Now I’d like to see us get out just to watch them drive themselves back to the seventh century where they belong.

I can hear the whining voices now with, “But what about the people who don’t want to live under sharia?” If they can’t step up and help fight those troglodytes, well, screw them too. Harsh, eh?

Let’s let them go. Then the European nations and the Asian nations who’ve been so high handed in this may end up with no choice but to fight. Before they, too, live under sharia.
2Hotel9

After reading multiple articles on yesterdays bombings, I have come to the conclusion that Al Sadr ordered these bombings and subsequent driveby attacks on emergency personnel and survivors in order to punish those who want his militia to be disbanded, they being Shias opposed to his thugocracy.

Ask yourself, how do these highly coordinated attacks keep happening in the heart of his personal fiefdom? In this area tightly controlled by his army?

Rather telling, no?
robert108

The most death in a single attack; not the most death in a day’s period..

Wrong. Every news report I heard presented it as by far the highest one-day death toll since the beginning of the war.
robert108

Reports? Should we just take your word for it? I heard on many news shows, mostly MSM shows, that it was the largest number killed in one day since the beginning of the war(I repeat). I say again, it’s not like the MSM to minimize any casualties in Iraq(except terrorist casualties, of course; they rarely mention them). No matter how much nitpicking you do, my point still holds, that there cannot be “hundreds of thousands” of civilian casualties(except under Saddam).
anonomisly

..largest number killed in an assault since the war the biginning of the war. …yesterday may have been the dealiest day, but you would have to include the numbers of people killed in attacks outside this particular coordinated attack.
aNONOMISLY

Those liberated, freedom loving people, ..

With the government trying to avert a civil war, two simultaneous bombings in Tal Afar in northern Iraq killed at least 23 persons. Yesterday, Sunni-Arab insurgents unleashed bombings and mortar attacks in Sadr City, the deadliest assault since the U.S.-led invasion.
Members of the Mahdi Army militia burned four mosques and several homes while killing 12 other Sunni residents in the once-mixed Hurriyah neighborhood until American forces arrived, said police Capt. Jamil Hussein. Gunmen loyal to radical anti-American Shi’ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr began taking over the neighborhood this summer, and a majority of its Sunni residents already had fled
..

In Baghdad on Friday, followers of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr threatened to boycott parliament and the Cabinet if al-Maliki meets with Bush.

The al-Sadr bloc in parliament and government is the backbone of al-Maliki’s political support, and its withdrawal, if only temporarily, would be a severe blow to the prime minister’s already shaky hold on power.

..so similar to what Hezbullah does.
anonomisly

…coordinated assault.
robert108

…coordinated assault.

So you say…It doesn’t change the numbers significantly, though. Those “hundreds of thousands” just ain’t there(except under Saddam).
aNONOMISLY

an update: the actual number is atleas 215 killed in the assault, ..

Fri Nov 24, 5:17 PM ET

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Revenge-seeking militiamen seized six Sunnis as they left Friday prayers and burned them alive with kerosene in a savage new twist to the brutality shaking the Iraqi capital a day after suspected Sunni insurgents killed 215 people in Baghdad’s main Shiite district.

..
burning victims alive introduced a new method of brutality that was likely to be reciprocated by the other sect as the Shiites and Sunnis continue killing one another in unprecedented numbers. The gruesome attack, which came despite a curfew in Baghdad, capped a day in which at least 87 people were killed or found dead in sectarian violence across Iraq.
..

The extreme violence continued to tear at the Iraq’s social fabric even after the government had banned pedestrians and cars from the streets and closed the international airport until further notice in anticipation of a storm of retaliation for the five bombings and two mortar rounds which killed 215 in Sadr City on Thursday.

They’re standing up, but not doing much of what is required of them:

Iraqi soldiers at a nearby army post failed to intervene in Friday’s assault by suspected members of the Shiite Mahdi Army militia or subsequent attacks that killed at least 19 other Sunnis, including women and children, in the same neighborhood, the volatile Hurriyah district in northwest Baghdad, said police Capt. Jamil Hussein.

Those liberated, freedom loving people, ..

Politicians loyal to radical anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr threatened to boycott parliament and the Cabinet if al-Maliki went ahead with the meeting. The political bloc, known as Sadrists, is a mainstay of support for al-Maliki. The Mahdi Army is the organization’s armed wing.

Sadrist lawmaker Qusai Abdul-Wahab blamed U.S. forces for Thursday’s attack in Sadr City because they failed to provide security.

“We say occupation forces are fully responsible for these acts, and we call for the withdrawal of occupation forces or setting a timetable for their withdrawal,” Abdul-Wahab said.

A U.S. helicopter patrolling above Sadr City came under intense fire from the ground and shot back, wounding two people Friday night, according to police 1st. Lt. Qassim Mohammed and witnesses.
robert108

First, your report doesn’t refute the fact that it is reported to be the highest single daily death toll since the beginning of the war. If you want to pick that semantic nit, please give us the real highest daily death toll, if this isn’t it. My point about the total civilian death number still holds, nevertheless.
aNONOMISLY

Washington Times/AP”

Yesterday, Sunni-Arab insurgents unleashed bombings and mortar attacks in Sadr City, the deadliest assault since the U.S.-led invasion.

rob, care to cite?
robert108

In addition, the “US-led invasion” meme is also untrue, which throws suspicion on the entire tone of the report. We deposed Saddam, we didn’t “invade Iraq”. We are not at war with the Iraqi people, as the terrorists are.
robert108

…but you have to also remember that many other people were killed in other places in addition to the 215 killed in the al-Sadr assault.

So you say…
I don’t remember any such thing, because it wasn’t reported. Do you really think the MSM would fail to report any deaths in Iraq? It is their main antiwar, anti-President Bush propaganda technique.
robert108

…the five bombings and two mortar rounds which killed 215 in Sadr City on Thursday.

So, it was five bombing attacks and two mortar rounds(either one or two additional attacks), then, not one attack.

You keep preaching defeat; I hope your preaching fails to produce what you intend.
My math still holds; I used 150 because it was the reported average at the time I wrote it; increasing the one day number to 215 doesn’t change it all that much. It’s still not “hundreds of thousands”, as the lefties claim. That was the point, despite your attempt to distract by nitpicking.

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