Bummer.

--redpill.


"Tom Jefferson" <tom@returndemocracy.now> wrote in message
news:3f9dae01$0$91662$a32e20b9@news.nntpservers.com...

Wave of Bombings Kills Dozens in Baghdad

By CHARLES J. HANLEY
AP Special Correspondent
Published October 27, 2003, 5:01 PM CST

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Striking in rapid succession, suicide car bombers bent

death for "collaborators" devastated the Red Cross headquarters and

police stations Monday, killing three dozen people and wounding more

200 in the bloodiest day in Baghdad since the start of the U.S.

occupation.

From north to south in this city of 5 million, the explosions over a
45-minute period left streetscapes of broken bodies, twisted wreckage

Iraqis unnerved by an escalating underground war. The dead included a

soldier, eight Iraqi policemen and at least 26 Iraqi civilians.

"We feel helpless when we see this," said an Iraqi doctor.

Iraqi and U.S. authorities in Baghdad blamed the coordinated quadruple
blasts on foreign fighters intent on targeting those they accuse of
collaborating with U.S. forces. One captive would-be bomber was said to
carry a Syrian passport.

But in Washington, Pentagon officials said they believed loyalists of

ousted

President Saddam Hussein were responsible. President Bush said

had become more "desperate" because of what he said was progress in

The tactics suggested a level of organization that U.S. officials had
doubted the resistance possessed. In past weeks, bombers have carried

heavy suicide bombings but in single strikes.

Not only were Monday's attacks coordinated, they also involved disguise:

the

use of an Iraqi ambulance in the Red Cross attack, a police car and

uniform

in a police station explosion.

The blasts, which echoed the Aug. 19 bombing of the U.N. headquarters

here,

left the Red Cross and other aid agencies examining whether they should
decrease their presence in Iraq. Paris-based Medecins Sans Frontieres

it would reduce its seven-member expatriate team in Baghdad.

Secretary of State Colin Powell said he hoped nongovernment

contractors and the United Nations would stay in Iraq despite the

"They are needed. Their work is needed. And if they are driven out, then

the

terrorists win," Powell said in Washington.

The differing theories about who was behind the bombings underscored the
confusion generated by two days of bold, stunning attacks, beginning

a

rocket barrage on a U.S. headquarters hotel Sunday that killed a U.S.
colonel, wounded 15 other people and sent Americans scurrying to safety,
including the visiting deputy defense secretary, Paul Wolfowitz.

Later Sunday, three U.S. soldiers were killed in two attacks in the

Baghdad

area.

Then, at 8:30 a.m. Monday, on a warm, clear morning beginning the Muslim
fasting month of Ramadan, the first of four thunderous explosions rocked

the

city.

A police car, somehow commandeered for a suicide mission and driven by a

man

in police uniform, blew up after entering the courtyard of the al-Baya'a
police station in southern Baghdad, said police Brig. Gen. Ahmed

the deputy interior minister.

Officers said the blast killed 15 Iraqis and one U.S. soldier, and the

U.S.

military said six other Americans were wounded. American troops have

working with Iraqi police and guarding the stations.

Just five minutes later, a second blast struck the local headquarters of

the

International Committee of the Red Cross, a small, three-story building

a

quiet street in central Baghdad. This bomber, too, used a subterfuge --

Iraqi ambulance that apparently was able to approach the ICRC offices
without suspicion.

"I saw this ambulance driving up toward the Red Cross, and then suddenly

it

blew up," said cigarette vendor Ghani Khadim. The vehicle stopped 60

from the front of the Red Cross building, at a protective line of
earth-filled barrels, and disintegrated as it blew a 15-foot-wide crater

in

the road.

The blast knocked down a 40-foot section of the ICRC's sandbag-backed

front

wall, demolished a dozen cars and apparently broke a water main,

the streets. The building's interior was wrecked -- a scene of shattered
glass, doors blown off their hinges, toppled bookcases and collapsed
ceilings.

More than 100 staff members normally would have been inside, but

time had been changed to 9 a.m. because of Ramadan, and probably only
one-quarter of the normal staff was present. Red Cross headquarters in
Geneva said 12 people were killed, only two of them employees, believed

be security guards, and the rest apparently passers-by.

The Red Cross and other aid organizations reduced their Baghdad staffs

after

the car bombing at U.N. headquarters that killed 23 people.

"Of course we don't understand why somebody would attack the Red Cross,"
said Nada Doumani, Baghdad spokeswoman for the ICRC, an organization

has long strived for political neutrality.

Two buildings away, the explosion devastated the interior of a private
clinic operated by Dr. Jamal F. Massa, who had been planning to open it

a

full-fledged hospital next month. "We feel helpless when we see this,"

said of the ICRC bombing. He couldn't understand why the Red Cross was
targeted, he said, since "this only hurts guards and other Iraqis."

Twenty minutes after the ICRC attack, another car bomber detonated his
explosives-packed vehicle at a police station near a marketplace in

Baghdad.

After another 20 minutes, the fourth suicide bomber struck in southwest
Baghdad, at the al-Khudra police station, destroying the front of the
building.

Besides the dead, at least 224 people were reported wounded in the four
attacks, including 65 policemen, Ibrahim said. The 34 dead he reported
apparently did not include the American soldier the U.S. command said

killed at al-Baya'a, nor was it clear whether he was counting the four
suicide drivers.

At 10:15 a.m., yet another bombing was attempted, at a police station in

the

eastern district of New Baghdad, where officers managed to spot and stop

Land Cruiser driver from detonating his explosives. The man set off a
grenade that wounded an officer and himself, and when he was seized, "he

was

shouting, `Death to the Iraqi police! You're collaborators!'" said

Sgt. Ahmed Abdel Sattar.

Ibrahim said the man carried a Syrian passport and told officers he was
Syrian. "Some countries, unfortunately, are trying to send people to

conduct

attacks," the deputy interior minister said, without naming those

Brig. Gen. Mark Hertling, an assistant commander of the U.S. 1st Armored
Division, which occupies Baghdad, agreed that "foreign fighters" were

prime

suspects in the bombings. "I think that's a reasonable supposition," he
said. "That's something we'll look closely at in the next few days."

Nevertheless, the latest attacks illustrated the disparate nature of the
resistance -- from hit-run guerrillas, perhaps Saddam loyalists, who are
staging an average of 26 low-profile attacks on U.S. forces daily, to
bombers, perhaps Islamic extremists, staging suicide terror strikes.

The resistance is believed also to include Iraqis who simply resent the

U.S.

military occupation of their country or who have grievances over what

see as U.S. brutality against friends and neighbors.

One such incident may have occurred Monday in Fallujah, 40 miles west of
Baghdad, where witnesses said U.S. troops opened fire on bystanders,

killing

at least four Iraqi civilians, after a roadside bomb exploded as a U.S.
military convoy passed. The U.S. command did not confirm the incident or
report any U.S. casualties.

In Washington, after the Baghdad bombings and after meeting with L. Paul
Bremer, the U.S. civilian administrator for Iraq, Bush said he remains

"even

more determined to work with the Iraqi people" to restore peace to this
troubled land.

ll=chi-news-hed


--
"From the brief time that we did spend occupying Iraqi territory after

war, I am certain that had we taken all of Iraq, we would have been like

the

dinosaur in the tar pit - we would still be there, and we, not the

Nations, would be bearing the costs of the occupation. This is a burden

am

sure the beleaguered American taxpayer would not have been happy to take
on."

- Norman Schwarzkopf, from his 1993 autobiography, "It Doesn't Take a

Hero."

Bummer.


--redpill.


"Tom Jefferson" <tom@returndemocracy.now> wrote in message
news:3f9dae01$0$91662$a32e20b9@news.nntpservers.com...

Wave of Bombings Kills Dozens in Baghdad

By CHARLES J. HANLEY
AP Special Correspondent
Published October 27, 2003, 5:01 PM CST

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Striking in rapid succession, suicide car bombers bent

death for "collaborators" devastated the Red Cross headquarters and

police stations Monday, killing three dozen people and wounding more

200 in the bloodiest day in Baghdad since the start of the U.S.

occupation.

From north to south in this city of 5 million, the explosions over a
45-minute period left streetscapes of broken bodies, twisted wreckage

Iraqis unnerved by an escalating underground war. The dead included a

soldier, eight Iraqi policemen and at least 26 Iraqi civilians.

"We feel helpless when we see this," said an Iraqi doctor.

Iraqi and U.S. authorities in Baghdad blamed the coordinated quadruple
blasts on foreign fighters intent on targeting those they accuse of
collaborating with U.S. forces. One captive would-be bomber was said to
carry a Syrian passport.

But in Washington, Pentagon officials said they believed loyalists of

ousted

President Saddam Hussein were responsible. President Bush said

had become more "desperate" because of what he said was progress in

The tactics suggested a level of organization that U.S. officials had
doubted the resistance possessed. In past weeks, bombers have carried

heavy suicide bombings but in single strikes.

Not only were Monday's attacks coordinated, they also involved disguise:

the

use of an Iraqi ambulance in the Red Cross attack, a police car and

uniform

in a police station explosion.

The blasts, which echoed the Aug. 19 bombing of the U.N. headquarters

here,

left the Red Cross and other aid agencies examining whether they should
decrease their presence in Iraq. Paris-based Medecins Sans Frontieres

it would reduce its seven-member expatriate team in Baghdad.

Secretary of State Colin Powell said he hoped nongovernment

contractors and the United Nations would stay in Iraq despite the

"They are needed. Their work is needed. And if they are driven out, then

the

terrorists win," Powell said in Washington.

The differing theories about who was behind the bombings underscored the
confusion generated by two days of bold, stunning attacks, beginning

a

rocket barrage on a U.S. headquarters hotel Sunday that killed a U.S.
colonel, wounded 15 other people and sent Americans scurrying to safety,
including the visiting deputy defense secretary, Paul Wolfowitz.

Later Sunday, three U.S. soldiers were killed in two attacks in the

Baghdad

area.

Then, at 8:30 a.m. Monday, on a warm, clear morning beginning the Muslim
fasting month of Ramadan, the first of four thunderous explosions rocked

the

city.

A police car, somehow commandeered for a suicide mission and driven by a

man

in police uniform, blew up after entering the courtyard of the al-Baya'a
police station in southern Baghdad, said police Brig. Gen. Ahmed

the deputy interior minister.

Officers said the blast killed 15 Iraqis and one U.S. soldier, and the

U.S.

military said six other Americans were wounded. American troops have

working with Iraqi police and guarding the stations.

Just five minutes later, a second blast struck the local headquarters of

the

International Committee of the Red Cross, a small, three-story building

a

quiet street in central Baghdad. This bomber, too, used a subterfuge --

Iraqi ambulance that apparently was able to approach the ICRC offices
without suspicion.

"I saw this ambulance driving up toward the Red Cross, and then suddenly

it

blew up," said cigarette vendor Ghani Khadim. The vehicle stopped 60

from the front of the Red Cross building, at a protective line of
earth-filled barrels, and disintegrated as it blew a 15-foot-wide crater

in

the road.

The blast knocked down a 40-foot section of the ICRC's sandbag-backed

front

wall, demolished a dozen cars and apparently broke a water main,

the streets. The building's interior was wrecked -- a scene of shattered
glass, doors blown off their hinges, toppled bookcases and collapsed
ceilings.

More than 100 staff members normally would have been inside, but

time had been changed to 9 a.m. because of Ramadan, and probably only
one-quarter of the normal staff was present. Red Cross headquarters in
Geneva said 12 people were killed, only two of them employees, believed

be security guards, and the rest apparently passers-by.

The Red Cross and other aid organizations reduced their Baghdad staffs

after

the car bombing at U.N. headquarters that killed 23 people.

"Of course we don't understand why somebody would attack the Red Cross,"
said Nada Doumani, Baghdad spokeswoman for the ICRC, an organization

has long strived for political neutrality.

Two buildings away, the explosion devastated the interior of a private
clinic operated by Dr. Jamal F. Massa, who had been planning to open it

a

full-fledged hospital next month. "We feel helpless when we see this,"

said of the ICRC bombing. He couldn't understand why the Red Cross was
targeted, he said, since "this only hurts guards and other Iraqis."

Twenty minutes after the ICRC attack, another car bomber detonated his
explosives-packed vehicle at a police station near a marketplace in

Baghdad.

After another 20 minutes, the fourth suicide bomber struck in southwest
Baghdad, at the al-Khudra police station, destroying the front of the
building.

Besides the dead, at least 224 people were reported wounded in the four
attacks, including 65 policemen, Ibrahim said. The 34 dead he reported
apparently did not include the American soldier the U.S. command said

killed at al-Baya'a, nor was it clear whether he was counting the four
suicide drivers.

At 10:15 a.m., yet another bombing was attempted, at a police station in

the

eastern district of New Baghdad, where officers managed to spot and stop

Land Cruiser driver from detonating his explosives. The man set off a
grenade that wounded an officer and himself, and when he was seized, "he

was

shouting, `Death to the Iraqi police! You're collaborators!'" said

Sgt. Ahmed Abdel Sattar.

Ibrahim said the man carried a Syrian passport and told officers he was
Syrian. "Some countries, unfortunately, are trying to send people to

conduct

attacks," the deputy interior minister said, without naming those

Brig. Gen. Mark Hertling, an assistant commander of the U.S. 1st Armored
Division, which occupies Baghdad, agreed that "foreign fighters" were

prime

suspects in the bombings. "I think that's a reasonable supposition," he
said. "That's something we'll look closely at in the next few days."

Nevertheless, the latest attacks illustrated the disparate nature of the
resistance -- from hit-run guerrillas, perhaps Saddam loyalists, who are
staging an average of 26 low-profile attacks on U.S. forces daily, to
bombers, perhaps Islamic extremists, staging suicide terror strikes.

The resistance is believed also to include Iraqis who simply resent the

U.S.

military occupation of their country or who have grievances over what

see as U.S. brutality against friends and neighbors.

One such incident may have occurred Monday in Fallujah, 40 miles west of
Baghdad, where witnesses said U.S. troops opened fire on bystanders,

killing

at least four Iraqi civilians, after a roadside bomb exploded as a U.S.
military convoy passed. The U.S. command did not confirm the incident or
report any U.S. casualties.

In Washington, after the Baghdad bombings and after meeting with L. Paul
Bremer, the U.S. civilian administrator for Iraq, Bush said he remains

"even

more determined to work with the Iraqi people" to restore peace to this
troubled land.

ll=chi-news-hed


--
"From the brief time that we did spend occupying Iraqi territory after

war, I am certain that had we taken all of Iraq, we would have been like

the

dinosaur in the tar pit - we would still be there, and we, not the

Nations, would be bearing the costs of the occupation. This is a burden

am

sure the beleaguered American taxpayer would not have been happy to take
on."

- Norman Schwarzkopf, from his 1993 autobiography, "It Doesn't Take a

Hero."

For me the shock and awe is deafening silence from the 'progressives'
over the deliberate killing of civilians - especially Red Cross people,
and after the UN civilian killings. If US forces had accidentally killed
just one clamor and outrage would rule your circles.

Where is the demand internationally acceptable behavior and proper rules
of engagement?

Tom Jefferson wrote:

Wave of Bombings Kills Dozens in Baghdad

By CHARLES J. HANLEY
AP Special Correspondent
Published October 27, 2003, 5:01 PM CST

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Striking in rapid succession, suicide car bombers bent

death for "collaborators" devastated the Red Cross headquarters and three
police stations Monday, killing three dozen people and wounding more than
200 in the bloodiest day in Baghdad since the start of the U.S.

...

On Tue, 28 Oct 2003 03:04:20 +0000, Werner Hetzner wrote:

For me the shock and awe is deafening silence from the 'progressives'
over the deliberate killing of civilians - especially Red Cross people,
and after the UN civilian killings. If US forces had accidentally killed
just one clamor and outrage would rule your circles.

Where is the demand internationally acceptable behavior and proper rules
of engagement?

So you want to stay in Iraq until our enemy in Saudi Arabia decides to
adhere to the rules of engagement? Idiot. daveA

For me the shock and awe is deafening silence from the 'progressives'
over the deliberate killing of civilians - especially Red Cross people,
and after the UN civilian killings. If US forces had accidentally killed
just one clamor and outrage would rule your circles.

Where is the demand internationally acceptable behavior and proper rules
of engagement?


Tom Jefferson wrote:

Wave of Bombings Kills Dozens in Baghdad

By CHARLES J. HANLEY
AP Special Correspondent
Published October 27, 2003, 5:01 PM CST

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Striking in rapid succession, suicide car bombers bent

death for "collaborators" devastated the Red Cross headquarters and three
police stations Monday, killing three dozen people and wounding more than
200 in the bloodiest day in Baghdad since the start of the U.S.

...