Horrific Car Bomb in Iraq

At least 75 are killed outside a mosque in Najaf.

Comments

[Steve in CO]

Subconciously at first I was bothered by the seeming contradiction of such devoutly religious people showing such disrespect for a "holy place." Then I remembered we are talking about human beings.

🙁

[Jean Bart]

Alastair Campbell, Blair's top spin doctor, resigned today.

[Pop]

Sometimes nothing comes to mind except, "what the fuck is wrong with those people."

[joe]

Does anyone know if Al Qaeda has a history or philosophy of anti-Shiite hostilities? I know they've attacked Shiite Hazaras in Afghanistan, but they were allied with the anti-Taliban forces.

[matt]

Yep, I agree Pop...and we've put ourselves right in the middle of it.

[Zathras]

There appear to be three possibilities:

1. Al Qaeda or groups sympathetic to it have indeed assaulted Shiite Muslims, notably in Pakistan, often using methods similar to that used in Najaf today. On the other hand al Qaeda and the main Shiite militant organization, Hezbollah, are thought to have good relations.

2. The Baathist government saw Shiite clerics as among its deadliest internal enemies. Its operatives may well still hold a grudge against them, or they may see an attack against the relatively moderate senior cleric murdered today as a means to discourage cooperation with the coalition forces.

3. The final possibility is that today's bombing was a strike by supporters of the young extremist Shiite cleric Moqtada Badr against more traditional senior clerics who have been urging patience with the coalition forces. As fellow Shiites these may have had easier access to a sacred site in Najaf -- but the number of killed and wounded, and the way the thing was done, would likely turn most Shiites against Badr if links to him were uncovered.

I can imagine variations on these possibilities -- non-Iraqi terrorists working with Saddamites, for example, or Iranian agents helping Badrists -- but these appear to be the main ones right now. I have to say that even by the standards of Arab terrorists massacring people as they lay out prayer mats is a pretty rotten thing to do. Depending on how firmly the evidence suggests who was responsible for this, whoever it was stands to be greatly discredited among the Shiite community.

[CharlesWT]

"And now we?ve just had some shocking news- Mohammed Baqir Al-Hakim was assassinated in the holy city of Najaf! Mohammed Baqir Al-Hakim was the head of SCIRI (Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq). They don?t know who was behind it, but many believe it is one of the other Shi?a religious factions. There has been some tension between Al-Sadir?s followers and Al-Hakim?s followers. Another cleric, Al-Sistani, also had some interesting things to say against Al-Hakim?

"What most people choose to forget is the fact that the Shi?a in the south lost hundreds of thousands of lives to the war against Iran- fighting the very regime that is backing SCIRI now- the Islamic Revolution in Teheran. Al-Hakim does have a strong backing from many Shi?a fundamentalists sympathetic with Iran, true enough, but he also has people who hate him (and Badir?s Brigade) with a vengeance." Baghdad Burning: Chaos

[Robert Nabors]

I'm just wondering....

If everyone is going to kill each other and terrorize anyone, why shouldn't we just watch our own asses and making Iraq glass 1' deep.

It's a whole lot quicker, and is guarenteed to kill each and every terrorist whose in Iraq. It'll get a lot of innocent poeple, but hell, they're getting killed by the terrorists anyways, right?

Save American and British (and Aussie if any are there) lives, and hey, everyone is clamoring that they want less nuclear weapons around - quickest way to get rid of them is to use 'em...

-Robert

[nm156]

Robert: I'm just wondering,

HAVE YOU GONE INSANE?!

[Secretary General @ SSS]

Robbert,
Give me a break first of all is the war in Iraq a illeagal operation.
By the way it is not Saddam who was storing/stocking these alledged weapons of mass destruction,so far nothing found.
The alledged weapons where some fake reason to go to war and steal the oil!
On the Other hand the DOD has still loads of poison gases on stock,wich is illegal by the way.
The USA has become a rogue state !!!!!!!!
Nuke USA robert if you want to see a musroom !!!!!!!
You would do your nation and the world favour with doing so.
stop the bush terrorism.

Secretary general of SSS

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DATE: 02/01/2004 05:32:49
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