Yahoo: Many Said Killed in Two Iraq Bombings (Kurds targeted)

[Sufi Marmot]

Just now on Yahoo and BBC. The Yahoo link says that bombs exploded at the Irbil offices of both the KDP and PUK, who are rivals with each other. Both detonations were by suicide bombers.

-SM

[IndianaGreen]

1. BBC America is reporting casualties in the hundreds!

This comes right in the middle of Kurdish demands for a separate state, and Turkish demands that the US reigns-in the Kurds.

[IndianaGreen]

2. Al-Jazeera: Twin blasts rock Kurdish parties offices

Twin blasts rock Kurdish parties offices
Sunday 01 February 2004, 15:03 Makka Time, 12:03 GMT


Interior ministry offices in Irbil
were also targeted in December

The dead include the governor of the region, ministers in the local administration and several senior officials, said Muhammed Ihsan, the minister for human rights for the Kurdish regional government.

Morgue director Tawana Kareen was quoted by the Associated Press as saying that at least 57 bodies were brought to the morgue.

<snip>

Ihsan said the dead included Irbil Governor Akram Mintik, Deputy Prime Minister Sami Abd al-Rahman, Minister of Council of Ministers Affairs Shawkat Shaikh Yazdin and Agriculture Minister Saad Abd Allah.

A KDP official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said "dozens have been killed and dozens were injured."

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/6D3305DA-B58A-471C-9917-0F69BE5C4C87.htm

[DoYouEverWonder]

3. Maybe they heard Wolfowitz was coming

so they decided to back a cake. Sorry, bad joke. It just seems everytime he goes there, things really blow up.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3448653.stm

US Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz has flown unannounced into Iraq to visit American troops.

[Flagg]

4. BRING' EM ON ! cried the AWOL CHIMP

IraqNam will be the neo faschists undoing
I know it now

[IndianaGreen]

7. This is why I want US troops to be withdrawn within 90 days

This is why I want US troops to be withdrawn within 90 days after Inauguration Day. If we fail to withdraw quickly and unconditionally, our troops are going to find themselves in the crossfire of a civil war and Iraq will become a Democratic war.

[Mari333]

10. Bring them all home now

now. The hell with it. Send every person who voted for Bush and every Senator who voted for Iraqnam to replace our soldiers. That should be plenty. Bring home the soldiers.
www.bringthemhomenow.com

[muchacho]

6. DoYouEverWonder's pic

when did the The Teletubbies join the service?

[DoYouEverWonder]

9. That is an undoctored photo

from W's Mission Accomplished landing on the Lincoln. Apparently aircraft carrier personnel wear brightly-colored uniforms so that they can be spotted easily and their function (each color corresponds to a particular function) can easily be discerned. They don't normally line up in such a color coordinated fashion, though.

[pinniped]

12. I'm sorry, that is a doctored photo because there is...

something phony about that ASSHOLE sliming down the middle.

[muchacho]

5. Two Iraq Bombings May Have Killed Dozens

IRBIL, Iraq Feb. 1 — Two suicide bombers blew themselves up at the offices of two rival Kurdish parties in this northern Iraqi city, and officials said "dozens" may have been killed including senior party leaders.

The near-simultaneous attacks at the offices of the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan took place as party leaders were receving hundreds of visitors to mark the start of the four-day Muslim holiday, Eid Al-Adha, or the Feast of Sacrifice.

Irbil is about 200 miles north of Baghdad.

A KDP official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said "dozens have been killed and dozens were injured." He said the casualties are being evacuated to two hospitals in the region.

The official said the Irbil governor, the deputy governor and the deputy finance minister were among those killed.

PUK spokesman Qubad Talabani told CNN that the death toll "could well be in the dozens and the numbers are rising ... by the minute."

"The scene is pretty chaotic at the moment. We are hearing reports of many casualties. There are many many injured as well," he said, adding he could not confirm that senior officials were killed.

The PUK and KDP parties control the Kurdish-dominated provinces of northern Iraq where most of the country's minority Kurds live. There was no claim of responsibility. However, a radical Kurdish group, Ansar al-Islam, operates in the Kurdish region and has been linked by U.S. officials to al-Qaida.

Thousands of people crowded outside Irbil's hospital, looking for loved ones but were kept out by police.

Irbil Gov. Akram Mintik and the deputy prime minister of the region, Sami Abdul Rahman, were at the building of the Kurdistan Democratic Party at the time of the attack, which took place about 10:45 a.m, KDP official Mohammed Munif said. But he didn't know if they were safe.

He said the two officials were greeting people when the attacker approached them and detonated the explosives strapped around his body. He also said many people were killed.

The second attack took place at about the same time in the office of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan across town, PUK spokesman Kadhim Ali said. He said several people were killed and injured in the PUK attack.

U.S. military officials had said they were prepared for any upsurge of violence in connection with the holiday. The start of the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan last year marked a sharp escalation in violence against the U.S.-led coalition and its Iraqi allies.

<snip>

http://abcnews.go.com/wire/World/ap20040201_336.html

[maddezmom]

8. CNNI - reporting up to 100 at this point n/t

[Mari333]

11. Civil War, and we all knew it.

non stop civil war, instability, complete chaos, people pouring in from everywhere around Iraq, a new terrorist born daily to get us out of there.
Just what we KNEW would happen. Why did it have to happen this way? the whole world KNEW and everyone one of us KNEW this would happen..but no one listened...they went ahead and did it anyway.
I understand allowing Bush to hang himself if you give the asshole enough rope, but not at the cost of thousands of lives, not at the cost of my loved one or anyone elses loved one being over there.
Puppet governments and the same old history of it the US is known for.
Dont these morons in the WH read history?
god help us all.

[IndianaGreen]

13. We cannot keep troops in Iraq while there is a civil war

I cannot believe how many Democrats adhere to the false "we broke it, we fix it" mantra. This is like telling a rape victim that the best thing for her to get over her ordeal is to spend more time with the perpetrator.

[Must_B_Free]

14. Yahoo: 54 killed

.

[lazarus]

15. dupe

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=341537