U.S. Blamed for Iraq’s ‘Bloody Wednesday’

[babylonsister]

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/04/23/700/

U.S. Blamed for Iraq’s ‘Bloody Wednesday’
by Ali al-Fadhily

BAGHDAD - Iraqis blame the U.S. occupation for the failure of two parallel security plans drawn up by U.S. forces and Iraqi troops that failed dramatically with the bombings last week that killed more than 300 people in Baghdad.0423 02Under the security plans additional troops were brought to Baghdad and most city streets closed. But car bombings, operations by death squads and attacks on U.S. troops continue.

The attacks Wednesday last week took a high casualty among Kurdish workers known to work in that area. Kurds in the north have stayed relatively free of the violence and the sectarian Shia-Sunni killings in the rest of the country. Kurds had supported the U.S.-led invasion four years back.

“A car bomb went off in Sadriyah neighborhood in the city center causing death to over 200 people,” Mahmood Abdulla from the Russafa Police Directorate in Baghdad told IPS. “It is not certain that the car was driven by a suicide person, in fact most of us believe it was parked there since early morning.”

Sadriyah is one of the oldest neighbourhoods of Baghdad. It is an area that brings together different ethnic and sectarian groups.

“We do not know who is killing us, but we do know who is responsible for our safety,” Kaka Kadir, who lost a 15-year-old son in the attack told IPS. “All we receive from our government and the Americans is talk, and holding other people accountable, while it is them who should protect us.”

“I do not believe it is al-Qaeda any more,” a woman weeping near the scene of the bombing told IPS. “I do not care any more, I am just losing my loved ones. The last explosion hit my husband and now he is disabled, and this one took my son’s life.”

more...