The Surge: Insurgents slaughter 40 Iraqis in day of bombs

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The Surge: Insurgents slaughter 40 Iraqis in day of bombs

Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit

AFP - Feb 19, 2007
http://www.afp.com/english/news/stories/070219210959.ohyl1it5.html

Insurgents slaughter 40 Iraqis in day of bombs

BAGHDAD (AFP) - Bombs exploded across central Iraq, adding 40 more
bloodied corpses to the grim toll of Iraqi dead as rebel groups mounted
a vicious challenge to the latest US and Iraqi security plan.

The attacks will in the main be blamed on Sunni insurgents and appear
to have been timed to embarrass US and Iraqi commanders as they deploy
tens of thousands of troops to try to quell Baghdad's vicious sectarian
war.

Five American soldiers were also killed, including two in what the US
military dubbed a "coordinated attack on a coalition force combat
outpost" in Tarmiyah, around 30 kilometres (20 miles) north of the
capital.

Seventeen were also wounded when "insurgents initiated the attack on
the outpost with a suicide vehicle-borne improvised explosive device
detonation," a US statement said.

The deaths brought to 3,133 the number of US servicemen and women who
have died in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion, according to Pentagon
figures.

Iraq's Sunni Waqf, or religious endowment, charged meanwhile that
members of a police force had raped a woman in the Al-Amel district in
southwestern Baghdad.

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki quickly had ordered an investigation into
the charges that the woman had been sexually attacked by Iraqi
"maintain order forces," the former name of a police unit which has now
become part of the national police.

Early Monday, five Iraqi commuters were killed by a bomb that gutted a
bus in the mixed but largely Shiite district of Karrada, one day after
a double car bombing ripped through a crowd in a city market and killed
more than 60 people.

In a second attack, a roadside bomb exploded in the path of a police
patrol in nearby Zafaraniyah. It killed three police and three
civilians and wounded 40 bystanders, according to a security official.

As dusk fell, a barrage of mortars slammed into a Shiite district on
the southern edge of Baghdad and killed another 11 people, mainly women
and children, and wounded 14, an Iraqi defence official said.

North of Baghdad, a suicide car bomber attacked a house in the Khazraj
district belonging to an Iraqi army officer, Major Amer Nayif, killing
five soldiers and wounding 10, police said.

In Ramadi, two suicide car bombers attacked a house belonging to Sheikh
Abdulsattar Abu Risha, the head of a council of Sunni tribal chiefs
which opposes Al-Qaeda in western Iraq, his deputy Sheikh Hamid al-Hais
said.

The first bomb exploded at a police checkpoint protecting the house,
while the second hit the building itself. Four police and seven
civilians died.

In northern Mosul, eight bodies were found including those of three
policemen and a surgeon, a security source said.

"As displaced families return home peacefully, and hopes are raised by
'Operation Fardh al-Qanoon', criminal terrorists are not happy to see
life returning to normal in Baghdad," said Maliki.

"Our dear people in Baghdad and across Iraq's provinces have chosen to
go ahead with the political process despite sacrifices," the premier
said.

"They are determined to stand by our armed forces to encourage them to
drive out remnants of the Saddamists and Takfiris and all outlaws," he
said, blaming Sunni extremists and supporters of executed dictator
Saddam Hussein.

Last week, Maliki formally announced the start of "Fardh al-Qanoon" --
Operation Imposing Law -- a plan that will see tens of thousands of US
and Iraqi troops deployed around the capital to try to stem the
bloodshed.

"We knew they would strike back and try to get the most damage, the
most casualties and the most effect in the media," said US spokesman
Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Garver.

"We know that they try to foster the circle of sectarian violence,
hoping for retaliation by the other side and trying to make it
difficult for us to establish security," he said.

Before the blasts the operation had enjoyed a measure of initial
success, and many Baghdadis remain hopeful that a turning point has
been reached.

"Yesterday's bombings were the terrorists' remaining explosives. They
will sooner or later run short of them. The plan has just started. We
shouldn't expect too much," said Imad Salim, a 49-year-old Kurdish taxi
driver.

Soldiers deploying to new security posts in flashpoint districts have
met little organised resistance, although two US troops have been
killed.

Shiite militias such as the Mahdi Army appear to have melted away, but
the recent bomb attacks show that Sunni insurgent groups such as
Al-Qaeda remain determined to sow chaos and undermine the US-backed
government.


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