Scores killed, at least 500 wounded in bomb attacks in Baghdad - washingtonpost.com

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By Anthony Shadid
Sunday, October 25, 2009 9:16 AM

BAGHDAD -- Twin car bombs targeted two government buildings in downtown Baghdad Sunday, wrecking pillars of the state's authority and cutting like a scythe through snarled traffic during the morning rush hour. The government said at least 132 people were killed and 520 wounded in one of the worst attacks in Baghdad.

The first bomb struck an intersection near the Justice Ministry and the Ministry of Municipalities and Public Works at around 10:15 a.m. on the first day of the Iraqi work week, when streets are always more crowded. Less than a minute later, a second blast targeted the Baghdad provincial headquarters, draped in a sign heralding its renovation.

The bombings bore the hallmarks of an attack Aug. 19 that targeted the Finance and Foreign Ministries, also killing more than 100 people. Unlike the carnage unleashed by attacks in crowded mosques, restaurants and markets, aimed at igniting sectarian strife, these blasts appeared to rely on a distinct political calculus, designed to undermine faith in the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who has staked his political future on restoring a semblance of security to the war-wrecked country.

"This is part of the struggle over power in Iraq, and Iraqis will have to sacrifice themselves for it," said Mohammed al-Rubai, an opponent of Maliki who serves as a member of the Baghdad provincial council. "Everyone in charge shares responsibility."

Hours after the attack, Maliki visited the scene. As in August, he blamed members of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party and the Sunni insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq.

"The cowardly acts of terrorism, which occurred today, must not weaken the resolution of Iraqis to continue their journey and to fight the followers of the fallen regime, the Baathists and al-Qaeda," he said in a statement released by his office. The culprits, he added, "have their black hands stained by the blood of the Iraqi people."

The blasts, which the Interior Ministry said were carried out by suicide bombers, detonated under a pale gray sky, shattering windows more than a mile away. Broken water mains sent water coursing through the street, strewn with debris. Pools of water mixed with blood gathered along the curbs, ashened detritus floating on the surface.

Cars caught in traffic jams were turned into tombs, the bodies of passengers incinerated inside. The smell of diesel mixed with the stench of burning flesh.

"Bodies were hurled into the air," said Mohammed Fadhil, a 19-year-old bystander. "I saw women and children cut in half." He looked down at a curb smeared with blood. "What's the sin that those people commited? They are so innocent."

Ali Hassan, an employee at the provincial headquarters, said the building was filled with women with their children seeking compensation for past terrorist actions.

"Now they've become the victims again," he said.

The cacophony of destruction ensued after the blasts. The thud of helicopters intersected with the noon call to prayer, as rescue workers, shouting at each other, frantically pulled charred bodies from crumpled cars. Broken glass littered the sidewalk like ice in a hailstorm, scraping under the shuffling of feet. Bulldozers dragged the carcasses of vehicle across the pavement, then deposited them randomly.

"Bring blankets! Bring blankets!" Iraqi relief officials shouted at colleagues, as they trudged through the flooded streets. "There are more bodies!"

"Clear the street!" other police shouted at bystanders who had gathered.

On the sidewalk, wet corpses were covered in checkered brown blankets. Others were sheathed into gray body bags, then dragged through the coursing water.

"What kind of improvement is there? None," said Riyadh Jumaa, 32, who fled with his 3-year-old son in his arms. When the second blast struck, both were hurled to the ground. "The ministers, the officers, they're sitting in their chairs doing nothing."

Like the attacks Aug. 19, the blasts Sunday seemed to have their desired effect, underlining the government's inability to protect the capital, the seat of its authority.

In the wake of the earlier attacks, Maliki's government arrested several army and police officers, accusing them of negligence. Officials also promptly purported to have detained the culprits, and they aired a video of a man who confessed to organizing the attacks. But U.S. officials later cast doubt on the veracity of the arrests or the confession.

At the time, Maliki faced criticism that his administration had prematurely scaled back security measures in Baghdad just days before. His detractors have also lambasted him for being overconfident in his security forces' readiness as American forces pull back from the cities in preparation of a larger U.S. withdrawal by next August.

The attacks Sunday seem sure to accentuate doubts in Maliki's ability to maintain security, the cornerstone of his party's campaign in national elections in January.

At the scene, bystanders grew angry as high-ranking police and army officers visited the devastated ministries, surrounded by security details of dozens of men.

"Look! 200 just to protect him!" shouted Ahmed Abed. "Who has trust in the government," he went on. "Why should I have trust? Should I trust the son of a dog?"

In front of the provincial headquarters, Iman Barazinji, a Kurdish member of the provincial headquarters, made the same complaint, echoing popular frustration at the inability of Baghdad's ubiquitous checkpoints to stop cars laden with explosives and at the caravans that escort officials ensconced in offices fortified by blast walls.

"We don't want anyone to hide behind the walls any longer," she shouted.

Correspondent Ernesto Londoño and special correspondents Aziz Alwan and Qais Mizher contributed to this report.

Safety Regained, Al-Rabie Street Again Teems With Life - washingtonpost.com

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By K.I. Ibrahim
Special to The Washington Post
Tuesday, October 13, 2009

More than a year ago, al-Rabie Street, a two-mile swath of office buildings, apartments and homes, was a deserted stretch of Baghdad. Commercial life had stopped. Shops were either shut down or bombed out. Three hospitals catering to the wealthy closed when doctors, nurses and patients simply stopped coming. Their gates were barricaded with metal bars. Restaurants were driven out of business by roaming squads of masked men carrying rifles and ordering everyone, especially women, to comply with strict Islamic dress codes. Jeans were banned -- too Western. Barbers had to close or post signs saying they would do only traditional styles -- no crew cuts, no long hair, no spiky hairdos. One bookshop was burned twice because it sold the government-supported newspaper and magazines with pictures of unveiled women.

Along that urban landscape, there was hardly an intact window. One shop was particularly hard to miss. Inside, tucked behind shattered windows, were chandeliers and light fixtures intact and collecting dust. The shop had given rise to its own rumors. Some said the owner died in a car bomb blast that targeted a soldiers' checkpoint nearby. Others said he just ran for his life, leaving everything behind.

The slow death of al-Rabie Street began with the flare-up of the sectarian civil war in 2006. Within a few months, the majority of the Shiite families living in the Jami'a-Khadraa neighborhood, through which al-Rabie Street runs, were driven out of their homes by armed bands of Sunni extremists linked to a group known as the Islamic State of Iraq. Those who refused to leave were attacked. The men were usually killed, while women were allowed to leave unharmed as long as they left everything behind.

This summer, as the government slowly regained control of neighborhoods in western Baghdad, life started to return to the street. The Sunni insurgency was broken, with the help of a U.S.-backed militia, and Shiite militias went underground. Checkpoints proliferated as people returned to the streets. Sidewalks were rebuilt, new medians were constructed and solar-powered street lights were installed.

Windows were replaced by shining new glass imported from Turkey. A music shop boldly displayed a large poster of Dalli, a curvaceous Iraqi pop star, who has become famous the past two years. On Thursday and Friday nights, the shop loudly plays Iraqi pop music. Through the cacophony, wedding parties careen down the street. Ice cream shops have reopened, and at least one adds to the chorus with its own blaring pop tunes.

Restaurants reopened, and no less than three new ones started, with polished entrances and well-lighted billboards. Some have become more ambitious: one hole in the wall that served roasted chicken has graduated to a broader menu of Iraqi favorites: minced meat kebab, charcoaled mutton ribs and soaked tripe.

At midday, the street is bustling with the latest model cars and shoppers buying everything from doormats to computers. Food stalls and shops selling electric appliances, satellite receivers, household items and furniture dot both sides of the street, while construction on half-finished buildings has resumed.

At night, the street is well lit. Shops have small generators to provide them with power even when the national electric grid comes to a halt.

More often than not, the street feels serenely ordinary.

"Everybody's happy," Abdullah Khider said.

The owner of a shop selling cosmetics and perfumes, Khider sees the revival of al-Rabie Street as a blessing. His story is one of thousands of Iraqis who lived through years of violence only to embark on a new era that feels precarious but hopeful.

A machinist at a military plant south of Baghdad, he found himself jobless when American soldiers drove into the capital city in April 2003. To survive, he set up a stall selling household items. Soon, the violence forced him to close down. He left for Syria, where he stayed until last December. Hearing that security had improved, he returned to Baghdad, arriving on New Year's Eve.

"I wanted to make a new start with the new year," he said.

While in Syria, Khider worked at a cosmetics shop, where he learned the trade. On his return, he opened his own shop selling imported cosmetics. Within a few months, he hired a female assistant, who tends to female customers.

He is dressed in a smart suit and tie and smiling as he looks about his store. He said he has finally found the right job: a nice clean shop selling lipstick, false eyelashes, skin conditioners and other cosmetics.

"Business is good and getting better, as the street comes to life again," he said. "People feel safer. You can see them on the street as late as 10 at night, and they want to look better. So they come here to buy what makes them feel alive again."

US pullout in doubt after day of slaughter on streets of Baghdad

Extremists struck at the Iraqi Government with a wave of bombings and mortar attacks, killing at least 95 people and injuring more than 560 and raising new doubts about the withdrawal of US soldiers from the country.

The bombings were directed against the main centres of power, including the ministries of finance, foreign affairs, health, education and housing, as well as the parliament and cabinet buildings.

A lorry packed with explosives that went off within 30ft of the Foreign Ministry is reported to have killed up to 59 people and injured 250. The ministry’s compound wall was flattened and the ten-storey building all but destroyed. Cars and buildings in the vicinity were devastated and houses five miles away were shaken.

The bomb left a crater in the road 10 feet deep and 25 feet wide; it was filled with charred bodies. The heat of the ensuing fire melted debris into the torn asphalt. Dozens of buildings were damaged, including the Rasheed Hotel, on the edge of the fortified green zone. John Tipple, a British solicitor, said: “The windows were blown out — even the door frames went. If I had been in my room I would have been seriously injured or worse. Everything is locked down now. Nobody can move anywhere.”

No group has said that it was behind the attack but it is likely to have been the work of Sunni radicals trying to undermine the Shia-led Government, to reignite sectarian warfare of two years ago. Nouri al-Maliki, the Prime Minister, said: “These attacks represent a reaction to the opening of streets and bridges and the lifting of barriers inside the residential areas.”

The date of the attacks was symbolic: today was the sixth anniversary of the bombing of the United Nations compound in Baghdad, killing 22 people, including the UN special envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello. That atrocity prompted the UN to suspend its operations in Iraq and signalled a deadly increase in the insurgency.

Since US troops began to pull out of the cities, a rise in attacks has led to fears of a resurgence of violence before the elections to be held by the end of January.

In a reference to the party of Saddam Hussein, Major-General Qassim Atta, the spokesman for the Iraqi Army’s Baghdad operations, said “We accuse the Baathist alliance of executing these terrorist operations.”

Today Baghdad was again enveloped by chaos and fear. Abu Mazen, a 39-year-old police officer, said: “I came home and found all my neighbours crying and my wife crying, then I saw the kids. They were injured in the heads and hands.”

A bystander, Abu Mohammed, 45, said: “I saw a body fly through the air and land next to me. I saw 40 burnt bodies being taken out of the Foreign Ministry — they needed an industrial vehicle with a big shovel to remove them. The bodies were still burning and we poured water on them. There is blood everywhere.”

A woman staggered past him outside the Foreign Ministry, bleeding from the head but insistent that she did not need help. Apartment blocks hundreds of metres away showed cracks in the walls.

Faris, a 28-year-old resident, said: “This is the biggest explosion we have seen since the invasion. I fear we are returning to the bad old days.”

Like many others he blamed careless Iraqi security guards who replaced US soldiers: “How can you drive a lorry filled with explosives right up to the entrance of the ministry?”

Blast walls that might have limited the damage were removed two months ago as part of “normalisation” by the Iraqi Government after US troops withdrew from Iraqi cities on June 30.

Bomb Attacks in Iraq Kill Dozens

A series of bomb blasts in Iraq have killed more than 40 people and wounded at least 200.

Two truck bombs exploded in a Shia village near the northern city of Mosul, killing at least 28 people and injuring more than 130.

Meanwhile, Baghdad was hit by a string of bomb attacks that killed at least 18 people and wounded more than 90.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki has warned of an upsurge of violence ahead of next January's elections.

Insurgents "will try in any way they can to give the impression that the political process is not stable", he said in a televised news conference.

But he said the government was doing all it could to "deny them a safe environment for [the] planning and implementation of further attacks".

The BBC's Natalia Antelava in Baghdad says the Iraqi government is keen to show its troops are fully in control and capable of doing their job without the help of US forces.

But many Iraqis say this wave of violence is what they feared would happen when US troops pulled back from Iraqi cities a month ago.

Few believe the country's army - perceived by many to be corrupt - is capable of protecting them, our correspondent says.

No-one has yet claimed responsibility for Monday's attacks, but one minister said they bore the hallmark of al-Qaeda and other Sunni insurgents in Iraq.

Al-Qaeda stronghold

Truck bombs exploded nearly simultaneously in the village of Khaznah, 20km (13 miles) east of Mosul, at about 0400 (0100 GMT) on Monday.

ANALYSIS
Natalia Antelava, BBC News, Baghdad This string of attacks seems to be well co-ordinated, well organised and it certainly sends a very powerful message to the government of Iraq.

The big question now is can the government handle the security situation? They say they absolutely can.

There are forces in Iraq though that don't want this violence to stop.

And for more and more Iraqis the confidence they have in their government to protect them is decreasing.

Many see the Iraqi security services as corrupt and many fear the violence will escalate.

The blasts were so powerful they completely destroyed at least 30 houses and left a 7ft (2m) crater in the village, which is home to the tiny Shia Shabak ethnic group.

Witnesses spoke of scenes of chaos as people searched through piles of bricks, twisted metal and rubble for buried family members.

"I was sleeping on the roof and I woke up as if there was an earthquake. After that I saw a plume of smoke and dust spreading everywhere," resident Mohammed Kadhem, 37, told the AFP news agency.

"A minute later another bomb went off, knocking me off the roof on to the ground. I was struck unconscious by shrapnel and stones.

Ethnically-mixed Mosul - Iraq's second city - is considered one of the last strongholds of al-Qaeda in Iraq, and still sees frequent attacks despite a decline in violence elsewhere in the country.

Deadly blasts

However, despite security gains in Baghdad, at least three bombs went off in separate parts of the capital on Monday.

Two of the blasts appeared to be targeting labourers who were gathering in the early morning looking for work.

One of the bombs was hidden in a pile of rubbish when it went off in the western district of Hay al-Amel, killing at least seven people and wounding 46.

KEY ATTACKS AFTER US PULLBACK

7 August: A car bomb outside a mosque in Mosul kills 30 people. Six people die in attacks in Baghdad

31 July: At least 27 people die in a string of attacks outside five mosques in Baghdad

9 July: 50 killed in bomb attacks at Talafar (near Mosul), Baghdad, and elsewhere

30 June: Car bomb in Kirkuk kills at least 27 people

30 June: US troops withdraw from Iraqi towns and cities

Minutes later a second bomb went off in the northern area of Shurta Arbaa, killing at least nine people and wounding 35.

There were also reports of a roadside bombing in the southern suburb of Saidiyah, killing at least two people and wounding 14.

This is the latest in a series of deadly blasts in Iraq since US troops pulled back from Iraqi cities at the end of June.

A car bomb exploded outside a mosque in Mosul during a funeral service last Friday, killing 30 people.

Three bombs killed six people returning from a pilgrimage in Baghdad on the same day.