Thunderous explosions rocked Baghdad Monday, killing at least 80 people on the first anniversary of the bombing of the Shiite Golden Dome shrine in Samarra.
Smoke billows from buildings after a double car bomb attack in central Baghdad, Iraq, Monday, Feb. 12, 2007. (AP / Khalid Mohammed )
Three parked car bombs exploded within seconds of each other, targeting two buildings and a marketplace in the Shorja market district. One of the cars was parked in an underground garage in the largely Shiite neighbourhood.
The blasts killing at least 71 people. Ambulances and pickup trucks rushed at least 165 wounded people to a nearby hospital.
Monday's market blast occurred just 30 minutes after a suicide bomber detonated an explosive-filled vest in a crowd near a falafel restaurant in the Bab al-Sharqi area, near Shorja.
That bomb killed at least nine and wounded 19, said police.
Golden Dome shrine
The incidents coincided with a 15-minute commemoration for the bombing of the Shiite Golden Dome shrine in Samarra last year.
The anniversary, according to the Muslim lunar calendar, marks the attack on Feb. 22, 2006.
"The explosion of the holy shrine pushed the country into blind violence, in which tens of thousands of innocents were killed," Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's top Shiite cleric, said in a statement issued Monday before the bombings. "No one knows by Allah when this tragedy will be over."
Al-Sistani urged the Iraqi government to rebuild the shrine. He also called for restraint.
"We call on the believers to express their emotions but to be cautious and act disciplined, and not to do anything to hurt our brothers the Sunnis, as they are not responsible for this awful crime," he said.
Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said Monday that the shrine bombing was "a crime against humanity and Islam together."
"This horrible crime drives us to toward more solidarity and brotherhood," Talabani said in a speech in Baghdad.
"We will stay with you until we accomplish a secured, democratic, federal and stable Iraq away from the darkness of terrorism, dictatorship."
The bombing is widely viewed as having fuelled an upsurge in sectarian violence throughout Baghdad and much of central Iraq.
According to the United Nations, 34,452 civilians were killed in Iraq in 2006.
With files from The Associated Press
CTV.ca News Staff
Smoke billows from buildings after a double car bomb attack in central Baghdad, Iraq, Monday, Feb. 12, 2007. (AP / Khalid Mohammed )
Three parked car bombs exploded within seconds of each other, targeting two buildings and a marketplace in the Shorja market district. One of the cars was parked in an underground garage in the largely Shiite neighbourhood. The blasts killing at least 71 people. Ambulances and pickup trucks rushed at least 165 wounded people to a nearby hospital.
Monday's market blast occurred just 30 minutes after a suicide bomber detonated an explosive-filled vest in a crowd near a falafel restaurant in the Bab al-Sharqi area, near Shorja.
That bomb killed at least nine and wounded 19, said police.
Golden Dome shrine
The incidents coincided with a 15-minute commemoration for the bombing of the Shiite Golden Dome shrine in Samarra last year.
The anniversary, according to the Muslim lunar calendar, marks the attack on Feb. 22, 2006.
"The explosion of the holy shrine pushed the country into blind violence, in which tens of thousands of innocents were killed," Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's top Shiite cleric, said in a statement issued Monday before the bombings. "No one knows by Allah when this tragedy will be over."
Al-Sistani urged the Iraqi government to rebuild the shrine. He also called for restraint.
"We call on the believers to express their emotions but to be cautious and act disciplined, and not to do anything to hurt our brothers the Sunnis, as they are not responsible for this awful crime," he said.
Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said Monday that the shrine bombing was "a crime against humanity and Islam together."
"This horrible crime drives us to toward more solidarity and brotherhood," Talabani said in a speech in Baghdad.
"We will stay with you until we accomplish a secured, democratic, federal and stable Iraq away from the darkness of terrorism, dictatorship."
The bombing is widely viewed as having fuelled an upsurge in sectarian violence throughout Baghdad and much of central Iraq.
According to the United Nations, 34,452 civilians were killed in Iraq in 2006.
With files from The Associated Press
This is what GWB has brought to Iraq and they hung the asshole who had the country under control.:tard:
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