Explosions rock shrines in Karbala and Baghdad, 143 festival-goers dead

[UpInArms]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2004/03/02/international0935EST0544.DTL

KARBALA, Iraq (AP) -- Simultaneous explosions ripped through crowds of worshippers Tuesday at Shiite Muslim shrines in Baghdad and the city of Karbala, killing at least 143 people on the holiest day of the Shiite calendar, a U.S. official said. It was the bloodiest day since the end of major fighting.

The blasts came during the Shiite festival of Ashoura and coincided with a shooting attack on Shiite worshippers in Quetta, Pakistan that killed at least 29 people and wounded more than 150.

Three suicide bombers set off their explosives in and around Baghdad's Kazimiya shrine, killing 58 and wounding 200, Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt told reporters. At least one suicide attacker blew himself up and pre-set explosives went off in Karbala, killing 85 and wounding more than 100, he said.

A fourth suicide bomber whose explosives did not detonate was captured at Kazimiya, and four people were arrested in connection to the attack in Karbala, Kimmitt told reporters in Baghdad.

...more...

[Beetwasher]

1. Fuck

I think the shit just really hit the fan...

Is this being reported anywhere else?

[MUAD_DIB]

13. I think that fuck is the offficial word of the day...

...especially for this crap.

[sybylla]

2. Okay, I can't hold back anymore.

What the hell is up with "killing at least 143 people." Has no one but me seen any photographs, videos? These were men, only men, because women aren't allowed to participate. Why does our press let fundies off the hook for their oppressive behavior by referring to them generically as "people" or "festival-goers"? This is really starting to piss me off and I'm sorry, but after watching weeks of fundie men blowing each other up, I'm starting to have a hard time finding any sympathy. If they are going to share hate and oppression then they shouldn't be surprised when it comes right back at them. I confess I am on the verge of cheering them on into oblivion.

End of rant. I apologize for hijacking this thread. :shrug: Need more caffeine.

[SmileyBoy]

3. Not true. I was up late last night when this was breaking news.

Women and children were also killed.

This wasn't the work of Al Qaeda, Islamic Jihad or any other Muslim group. They were saying that Muslims wouldn't do this. I'm suspecting that either the US or Israel did this. Go ahead and flame if you think I'm crazy, I don't care. I really don't think this was perpretrated by Muslims.

[sybylla]

4. I'm not going to flame

I don't know what you saw. All the video I saw on CBC and BBC were all male, all the time. Over and over again I see video and no women or young girls involved.

On edit: if you are referring to the funeral procession that was taken out, there were women and girls involved in that I believe.

[pfitz59]

5. Muslim men worship separatly from women and kids.....

Doesn't diminish gravity of attacks. More bad news for Iraq.

[sybylla]

11. Yeah, and in the fundamentalist sections, separate seems to mean at home

In the video of the muslims throwing stones at the great phallic symbol of evil where many were trampled to death, there were no women there. When they cut their head or whip themselves to make themselves bleed, there are no women there. There are millions of feet of video I have watched since we invaded Afghanistan exactly like it and not just relating to religious observances.

I'm just calling it as I see it and I'm sick of our media glossing over the fact that there is one lifestyle in these fundie countries for men and another for women. We "PC'ers" for decades called for the end of using masculine terms in situations including women.

When they start using masculine terms for situations in which women are forbidden to participate, will we not start recognizing that what we have fostered in the Middle East is not democracy?

[Malva Zebrina]

14. I am not sure that Iraq is a "fundie" country.

There was a Christian faction in Iraq under Saddam that existed peacefully, and women certainly were allowed far more than in other Muslim countries. Bin Laden hated Saddam for being so liberal. Saudi is far more restrictive toward women than Iraq was. I understand now, since the US invaded and "freed" the people, that women are losing much of their rights and freedoms in Iraq.

I don't know what has happened here in this tragedy. It does not prove a thing about Saddam's "evil" or justify anything of the lies Bush told. Perhaps tribal warfare, perhaps not. It is nothing but a hot spot and will continue like that for a long long time. Thanks to George Bush's lies and incompetence.

[sybylla]

19. Sorry, Misspoke there

Meant to include fundie regions of Iraq.

[BearFlagDemocrat]

21. Heh

When they cut their head or whip themselves to make themselves bleed, there are no women there.

Sounds like Opus Dei.

[Malva Zebrina]

25. actually there is a Christian faction that practices self mutilation by

whipping themselves in public. They are called the Flagellents.

These are also exclusively men--as a matter of fact, and I do not mean to be smart or snickering lest I be perceived as "bashing" Catholics, but women still are not allowed to be priests in the Catholic religion. That does send a message I think. It would to me anyhow.

Catholicism still remains an all male, in position of authority, religion. The Southern Baptist Convention is certainly restrictive toward women and it does not allow women to be ministers in that church.

Opus Dei is the more extremist, perhaps fascist, version of Catholocism. The Southern Baptist Convention claims to have sixteen million members. That's a lot of women who willing assume the "less than" position.

[leftchick]

15. I saw many women and children...

on both BBC and NWI. One woman was interviewed and said "Before there were mass graves. Now we have public graves in the streets."
:(

[Demonaut]

6. true, israelis suicide bomb all the time.........and dont get me started

on the new army techniques

[Name removed]

7. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Name removed]

8. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Name removed]

9. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Name removed]

10. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Nihil]

12. Ah never mind

Edit: The reply I replied to has evaporated ...

[Name removed]

17. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[a_random_joel]

18. Not a very good theory.

Jihad justifies many actions.

The US and Israel have been complicit in some very bad things. This is not one of them.

As predicted, this is a civil war. Plain and simple.

[alittlelark]

23. I saw it last night too

some of the men were saying the US did it:shrug:

[maxsolomon]

16. can we get back to the bombing?

i won't flame you, but you are paranoid & illogical:"This wasn't the work of Al Qaeda, Islamic Jihad or any other Muslim group. They were saying that Muslims wouldn't do this. I'm suspecting that either the US or Israel did this. Go ahead and flame if you think I'm crazy, I don't care. I really don't think this was perpretrated by Muslims."

i look at this and say sunnis. its absurd to say muslims wouldn't do this to mulsims. of course they would. they do it all the time.

what would the US motive be to perpetrate this senseless tragedy? we're trying to cultivate the shiites as allies, right?

this is trying to A. drive a wedge between the shiites & americans. B. spark the civil war.

i've read sun tzu. have you?

[Name removed]

20. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[maxsolomon]

24. well, al zarqawi read sun tzu

another thing: WHERE would the US get a suicide bomber? ain't many muslims willing to die for old glory's oil jones. ain't that many murkins neither.

[Mari333]

22. The troops, reservists and guard units will be the ones in danger now

they will be the ones representing the US. and they will be the ones people attack in anger
bring them home now.

[Name removed]

26. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.