Baghdad carnage revenge for assault on rebel town: Al-Qaeda

[Barrett808]

DUBAI (AFP) - Militants loyal to Al-Qaeda's Iraq frontman said in an Internet statement that they had carried out a wave of suicide bombings in Baghdad to avenge an offensive by US and Iraqi government troops on the northern rebel town of Tal Afar.

"The conquest of revenge for the Sunni people of Tal Afar has started," Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's Al-Qaeda Organization in the Land of Two Rivers said in the statement, whose authenticity could not be verified.

It said its "brigades" had launched a series of attacks, led by its elite "martyrdom-seeking" brigade.

The statement did not claim responsibility for any of the suicide bombings which rocked Baghdad Wednesday, only promising to "release more (details), God willing, as soon as news comes in of the operations in Baghdad and other cities."

The deadliest attack, which left 80 dead, struck in the Shiite pilgrimage district of Kadhimiyah, as day labourers gathered in the early morning waiting to be hired.

(more)

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20050914/wl_mideast_afp/iraqunresttalafarqaeda

[mtnester]

1. Of course it was

If someone in the military and the highers ups did not expect this, they were stupid as a box of rocks

(no offense meant to rocks)

[acmavm]

2. This is a stupid stupid stupid idea, trying to fight an opposition to our

occupation in a country so far far away and so very different from our own. They still hold a grudge for the crusades. Their memories are very long. And they know, as the Vietnamese knew, that an unpopular occupational force is not match for a popular and very determined resistance. That's what they are you know. Like the French during WWII. The are the 'resistance'.

[The_Casual_Observer]

6. It won't matter if they are "popular" or a "resistance"

The problems and instability that a determined and deadly opposition can create will be hard/impossible to overcome. It seems that this is simply a repeat of what has happened in Iraq for at least the last 100 years. I won't live long enough to ever seen them get it right.

[truthisfreedom]

3. we're still winning, right?

sorry if my sarcasm spilled on anyone. my tv tray tipped.

[ECH1969]

4. Zarqawi declares 'all out war' on Iraqi Shiites

The Al-Qaeda frontman in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, declared "all-out war" against the Shiites in Iraq, in an audiotape attributed to him and posted on the Internet Wednesday.

Zarqawi, who has a 25 million dollar US price on his head, also urged Sunni Arabs to wake from their slumber, telling them "the war to exterminate Sunnis will never end."

Iraq's most wanted man also challenged Iraqi leaders to leave the highly fortified "Green Zone" in Baghdad where the seat of goverment is located, to challenge the mujahedeen or holy warriors.

Earlier, militants loyal to the Jordanian-born Zarqawi claimed they had carried out a wave of suicide bombings in Baghdad to avenge an offensive by US and Iraqi government troops on the northern rebel town of Tal Afar. The bombings claimed almost 130 lives, making it the bloodiest day of insurgent attacks in the Iraqi capital since the US-led war of March 2003.

http://www.africasia.com/services/news/newsitem.php?area=mideast&item=050914165919.71jzrd4a.php

[enigma000]

5. The "Freedom Fighters" are at it again

al-Zarqawi and his jihadist friends are winning the hearts and minds of Iraqis.