“The bloodshed came amid growing tensions between the Shiite-led government and minority Sunnis following a deadly security crackdown on a Sunni protest camp in the country’s north.” This is part of a 1,400-year-old jihad. Of course, in Washington, where they know jihad is an interior spiritual struggle, they are probably preparing new aid packages for both factions as we speak, and they will certainly heal this conflict in the blink of an eye.
“Wave of bombings kills at least 33 in Iraq,” by Sameer N. Yacoub for the Associated Press, May 14 (thanks to Kenneth):
BAGHDAD (AP) “” A car bomb exploded near a bus station in Baghdad’s main Shiite district Wednesday, the deadliest in a series of explosions that killed at least 33 people nationwide, officials said.
The bloodshed came amid growing tensions between the Shiite-led government and minority Sunnis following a deadly security crackdown on a Sunni protest camp in the country’s north. Violence has ebbed sharply in Iraq, but a spike in attacks has raised fears about a return of the sectarian bloodshed that pushed the country to the brink of civil war in 2006-2007.
Majority Shiites control the levers of power in post-Saddam Hussein Iraq. Wishing to rebuild the nation rather than revert to open warfare, they have largely restrained their militias over the past five years or so as Sunni extremist groups such as al-Qaida have targeted them with occasional large-scale attacks. An increase attacks against Sunni mosques has fed concerns about a return to retaliatory warfare.
The day began violently when an explosives-laden car parked in the center of the ethnically divided city of Kirkuk at around 3:00 p.m., killing three civilians and wounding eight. An hour later, another parked car bomb exploded in the same area, killing two children and their parents as they were traveling in a car nearby, the city’s deputy police chief Maj. Gen. Torhan Abdul-Rahman Youssef said….
Hours later, several bombs struck within a 90-minute time frame as Iraqis were heading home from work or doing errands in mainly Shiite areas of Baghdad.
The deadliest was in the sprawling slum of Sadr City, an area that saw some of the fiercest fighting between Americans and Shiite militias during the peak of sectarian bloodshed. Police and hospital officials said a car bomb exploded near a crowded bus stop in the area, killing at least seven people and wounding 20. The blast also damaged several shops and cars in the area, which was sealed off by police.
A car bomb also struck firefighters minutes after they arrived on the scene to extinguish a burning car in the mainly Shiite Kazimiyah district in northern Baghdad, killing two and wounding nine others….
At least six other bombings occurred in rapid succession near other bus stops or outdoor markets across the Iraqi capital, killing 15 people and wounding nearly 50 people.
In other violence, a suicide bomber on a motorcycle struck a police patrol, killing two officers and wounding eight other people in the town of Tarmiyah, 50 kilometers (30 miles) north of Baghdad, a suicide bomber rammed his motorcycle into a police patrol, killing two policemen and wounding eight other people, a police official said.
Medical officials confirmed the casualty figures for all the attacks. All of the officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release information.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for Wednesday’s attacks, but car and suicide bombings are a hallmark of al-Qaida’s Iraq branch….