October 29, 2010
Suicide Bomber Kills 25 at Cafe in Iraq's Diyala Province By <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/h/jack_healy/ind ex.html?inline=nyt-per> JACK HEALY New York Times BAGHDAD - A suicide bomber struck a crowded cafe in one of Iraq's most restive provinces on Friday night, killing 25 people in the deadliest attack here in more than a month. The bombing, in the eastern town of Balad Ruz in Diyala Province, highlighted fears that insurgents were exploiting the political deadlock to start new rounds of bloodletting and further undermine faith in the government. Shootings, small-scale car bombings and the assassinations of security officials have continued in recent months, even as overall violence has declined from the worst levels of the war, when more than 2,000 Iraqis were being killed each month. Now, stretches of relative calm are often punctuated by deadly attacks, such as the cafe bombing on Friday night. The bomber detonated a belt of explosives, the police said, striking the cafe at its busiest hour, when it was bustling with young men sipping tea and smoking cigarettes. The blast blew body parts into the street and started what one survivor, Ahmed Khalis, described as a "fountain of fire" inside the building. Witnesses said flames reached into the night sky as rescuers tried to pull survivors to safety. "It can't be imagined," said Capt. Muhammad al-Rubai, a police official in Diyala Province. Forty-seven people were wounded, many seriously, and officials said the victims included one member of a local governing council. No group immediately claimed responsibility, though one political analyst in the area, Jihad al-Bakri, said the bombing resembled attacks that had been tied to <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/a/al_qaed a_in_mesopotamia/index.html?inline=nyt-org> Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia. The area where the attack occurred is largely populated by a sect of Kurds who are Shiite Muslims. Most Kurds are Sunnis. Diyala Province, which is northeast of Baghdad, straddles Iraq's sectarian and ethnic fault lines. In recent months, it has been the site of deadly bombings of homes, convoys and government buildings, as well as the assassinations of members of the Awakening Movement, an American-supported group of Sunni militias. At a hospital in Balad Ruz, friends and family members walked from bed to bed searching for loved ones. Survivors described being engulfed by flames and said they did not know why they had been attacked. "Almost everyone who was in the cafe were young guys, and they were jobless," said Hussein al-Utabi, 22, whose legs were injured. "It was a massacre." It was one of the deadliest days in Iraq since bombings in Baghdad and the western city of Falluja <http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/20/world/middleeast/20baghdad.html> killed at least three dozen people last month. Those attacks occurred on the heels of the United States military's official declaration of an end to combat operations in Iraq. Also on Friday, the country's ever shifting political situation grew more complicated after a Kurdish opposition party announced that it was breaking from a larger Kurdish alliance. Members of Iraq's two leading political coalitions, which finished neck and neck in national elections in March, have been trying to court favor with the Kurds, who could be kingmakers in determining which political group controls the new government. The elections did not produce a clear winner, and members of competing political parties have spent the last seven month jockeying for influence and support with different factions in Iraq and abroad, but they have failed to reach a deal. Namo Abdulla contributed reporting from Erbil, and an employee of The New York Times from Diyala. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [email protected]. -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [email protected] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: [email protected] Subscribe: [email protected] Unsubscribe: [email protected] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. OSINT, as a part of The Intelligence Network, is making it available without profit to OSINT YahooGroups members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of intelligence and law enforcement organizations, their activities, methods, techniques, human rights, civil liberties, social justice and other intelligence related issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtmlYahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: [email protected] [email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
