surge update - Suicide Bomber Kills 40 in Iraq

[spanone]

Sunday 24 February 2008

Hilla, Iraq - A suicide bomber detonated a vest packed with metal ball bearings in a refreshment tent full of Iraqi pilgrims heading to a Shi'ite festival on Sunday, killing 40 people and wounding 60, police said.

The U.S. military said it was trying to confirm reports 60 people had been killed and 100 wounded in the bombing in the town of Iskandariya, 40 km (25 miles) south of Baghdad. Women and children were among the victims, police said.

The attack was one of the deadliest in Iraq this year and happened despite a major tightening of security for the annual Arbain festival in the southern holy city of Kerbala. It is one of Shi'ite Islam's holiest events.

Most of the casualties were hit by the ball bearings, said a doctor at a hospital in the city of Hilla, where many of the wounded were taken. A wounded woman there said the attack happened in a tent where pilgrims were offered refreshments.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/022408A.shtml

[Adsos Letter]

1. A human claymore...

...damn... :(

[Breeze54]

2. also: 'Baghdad's Green Zone Attacked'

Baghdad's Green Zone Attacked

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gkx-3oYeFwuWKCusr2jrojs98w8wD8V08Q2G0

By PATRICK QUINN – 1 day ago

BAGHDAD (AP) —

Extremists fired an explosive barrage Saturday into the capital's heavily protected Green Zone, targeting the heart of America's diplomatic and military mission in Iraq.

The U.S. military said there were no injuries from the early morning volley, which could be heard throughout downtown Baghdad.

The earth-jarring detonations, nearly 10 of them, even shook buildings across the Tigris River from the capital's fortified core, which houses the U.S. Embassy, military facilities and the Iraqi government.

The attack came shortly before Brig. Gen. Mike Milano, a top U.S. military official tasked with restoring security to Baghdad, said that nearly 80 percent of the capital's districts were now considered free of organized extremist activity.

The strikes were the most recent involving what Maj. Brad Leighton, a U.S. military spokesman, described as indirect fire — the military's term for a rocket or mortar attack.

Similar volleys in the past week, including one against an Iraqi housing complex at Baghdad International Airport and its adjoining U.S. military base, killed 31 people, Milano said.
He blamed the attacks on "al-Qaida and Iranian-backed special groups."

More...

------

Escalation not going so well after all. :grr: