Iraqi officials: Truck bombings killed at least 500

[Ilsa]

Source: CNN Online and TV

Iraqi officials: Truck bombings killed at least 500

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- The death toll in the suicide bombings Tuesday in northern Iraq has risen to at least 500, local officials in Nineveh province said Wednesday.

SNIP

The Tuesday truck bombs that targeted the villages of Qahtaniya, al-Jazeera and Tal Uzair, in northern Iraq near the border with Syria, were a "trademark al Qaeda event" designed to sway U.S. public opinion against the war, a U.S. general said Wednesday.

The attacks, targeting Kurdish villages of the Yazidi religious minority, were attempts to "break the will" of the American people and show that the U.S. troop escalation -- the "surge" -- is failing, Maj. Gen. Benjamin Mixon said.

The bombings highlight the kind of sectarian tensions the troop surge was designed to stop.

Al Qaeda in Iraq is predominantly Sunni, and Mixon said members of the Yazidi religious minority have received threatening letters, called "night letters," telling them "to leave because they are infidels."
SNIP



Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/08/15/iraq.main/index.html

---

Yesterday some general thought the death count would go down. Uh-huh.

And Bush goes merrily on, ready to pass this off to someone else.

[thereismore]

1. Can't they leave Kurds alone, they have been very peaceful. Kurdistan has

not been a failed state like the rest of Iraq. So sad, so heart wrenching.

[global1]

2. Al Qaeda In Iraq Is Predominantly Sunni.........

this according to Mixon. I'm thinking this is a 'civil war' between Iraqi sects/factions - why are they trying to spin this that it is 'Al Qaeda' that is the problem? Is all of Al Qaeda Sunni? Are all Sunni's Al Qaeda? or again are they just trying to make it look like this is terrorist in nature by bringing up Al Qaeda?

[krkaufman]

17. They spin it as their argument requires.

If they admit that it was sectarian, then it illustrates that we're in the middle of a civil war -- at which point they'd have to answer which side we're backing, which they cannot do.

[SpiralHawk]

3. "Um, ah, too bad and stuff." - Commander AWOL

"I mean, we republicons really care about all the dead people and stuff, but ya gotta look for the silver lining, and -- well, dog-gone it -- it turns out that today is also a lovely day to be on vacation and stuff."

- Commander AWOL

[saigon68]

21. Hey at least the fishing is good

[sutz12]

4. Nice of us to referee while the various Iraqi sects engage in their ethnic cleansing...

Don't you think?.

I wonder who Shrub will bestow the next Medal of Freedom on for this one?

:sarcasm:

[starroute]

10. The Yazidi are worshippers of the Peacock Angel

Although ethnically Kurdish, the Yazidi have a unique and non-Islamic faith and are considered devil-worshippers by many Muslims.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yazidi

The origins of Yazidism are ultimately shrouded in Middle Eastern prehistory. Although the Yazidis speak Kurdish, their religion shows strong influence from archaic Levantine and Islamic religions. . . . The religion of the Yazidis is a highly syncretistic one: Sufi influence and imagery can be seen in their religious vocabulary, especially in the terminology of their esoteric literature, but much of the mythology is non-Islamic, and their cosmogonies apparently have many points in common with those of ancient Persian religions. . . .

In the Yazidi worldview, God created the world, which is now in the care of a Heptad of seven Holy Beings, often known as Angels or heft sirr (the Seven Mysteries). Pre-eminent among these is Melek Taus (Tawûsê Melek in Kurdish), the Peacock Angel, who is equated with Satan or Devil by some Muslims. . . . Yazidis believe that Melek Ta’us is not a source of evil or wickedness. They consider him as the leader of the archangels, not a fallen angel, and therefore also comparable to the Christians' St. Michael, who is likewise considered the leader of the "seven who stand before the Lord" and of all other good angels. Also they say that the source of evil is in the heart and spirit of humans themselves, not in Melek Ta’us. . . .

Two key and interrelated features of Yazidism are: a) a preoccupation with religious purity and b) a belief in metempsychosis. The first of these is expressed in the system of caste, the food laws, the traditional preferences for living in Yazidi communities, and the variety of taboos governing many aspects of life. The second is crucial; Yazidis traditionally believe that the Seven Holy Beings are periodically reincarnated in human form, called a koasasa. . . . Auditory resemblance may lie behind the taboo against eating lettuce, whose name koas resembles Kurdish pronunciations of koasasa. . . .

Yazidi are exclusive; clans do not intermarry even with other Kurds and accept no converts. They claim that they are descended only from Adam. The strongest punishment is expulsion, which is also effectively excommunication because the soul of the exiled is forfeit. . . . In her memoir of her service in an intelligence unit of the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division in Iraq during 2003 and 2004, Kayla Williams (2005) records being stationed in northern Iraq near the Syrian border in an area inhabited by "Yezidis". The Yezidis were Kurdish-speaking, but did not consider themselves Kurds, and expressed to Williams a fondness for America and Israel.

[endarkenment]

5. This blood is on our hands.

We can squirm and equivocate and play the blame game, but every Iraqi dead from the violence we unleashed is the result of our criminal invasion and occupation of Iraq.

[truthisfreedom]

6. Excuse me, General Mixon, sir, nothing personal, but hasn't the surge

already failed?

[Newsjock]

7. Wait! I think we've already seen this movie

The attacks, targeting Kurdish villages of the Yazidi religious minority, were attempts to "break the will" of the American people and show that the U.S. troop escalation -- the "surge" -- is failing, Maj. Gen. Benjamin Mixon said.

INTERVIEWER
Do you think that the government is winning the battle against terrorists?
HELPMANN
Oh yes. Our morale is much higher than theirs, we're fielding all their strokes, running a lot of them out, and pretty consistently knocking them for six. I'd say they're nearly out of the game.
INTERVIEWER
But the bombing campaign is now in its thirteenth year.
HELPMANN
Beginner's luck.

[Xipe Totec]

8. It's always about us - they did it to make us look bad

what a narcissistic asshole.

[WCGreen]

9. Isn't that about how many Kurds were killed by Saddam...

Isn't that why we had him tried and executed...

For killing Kurds...

I am at a real loss about all this so-called terrorist attacks...

It makes me ill that we have to talk about innocent people getting slaughtered...

[rhett o rick]

11. This means we are winning in Bushspeak. The enemy (who ever that is) is

getting desperate.

[jkoehler]

12. News flash!

were a "trademark al Qaeda event" designed to sway U.S. public opinion against the war, a U.S. general said Wednesday

Here's a news flash for the U.S. general and anyone else who has been out of touch with reality for the past two or three years:

U.S. public opinion is already against the war and has been for a long time!!!

[maxsolomon]

13. it clearly DOES show that the surge is failing.

the insurgency/al queda/whoever staged a MULTIPLE bomb operation FAR from their base facilities in kurdish territory, and killed 500 innocents.

and i'd like to add, FUCK you, not-infidel mulsim bombers. i'm pretty fucking proud to be an infidel.

[varun]

14. None of the right wing sites are reporting this

in fact, most are quoting some military general who is speculating that this is false reporting...

:eyes:

[ohio2007]

15. When traces of Iranian explosives are discovered as the source of the blast

then maybe they will connect the dots ?

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/15/world/middleeast/15diplo.html?ei=5065&en=a2ff8e7f7b47bd5c&ex=1187841600&partner=MYWAY&pagewanted=print



http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=2954028&mesg_id=2954028



http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=874_1186939632

[tabasco]

16. Tommy Franks gave 'em all the explosives they will need for several more years.

But if you're itchin' to invade Iran ...I say ...LEAD THE WAY Ohio2007!!


www.goarmy.com

[rodeodance]

18. Iraq government: Death toll in northern Iraq at more than 400

Source: cnn


Iraq government: Death toll in northern Iraq at more than 400

BAGHDAD (CNN) --The Iraqi government says the death toll in Tuesday's suicide truck bombing attacks in northern Iraq stands at more than 400 but the toll is expected to rise.

Brig. General Abdul Karim Khalaf, Ministry of Interior spokesman, told CNN on Thursday that 300 others were wounded in the series of attacks in Yazidi villages in Nineveh province -- the bloodiest single attack of the Iraq war.

This latest figure was reported a day after local officials said that more than 500 have been killed.

.........

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/08/16/thursday/index.html

[leftyladyfrommo]

19. So much for the surge. This is awful. And unwinnable.

We simply don't have enough soldiers to keep Iraq stable. Our forces get one area settled down and another area blows up - literally.

So many people dead and injured and displaced. And for what? Absolutely nothing.

[ohio2007]

20. Iraqi's need to take the lead in secuing their country

http://66.111.34.180/look/english/article.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=4&NrArticle=52826&NrIssue=2&NrSection=1

being a crutch for them to lean on isn't the way we should fight this skirmish on thier border. They need to stand on their own,this is a good enough trial to test their resolve.