"US abandons diplomacy as way to end Syria crisis; Increasing aid to rebels to oust Assad’s regime" by Eric Schmitt and Helene Cooper | New York Times, July 22, 2012
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration has for now abandoned efforts for a diplomatic settlement to the conflict in Syria and instead it is increasing aid to the rebels and redoubling efforts to rally a coalition of like-minded countries to forcibly bring down the government of President Bashar Assad, US officials say.
It is called REGIME CHANGE!
And here is the NOBEL PEACE PRIZE WINNER STARTING ANOTHER WAR!
Yeah, they SET ME OFF again this week!
Administration officials have been in talks with officials in Turkey and Israel over how to manage a Syrian government collapse. Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta is headed to Israel in the next several days to meet with Israeli defense counterparts, following up on a visit last week by President Obama’s national security adviser Thomas E. Donilon, to discuss, in part, the Syrian crisis.
Translation: The INVASION IS GOING TO HAPPEN!
The administration has been holding regular talks with Israel about how it might move to destroy Syrian weapons facilities, administration officials said. The administration is not advocating such an attack, the officials said, because of the risk that it would give Assad an opportunity to rally support against Israeli interference.
Related: Barak Orders Israeli Military to Prepare for Syria Invasion
The White House is now holding daily high-level meetings to discuss a broad range of contingency plans — including safeguarding Syria’s vast chemical weapons arsenal and sending explicit warnings to both warring sides to avert mass atrocities — in a sign of the escalating seriousness of the Syrian crisis....
Oh, it SMELLS SO like IRAQ!!!!!!!
Senior administration officials say the changes are in response to a series of setbacks at the UN Security Council, where Russia has staunchly refused to engineer the removal of Assad....
Yes, Russia won't sign on to regime change.
‘‘We’re looking at the controlled demolition of the Assad regime,’’ said Andrew J. Tabler, a Syria expert at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. ‘‘But like any controlled demolition, anything can go wrong.’’
Oh, IS THAT EVER an IN-YOUR-FACE FART with a LAUGH from the agenda-pushing Jewish war promoter.
**********************************
Russia and China on Thursday blocked tougher UN action in the Security Council.
Yes, and this is not going over well with the EUSraeli Empire.
This prompted Susan E. Rice, the US ambassador to the United Nations, to say that the Security Council had ‘‘utterly failed’’ Syria and to pledge that the United States will now work ‘‘with a diverse range of partners outside the Security Council’’ to pressure the Assad government [and] planning for the end of the Assad government, which administration officials insist will happen....
She sounds like a Bush neo-con.
Also see: Sunday Globe Special: AmeriKa Loses Mali
Are you sure Condoleezza didn't just change her name?
The escalating violence has so far sent as many as 125,000 people fleeing across Syria’s border into neighboring Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, and Iraq, according to the State Department.
Just what the world needs: ANOTHER REFUGEE CRISIS
US officials are expressing fears that the implosion of the government could lead to a breakup of Syria, with Assad’s minority Alawite sect retreating to coastal mountain redoubts still armed with their chemical weapons.
‘‘It’s an outcome that contains the seeds of a war that never ends,’’ said Robert Malley, Middle East and North Africa program director at the International Crisis Group.
And CUI BONO?
--more--"
Speaking of spillover:
"Lebanon’s Hezbollah target of protests" by Zeina Karam | Associated Press, July 20, 2012
SIDON, Lebanon — The growing popularity among some Sunnis of the previously little-known local hardline Sunni cleric Sheik Ahmad Assir is a sign of how vulnerable Hezbollah has become as it faces the possibility of the downfall of its crucial ally, President Bashar Assad in Syria.
Its reputation as a popular resistance movement has already taken a severe beating for siding with Syria against the anti-Assad uprising after it backed Arab revolts in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, and Bahrain.
‘‘This is the start of what will become Lebanon’s Tahrir Square,’’ Assir, wearing a long robe and white skullcap, said at his protest site, where some 150 Sunni conservative supporters have been camped out for three weeks....
Assad’s fall would be a nightmare for Hezbollah. Any Sunni-led new regime would likely be less friendly to the group, or even hostile. Regime change could cut off a major supply route for Hezbollah’s arms, heavily damage its political clout in Lebanon, and knock out a third of the ‘‘Iran-Syria-Hezbollah’’ axis of ‘‘resistance’’ to Israel....
In the face of the Syrian crisis, Hezbollah has treaded carefully to retain the power it has built up during the past 30 years in Lebanon, a deeply divided country where its strength is resented by Sunnis and some in the Christian community.
The group’s main strategy for doing so appears to be to avoid aggravating the fault line between the Sunni and Shi’ite communities, which each make up about a third of Lebanon’s population of 4 million.
Sorry, I'm no longer buying the intelligence agency driven Zionist propaganda.
Regional shifts also weigh on Hezbollah. The Arab Spring in the Middle East has so far led to the rise of conservative Sunni Islamists deeply resentful of Shi’ite power Iran and its allies Syria and Hezbollah....
Looking more and more like those uprising and coups have been manipulated by the global chess masters.
--more--"
My cup runneth over with BG bulls***:
"Syrian rebels bring war to commercial hub" by Zeina Karam | Associated Press, July 22, 2012
BEIRUT — A wave of momentum....
The rebels took over a third border crossing....
The rebels have put the regime on the defensive....
The coming days will be crucial to determining whether the regime can recover from the blows, which have punctured the sense that Assad’s hold on the country is impenetrable....
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius warned Assad to prepare to leave....
--more--"
"Clashes continue throughout Damascus" New York Times, July 18, 2012
BEIRUT — There was also new evidence, reported by Israel’s intelligence chief, that President Bashar Assad was moving troops into Damascus from Syria’s border with the disputed Golan Heights territory held by Israel, a possible indication of the seriousness of the fighting that was roiling neighborhoods at the president’s doorstep....
In Jerusalem, Major General Aviv Kochavi, Israel’s military intelligence chief, told a parliamentary committee the Syrian government had withdrawn forces from the Golan Heights to redeploy them in Damascus. He did not give more specifics.
Satellite images show that Assad is directing artillery at highly populated regions and, Kovachi said, acting ‘‘extremely brutally, which displays their desperation and indicates they are unable to find more efficient solutions to pacify the uprisings.’’
Handling them like you handle Palestinians, 'eh?
**************************
Elias Hanna, a retired Lebanese officer and military analyst, said the fighting in Damascus was important for three reasons: Control there is the main pillar of the Assad regime; attacking in the capital indicates the rebels have improved their abilities; and the task of maintaining calm there will tie down a lot of elite troops that the regime has used to try to crush the uprising throughout Syria.
‘‘Damascus is a symbol, it is the center of gravity of the Syrian regime, so this has psychological, moral, military, and political consequences,’’ Hanna said. ‘‘This is a war of attrition. The Free Syrian Army has a hit-and-run strategy — this is urban warfare. It favors the rebel forces and not the conventional forces.’’
Who wins when it is fighting for a paycheck as opposed to homes and families?
But Hanna was also dismissive of assertions that this was any kind of endgame, saying that the rebels would have to control much more territory and be able to make direct assaults on key institutions....
From what I gather, they are controlling it.
--more--"
"Deadly blast strikes at heart of Bashar Assad’s inner circle" by Dalal Mawad and Neil MacFarquhar | New York Times, July 19, 2012
BEIRUT — In Washington, Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta said Syria ‘‘is rapidly spinning out of control,’’ and warned the government to safeguard its large stockpile of chemical weapons....
The idea that a poorly organized, lightly armed opposition force could reach deep into the inner sanctum raised fresh questions about the viability of a once unassailable police state....
Assad's whereabouts were not immediately clear....
He's on the run like Hussein and Khadafy.
The government moved rapidly to project an image of control....
They are all the same.
--more--"
"Syria rebels gain ground in Damascus fighting; Crossing points to Iraq captured; Government attacks intensify" by Neil MacFarquhar | New York Times, July 20, 2012
BEIRUT — Syrian rebel fighters, exploiting the psychological momentum gained by their brazen assassination of three top officials, chipped away at the regime’s control Thursday by intensified fighting on various fronts in Damascus and across Syria.
Among other small signs in the continuing deterioration of government rule, the rebels claimed to control a small section of Damascus for the first time after intense street fighting there and also to have captured border crossing points leading to Iraq.
The bombing attack, close to President Bashar Assad’s own residence, called into question the ability of a government that depends on an insular group of loyalists to function effectively as it battles a strengthening opposition....
Iraqi government officials said Thursday evening that Syrian rebels had wrested control of all four border checkpoints between Iraq and Syria, and that additional Iraqi forces were being sent to the border.
One top government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that the border crossings, in Anbar and Nineveh provinces, were closed and that Iraqi border forces had witnessed the executions of several Syrian army soldiers at the hands of the Free Syrian Army rebels and the raising of the rebels’ flag.
The fightin' for democracy and freedom rebels did that?
The acting minister of interior, Adnan al-Assadi, was quoted by Agence France-Presse as saying that Iraqi forces had witnessed the executions of 22 Syrian soldiers....
--more--"
"Assad’s grip on power suddenly looking uncertain; After bombing, his circle unravels" by Elizabeth A. Kennedy | Associated Press, July 21, 2012
BEIRUT — Although the government still has the firepower to hang on — possibly for months or more — the future is bleak....
Oh, readers, I can't stand this Jewish war shit anymore.
The opposition, which is fractious and lacks any real central command, has no hope of pacifying the country. There is no clear candidate to step in and lead should Assad go. And the violence has become far more unstable than many had ever imagined, with Al Qaeda and other extremists joining the ranks of those fighting to topple the regime.
Excuse me.
Despite the rebel gains, the battle for Syria is not over yet. Although the rebels appear more powerful than at any stage of the uprising, their small-caliber weapons and rampant disorganization will make it all but impossible to defeat the regime in direct battle.
And yet the tone is markedly different in most of my daily propaganda.
--more--"
"UN approves extension of mission to Syria; Monitors will get 30 days to make Annan plan work" by Rick Gladstone | New York Times, July 21, 2012
Russia and China have consistently opposed invoking Chapter 7 of the UN Charter, which can also authorize military intervention to enforce the council’s will, as an unwarranted intrusion into Syria’s domestic affairs.
Because they got burned in Libya.
Western diplomats expressed outrage at the veto and accused Russia and China of protecting Assad despite his government’s record of brutality.
The way the U.S. protects Israel?
The Russians and Chinese countered that acts of brutality have been committed by both sides.
Actually, MORE by the AmeriKan-supported insurgents.
Russia’s UN ambassador, Vitaly I. Churkin, further accused Western nations of concealing what he called their true motive: deposing Assad in order to deprive Iran of its only remaining Middle East ally.
Yup, it is ALL PART of the PLAN!
The council’s unanimity Friday barely masked Western anger from the veto 24 hours earlier. Susan E. Rice, the US ambassador, said the council’s decision to extend the mission for 30 days ‘‘was not the resolution the United States had hoped to adopt in the first instance.’’
Rather than emphasizing the monitoring mission’s extension as a final opportunity for Annan’s plan, Rice described it as a way to allow the monitors ‘‘to withdraw safely.’’ Her description did not sit well with Churkin.
But there was no sign that the antagonists in Syria were interested in accepting Annan’s plan. Iraq was reported to have thrown up blast walls to seal its main border crossing with Syria, Abu Kamal, after rebel forces took control of all four crossings into Iraq and one into Turkey a day earlier.
--more--"
Related: Syria forces recapture key areas across the country from rebels
Syrian Army Restores Security in Capital
Large number of terrorists killed or arrested in Damascus, heavy losses inflicted upon terrorists in Homs and Idleb
The Syrian Conflict is Not Sectarian
Syria Roulette
The Lies We Tell: US aid to Syrian terrorists is flowing
NATO Death Squads Attempt to Ethnically Divide Syria
US Prepares For Direct Intervention in Syria
We must:
"At Syrian refugee camp, the wait seems endless" by Liz Sly | Washington Post, July 18, 2012
KILIS, Turkey — In a camp of converted shipping containers surrounded by a barbed-wire fence, 11,500 Syrians spend their days waiting and wondering when they might be able to go home. Most of them fled for their lives in an instant, never imagining their exile would last so long.
‘‘I didn’t bring anything. Just my children and the clothes I am wearing,’’ said Walid Hassan, 50, who ran under fire into Turkey from the northern town of Jisr al-Shughour in May 2011. ‘‘We thought the regime would fall quickly. We thought we would be here a month at the most.’’
More than a year later, Hassan and his family are still in Turkey, among more than 112,000 Syrian refugees who have sought sanctuary in neighboring countries, including Lebanon, Jordan, and Iraq....
The camp, which hugs the Turkish border outside the small Turkish town of Kilis, offers a small window into the horrors that have befallen Syria since the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad’s rule erupted 16 months ago. It is close enough to Syria to hear the booms of artillery fire there; too far for its inhabitants to feel at home.
Everyone here has lost someone or something — a father, a brother, a son, or a spouse; a house, a business, a limb.
‘‘He killed my friends,’’ said Jenna, 5, as she played outside her family’s metal container-like home.
‘‘Bashar,’’ she said when asked whom she meant, spitting out the name of Syria’s president.
‘‘He took away my school,’’ interjected her friend Nadeera, 7....
A man walked by who said he had lost his teeth, all of them, under torture. He described how he was shocked with an electric wire and beaten by his jailers during the five months he spent in prison last year....
Being a citizen of the greatest torturer on the face of the planet, I feel unqualified to comment. In fact, we even sent terror suspects to Syria to be tortured.
--more--"
USrael will liberate them!
NEXT DAY UPDATES:
"Rebels’ offensive in Syria’s largest city spreads; But the regime is making gains inside Damascus" by Neil MacFarquhar | New York Times, July 23, 2012
BEIRUT — While the fighting appeared to be spreading in Aleppo, skirmishes in Damascus dwindled on Sunday as large numbers of government troops were deployed to shut down the rebels in one neighborhood after another where they had gained footholds last week....
So the blogs were right, the rebels are retreating, and the AmeriKan media spin continues:
Syrian government television sought to portray life in the capital as returning to normal, highlighting video from the Midan area, a battleground last week, where cleanup crews are seen wielding brooms and happy citizens are heard declaring that the neighborhood bakery was selling bread again on Sunday morning.
Another report by Syrian state television featured interviews with people from a neighborhood where it said citizens had asked the army to intervene. The interviewees were seen thanking God that they no longer had to ‘‘live in fear,’’ now that the terrorists — the government’s usual term for its opponents — had been chased away and ‘‘security restored.’’
The lengthy state television report said the Syrian Army was winning the battle on many fronts, including Damascus, Hama, Homs, and other cities, because of the army’s ‘‘long experience confronting terrorism and imperialism.’’
I believe they are if for no other reason than my newspaper is a pos Jewish war organ.
******************************************
In Aleppo, the opposition fighters seemed to be using momentum gained in the last week to spread the fight into new districts of the city.
A report on state television purported to show traffic circulating normally and claimed that foreign satellite channels were spreading false rumors about fierce clashes in the city.
That I believe.
But a video from opposition activists seemed to show a column of tanks moving into one Aleppo neighborhood and spraying machine-gun fire into alleyways and apartment houses as they passed.
That I don't believe.
Neither version of events could be confirmed.
The clashes that started in earnest on Friday were the first sustained fighting to occur in Aleppo, the largest city in Syria and the country’s main commercial center, which had been a bastion of support for Assad since the uprising against his rule began in March 2011.
The push into Aleppo follows weeks of high-level military defections, soaring death tolls, fierce fighting near Assad’s seat of power, and the bomb blast that killed four top players in his regime’s efforts to crush the uprising. Rebels also captured several border crossings with neighboring Iraq and Turkey.
Yup, "we" are winning.
--more--"
Related(?): Boston University graduate student found dead in Turkey from apparent fall
More spillover:
"18 killed in Sunni towns in Iraq; Link to Syrian fighting feared" Associated Press, July 23, 2012
BAGHDAD — Bombs struck two Sunni towns at sundown Sunday just as Iraqis were preparing to break their holy day’s fast, killing 18 and wounding more than 50, officials said. Two earlier bomb blasts killed a police officer and wounded dozens of people.
The bomb attacks showed that deadly violence is still common in Iraq and in some places even worsening, seven months after the United States pulled its last troops out of the country.
Most of the bombings have borne the hallmarks of Sunni Muslim insurgents linked to Al Qaeda....
Oh, excuse me for a minute.
The two latest bombings, however, struck predominantly Sunni towns.
So far, Shi’ite militants have resisted striking back at Sunnis. It was not immediately clear if the Sunday bombings were retaliation for earlier attacks, but residents in the stricken areas raised fears of renewed sectarian conflict....
Related: Occupation Iraq: Divide and Conquer
It's a "CIA-Duh" operation!
Syria’s bloody 17-month civil war between Sunni rebels and the regime of President Bashar Assad, a member of a Shi’ite offshoot sect, has reached the Syrian-Iraq border over the last few days.
Yup.
--more--"
"93 killed in Iraq’s deadliest day this year" by Bushra Juhi and Sinan Salaheddin | Associated Press, July 23, 2012
BAGHDAD — An onslaught of bombings and shootings killed 93 people across Iraq on Monday, officials said, in the nation’s deadliest day so far this year.
The attacks come days after the leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq declared a new offensive and warned in a statement that the militant group is reorganizing in areas from which it retreated before US troops left the country last December.
Al Qaeda has been seeking to re-assert its might in the security vacuum left by the departing Americans, seizing on Baghdad’s fragmented government and the surge of Sunni rebels in neighboring Syria to sow instability across Iraq.
US and Iraqi officials insist that the terror network’s Iraqi wing, known as the Islamic State of Iraq, is nowhere as strong as it was when the nation threatened to fall into civil war between 2006 and 2008, and the Iraqi government is better established.
Still, the huge death toll Monday and an almost-daily drumbeat of killings last month show Al Qaeda remains fully capable of creating chaos in the foreseeable future.
Monday’s violence in 13 Iraqi cities and towns appeared coordinated: The blasts all took place within a few hours of each other. They struck mostly at security forces and government offices — two of Al Qaeda’s favorite targets in Iraq.
‘‘It was a thunderous explosion,’’ said Mohammed Munim, 35, who was working at an Interior Ministry office that issues government ID cards to residents in Baghdad’s Shiite Sadr City neighborhood when a car exploded outside. Sixteen people were killed in the single attack.
‘‘The only thing I remember was the smoke and fire, which was everywhere, said Munim from his bed in the emergency room at Sadr City hospital. He was hit by shrapnel in his neck and back.
The worst attack happened in the town of Taji, about 12 miles north of the capital.
Police said bombs planted around five houses in the Sunni town exploded an hour after dawn, followed by a suicide bomber who detonated his explosives belt in the crowd of police who rushed to help. In all, 41 people were killed, police said.
And in a brazen attack on Iraq’s military, three carloads of gunmen pulled up at an army base near the northeast town of town of Udaim and started firing at forces. Thirteen soldiers were killed, and the gunmen escaped before they could be caught, two senior police officials said.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information.
The overall toll made Monday the deadliest day in Iraq since US troops left in mid-December. Before Monday, the deadliest day was Jan. 5, when a wave of bombings targeting Shiites killed 78 people in Baghdad and outside the southern city of Nasiriyah.
Last weekend, the leader of Al Qaeda’s affiliate in Iraq warned that the militant network is returning to strongholds from which it was driven from while the American military was here.
‘‘The majority of the Sunnis in Iraq support Al Qaeda and are waiting for its return,’’ Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, head of the Islamic State of Iraq since 2010, said in the statement that was posted on a militant website.
Didn't the U.S. already kill that guy in a drone strike?
Related:
"Killing Abu Omar al-Baghdadi is a real trick when you consider that this article claims he was arrested (after being reported killed) back in 2009, and this article admits Abu Omar al-Baghdadi is just a made up fictional creation!"
"The US military has even said Baghdadi could be a fictitious character"
They just changed the first name, didn't they?
Also see: When Seeing and Hearing Isn't Believing
Related: SITE First on the Scene -- Again!
SITE First on "Al-CIA-Duh" Sighting Again
Enough said.
Previous Al Qaeda offensives have failed to push the country into civil war, largely because Shiite militias in recent years have refused to join in with the kind of tit-for-tat killings that marked Iraq’s descent six years ago.
Translation: The IRAQI PEOPLE KNOW what WE KNOW and they are NOT TAKING the BAIT!
Additionally, for all its weaknesses, the Iraqi government now holds more authority than it did during those dark years, and, by and large, citizens have no desire to return down that path.
Yes, it is amazing how REGULAR PEOPLE the WORLD OVER NEVER WANT WAR!
Still, the militant group appears to be banking on Iraq’s fragility in its campaign to throw it into permanent chaos.
And CUI BONO?
Sectarian tensions have risen due to a political crisis stemming from terror charges the Shiite-led government has filed against one of the country’s vice presidents, who is one of Iraq’s top Sunni officials. He says they are politically inspired.
Related: Hashimi in Hiding
Militant websites appeared to be closely monitoring Monday’s attacks, which were hailed by several self-proclaimed jihadists who praised the plan of destruction that al-Baghdadi’s statement called ‘‘Breaking the Walls.’’
‘‘Explosions rock Iraq ...The Breaking the Walls plan has come,’’ one poster wrote.
--more--"
Now the death toll is over 100.
BAGHDAD (AP) — Bombings and shootings ripped across Iraq on Monday, killing at least 103 people in the deadliest day this year. The coordinated attacks in 13 cities sent a chilling warning that al-Qaida is slowly resurging in the security vacuum created by a weak government in Baghdad and the departure of the U.S. military seven months ago.
Though there was no immediate claim of responsibility, the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq declared on Sunday a new offensive aimed at sowing instability across the country.
Iraqi militants have kept up a steady drumbeat of deadly attacks since the U.S. pulled out in December, ending nearly a decade of war. They have sought to deepen the chaos created by the deepening sectarian political crisis that pits Sunni and Kurdish leaders against Shiite political powers. The latest violence bore most of the hallmarks of al-Qaida: the bombings and shootings all took place within a few hours of each other and struck mostly at security forces and government offices — favorite targets of the predominantly Sunni militants.
‘‘Al-Qaida is trying to send a message that it is still strong and can choose the time and places to attack,’’ said Shiite lawmaker Hakim al-Zamili, a member of parliament’s security and defense committee, said Monday. He said weaknesses in Iraq’s ability to gather intelligence about terror plots, or stop them despite security checkpoints has shown how toothless the government is in protecting its people.
Better invite the Americans back in, right?
Al-Zamili also raised the specter of al-Qaida infiltrating security forces. If these gaps are not closed quickly, he said, ‘‘the attacks and explosions will continue and al-Qaida will be stronger.’’
Like the Taliban in Afghanistan?
Nearly 200 people were wounded during the onslaught. Spokesmen for Iraq’s government and Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki could not be immediately reached for comment.
Al-Qaida for years has been seeking to re-assert its might, although U.S. and Iraqi officials insist it is nowhere as strong as it was when the nation came to the brink of civil war between 2006-2008. But the militant group’s local wing — known as the Islamic State of Iraq — is now seizing on the vacuum left by the Americans, Baghdad’s fragmented government and the surge of Sunni rebels in neighboring Syria to regain strength.
Syria’s uprising is dominated by the country’s Sunni majority against the country’s Alawite rulers. The Alawites are an offshoot of Shiite Islam.
Last weekend, the leader of al-Qaida’s affiliate in Iraq warned that the militant network is returning to strongholds from which it was driven from while the American military was here.
‘‘The majority of the Sunnis in Iraq support al-Qaida and are waiting for its return,’’ Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, head of the Islamic State of Iraq since 2010, said in the statement that was posted on a militant website.
Previous al-Qaida offensives have failed to push the country into civil war, largely because Shiite militias in recent years have refused to join in with the kind of tit-for-tat killings that marked Iraq’s descent six years ago. Additionally, for all its weaknesses, the Iraqi government now holds more authority than it did during those dark years, and, by and large, citizens have no desire to return down that path.
Still, the militant group appears to be banking on Iraq’s fragility in its campaign to throw it into permanent chaos. Sectarian tensions have risen due to a political crisis stemming from terror charges the Shiite-led government has filed against one of the country’s vice presidents, who is one of Iraq’s top Sunni officials. He says they are politically inspired.
Mohammed Munim, 35 who was working at an Interior Ministry office that issues government ID cards to residents in Baghdad’s Shiite Sadr City neighborhood when a car exploded outside. Sixteen people were killed in the single attack, and a police colonel died in a Sunni neighborhood in Baghdad by a bomb hidden on his car.
‘‘It was a thunderous explosion,’’ Munim said from his bed in the emergency room at Sadr City hospital. He was hit by shrapnel in his neck and back. ‘‘The only thing I remember was the smoke and fire, which was everywhere.’’
The worst attack was in the town of Taji, about 12 miles north of the capital. Police said bombs planted around five houses in the Sunni town exploded an hour after dawn, followed by a suicide bomber who detonated his explosives belt in the crowd of police who rushed to help. In all, 41 people were killed, police said.
And in a brazen attack on Iraq’s military, three carloads of gunmen pulled up at an army base near the northeast town of town of Udaim and started firing at forces. Thirteen soldiers were killed, and the gunmen escaped before they could be caught, two senior police officials said.
Most of the cities and towns pounded by bombs are located in Sunni-dominated areas that nonetheless include sizable pockets of ethnically- and religiously-mixed populations.
In the Baghdad suburb of Hussainiya, a car exploded near a construction site, killing two, police said. Farther north, bombs planted in five towns around Kirkuk and in the oil-rich city itself, killed nine, officials said. And at least four attacks in the northern city of Mosul — a former al-Qaida stronghold — left 10 people dead from bombings and shootings, police said. All of the casualties were confirmed by police and health officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information.
In northeastern Diyala province, police spokesman Maj. Ghalib al-Karkhi said exploding cars, roadside bombs and a drive-by shooting at a security checkpoint killed 11.
The overall toll made Monday the deadliest day in Iraq since U.S. troops left in mid-December. Before Monday, the deadliest day was Jan. 5, when a wave of bombings targeting Shiites killed 78 people in Baghdad and outside the southern city of Nasiriyah.
Related: Sectarianism Splitting Iraq
So we are told by the Zionist war promoter.
Militant websites appeared to be closely monitoring Monday’s attacks, which were hailed by several self-proclaimed jihadists who praised the plan of destruction that al-Baghdadi’s statement called ‘‘Breaking the Walls.’’
‘‘Explosions rock Iraq ...The Breaking the Walls plan has come,’’ one poster wrote."
