121 killed in single explosion in Baghdad marketplace

[maash]

A suicide bomber driving a truck loaded with a ton of explosives hidden beneath cooking oil, canned food and bags of flour obliterated a Baghdad food market on Saturday, killing at least 121 people in one of the most fearsome attacks in the capital since the U.S. invasion in 2003.

It was the fifth major bombing in less than a month targeting predominantly Shiite districts in Baghdad and one provincial city to the south. This one leveled about 30 shops and 40 houses, witnesses said.

The Health Ministry said more than 300 people were injured in the thunderous explosion that sent a column of smoke into the sky on the east bank of the Tigris River. The nearby al-Kindi hospital ? quickly overwhelmed ? began turning away the wounded and directing ambulances to hospitals in the Shiite Sadr City neighborhood.

U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said the bombing was "an example of what the forces of evil will do to intimidate the Iraqi people."

The bombing came just days before American and Iraqi forces were expected to start an all-out assault on Sunni and Shiite gunmen and bombers in the capital.

Only a day earlier, 16 American intelligence agencies made public a National Intelligence Estimate that said conditions in Baghdad were perilous.

"Unless efforts to reverse these conditions show measurable progress ... in the coming 12 to 18 months, we assess that the overall security situation will continue to deteriorate," a declassified synopsis of the report declared.

Emergency workers and civilians wheeled scores of bloodied and mangled victims into the hospitals with intravenous drips already in their arms. Doctors and paramedics were in a frantic triage to save the lives of the most seriously wounded.

"We don't allow big trucks in the market, but the driver convinced us that he had food to deliver for a shop. Once he got inside, he detonated the bomb," said Kamil Ibrahim, a 36-year-old vegetable vendor at the entrance to the market district.

Ibrahim ? wounded in his head, chest and abdomen ? said two of his workers, young men 18 and 19 years old, were killed instantly.

The shopkeeper spoke from a bed in al-Kindi Hospital, where he was rushed in a private car after rescuers wheeled him out of the market on a wooden cart.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070203/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq

[peacemf]

is it me or do 100 ppl die everyday over there?

[davemania]

1000+ this week.

[Brodel]

Whilst the presence of foreign armies probably doesn't help these kind of things they are also not the cause andon a side note I am against them pulling out. I know it's not 'right' to say but there is seriously something wrong with the mentality of some of the people in that area of the world.

insert usual disclaimer: I have muslim friends, I study anthropology, I realise it's a minority etc etc.

[Fred Derf Veteran]

The reality of the situation is that the Sunnis have no choice but to fight.

If the country becomes a stable democracy (like the US wants) then the Sunnis will lose as the Shiite majority will outvote them.

If the country slides into a new dictatorship under Al-Sadr (who's influence is seen to be propping up the new democracy) then the Sunnis lose (Al-Sadr is a Shiite).

If the country is partitioned into 3 separate Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish areas then the Sunnis lose because the oil is located in Shiite and Kurdish areas.

If the Sunnis are to hold on to anything remotely similar to what they had under Saddam then they have no choice but to fight on. Every solution that has been offered so far favours the Shiites.

The only hope the Sunnis have is that things become so bad that Saudi Arabia invades to liberate them. For that to happen, the United States needs to leave first.