Sunni/Shi’ite Jihad Update. “Bomb in Baghdad Kills at Least 7 In Crowd of Mostly Shiite Shoppers,” by Joshua Partlow and Zaid Sabah for the Washington Post (thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist):
…Friday’s blast occurred in Tayaran Square, east of the Tigris River, near a barricaded bazaar of vegetable carts and used-clothing dealers. The U.S. military said seven people were killed and 29 wounded. Iraqi police officials cited higher tolls: 14 killed and more than 60 wounded.
Camouflaged Interior Ministry commandos took up positions around the square throughout the afternoon, ordering at gunpoint any car that slowed down to keep moving.
Many of the victims were taken to Kindi Hospital in eastern Baghdad, where angry young men roved the parking lot while the wounded wailed inside. Policemen and hospital staff members said the government had ordered them to deny journalists access to the hospital, openly identifying themselves as members of the Mahdi Army, the Shiite militia that dominates the Health Ministry.
“Are you crazy? We are the Mahdi Army, and you know how it works,” one policeman said outside the hospital.