Mini-Tet: 175 dead, 200 injured in triple suicide car bombings in northern Iraq
posted at 5:39 pm on August 14, 2007 by Allahpundit
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As strange as it is horrific. AQ is suspected, but the victims weren’t Shiites, they were Yazidis. What beef could Al Qaeda possibly have with them? Here’s your answer. No one’s sure if the victim in that case did or didn’t convert to Islam but the jihadis are operating on the assumption that she did. They took one atrocious measure of revenge against the Yazidis back in April, which was thought to have been the end of it. Then, last week, they took another, kidnapping two Yazidi men en route to Baghdad and stoning them to death. Their bodies were recovered today.
Now this. Petraeus said a mini-Tet was coming. Is this it? Or just another very bloody chapter of Iraqi Hatfields and McCoys?
Scores of civilians were killed or wounded on Tuesday evening in a string of blasts that took place near the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, a security source said.
“Two cars rigged with explosives simultaneously detonated in Siba Sheikh Khidr housing compound, west of Mosul, killing 175 civilians and wounding over 200,” the source, who asked not to be named, told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI).
The source added “the housing compound, the largest in Sinjar district, also came under a mortar attack following the double explosion, leaving scores killed or wounded.”
Meanwhile, two more explosions occurred in the nearby Kar Izir area, 35 km south of Sinjar, killing and wounding dozens of people and causing many buildings to collapse, the same source said.
Local EMS tells NPR that as many as 500 could be wounded.
Update: The two villages hit by the blasts were Al-Khataniyah and Al-Adnaniyah, according to the AFP. One of the bombs was rigged to a fuel tanker.
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Harry Reid declares the surge a failure in 5…4…3…2
conservnut on August 14, 2007 at 5:46 PM
That kind of slaughter is unfathomable.
That is about the only reason that makes me really think about the benefit of bringing home the troops. I wouldn’t want any of our guys anywhere near that sort of tribal BS.
MadisonConservative on August 14, 2007 at 5:49 PM
He already did that. Now he’s going to declare the NEXT Iraq War a failure (you know, the war the next generation will have to fight because we’re not going to finish this one right).
aero on August 14, 2007 at 5:50 PM
We weep for the families of the victims.
ColtsFan on August 14, 2007 at 5:50 PM
Is this a prelude of more to come since AQs were emptying their camps as if they have the next big mission to do?
Why northern Iraq? What did they do? Travel from Afghanistan to Syria/Turkey and into northern Iraq as a start?
Kokonut on August 14, 2007 at 5:58 PM
Keep praying and fighting, boys and girls. It ain’t over til the fat lady sings…
Califemme on August 14, 2007 at 5:58 PM
Ahmadinejad: Islam Must Rule the World
The future of mankind may be at stake.
TheBigOldDog on August 14, 2007 at 6:00 PM
I hope the TET equivalence here has a better outcome. Where is Sherman when you need him.
MNDavenotPC on August 14, 2007 at 6:00 PM
Because of course we need to destroy the village in order to save it… (Sherman was an arsonist!) :)
jeffshultz on August 14, 2007 at 6:06 PM
This is just the begining of the genocide that will occur if we leave Iraq
William Amos on August 14, 2007 at 6:10 PM
Is it me or does events of this scale always seem to follow reports of our success.
Zaire67 on August 14, 2007 at 6:12 PM
It’s simply gut-wrenching insanity….
God help all those families.
locomotivebreath1901 on August 14, 2007 at 6:13 PM
What benefit do Muslims have in blowing things up? Why can’t they just live peacefully?
SoulGlo on August 14, 2007 at 6:19 PM
SoulGlo,
Because the Koran says you cannot live n peace if you’re an infidel, an apostate, a non-Muslim, a Muslim with a different set of Islamic belief, and so on.
Islam = death, violence and not very peaceful like.
Kokonut on August 14, 2007 at 6:26 PM
Kokonut said it all very nicely. “Peace” under Islam is the peace of the dead.
jdawg on August 14, 2007 at 6:30 PM
The fanatics are well aware of the Petraeous report in September and if they are going to force a withdrawl, then they are going to have to kill as many people as they can. Reinforcing what Scary Reid said is their main objective. Like Osama bin Laden said, “hit the Americans hard enough, they will run.” We’ll have to see if he is right.
volsense on August 14, 2007 at 6:42 PM
There
will
never
be
peace
in
a
land
where
life
means
nothing
SilverStar830 on August 14, 2007 at 6:45 PM
Since we have push’d al-Qaeda north, this makes some sense.
bnelson44 on August 14, 2007 at 6:45 PM
I don’t think al-Qaeda is capable of a Tet (mini or otherwise), but they are capable of blowing up gas trucks in Innocent villages.
We are trying to keep the pressure up though:
Iraq Report: Pursuing al Qaeda and the Shia terror cells
bnelson44 on August 14, 2007 at 6:47 PM
Civilian deaths from car bombs were given as a reason the U.S.A. should get out of Iraq on the floor of the Senate by a Senator (Feinstein?) Ok, I don’t remember, but I’m not an AQ agent determining how to defeat the great Satan. Like Feinstein?
TunaTalon on August 14, 2007 at 6:51 PM
/sarc We should have just “talked” to them.
Geez, if this does not get the attention of the Dimocraps nothing will.
On-my-soap-box on August 14, 2007 at 7:01 PM
Ok, so what’s the point here?
There is something I’m not getting.
rockhauler on August 14, 2007 at 7:20 PM
dingy harry can’t say a dang word. This was Al-Qaeda and we are supposed to only be fighting al-qaeda.
csdeven on August 14, 2007 at 7:30 PM
I want this to just all be over, but with victory.
congsan on August 14, 2007 at 7:40 PM
Just following the zombie orders of the Koran and its pedophile warlord author, Mohammad, the mass-murderer, slaveholder, plagiarist, assassin and thief.
“Spread terror” said the psychotic theocratic crank.
And they do.
profitsbeard on August 14, 2007 at 7:53 PM
Osama bin Laden said, “We love death….Americans love life….Thats the difference in the two of us….It is why we will win.” Google: Osama bin Laden Quotes. Know the brilliance of the enemy and see how really serious this is.
S
volsense on August 14, 2007 at 7:55 PM
Neither.
Tet was not the murder of civilians.
Hatfields nor McCoys went after kids.
These are murderous maniacs impelled by religious lunacy.
Stephen M on August 14, 2007 at 7:56 PM
SilverStar830 you hit a home run with your 6:45 post.
You know when Osama bin Laden said, “We love death. Americans love life. It is the difference in the two of us. It is why we will win,” that in his fantical mind, he really believed that. Google: Osama Bin Laden Quotes
Read what the man says with his own words. He is a brilliant adversary that is dedicated to the demise of our country and there are those among us, in numbers, that agree with him. Tough spot.
volsense on August 14, 2007 at 8:02 PM
Unfortunately with the current political situation, both in Iraq and here at home, I guessing we’ll see a lot more of this in the months to come.
BadgerHawk on August 14, 2007 at 8:10 PM
AP ran with a bogus picture today on a related story (or at least in the same story). Blackfive had the details. Here and here.
bnelson44 on August 14, 2007 at 9:08 PM
Yep. And southern Iraq will be a province of Iran.
ColtsFan on August 14, 2007 at 10:00 PM
We are doing nothing but wasting lives and money by occupying Iraq. Everything we are building there is gonna be blown to hell the moment we leave anyways. That government will never work because those people have been at each other’s throats for centuries and have no interest in making peace. Our boys are getting killed holding back an inevitable civil war. Time to bail, let the savages have at each other.
The Sinner on August 14, 2007 at 10:16 PM
Many commenters write as if they expect to make their cunning, violent enemies among the muslims wither away with their vitriol. They would be more effective with sturdy waterpistols and a sea of real vitriol. Even mere, caustic moralisms would at least be edifying, were we, the readers, not already decent; however, they do nothing to bring about the destruction of the American’s enemies.
If we can trust reports at all, rich men in Riyadh, Damascus, Tehran, and other cities of the Dar al-Islam fund the Islamic jihad in our time. Thus, over and over, I say that the way of continual prosperity, freedom, and life for the Americans and their children includes their pillaging, impoverishing, owning, toppling, or killing their wealthiest and most powerful muslim enemies. The Americans’ President is right to encourage reliance on “a coalition of the willing”; I have only to add that shrewd, resourceful Americans do not need to wait for every slow-witted, helpless, or subverted American to coalesce into the coalition.
Kralizec on August 14, 2007 at 10:24 PM
Is that you, harry reid?
If you’ll take an honest look at the success of the counter-insurgency General Patraeus is waging, there’s a chance you might change your mind.
The unearned victory you are all too willing to give our sworn enemies will very definitely affect the way you will conduct your life, should our enemies actually become victorious (or even merely have reason to think they are).
Think about that.
Actions have consequences. Especially if the action is openly supporting surrender. Losers get to deal with the reality the winners dictate. The reality our enemies have in store for us will, at the very least, put a crimp in your lifestyle.
My position is; whatever it takes, we win it. We decide the reality.
techno_barbarian on August 14, 2007 at 11:17 PM
The Americans will decide “the reality” or, as I think it’s better said, the outcomes and consequences of their wars, if they fight efficiently and effectively and if they let themselves guiltlessly enjoy the bloodsport, destruction, cunning, and conquest such warfare needs. If “whatever it takes” means the Americans grind themselves to powder, tediously, expensively, and without getting anything for themselves, then I have no advice or encouragement for them. But if “whatever it takes” means they joyfully sweep through the world, cutting up each enemy and moving right on to the next one, then I do think the Americans should do “whatever it takes.”
Kralizec on August 15, 2007 at 12:04 AM
Is that you, harry reid?
techno_barbarian on August 14, 2007 at 11:17 PM
He sounds more like Hugh Fitzgerald or Robert Spencer to me.
MB4 on August 15, 2007 at 1:08 AM
Because of course we need to destroy the village in order to save it… (Sherman was an arsonist!) :)
jeffshultz on August 14, 2007 at 6:06 PM
It’s called war. You demoralize the populace and make them totally unwilling to support your enemy. I’m not a Yankee, I was born in Virginia. But, I respect what Sherman was doing. Read von Clauswitz.
MNDavenotPC on August 15, 2007 at 9:12 AM
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