Wave of Bombings Continues in Iraq

[babylonsister]

Wave of Bombings Continues in Iraq


A car bomb exploded in the Sadriya neighborhood in Baghdad Wednesday, killing at least 140 people and incinerating scores of vehicles.

By KIRK SEMPLE
Published: April 19, 2007

BAGHDAD, April 19 — Bombs ravaged Baghdad in five horrific explosions aimed mainly at Shiite crowds on Wednesday, killing at least 171 people in the deadliest day in the capital since the American-led security plan for the city took effect two months ago.

Another suicide car bomber killed 10 more people in a religiously mixed neighborhood today. The wave of attacks, five of them involving car bombs, took place as Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki declared that the Iraqi government planned to take full control of security from the American-led forces before the end of the year.

In the worst of the bombings Wednesday, a car packed with explosives exploded at an intersection in the Sadriya neighborhood that serves as a hub for buses traveling to the Shiite district of Sadr City. The blast killed at least 140 people and wounded 150; incinerated scores of vehicles, including several minibuses full of passengers; and charred nearby shops, witnesses and the police said.

Mr. Maliki said in a statement late Wednesday that he had ordered the arrest of an Iraqi Army officer who had security oversight in the Sadriya neighborhood. As rescuers thronged the site, a sniper opened fire on the crowd, killing at least one person and wounding two others.

“The blast threw me to the ground and shattered a window over my body,” said Salar Kamal Zari, a 37-year-old teacher visiting from Kurdistan, who had just stepped into a nearby store when the bomb exploded. “I saw a human head in front of the store and many cars burning and smoke everywhere.”

“I will never stay in Baghdad anymore,” he vowed.

The Baghdad security plan calls for 28,000 additional American troops, as well as thousands of Iraqi soldiers, most of whom will be deployed in the streets of the violent capital in an attempt to pacify it. But Mr. Maliki said the gradual transfer to Iraqi authority would continue, with three provinces in the relatively tranquil region of Kurdistan the next to come under Iraqi security authority, followed by Karbala and Wasit Provinces in the south.

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[Benhurst]

1. Isn't that John McCain and Lindsey Graham in the upper left-hand corner, holding shopping bags? NT

[Solly Mack]

2. k/r

Thank you!!

Damn :(

and there sits the torture czar in a hearing,being allowed a chance...a chance no one in the Bush administration gave to others...