Bomber Kills 16 at Iraqi Reconciliation Banquet

[Hissyspit]

Source: New York Times

Bomber Kills 16 at Iraqi Reconciliation Banquet

By ANDREW E. KRAMER
BAGHDAD, Sept. 24 — A suicide bomber blew himself up on Monday at a banquet intended to be a reconciliation feast between provincial officials and former Sunni insurgents in Diyala Province, killing 16 people and wounding at least 28. Among the wounded were the provincial governor, the regional police chief and the local military commander, local police officials said. At least one former insurgent leader was killed, they said.

The gathering was of the type that is a cornerstone of American plans to reconcile former insurgents with the Iraqi government and enlist their help in fighting Sunni extremist groups. The strategy has produced security gains in Sunni areas in western Iraq, and the military is trying to repeat that success in places like Diyala, a mixed area of Sunnis and Shiites north of Baghdad.

The American military confirmed that American officers had attended the meeting, held at a Shiite mosque in an outlying district of Baquba, the provincial capital. It said soldiers had been attacked by a suicide bomber, but said nothing about any wounded or dead among the Americans. “There are an unknown number of casualties, and the incident remains under investigation,” the military statement said.

The bombing was the second this month aimed at leaders of the so-called Sunni awakening. On Sept. 13, a suicide bomber killed Abdul Sattar Buzaigh al-Rishawi, known as Abu Risha, the Sunni tribal leader who unified several tribes to fight Sunni extremists in Anbar Province, in western Iraq. He died 10 days after meeting with President Bush at a military base in Anbar.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/25/world/middleeast/25iraq.html?_r=1&ref=world&oref=slogin

[bemildred]

1. AFP says they got some big shots.

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Tamimi said seven police officers from Baquba were among the dead, three of them senior ones.

He said they included Brigadier General Najib al-Saleh, head of the police operation centre for Diyala province, and Brigadier General Ali Dlayan, the Baquba city police chief.

Timimi added that Ahmed al-Timimi, head of Shiite religious endowments in Baquba, was also among the dead.

http://www.afp.com/english/news/stories/070924184813.ow6a9tkj.html

[WCGreen]

2. I guess they are going for Irony now....

[provis99]

3. Iraq has really become a dark farce

It's really a metaphor for the irony of human behavior in general.

[pfitz59]

4. Bush wants another $200 billion!

Expensive caskets!

[DRoseDARs]

5. And much like the mass grave found yesterday, how much you wanna bet Gen Petraeus won't count these?

:shrug:

[ChairmanAgnostic]

9. simply a natural gas collection and explosion

happens all the time in oil bearing strata.

[Dark]

6. Ironic and sad at the same time.

Let's get the fuck out of there already, shall we?

[nealmhughes]

7. It would seem that the headline alone sums up the state of Iraq at present.

[bemildred]

8. Car bombs hit Basra, Baghdad as more violence shakes Iraq

BAGHDAD—A suicide driver killed three Iraqi policemen and wounded 20 people when he detonated his car at the entrance of police headquarters today in Basra, raising more fears over the southern city's deteriorating security situation.

Also this morning, two parked car bombs went off nearly simultaneously in a shopping street in eastern Baghdad, killing six civilians and wounding 20 people, just yards away from a line of pensioners outside a local bank, the police said.

The blasts followed a deadly night in Baqouba, where a suicide bomber struck a U.S.-promoted reconciliation meeting of Shiite and Sunni tribal sheiks last night, killing at least 15 people, including the city's police chief, and wounding about 30 others.

The violence comes amid continued friction between Iraqi and U.S. officials over the Sept. 16 killing of 11 Iraqi civilians allegedly by Blackwater USA security guards in Baghdad, and the U.S. troops' arrest last week of an Iranian officer who the Iraqis claim was here by official invitation.

http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/national_world/stories/2007/09/25/iraq.html?sid=101