Forty-One Bodies Found in Iraqi Village.

[Nickdfresh]

2:16 PM PST, March 9, 2005
41 Corpses Found at 2 Iraq Sites

(AP)
March 9, 2005

From Associated Press

BAGHDAD — Iraqi authorities found 41 decomposed bodies -- some bullet-riddled, others beheaded -- at sites near the Syrian border and south of the capital, and said today they included women and children who may have been killed because insurgents thought their families were collaborating with U.S. forces.

In Baghdad, a suicide bomber driving a garbage truck loaded with explosives and at least one other gunman shot their way into a parking lot in an attempt to blow up a hotel used by Western contractors. At least four people, including the attackers and a guard, were killed.

The U.S. Embassy said 30 Americans were among 40 people wounded in the blast. No Americans were killed. In an Internet statement, al-Qaida in Iraq purportedly claimed responsibility for the attack on the Sadeer hotel, calling it the "hotel of the Jews."

While Sunni Arab insurgents have repeatedly targeted Westerners in Iraq, Shiite Muslims, top Iraqi officials and civil servants, even Muslim women are no longer safe.

Decapitated bodies of women have begun turning up in recent weeks, a note with the word "collaborator" usually pinned to their chests. Three women were gunned down Tuesday in one of Baghdad's Shiite neighborhoods for being alleged collaborators. And in the northern city of Kirkuk, a woman identified as Nawal Mohammed, who worked with U.S. forces, was killed in a drive-by shooting, police said.

The decomposed bodies were found Tuesday after reports of their stench reached authorities.

Twenty-six of the dead were discovered in a field near Rumana, a village 12 miles east of the western city of Qaim, near the Syrian border. Each body was riddled with bullets. The dead were found wearing civilian clothes and one was a woman, police Capt. Muzahim al-Karbouli said.

The other site was south of Baghdad in Latifiya, where Iraqi troops found 15 headless bodies in a building at an abandoned army base, Defense Ministry Capt. Sabah Yassin said.

The bodies included 10 men, three women and two children. Their identities, like the others found in western Iraq, were not known, but insurgents may have viewed them or their relatives as collaborators.

Yassin said some of men found dead in Latifiya were thought to have been part of a group of Iraqi soldiers who were kidnapped by insurgents two weeks ago.

The gruesome discoveries were among 58 new killings in Iraq announced today, including the death of a U.S. soldier in a Baghdad roadside bombing.

Iraq's interim planning minister, Mahdi al-Hafidh, a Shiite, narrowly escaped death today after gunmen opened fire on his convoy in the capital. Two of his bodyguards were killed and two others were wounded.

"I'm fine, just sorry about the death of the guards, who were still young," he told state-run Al-Iraqiya TV. "It is a part of the crisis that Iraq is living, but we will keep going for the sake of Iraq, to get rid of terrorism and build a democratic country."

Qataa Abdul Nabi, the director general of the Shiite Endowment, was shot to death Tuesday as he drove home -- the second high-ranking member of the Shiite charity to be killed in a week.

A car bombing targeted an American checkpoint outside a base in Habaniyah, 50 miles west of Baghdad, and another exploded near U.S. troops close to Abu Ghraib, just west of the capital.

No other details were available, and the U.S. military could not be reached for comment. It was unclear if the dead U.S. soldier was killed in any of the attacks. The U.S. military said only that a soldier was killed and another was wounded by a bomb as they were patrolling around Baghdad.

As of Tuesday, at least 1,509 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. At least 1,149 died as a result of hostile action, according to the Defense Department. The figures include four military civilians. The AP count is five higher than the Defense Department's tally, last updated at 10 a.m. EST Tuesday.

In other violence:

-- Guerrillas struck a police patrol with a roadside bomb in the southern city of Basra, killing two policeman and wounding three, Lt. Col. Karim Al-Zaydi said.

-- Two police officers were killed and two others wounded in clashes with insurgents in the northern city of Mosul.

Police said the attack on the Sadeer hotel began when insurgents wearing police uniforms shot to death a guard at the Agriculture Ministry's gate, allowing the truck to enter a compound the ministry shares with the hotel. Guards fired on the vehicle and it exploded.

The explosion carved a hole in the parking lot that was at least 30 feet wide and more than 10 feet deep. It shattered most windows in the hotel and set cars on fire.

Al-Qaida in Iraq posted an Internet statement addressed to its leader, Jordanian-born terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, claiming it carried out the attack.

It said: "we have fulfilled our vow to take down the Jews and Christians." In an alleged response on the same site, someone purporting to be al-Zarqawi replied, "you have relieved us by killing the enemy of God. God bless you."

Another militant group, the Islamic Army in Iraq, purportedly posted an Internet video showing what it said were two Sudanese hostages abducted in Baghdad. The men identified themselves as Mohammed Hammad and Maher Attaya and said they were drivers for a Turkish company working for U.S. forces. The authenticity of the video could not be verified.

www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/iraq/la-030905iraq_wr,0,279609.story?coll=la-home-headlines

[Little_Skittles]

And so the streets will run red with blood all in the name of freedom.....ya seems real smart and logical to me. My children are dying because of stupid assholes.

[Cathedral]

You're 16 years old, how many children do you have dying in streets running red with blood?

Whatever, I'm just sick and tired of all the death going on in the world.
Buy a gun and be prepared to defend yourself, or shoot yourself to rob them of the pleasure.
Of course you'd have to go to Iraq to be in that situation.

But give it a few months, I have a gut feeling terrorists are planning to turn our streets into a blood bath just like in Iraq.

I'll be ready, i just don't know how long i'll survive a battle like that with pistols and shotguns.
I can build a mean pipe bomb though, but i'll probably only get one chance to throw one before being blow all to hell.

[kentuckyklira]

Damn, the century is just 4 years old and its worst war crime has already been committed. Sometimes I wish I was a religious person because then I could rest assured Bush & co. would pay for their crimes, at least after their deaths!

Some conservative assholes ought to read what the Geneva Convention has to say about who´s responsible for the safety of the civilian population in occupied territories!

And don´t give me any "those evil insurgents" bullshit, the US invaded and occupied, so according to the Geneva Convention the blood´s on Bush´s hands!

[Nickdfresh]

Originally posted by kentuckyklira
Damn, the century is just 4 years old and its worst war crime has already been committed. Sometimes I wish I was a religious person because then I could rest assured Bush & co. would pay for their crimes, at least after their deaths!

Some conservative assholes ought to read what the Geneva Convention has to say about who�s responsible for the safety of the civilian population in occupied territories!

And don�t give me any "those evil insurgents" bullshit, the US invaded and occupied, so according to the Geneva Convention the blood�s on Bush�s hands!

Okay, now that's going a little far. According to your logic, the German Wehrmacht was responsible for the Katyn Massacre (http://www.warsawuprising.com/katyn.htm). Those that did this should be held accountable. I don't agree with the US occupation either. But that's one hell of a jump in logic you made.

[kentuckyklira]

Originally posted by Nickdfresh
Okay, now that's going a little far. According to your logic, the German Wehrmacht was responsible for the Katyn Massacre (http://www.warsawuprising.com/katyn.htm). Those that did this should be held accountable. I don't agree with the US occupation either. But that's one hell of a jump in logic you made. No they weren´t! After all, that part of Poland was occupied by the USSR!

Plus, while my jump in logic was quite extreme, there´s no denying that according to the Geneva Convention an occupying force is responsible for the security of the cilvilian population of the occupied territory. It´s painfully obvious that the US had no useful plans on how to acertain security for the civilian population in Iraq after Saddam´s regime was gone! This, again according to the Geneva Convention, is a serious war crime!

[Cathedral]

I don't know, i kind of see what kentucky is getting at.
Everyday i wake up to read or hear of a new attack, like today's top story about an Iraqi Police Chief being assassinated at a phony check point.
I can't help but wonder why some of these people are sitting ducks for the insurgents.
I understand that it is a big country and all of that, but it is clear that they are focusing more on killing Iraqi's at this point.

America removed their government and quite frankly i don't see how most of the Iraqi's made it this far.

With each passing day i grow more angry that there wasn't a better plan to win the peace.
I know my changing opinion doesn't sit well with my fellow republicans, but dammit man, i can't ignore the facts, and all of those facts include dead people who only wanted a better life.

Here at home i can protect myself to a point, but over there they need more protection than they are getting.

[Nickdfresh]

Originally posted by kentuckyklira
No they weren�t! After all, that part of Poland was occupied by the USSR!

My point exactly! The NKVD shot those men then tried to blame it on the Germans


Plus, while my jump in logic was quite extreme, there�s no denying that according to the Geneva Convention an occupying force is responsible for the security of the cilvilian population of the occupied territory. It�s painfully obvious that the US had no useful plans on how to acertain security for the civilian population in Iraq after Saddam�s regime was gone! This, again according to the Geneva Convention, is a serious war crime!

I agree that the US led occupation is rife with incomptence and poor planning:

http://image.pathfinder.com/time/asia/magazine/2001/1008/donald_rumsfeld.jpg

But to hold the US forces accountable for insurgent murders is quite frankly silly! The Iraqis have to have some resposibility themselves. Unfortunately this may all be heading to a civil war where we are training the Iraqi forces (Shiites & Kurds mostly) for their upcoming slaughter of the Sunnis (due largely to the stupidity of the insurgents for trying to spark a sectarian conflict). THAT SOME in the US Gov't should be held accountable for!

[Nickdfresh]

BTW, the death toll is up to 44 summarily executed Iraqis.

[DrMaddVibe]

Take one down, pass it around...45 Iraqi's headless dead on the wall!

[Nickdfresh]

Originally posted by DrMaddVibe
Take one down, pass it around...45 Iraqi's headless dead on the wall!

Great Assvibe, one minute you're lauding the "liberation" of the Iraqis while morally justifying our invasion by the deposing of Hussein, the next minute you seem to enjoy that fact that innocent ones are being murder...must be fun to shamelessly talk out of two side of your mouth. :rolleyes:

[DrMaddVibe]

I wanted to feel like a Democrat.

WHEW!

Glad that its over too!

[Nickdfresh]

Originally posted by DrMaddVibe
I wanted to feel like a Democrat.

WHEW!

Glad that its over too!

And you did a fine job of it!;)
http://www.politicalbrew.com/gr/movies/village2.gif

[Seshmeister]

The biggest mistake in this was the complete lack of understanding of the Iraqi people.

Technically and sociologically speaking they are complete fucking nut jobs. Always have been.

There are places in the world that are just like that. Nothern Ireland is another where there is a significant number of people that just fucking love to fight. There was plenty of historical evidence of this and it just shows how far from the 'West Wing' fantasy of smart people in government we are.

Even I if I'd been approached before the war as 'Special Foreign Policy Advisor to the Whitehouse' I would have said keep away from these fuckers they are all out of their minds. I posted as much prior to the invasion.

Thinking that you can install a democracy in somewhere like that and 6 months later it's gonna be WalMarts and McD's is ludicrous and just shows you how politically naive the Bush administration is on foreign policy.

I'm not a fan of Condi Rice but she seems smart. How could they be so fucking dumb?

Cheers!

:gulp:

[Nickdfresh]

March 11, 2005

Bomber Kills 47 Outside Mosque
Shiites are targeted in Mosul, which had been largely spared such attacks. Recent strikes have killed at least 100 Iraqis, mostly civilians.

By Ashraf Khalil and Monte Morin, LA Times (http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-iraq11mar11,0,2136530.story?coll=la-home-world) Staff Writers

MOSUL, Iraq — A suicide bomber blew himself up in a crowd of funeral mourners gathered outside a Shiite Muslim mosque Thursday, killing at least 47 people.

The blast, which tore through the large group packed in a tent next to Two Sadr Martyrs Mosque, was the latest in a string of recent attacks that have killed at least 100 Iraqis, most of them civilians.

Earlier on Thursday in Baghdad, two police commanders were assassinated in separate ambushes and gunmen killed four cloth merchants, apparently because they sold fabric to be used for Iraqi army uniforms.

The violence illustrates the resilience and nationwide reach of the insurgent campaign. It comes at a time of flux marked by a lame-duck interim government and a public increasingly frustrated by the protracted talks to form a new one, nearly six weeks after elections were held Jan. 30.

The two largest political blocs, a unified Shiite Muslim slate and a Kurdish coalition, Thursday appeared close to a deal that would give them the votes to form a government, although key issues remained unresolved.

The Mosul attack occurred during memorial activities for Sayyid Hashem Araji, a Shiite religious leader and imam at the mosque. He died Monday.

The tent was packed with people paying their respects when the bomber struck around 5:30 p.m. Survivors said the blast occurred just as dinner was to be served, when the crowds were heaviest.

"I saw bodies lying on top of each other, most of them blown into small pieces," mourner Zeinal Ibrahim said. "Many of them were my friends, and I knew they had been taken into God's mercy."

Survivors dragged bodies away and large bloodstains were visible on the ground outside the wide canvas tent.

The rush of casualties overwhelmed medical facilities in Iraq's third-largest city. Local TV stations and mosques called for blood donations. Officials at Mosul's Republican Hospital placed the death toll at 47, with at least 81 wounded.

U.S. forces have engaged in intensive efforts with Iraqi military personnel to capture insurgent leaders in the city. In a series of commando-style raids and attacks on homes and meeting places believed used by the rebels, commanders say they have killed or captured hundreds in the last several months.

"This wasn't expected, but it wasn't entirely unexpected, either," said Capt. Duane Limpert of the 1st Brigade, 25th Infantry Division (Stryker Brigade Combat Team). "You can have success after success after success against the insurgency, but it only takes one terrorist success to make a very big deal. They only need to get it right just once."

Mosul, a multiethnic city north of Baghdad, has long been a tinderbox for violence between rebels and U.S. and Iraqi forces. Last fall, insurgents routed much of the police force and established control over portions of the city.

Since then, neighborhoods have seesawed between insurgent and U.S. control, and American forces so far have refrained from carrying out the kind of large-scale assault they launched in Fallouja and Najaf, which engendered public outrage.

Mosul is a mix of Sunni and Shiite Arabs, ethnic Kurds and Turkmen. It was one of the strongholds of the Baath Party of former President Saddam Hussein.

Though Shiites constitute a majority in Iraq, they are in the minority in Mosul. Shiite mosques, religious celebrations and political leaders have been targeted in the rest of the country by the predominantly Sunni insurgency, but Mosul had largely been spared.

Shiite religious leaders, including the powerful marjaiyah elite headed by Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, have long appealed for patience and counseled their followers against retaliations that could spiral into civil war. But in the wake of the Mosul bombing, some Shiites issued a call to arms.

The mosque's name, Two Sadr Martyrs, refers to the father and uncle of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada Sadr. Both were influential religious leaders believed to have been assassinated by Hussein's agents. Some of the mourners Thursday called for the younger Sadr's Al Mahdi militia to rearm and protect Iraq's Shiite communities. The militia laid down its weapons last year, ending months of on-and-off hostilities with U.S. and Iraqi forces.

"The government should give [the Al Mahdi] weapons and let them play a role in Mosul," Sheik Taher Abdullah Tamimi said. "How else can we protect ourselves?"

Meanwhile, in Baghdad, gunmen ambushed Lt. Col. Ahmed Abeis, chief of the Salhiya police station. He was shot and killed along with his driver and bodyguard when insurgents opened fire on his pickup truck as he was heading to work about 7 a.m. Fellow officers said Abeis usually drove to his post with relatively little protection.

The Salhiya station is in central Baghdad, between the Foreign Ministry and one of the main entrances to the heavily fortified Green Zone, and it bears the marks of numerous car bombings.

Officers there vowed to pursue and capture the killers.

"There are still a few terrorists out there, but we will catch them all," Saddam Koudair said. "What happened today encourages us even more, and the blood of our police chief will not be forgotten."

In a separate attack, gunmen killed Col. Iyad Abdul Razaq, chief of the Jisr Diyala police station in southeast Baghdad.

Attacks on police officers, soldiers and military interpreters have become grimly routine. But insurgents now seem to be expanding their focus to anyone working even indirectly with the government or security forces.

State-run Al Iraqiya television Thursday reported the slaying of four cloth merchants in their shops near Baghdad's Rasheed Street market. Witnesses said the gunmen walked into the shops and opened fire on the proprietors.

"They say it's because they sold" to the Iraqi national guard, a witness told Al Iraqiya.

The latest attacks came a day after the disclosure that at least 45 bodies, including those of women and children, had been found in mass graves near the border with Syria and south of Baghdad.

On the political front, the two largest slates in the newly elected National Assembly continued talks to form a government. Members of the United Iraqi Alliance, a largely Shiite Muslim slate, and several politicians with the Kurdish slate said the groups had agreed that the transitional administrative law, which the government now follows, would be the guide for future policy on some of the nation's most contentious issues.

This is particularly important to the Kurds, who favor the policies put forth in the TAL relating to the oil-rich city of Kirkuk. The law backs the right of return for those who were pushed out of their homes or off their land by Hussein's "Arabization" policy in the 1980s and '90s. Exercising that right will be easier said than done because in many cases Arabs have moved in and put down roots.

The TAL also spells out that religion will be a source of law but not the only source, which reassures secularists that Iraq will not become an Islamic republic overnight.

The Kurds, aware that they will be the minority in any governing coalition, want to ensure that they will have sufficient power to help shape policy.

Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih, a Kurd, said his slate was insisting on "legal guarantees which forbid the misuse of power by anyone, party or sect."

According to the Saudi newspaper Al Watan, Salih also said the Kurds wanted the relationship between the central government and the Kurdish region clearly spelled out. The Kurds have operated a virtually independent government in northern Iraq for 10 years. They want to retain a number of ministries so they can to continue to have full control of services.

*

Morin reported from Mosul and Khalil from Baghdad. Times staff writer Alissa J. Rubin in Baghdad and a special correspondent in Mosul contributed to this report.

[DrMaddVibe]

Whne the Iraqi's finally turn on the fundamentalists ripping their nation apart, then and only then will the nation building begin.

It's a shame that they can't see the forest for the trees. When the Saddam statue was toppled THAT should've signaled to thinking people that it was time for change. Instead they've still got some victim syndrome going on and shelter/cloak the terrorists that believe they're doing God's will.

The Kurds understood that and are waiting patiently but for how long? They obviously want to move on, and who could blame them?

[Little_Skittles]

Someone needs to have the balls to step up and just do what needs to be done. It's not hard.

[BigBadBrian]

Originally posted by Little_Skittles
Someone needs to have the balls to step up and just do what needs to be done. It's not hard.

:rolleyes: Brave words from a 16 year old.

[Little_Skittles]

hahaha i know, but think about it really. The iraqi's need to show terrorists they ain't gonna take this SH** no more. I'd do it an a heartbeat. I ain't scared to stand up to someone and say sh** to em.

[kentuckyklira]

Originally posted by Little_Skittles
hahaha i know, but think about it really. The iraqi's need to show terrorists they ain't gonna take this SH** no more. I'd do it an a heartbeat. I ain't scared to stand up to someone and say sh** to em. But they are telling terrorists they aren´t going to take this shit no more!

Why do you think there are dozens of attacks on US forces there every day??

[ODShowtime]

Originally posted by Seshmeister
The biggest mistake in this was the complete lack of understanding of the Iraqi people.

Technically and sociologically speaking they are complete fucking nut jobs. Always have been.

There are places in the world that are just like that. Nothern Ireland is another where there is a significant number of people that just fucking love to fight. There was plenty of historical evidence of this and it just shows how far from the 'West Wing' fantasy of smart people in government we are.

Even I if I'd been approached before the war as 'Special Foreign Policy Advisor to the Whitehouse' I would have said keep away from these fuckers they are all out of their minds. I posted as much prior to the invasion.

Thinking that you can install a democracy in somewhere like that and 6 months later it's gonna be WalMarts and McD's is ludicrous and just shows you how politically naive the Bush administration is on foreign policy.

I'm not a fan of Condi Rice but she seems smart. How could they be so fucking dumb?

that pretty much sums it up, doesn't it? it's as simple as that.

[Katydid]

Rome wasn't built in a day...

And Iraq is 52 mi from old Babylon...

We are talking the Tower of Babble mentality here.

Hell you people can't even keep Flappo and his terroists out of the DLR Army, what you know about foreign policy.

[Seshmeister]

Fuck off you stupid cunt,

Go back to trying to get the bot to ban us all.

[Little_Skittles]

Piss off and get back on topic.

[Nickdfresh]

Originally posted by Katydid
Rome wasn't built in a day...

And Iraq is 52 mi from old Babylon...

We are talking the Tower of Babble mentality here.

Hell you people can't even keep Flappo and his terroists out of the DLR Army, what you know about foreign policy.

You're such an ignorant asshole Katydid, stay out of this FORUM fool before I have Sir Grimsdale come here and fuck you up!