Big Explosion Heard in Baghdad -- Witnesses

[cal04]

A big explosion was heard in Baghdad on Wednesday, and police sealed off the area around a National Guard base, witnesses said. The cause of the blast was not immediately clear, but insurgents often attack Iraqi security forces and police with suicide and car bombings.

The U.S. military said it had no immediate details on the explosion, but was checking a report that the blast took place around the heavily fortified Green Zone, which houses Iraqi government buildings and the U.S. and British embassies.

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=7780094&src=rss/topNews

A HUGE explosion ripped western Baghdad at 7am (1500 AEDT) outside the old al-Muthanna airport, sending smoke billowing into the sky. A witness said the blast was a suicide car bomb that wounded or killed at least 10 people lined up outside the old airport's entrance to an Iraqi army base. Most people lined up outside the base were protected by cement blast walls, but about 10 people were killed or hurt, who were outside the protective barriers, Mohammed said. The Muthanna airport, no longer used for flights, is home to US and Iraqi military bases. It has been the site of previous attacks.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,12420140%255E1702,00.html

[MidwestTransplant]

1. just the daily wakeup call

[Erika]

3. A wake up

for good morning Iraq.

[sea dee]

2. prayer

May the dead RIP

[Erika]

4. Just face reality

www.icasualties.org

One short of 1,500 dead Americans for W's call.

[sea dee]

5. Proof Bush is an Idiot

What was Bush thinking using the National Guard in Iraq?

where's the next Generation of chicken hawks going to hide?

[Ms. Clio]

13. The victims were members of the IRAQI National Guard n/t

[sea dee]

16. "The victims were members of the IRAQI National Guard n/t"

"The victims were members of the IRAQI National Guard n/t"

that's sort of my point.

I'll never say that even half of those in the National Guard are cowards but the fact is that in the last war when the drafting started those who had connections got in to or got their sons into the National Guard.

Now being in the Guard can't protect you from going over seas.

If the rich and powerful are smart they'll dispose of Bush ASAP.

[Ms. Clio]

17. They are Iraqis, not Americans

For some bizarre and confusing reason, the U.S. calls these poor and desperate unemployed Iraqi men who sign up for the security forces the "National Guard," too. I guess they think it makes collaboration with the occupiers sound more legitimate and palatable.

I hope the rich and powerful get smart PDQ.

[sea dee]

18. oh n/t

[SodoffBush]

6. Why not give 'Big Explosion heard in Baghdad" its own byline on DU?

Anyone who wants to read of the latest big explosion in Baghdad can go there since its occurence is as predictable as "General Discussion?"

[anarchy1999]

8. Again, you win tonight for getting a laugh. Welcome to DU and by the

way not a bad idea. Just too damned sad though. It's how I start every day between 5 to 7 am, checking in at DU, LBN to see what's happening in Iraq while I slept. Some days I just stay away from the computer because I don't want to know, I don't want to here it. It's a nightmare that none of us here seem to be able to stop.

Why?

Why aren't we in a "Freedom Square" somewhere in this nation, taking back our government? What the US is doing round the world is not how most of us want it to be, but where are we? Shopping?

[countmyvote4real]

9. Good one, SodoffBush. eom

[Ms. Clio]

7. How can this be? The elections were a success and freedom is on the march

Only evil DUers are skeptical about all the good things that are happening in the Middle East.

[jdj]

10. Is Gary Sinise a repuke? I read a quote by him where he

started a charity supplying school supplies to kids over there and he reeled off the line about it helping to "win the hearts and minds of the Iraqis."

[Ms. Clio]

12. I must admit I had no idea who Gary Sinise is, but a quick Google

reveals that: "His grassroots organization encourages ordinary citizens to send school supplies and Arabic translations of Seabiscuit to Iraqi children."

How did those poor Iraqi kids survive before they were blessed with Arabic translations of Seabiscuit???

[saigon68]

19. Just give those kids a Lobotomy

And a few enlarged giant pictures of the latest amerikan super HERO

WOLFMAN WOLFOWITZ and his "TOOTHY GRILL"

[Ms. Clio]

20. The horror! I can almost hear him hissing: "I've come to suck your blood"

Which I guess makes him the ideal head of the World Bank.

[Name removed]

21. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Newsjock]

11. MSNBC: At least 6 dead, 28 injured

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7054546/

BAGHDAD - A car bomb killed at least six people and wounded 28 in Baghdad on Wednesday, a police source said.

The source said the blast targeted people signing up for the Iraqi army. The six dead were members of the National Guard. A second explosion was heard soon after, but there was no immediate word on casualties from it.

[Hissyspit]

14. Thanks for update link n/t

[The_Casual_Observer]

15. "heavily fortified Green Zone" "let freedom reign!"

The world of endless grief - the world of gw chimp.

[leftchick]

22. 6 killed, 25 wounded

A U.S. armoured vehicle and Iraqi soldiers attend the scene of a car bomb explosion outside an Iraqi army base in central Baghdad that occupies the former Muthanna airport, which has been targeted by insurgents several times over the last year in Baghdad, Iraq (news - web sites) Wednesday, March 2, 2005. An Interior Ministry security official said six people were killed and 25 people were wounded in the blast, 15 of them civilians. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)