Four Americans Among 17 Dead in Baghdad Car Bombing

[chlamor]

Four Americans among 17 dead in Baghdad car bombing

Posted 03:04pm (Mla time) May 07, 2005
Agence France-Presse



(2ND UPDATE) BAGHDAD -- Four Americans were among 17 people killed in a huge car bomb blast in central Baghdad Saturday, security and medical sources said.

"According to the latest toll, there are 13 Iraqi civilians killed and four foreigners whose bodies were completely charred," the official said on condition of anonymity.

He added that at least 33 Iraqis were also wounded in the blast, among them women and children.

"According to the badges we found, they are Americans," said medic Khaled Ibrahim. A US officer on the scene confirmed to AFP that the four were US citizens.

http://news.inq7.net/top/index.php?index=1&story_id=36244

[Inspired]

1. Ho hum

I guess this really isn't news anymore except to families of those killed in this miserable war.

I am one very angry woman today. This stupid war, that stupid NC church, our stupid president. Am I the crazy one?

[cry baby]

2. Welcome to DU!

Hope you have fun - :hi:

[cmd]

4. No, you are someone who knows what's right

Welcome to DU. This is the haven of sanity for people like us.

[llmart]

5. No, you're the sane one in a world of crazies.....

but I'm beyond angry. I'm just disillusioned, disgusted and sad that this country has turned into what other countries should not aspire to. Maybe someday in my lifetime I'll see a return to the US being admired again, but it will take a real leader like President Clinton or President Carter. I can only hope the rest of the world can forgive us for this stupid person we have ensconced in the White House.

[yorkiemommie1]

10. no you're not crazy

i thought i'd go mad after the election and was glad to find DU. DU'ers have helped KEEP me sane.

[expatriot]

11. If you're crazy, then we're all crazy. Welcome home...

DU is your place.

[Skittles]

12. no, you are not crazy, Inspired

you are someone who cares and you have found the place to be here in the Democratic Underground; I welcome you.

[Frederik]

14. You sure don't sound crazy to me!

:hi:

[flordehinojos]

3. we seem to have become immunized to the dying of our soldiers and to

the killing of innocent people that bushit boy is conducting in our name when we ought to be out there, day after day, protesting the invasion and occupation of iraq and demand an end to the bushit boy's imperial take over of iraq.

[chlamor]

6. I am not immunized

I am in the streets at least 3 days a week, in trafficked areas with banners, images and leaflets. This is fuckin' nuts (THE WAR) and we all need to be outraged get off our asses and in the public eye.
How much can one take?
Go for it.

[flordehinojos]

8. i am with you ... there is not a day that goes by that i do not writ e

to some media in these u.s. about this or any other bush outrage.

[acmavm]

7. The fact that bush** lied about WMDs has long been known by everyone

here. But now that we have it on paper, coming from the British government (in a sane world) would drive most of this country into the streets.

The guy lied and lies about lying and gets caught and away with it all.

No, you're not crazy. And it's really hard being on the side of sanity these days.

[magellan]

9. The details of that minute still haven't been reported by the US press.

It appeared in Yahoo! News fleetingly on Friday, but our Corporate News (CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, FAUX) still hasn't reported the salient details. I'm enraged by how they continue to aid and abet this administration of mass murderers by suppressing and censoring the British minute. It's intentional. They know the American people can't respond if they aren't informed. That makes them accomplices in the deaths on Bush**'s hands in my book.

The Fourth Estate is dead and must be replaced.

[saigon68]

13. MORE $2,000.00 a Day Mercenaries "BITE THE DUST"

Bad day in Merc land.

Oh well, there are always more THUGS and KILLERS to take their place.

[leftchick]

17. Can you tell who this guy works for?

I notice they are wearing helmuts now. I don't think that works so well against a VBED.

http://us.news3.yimg.com/img.news.yahoo.com/util/anysize/345,http%3A%2F%2Fus.news2.yimg.com%2Fus.yimg.com%2Fp%2Fafp%2F20050508%2Fcapt.sge.nkn09.080505083920.photo01.photo.default-300x384.jpg

A wounded foreign security contractor speaks on his walkie-talkie at the area where a car bomb exploded in the heart of Baghdad Saturday. A massive car bomb exploded in central Baghdad Saturday, killing at least 18 people, including four US citizens.(AFP/file/Ali Al-Saadi)

[saigon68]

18. LOOKS LIKE BLACKWATER

They love Blue T-shirts and Khaki BDU Trousers.


Private Guards Repel Attack on U.S. Headquarters

By Dana Priest
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, April 6, 2004; Page A01

An attack by hundreds of Iraqi militia members on the U.S. government's headquarters in Najaf on Sunday was repulsed not by the U.S. military, but by eight commandos from a private security firm, according to sources familiar with the incident.

Before U.S. reinforcements could arrive, the firm, Blackwater Security Consulting, sent in its own helicopters amid an intense firefight to resupply its commandos with ammunition and to ferry out a wounded Marine, the sources said.

http://media.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/images/I53443-2004Apr05

Blackwater commandos and a U.S. soldier defend the Coalition Provisional Authority headquarters in Najaf. (Coalition Provisional Authority)



The role of Blackwater's commandos in Sunday's fighting in Najaf illuminates the gray zone between their formal role as bodyguards and the realities of operating in an active war zone. Thousands of armed private security contractors are operating in Iraq in a wide variety of missions and exchanging fire with Iraqis every day, according to informal after-action reports

[leftchick]

19. how did I miss that article?

Thanks for the link. God, what a mess.

[leftchick]

20. Ack! Check this out...

omg. An article on one of the "contractors" killed. He didn't do it for the money. No siree! ......

http://tv.ksl.com/index.php?nid=5&sid=203499

<snip>

Brandon Thomas was killed while protecting dignitaries in Iraq Saturday morning. His convoy was attacked, leaving at least 22 people dead.

Carol Thomas Young, Brandon’ Mother: “He knew he was having a very big deal coming up.”

Carol Thomas Young just spoke to her son last night. Even though he was a member of the Utah National Guard's 19th Special Forces, Thomas was in Iraq working as a contracted security officer. He found out his unit wasn't going to be deployed, so he decided to deploy on his own, anything to help bring peace.

The necklace he gave his mother is a reminder of his mission.

Carol Thomas Young: “De oppresso libro, excuse me if I messed it up, but it means, ‘freedom to the oppressed.’”

It was something Thomas believed in with all his heart ever since seeing what happened in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania three years ago.

[saigon68]

23. I guess this Rustic Bought the ROVE BULLSHIT LINE

That Saddam attacked the TWIN TOWERS.

I WONDER IF HE WAS MAKING $2,000.00 A DAY?

[Roland99]

22. That article is a year old.

[saigon68]

24. I posted it to show these guys are a private army

Operating with NO RULES WHATSOEVER.

THEY EVEN HAVE THEIR OWN PRIVATE AIR FORCE (SUPPORTED BY THE US TAXPAYER)




There is very little current news on the MURDERS they commit

[Roland99]

25. Even more profits for the military-industrial complex while...

our soldiers are paid a mere pittance and their families suffer at home.

[ausiedownunderground]

15. Mercs or Intelligence people???

Does it really matter? Until you American's get off your arses nothing will change. It's your country doing the killing and being killed. The rest of the world is just looking on, doing business as usual. If America wants to "join" The Rest of the World, then it is very welcome, i suspect! But killing "us" is not a good start!

[thebigidea]

16. or in your PM's case, aiding and abetting

what's your government's excuse for supporting this madness?

[leftchick]

21. Update: "Bomb sandwich" kills 29 in Iraq

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002267316_iraq08.html

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Two car bombs targeted a contractors' convoy in central Baghdad yesterday just as a minibus carried away schoolchildren. Twenty-seven Iraqis and two Americans were killed, the U.S. military said.

Exact figures on the number of children from the nearby school killed in the incident were unavailable.

Officers with the U.S. 7th Cavalry's 3rd squadron and the Iraqi army described the coordinated attack as a "car-bomb sandwich." One bomber apparently pulled out from an alley near the school to attack the convoy's rear; and another crashed head-on into the front of the convoy.

Nearly 300 people have been killed in insurgent violence since Iraq's democratically elected government was sworn in 10 days ago.

[Zorra]

26. kick

[zanne]

27. Something I noticed lately while watching CNN...

Whenever they report on American casualties in Iraq, they immediately report how many "insurgents" we captured or killed that day.

[saigon68]

30. It is like Nam's Body Count

We killed 50 More "Rag Heads" than they did of our guys.

[meganmonkey]

28. May all of them rest in peace

Soldiers and Iraqi civilians alike.
How many is too many?

:cry:

[Zerex71]

29. The headline should read, "13 Non-Americans Dead In Baghdad Car Bombing"