The loving, caring mass murdering all-powerful creator, busy as usual.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/01/05/iraq.main/index.html

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- In the deadliest day in Iraq in nearly four months,
at least 134 people were killed and scores were wounded by insurgent-bomb
attacks, authorities said Thursday.

In Ramadi, 80 people were killed and dozens wounded when a bomber detonated
near an Iraqi police recruitment and screening drive, according to a U.S.
Marine news release.

About 1,000 people were waiting in line to apply for positions on the
reconstituted Iraqi police force, officials said.

Ramadi is the capital of Anbar province, where, just before the elections,
U.S. and Iraqi military forces conducted several operations aimed at rooting
out a strong insurgency there.

A blast in Karbala, a Shiite holy city, killed 45 people and wounded dozens
more on Thursday morning in a pedestrian mall that runs between the Imam
Hussein and Imam Abbas holy shrines, police spokesman Rahman Mishawi said.

The area has been closed off and police are investigating, Mishawi said.

Karbala, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Baghdad, has been
relatively free of violence for the past year.

Among the 134 dead were five U.S. soldiers with Task Force Baghdad,
according to a U.S. military news release.

The soldiers were patrolling in the Iraqi capital when their Humvee was hit
by a roadside bomb, the release said.

With the deaths, 2,187 U.S. service members have been killed in the Iraq
war.

Meanwhile in central Baquba, four police officers were killed and another
four were wounded about 9 a.m. when insurgents ambushed a police patrol
using small arms fire, authorities said.

Thursday's death toll marks the deadliest day for Iraq since a spate of
suicide car bombings and other attacks killed 153 people and wounded more
than 300 on September 14.

Asked if the attacks were a sign that the December elections had failed to
diminish the insurgency in Iraq, Gen. Peter Pace said the opposite was true.

Pace, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that with each of the
country's three elections, voter turnout increased, indicating that "the
terrorists failed at each of their primary missions of stopping the vote."

"What's clear to me is that each of the elections has been a major blow to
al Qaeda," Pace said at a Pentagon news conference Thursday. "I think what
you're seeing now is a continuing attempt to disrupt the proper formation of
the Iraqi government, and I'm confident they will fail."

Spike in violence
The attacks marked a second day of widespread violence in Iraq.

The most deadly incident on Wednesday was in Muqdadiya, about 100 kilometers
(60 miles) north of Baghdad, where a suicide bomber killed 36 people and
wounded 40 others at funeral procession, officials said.

Those attending the funeral were on foot when the bomber mixed in among
them.

The funeral was for Mohammed al-Bakka, nephew of Ahmed al-Bakka, head of
Muqdadiya's Dawa party and director of the town.

Ahmed al-Bakka survived an assassination attempt Tuesday, but a bodyguard
and his nephew were killed.

Dawa is the party of Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari.

Earlier Wednesday, five people were killed and 15 wounded in a car bomb
attack on an Iraqi police patrol in northern Baghdad neighborhood of
Kadhimiya. The casualties included police officers and civilians.

A short time later, Iraq police commandos battled insurgents for about 30
minutes in western Baghdad's Gazaliya neighborhood.

The firefight left one commando dead and 17 other people wounded, including
16 commandos.

Also Wednesday, three people died and 11 more were wounded when a parked car
bomb remotely detonated in an attack on an Iraqi police commando patrol in
southern Baghdad's Dora neighborhood, Baghdad police said.

An Iraqi police commando was among the dead, and six commandos were wounded