Iraq Sees Increase in Car Bombings(4/28-6/23 580 killed/1734 wounded)

[maddezmom]

By PATRICK QUINN, Associated Press Writer
3 minutes ago



BAGHDAD, Iraq - A 12-year-old, his left leg missing below the knee, sat screaming on the sidewalk in a howling sandstorm as a man offered comfort. Laith Falah was buying bread just after daybreak Thursday when he was wounded by one of eight car bombs that struck the capital since dusk — a furious pace all too familiar in today's Iraq. Falah was lucky to be alive; 38 others were killed by the attacks over the 12-hour period.

Car bombers have struck Iraq 479 times in the past year, and a third of the attacks followed the naming of a new Iraqi government two months ago, according to an Associated Press count based on reports from police, military and hospital officials.

The unrelenting attacks, using bombs that can cost as little as a carton of American cigarettes each, have become the most-favored weapon of the government's most-determined enemies — Islamic extremists.

The toll has been tremendous, according to the AP count: From April 28 through June 23, there were at least 160 vehicle bombings that killed at least 580 people and wounded at least 1,734.

~snip~
more: http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050623/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_car_bombs_4

Monthly Tally of Car Bombings in Iraq
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050623/ap_on_re_mi_ea/car_bombs_glance_1

[deutsey]

1. Last throes of the insurgency

:eyes:

[bennywhale]

2. Since May more than a thousand Iraqi's have been killed by car bombs

and other attacks.

[daleo]

3. Car bombs sell for as little as $17

The car market was flooded with used cars after the U.S. invasion. There are plenty of explosives left over from before and after the invasion. Car bombs are put together in less than an hour in many locations inside of Baghdad. That seems pretty hard to stop.

(Summarized from the article)

Also:

"The terrorists attack ordinary people, teachers, doctors, newly trained police and others who are assisting the people of Iraq," U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said.

From the point of view of many Iraqis, these would be collaborators and "collateral damage", to use the U.S. military's preferred phrase. Bush opened the gates of hell with his chosen illegal grudge war for oil.

[Supersedeas]

4. Odd...NPR repeats the Operatoin Lightning is a success talking point

[alcibiades_mystery]

5. What happened to Operation Lightning?

Like everything else in this fucked up war, announced to great fanfare, then withers as it fails.

[maddezmom]

6. or Operation Spear? or Operation Dagger? or Operation White Sheild?

NADA

[Moderator]

7. kick

[sabra]

8. Iraq: 479 attacks by car bomb in past year

<<SNIP>>
http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/index.php?page=national&story_id=062405b1_iraq_carbombs

Iraq: 479 attacks by car bomb in past year

Toll from simple devices among Iraqis almost 7,700

The Associated Press

Twelve-year-old Laith Falah, minus the lower half of his left leg, is carted off to a hospital in Baghdad after a car bombing yesterday.
EDITOR'S NOTE - The AP count of car bombs in Iraq began June 28, 2004, the date of the U.S. handover of political authority to the Iraqis. It is based on reports gathered in Baghdad from police, military and hospital officials and tracked by AP's News Research Center.

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A 12-year-old, his left leg missing below the knee, sat screaming on the sidewalk in a howling sandstorm as a man offered comfort.

Laith Falah had been buying bread just after daybreak yesterday when he was wounded by one of eight car bombs that struck the capital since dusk - a furious pace all too familiar in today's Iraq.

Laith was lucky to be alive; 38 others were killed by the attacks over the 12-hour period.

Car bombers have struck Iraq 479 times in the past year, and a third of the attacks followed the naming of a new Iraqi government two months ago, according to an Associated Press count based on reports from police, military and hospital officials.

<</SNIP>>

[Roland99]

9. But...but...but...they died as free Iraqis.

And Saddam was worser.


:eyes:

[gratuitous]

10. That's a lot of last throes

And a lot of dead bodies piling up. I wonder what the administration is doing to ameliorate the situation, if anything?

[DakotaDemocrat]

11. "Let freedom reign"

Oh boy, I don't even finshing saying "Bring em ahhh..."

[ZR2]

12. Sounds like a good place

to open up a used car business.

[Sanity Claws]

13. Just like Houston

I think that's what Delay told us recently, rt? With all those car explosions in Houston, Ford and GM should see an upturn in sales.

[DS1]

14. *ahem*

What's good for the car bombing industry is good for GM, and what's good for GM is good for America.

Thank you very much