Civil war spreads across Iraq as bomb at Shia mosque kills 59
A civil war between Sunni and Shia Muslims is spreading rapidly through central Iraq, with each community seeking revenge for the latest massacre. Yesterday a suicide bomber driving a van packed with explosives blew himself up outside the golden-domed mosque in Kufa, killing at least 59 and injuring more than 130 Shia.
In the past 10 days, while the world has been absorbed by the war in Lebanon, sectarian massacres have started to take place on an almost daily basis, leading observers to fear a level of killing approaching that of Rwanda immediately before the genocide of 1994. On a single spot on the west bank of the Tigris river in north Baghdad, between 10 and 12 bodies have been drifting ashore every day.
In Kufa, a city on the Euphrates 90 miles south of Baghdad, the suicide bomber drove his vehicle into a dusty square 100 yards from a Shia shrine at 7.30am. He knew that poor day-labourers gathered there looking for work. He reportedly said: “I need labourers” and they climbed into his van, which exploded a few moments later, killing them and other workers near by. “Four of my cousins were killed,” said Nasir Feisal, who survived the blast. “They were standing beside the van. Their bodies were scattered far apart by the blast.”
The severe escalation in sectarian killings started nine days ago when black-clad Shia militiamen sealed off the largely Sunni al-Jihad district in west Baghdad and slaughtered every Sunni they identified, killing more than 40 of them after glancing at their identity cards. Since then there has been a tit-for-tat massacre almost every day.
independent.co.uk
nytimes.com
…The American energy secretary, Samuel W. Bodman, who met with Iraq’s oil and electricity ministers in Baghdad, had a rosy view of progress here since his last visit in 2003.
‘The situation seems far more stable than when I was here two or three years ago,’ he said in an interview in the fortified Green Zone. ‘The security seems better, people are more relaxed. There is an optimism, at least among the people I talked to.’
Turkey Announces Readiness for Iraq
Turkish officials announced today that their country is now fully prepared to go into Iraq, if American, as well as Iraqi, forces do not combat Turkish Kurdish guerilla troops in the area. However, many analysts have stated that such a political and military move would force Turkey to be at odds with the United States.
This decision comes amid growing pressure placed on Turkey to act according to the critical situation currently unfolding, after 15 soldiers, police officers and guards, had been killed in armed clashed with Kurdish guerilla troops in the southeastern part of Turkey in the past week.