Al Qaeda Getting Desperate in Iraq

[Human]

It is very Brave of you IRAN to support groups who use these type of tactics.

 

What's next? Using little babies?

 

I'm not going to add any further comments about this post "For the simple reason that it makes my blood boil toooo much".

 

 

 

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http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/02/01/...main/index.html

 

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Two mentally disabled women were strapped with explosives Friday and sent into busy Baghdad markets, where they were blown up by remote control, a top Iraqi government official said.

 

The bombs killed at least 98 people and wounded more than 200 at two popular pet markets on the holiest day of the week for Muslims, authorities said.

 

In both bombings, the attackers were mentally disabled women whose explosive belts were remotely detonated, Gen. Qasim Atta, spokesman for Baghdad's security plan, told state television.

 

An aide to Atta said that people referred to the bomber at central Baghdad's al-Ghazl market as the "crazy woman" and that the bomber at a second market had an unspecified birth disability.

 

The nationalities and identities of the women have not been released.

 

U.S. military officials referred to the two attacks as suicide bombings, saying both women detonated the explosive devices. The U.S. attributed the attacks to al Qaeda in Iraq and made no reference to the mental conditions of the women.

 

"By targeting innocent Iraqis, they show their true demonic character," said Lt. Col. Steve Stover, spokesman for the Multi-National Division-Baghdad.

 

"They care nothing for the Iraqi people; they want to subjugate them and forcefully create a greater Islamic sharia state," he said, referring to Islamic law.

 

One bomb blew up at al-Ghazl animal market around 10:30 a.m., killing 69 and wounding more than 140.

 

The second blast happened about a half-hour later in the New Baghdad neighborhood pet market, killing 29 people and wounding 67.

 

Al-Ghazl pet market is a popular destination where people buy and sell cats, dogs, monkeys and other animals. Attackers have struck the market on Fridays -- its busiest day -- several times in the last year or so.

 

A January 2007 bombing killed 15 and wounded 52 at the pet market, and 13 people died and 58 were wounded in a November attack.

 

The violence, the bloodiest series of attacks in the capital since August, broke a brief stretch of relative calm as attacks and deaths dropped at the time of the 2007 increase in U.S. troop strength known as the surge.

 

On Thursday, a parked car exploded in a predominantly Shiite district in the Iraqi capital, killing five civilians and wounding eight others, the Interior Ministry said.

 

The attack occurred after a string of roadside bombings that wounded 21 people, ministry said. In one, a bomb near the deputy minister of electricity's convoy wounded at least five people.

 

Also Thursday, a spokesman for the Polish military said Poland will withdraw its troops from Iraq by the end of October.

 

October 31 will be the last day of the Polish presence in Iraq, Maj. Dariusz Kacperczyk said in Warsaw.

 

New Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has promised to bring troops home from Iraq, where the country has been one of the larger contingents apart from the United States and Britain.

 

About 900 Polish troops are in Iraq, with most in Diwaniya, some in Baghdad and others in the southern city of Kut. Twenty-two soldiers from Poland have died during the nearly 5-year war in Iraq.

[Guest Gerry J. Gilmore]

Al Qaeda has worn out its welcome with Sunni residents of western Iraq’s Anbar province and, consequently, the terror group’s influence there is over for good, the Marine Corps’ most senior officer said here today.

The Sunnis became disgusted with al Qaeda’s brutal methods and backward ideology, Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James T. Conway said at a breakfast event at the National Press Club hosted by Government Executive Magazine

 

Determined to rid themselves of al Qaeda, Sunni leaders in Anbar province formed concerned local citizens’ groups that attacked terrorists at every turn, Conway said.

 

During his most recent visit to Iraq in November, Conway recalled, Sunni leaders told him that Anbar province had reached a “post-hostilities” phase.

 

“They are convinced that the al Qaeda, in particular, and the Sunni insurgents are not coming back,” Conway said. “They have entered a blood feud with the al Qaeda (terrorists).”

 

Anbar province’s Sunnis found nothing to admire about al Qaeda’s “15th-century law,” Conway said, which involved suppression of individual rights, beatings and beheadings. There also were forced marriages between al Qaeda foreign-born fighters and local Sunni women, he said.

 

The Sunnis “recoiled from all of that” and began to ally themselves with coalition and Iraqi government forces, Conway explained.

 

Anbar’s Sunnis also know that al Qaeda would extract bloody revenge against those who’d collaborated with U.S. and Iraqi government forces, Conway added.

 

“They can’t let (al Qaeda) back in,” the general said.

 

Meanwhile, U.S. Marines in Iraq have been busy patrolling and training members of the Iraqi army.

 

“We are pretty proud of those (Iraqi soldiers) we train out there,” Conway said.

 

He added that when properly equipped and led by good Iraqi officers and noncommissioned officers, the Iraqi troops “do pretty well in the field.”