An Iraqi police officer stands guard at a checkpoint. The car bombers in Tuesday’s attack reportedly had no difficulty getting through security checkpoints.
Baghdad was shaken by at least 15 explosions Tuesday, with an estimated death toll ranging from 76 to more than 100. The bombers appeared to favor Shiite targets and were unhindered by Iraqi security.
The Guardian:
The scale of the attacks, and the ease with which car bombs were again able to penetrate security cordons, constitute a damaging blow for Iraq’s security forces, which have remained without effective leadership for eight months owing to the crippling political crisis that has seen politicians unable to form a government. Residents have dreaded a slide towards sectarian violence. Many have used the relative lack of large-scale violence this year to reopen businesses and re-establish lives put on hold by eight years of war.
Car bombings had been rare since January, apart from several days of widespread nationwide violence in April and late August. Security chiefs immediately blamed al-Qaida for the latest attacks. Al-Qaida in Iraq is an umbrella group for many Sunni Islamist organisations who align to a global jihadi worldview that identifies Shia Muslims and Christians as mortal foes.
We are launching a major overhaul of our comments section.
In addition to more robust spam filtering and moderation, new features include the ability to rate other comments, sort how they are displayed and respond directly via e-mail or in a thread.
Unfortunately, commenters will lose their existing Truthdig identities. It's a pain, we know, but on the plus side you will now be able to log in with a plethora of options, including Google, Twitter, Facebook and Disqus accounts.
Before launching this system we spent months in discussion with our top commenters. We listened to the feedback and we hope you like what we've come up with.
Please direct any problems or concerns to us via our contact page.
Truthdiggers of the Week: 400,000 Canadians Launching the ‘Maple Spring’
Email
Print
Share
Digg
Facebook
TwitThis
StumbleUpon
Reddit
YahooBuzz
Email
BlinkList
del.icio.us
Fark
Furl
Google
LinkedIn
Mixx
MyShare
NewsVine
Propeller
SphereIt
Technorati
YahooMyWeb
Newsletter 
Become a Fan
Follow Us
Subscribe
By lasmog, November 3, 2010 at 2:50 pm Link to this comment
Let’s get out and stay out. Sorry Iraq and good luck.
Report thisBy PatrickHenry, November 2, 2010 at 5:49 pm Link to this comment
Just another day in that neighborhood.
Let them have it.
Report this