Eight reported dead in explosions in central Baghdad

[DoYouEverWonder]

14 October, 2004, 11:01 GMT

More soon.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/default.stm


This is just coming across the BBC crawl. No other information yet

[leftchick]

1. Green Zone Cafe?

just heard a brief report on NBC saying an explosion in the Geen Zone at a cafe. I have not found a link yet.

[DoYouEverWonder]

2. Found this buried in a USA Today story

Later Thursday, two explosions rocked Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone and caused a number of casualties, said Lt. Col. James Hutton, a spokesman for the 1st Cavalry Division. A large plume of thick, black smoke rose from the compound, which is home to the U.S. Embassy and Iraqi government offices. There were no other details.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2004-10-14-iraq_x.htm

I'm not sure if it's the same incident?

[izzie]

3. I read some news on a Service blog that Green Zone is----

sort of locked down. They can not keep it safe any more. I will never be able to find it but I do recall I picked it up on an item about the service men were blogging but they were in trouble if they did not go the party line, and I read about a Sgt. Al Larentz who may spend 20 years in the brig for sending out a blog. I am planning to hunt him up on this thing this morning.

[izzie]

9. That site was DefenseWatch and the story was about blogging

On front page and this Sgt story was their to be click on.

[DoYouEverWonder]

4. "Indirect attacks" ?

Eight civilians are thought to have been killed and four wounded in an attack on Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone, the US military says.

A column of smoke rose above the zone after two loud blasts were heard. US forces blamed "indirect attacks" - jargon for mortars or rockets.

Casualties were taken to a US military hospital inside the area.

<Snip>

"There were two explosions, We think they were two indirect attacks," a US army spokesman told the AFP agency.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3742498.stm




Eight killed sounds pretty direct to me?

[leftchick]

5. no shit! Cnn just showed a bit....

also saying 8 "civilians killed". Hmmm... I wonder how many US personnel? It was a cafe I believe catering to the westerners.

[NNN0LHI]

6. At least eight people dead in Green Zone blasts

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L14341605.htm

BAGHDAD, Oct 14 (Reuters) - Twin blasts inside Baghdad's Green Zone killed at least eight people on Thursday, a hospital source inside the heavily fortified compound said.

"There were body parts scattered everywhere. There could be more than eight dead, and several are wounded," the source said.

Earlier at least two blasts were heard and thick black smoke could be seen rising from inside the Green Zone, on the west bank of the Tigris River.

It was not immediately clear if those killed were coalition soldiers, contractors or Iraqis, thousands of whom work inside the guarded complex, which is home to the interim Iraqi government and the U.S. and British embassies.

more

[leftchick]

8. "not immediately clear"!

Hah! It ssems to be clear to the US military. They are saying 8 Civilians are dead.

[Englander]

7. Blasts due to``hand-carried explosives''...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-4550305,00.html


>>The blasts occured at two sites inside the zone - one at an outdoor bazaar, killing six and wounding three, the second at an indoor cafe where two were killed and ``a number of others were wounded.''

>>Thick black smoke billowed from one of the blast sites, which appeared to be close to the main palace.<<

[NJCher]

10. Life inside the Green Zone

This is horrible. I had just been reading up on the Green Zone.

Here's a Washington Post article that reports some of "what William Langewiesche reports in "Welcome to the Green Zone," a long, fascinating article in the November issue of the Atlantic Monthly."

snip:

"They live in large, sandbagged compounds or prefabricated, factory-furnished housing modules, which are actually modified shipping containers," Langewiesche writes. "They eat standard American food, almost all of it brought in from abroad. . . . They also have satellite TV, computers, DVDs and telephones with U.S. area codes, which function as if they were in New York or Virginia, and thus require people to make long-distance overseas calls, even to the city just next door."

In the early days, the Americans frequently left the Green Zone and ventured into Baghdad and the rest of Iraq. But since the anti-American insurgency escalated last spring, such trips have become exceedingly dangerous and most Americans seldom leave the Zone.

"Why bother?" Langewiesche writes with acid sarcasm. "A more prudent choice was to stay in the zone and require the Iraqis to come to you if for some rare reason you really needed to deal with them face-to-face."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A25444-2004Oct11.html

Now it looks as though they are closing in on the Green Zone and there will be no safe haven whatsoever for our soldiers.


Cher

[saigon68]

11. It sounds like they are on the "cusp" of a blossoming "DEMOCRACY"

Just think ---safe streets, friendly natives smiling, waving, throwing flowers and kisses.

YIKES !!!!!

[DoYouEverWonder]

12. If W had done this right

Baghdad should look like Disney World. But we knew W wasn't going to do anything right. Oh well, three more weeks.

[leftchick]

13. UpDate: Suicide bomber....

<One of the blasts shortly before 1 p.m. local time killed six people and wounded three at a bazaar in the central area, Lieutenant Colonel James Hutton, a U.S. military spokesman, said by telephone from the Iraqi capital. The area, also known as the Green Zone, was hit by a second explosion at an indoor cafe, killing two people and injuring a ``number'' of others, he said.

The attacks involved at least one suicide bomber, Agence France-Presse said, citing the U.S. Embassy in Iraq. Hutton said he didn't know the nationalities of the casualties in the blasts. Reuters, citing the military, said two of the dead were Americans and that it wasn't clear whether they were military or civilian. >

http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000087&sid=a1zLdBZ8I.8g&refer=top_world_news

[leftchick]

14. Another Update: 2 Americans Killed

Sleep tight negroponte....

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=6501800


BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Two Americans were among eight people killed in two bomb blasts in Baghdad's Green Zone on Thursday, the U.S. military said, after one of the bloodiest attacks on the highly-protected compound.
"We don't know if they were military or civilian," a spokeswoman said.

The two were among six people killed at a busy bazaar selling souvenirs inside the compound, which houses Iraqi government offices and the U.S. and British embassies on the west bank of the Tigris river.

Another two civilians were killed in a separate blast at a popular cafe nearby. The blasts occurred about five minutes apart, just before 1 p.m. The nationalities of the other victims are not yet known, the spokeswoman said.