50 Killed in Car Bombing South of Baghdad

[Sagan]

*snip*

50 Killed in Car Bombing South of Baghdad
1 hour, 47 minutes ago Add Top Stories - AP to My Yahoo!


By MARIAM FAM, Associated Press Writer

ISKANDARIYAH, Iraq - A car bomb exploded Tuesday morning at a police station south of Baghdad as dozens of would-be recruits lined up to apply for jobs, and a hospital official said at least 50 people were killed and 50 others wounded.



U.S. officials in Baghdad put the figure at 35 killed and 75 wounded but said the figure could be higher since Iraqi authorities were handling the investigation. The local Iraqi police commander, Lt. Col. Abdul Rahim Saleh, said the attack was a suicide operation, carried out by a diver who detonated a red pickup as it passed by the station.


"I am sure it was a vehicle," Saleh said. "We found its engine. It was a suicide operation and a cowardly act."


The blast followed warnings from occupation officials that insurgents would step up attacks against Iraqis who work with the U.S.-led coalition, especially ahead of the planned June 30 transfer of sovereignty to a provisional Iraqi government.

*snip*

More:

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=514&e=1&u=/ap/20040210/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_12

[Just Me]

1. These poor people having to suffer the effects of chaos,...

,...from the neocons unlawful war.

:cry: :cry: :cry:

[lebkuchen]

14. "Progress"

The Bushies call it "progress."

[Cooley Hurd]

2. "It was a suicide operation and a cowardly act."

Here they go with this "cowardly act" routine. Bill Maher was right - nothing cowardly about giving your life for something you deeply believe in...

Them damn "homicide" bombers... :eyes:

[mmm]

4. Thank You for saying that. These people are dying for what they

believe in; perhaps they are even dying for a good cause.
One man's suicide bomber is another man's patriot.

[Zhade]

15. Yes - up to a point.

But can we really justify targeting civilians?

Yes, yes, I know - they're collaborators. Still, this seems like a terrible thing. Against foreign soldiers makes sense, as legitimate resistance to a foreign invasion under international law (please note: I am NOT wishing for our soldiers to be killed!), but against civilians? I can't accept that stretch.

It's all terrible, and this should never have happened, so ultimately the blame lies at the feet of the traitors in the White House.

So much death. :cry:

[On the Road]

3. Those Iraqi Policemen

are taking the brunt of our occupation. A LOT more of them have been killed by the insurgents than the Americans. Given the high unemployment rate, men who have a family to feed have a really tough decision.

[fizzana]

5. Remember that before the war the CIA warned that an invasion

of Iraq was likely to finally unite Saddam and Al Qaeda. Looks like that little warning has come true. Everyone suddenly seems to have forgotten that little piece of information.

[KDLarsen]

18. Yeah..

.. though it only appears to be happening as of late. I heard that a letter had been picked up on its way across the Iraq-Iran border, supposedly heading to an Al Qaeda leader, requesting aid from Al Qaeda in the fight against the US.

[wellst0nev0ter]

6. "Bring It On!" Cried The AWOL Chimp

And bring it on they did :grr:

[daleo]

7. 50 more 'proofs' of the occupation's success

According to chimpian logic.

[nborders]

8. Well, one less terrorist and 50 less good people

Thanks W!

~n

[RobertSeattle]

9. Why are explosives so FREAKING available in the Iraq?

Are these leftover from the Iraq Army and because we poorly planned the invasion aftermath they fell into the wrong hands and/or are these being brough in over the border because we had no plans to secure Iraq's borders after the invasion?

[Jacobin]

10. Huh? Ours or theirs?

We are in a guerilla war which we are losing. We have lots of bombs and guns and they obviously planned to have lots of bombs and guns too, after we invaded.

There is no way they could repel a frontal attack, so they let us in with minimal resistance and now are ratcheting up the resistance until they boot our infidel asses back to the west.

[NeoConsSuck]

19. And remember what Kissinger said..

and I"ll paraphrase. Armies lose by not winning. Guerillas win by not losing.

Note to Freepers: losing means loosing :)

On Edit: Whoops! Spelled Kissinger's name wrong

[tabasco]

22. Yep, and now we are hunkering down on our bases.

The number of bases in Baghdad is being reduced from about 30 to eight. It might be a good idea for security, but it shows the administration wants our troops to hunker down in the election year to reduce casualties. This is good for security, but bad for accomplishing the mission. Security will be better for US forces, but worse on the streets of Baghdad.

[NickB79]

12. Saddam had MILLIONS of tons of military hardware in weapons depots

Scattered all across the country. Mortar shells, howitzer shells, tank rounds, RPG's, high explosives, ammunition, aircraft-delivered bombs, rocket warheads, you name it. Much of it was left over from the first Gulf War, and some even from the Iraq-Iran war, but a lot of it is still very much usable. The bombing of the UN Embassy used a flatbed truck packed with shells scavenged from these depots, including at least on 1000-lb bomb. The military engineers there have stated that it would take them over 15 yrs to destroy it all using controlled detonations. Whats even more of a kick in the nuts is that most of these are UNGUARDED!!! Those that are guarded are usually Iraqi recruits of dubious loyalty who might be more than willing enough to accept a few dollars to turn their heads for an hr or two. US soldiers are too busy guarding pipelines and oil refineries. Ya know, the important stuff <sarcasm>. Even if we wanted too, we can't secure all the weapons depots. Huge amounts of weaponry has already been taken by looters and scrap metal collectors during in the first month of the invasion to be sold on the Iraqi black market.

[Zhade]

16. Planted there for this very purpose.

Hussein knew he would never win in a head-to-head war. I'm certain there are chaches of weapons all over the country, explicitly to supply a guerilla resistance - with or without him around.

[The_Casual_Observer]

11. Yet the bush propaganda push is in full swing

We are being told that Iraq, like the economy is on the right track, that everything is going to be fine "next month". It is going to be amusing to observe what they are going to be saying next month, when these kind of attacks continue and no jobs are created here.

[diamond14]

13. seems fortunate that there are never any American soldiers KILLED

in these police station bombings....seems that OUR soldiers (who are also Iraqi police trainers and advisors) just never go to these police stations...so they are fortunate, never get injured or KILLED in these bombings...

[ConcernedCanuk]

17. The Bush Admin, and many others failed to realize

.
.

the depth to which these people want to rule THEIR country, and are LONG past the illusion that the USA is there to free them

and do not forget

with 10,000+ civilians dead, and more wounded, along with countless thousands of military killed with the 2000 tonnes of ordinance dropped before the "brave" men traversed the desert to occupy Baghdad

There's alot of people left with nothing to live for but the need and desire to "avenge" their dead and wounded

So it will continue until the USA, or anything representing the USA is out of Iraq

Seems pretty obvious to me . . .

[joanski01]

20. Wolf Blitzer said that

"Iraq was having a bad day". He has got to be the stupidist damned reporter on the planet. 50 people killed is a bad day!!!! Is that like having a bad hair day??

[Emillereid]

21. Unfortunately collaborators usually take the brunt

of the resistance. Can't help but feel for these poor guys -- they're between a rock and a hard place -- they need jobs to support their families and the only way is to work for the Americans. Wish there was some way for the resistance to provide alternative livelihoods for these poor people.