175 dead in attacks on Iraqi Yazidis

[Watser?]

Remember that Yazidi girl who got stoned by her former co-religionists (http://www.freethought-forum.com/forum/showpost.php?p=371930&postcount=19) in Iraq after she converted to (Sunni) Islam? Well apparently the Sunnis are still taking revenge...

At least 175 people have been killed in a series of suicide bomb attacks in northern Iraq, Iraq's military says.

The blasts apparently targeted a Kurdish religious minority, the Yazidi sect, near Mosul. At least four blasts hit areas which house the community.

A Mosul police source told the BBC that there had been "large loss of life".

Tensions between the sect and local Muslims have grown since a Yazidi girl was reportedly stoned by her community in April for converting to Islam.

Officials said at least one of the attacks near Mosul involved a fuel tanker.link (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6946028.stm)

[Naruto]

Thank god we're making progress over there. This will all be over in a few months.

[Watser?]

Oh and also yesterday a US helicopter was shot down, killing 5, 5 more troops died elsewhere and a deputy minister was kidnapped.

[ChuckF]

The surge has only been in place for a short time. A few weeks. Days. A matter of hours, really. Once it gets some time to work, then we'll see real progress. Seriously. I mean, September is just a couple of days away, so it's stupid to think that we're going to see the country transformed between now, when the surge is only just beginning, and when General Saint Petraeus gives his report to Congress. Six more months, that's all we need!

[trientalis]

Well, Petraeus may be giving a report to Congress, but that report will be written by the White House according to this (http://www.americablog.com/2007/08/la-times-white-house-is-writing-general.html)

Why was I even surprised?

[InTheServiceOfZeke]

how many dead iraqis does it take to drive your car to the corner store?

answer: who cares?

[Watser?]

The death toll has now risen to 250 according to the BBC (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6947886.stm), could still go up... Iraqi officials say at least 250 people died in Tuesday's bombings in the north of the country - the deadliest attack on a single area since the 2003 war.

Four bombs devastated two villages of the Yazidi, a Kurdish religious sect, near the city of Mosul, and left at least 350 people injured.

Rescuers are continuing to dig through rubble to find survivors.

[InTheServiceOfZeke]

fingers crossed.

the more dead iraqis, the sooner america gets to the point of having had enough and the quicker the war ends!!

[D. Scarlatti]

Exactly. As a leftist, I find the idea of fewer dead Iraqis completely unacceptable.

[davidm]

how many dead iraqis does it take to drive your car to the corner store?

answer: who cares?

Right, that's precisely what someone like you would say. It'd be a very different story if it were you or your loved ones, wouldn't it, cretin?

[InTheServiceOfZeke]

how many dead iraqis does it take to drive your car to the corner store?

answer: who cares?

Right, that's precisely what someone like you would say. It'd be a very different story if it were you or your loved ones, wouldn't it, cretin?


are they yours? what a sheep. bahhhhh....

[davidm]

how many dead iraqis does it take to drive your car to the corner store?

answer: who cares?

Right, that's precisely what someone like you would say. It'd be a very different story if it were you or your loved ones, wouldn't it, cretin?


are they yours? what a sheep. bahhhhh....

Congratulations for admitting that you are a sociopath. At least you are honest; small compensation, though, for your basic hideousness.

[Watser?]

:trollx:

[InTheServiceOfZeke]

how many dead iraqis does it take to drive your car to the corner store?

answer: who cares?

Right, that's precisely what someone like you would say. It'd be a very different story if it were you or your loved ones, wouldn't it, cretin?


are they yours? what a sheep. bahhhhh....

Congratulations for admitting that you are a sociopath. At least you are honest; small compensation, though, for your basic hideousness.

no problem! :)

[But]

Interesting. What is the DSM-IV code for "incoherently babbling, attention craving asshole without a clue"?

[Crumb]

I think that is in DSM-11

[ChuckF]

I don't know, but I'll bet it's in chapter 11, section 11.

[Uthgar the Brazen]

301.81

[ChuckF]

:laugh: Props for actually looking it up!

[Naruto]

I heard that InTheServiceOfZeke's car actually runs on the blood of dead Iraqis. And he can't have an orgasm unless he kills a dog.

It's just something I heard.

[InTheServiceOfZeke]

I heard that InTheServiceOfZeke's car actually runs on the blood of dead Iraqis. And he can't have an orgasm unless he kills a dog.

It's just something I heard.

dead iraqi babies, ripped from their incubators. get it right :)

[Watser?]

I'm not even reading his crap and he still pisses me off.

Why is it that every single fucking thread you enter ends up being about you, you fucking egomaniac idiot asshole creep?

[ChuckF]

Michael, before I quit replying to your posts, I have a bit of news that will be difficult to hear. Watser?, I apologize for furthering this derail.

Michael, you might want to sit down. I'm sorry to have to be the one to tell you this. In the world, and most especially on the internet, pricks like you are a dime a dozen. You are not special and no one cares. Go fuck yourself.

Now I need to utter the code phrase "Monkey Clown Penis" so the rest of the girly gang knows not to reply to your idiocy any further. Monkey Clown Penis. Repeat, Monkey Clown Penis.

Plonk.

[InTheServiceOfZeke]

I'm not even reading his crap and he still pisses me off.

Why is it that every single fucking thread you enter ends up being about you, you fucking egomaniac idiot asshole creep?

really? i thought posting death tolls was more about you? :chin:

[But]

I heard that InTheServiceOfZeke's car actually runs on the blood of dead Iraqis. And he can't have an orgasm unless he kills a dog.

It's just something I heard.

Some say that his car actually runs on the blood of dead Iraqis. And that he can't have an orgasm unless he kills a dog. [cue laughter]

All we know is, he's called.. whatever he's called this week.


ITSOZ, you probably think you're funny or clever or whatever. Matters not.

:plonk:

[But]

Back on topic, I don't think we'll see an end to this mayhem any time soon. Just a few years ago, I wouldn't have thought it possible to be desensitized to all this in such a way that I'd look at the headlines and think - 50, 100, 300, lots of people killed with bombs, ok, any real news today.. let's see..

[Watser?]

Tell me about it...

The Yazidis only number about half a million people though, they are suffering pretty badly here.

[InTheServiceOfZeke]

ITSOZ, you probably think you're funny or clever or whatever. Matters not.


oh, but it does matter...enough for you to mention it.

why even bother?

i don't get my news from here. i take a different approach to things. that is my RIGHT. it isn't trolling, it just isn't what you do...

michael :)

[livius drusus]

The Yazidis only number about half a million people though, they are suffering pretty badly here.
It's like East Timor all over again. :sigh:

[yguy]

As a leftist, I find the idea of fewer dead Iraqis completely unacceptable.While this is not exactly news, I appreciate the confirmation anyway.

[But]

ooo, a clown!!11 Do you have balloons?

[D. Scarlatti]

While this is not exactly news, I appreciate the confirmation anyway.

And remember kids, leave the sarcasm to the professionals. Don't try this at home.

[Watser?]

Here's a little perspective on what is going on by The Independent (http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article2866788.ece): The attacks in Sinjar underline the inability of the government in Baghdad to control a series of very distinct battles for supremacy taking place in different parts of Iraq. This is not only between communities but also within them.

In the Shia city of Diwaniyah last Saturday, an expertly timed roadside bomb killed the governor, Khalil Jalil, and the provincial police chief, Maj-Gen Khalid Hassan. The assassinations may be part of a war for control of the province between the Mehdi Army militia of the radical Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and Iraqi government forces who are loyal to the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, of which Mr Jalil was a senior member.

The intra-Shia conflict has little to do with the US and British occupation and is primarily over the control of jobs and local resources. In cities such as Basra, control of oil products and the port are particularly valuable.

The struggle for power in northern Iraq is likely to escalate sharply in coming months because a referendum is scheduled at the end of 2007 in which people in Kirkuk and Mosul will vote on whether or not to join the semi-independent Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).

Although the timing of the referendum is written into the constitution, the government in Baghdad has been very slow in reversing Saddam Hussein's ethnic cleansing of Kurds and holding a census to determine who can vote.

The Kurds are growing impatient about holding the referendum but might agree to a short delay. They would expect the result of a vote to show Kirkuk city and the surrounding oilfields joining the KRG but Mosul city staying out. On the other hand, the Kurds would hope to take over areas around Mosul city such as Sinjar, the site of this week's bombing, because it is also their link to the large Kurdish minority in northern Syria. Militant Sunni areas such as Hawaijaqh in western Tameem province would probably secede.
So, according to Patrick Cockburn, this is part of the ethnic struggle between Arabs and Kurds rather than a sectarian struggle between Sunnis and Yazidis. Personally I think it's a bit of both, I'm sure the Sunni Arabs had fewer qualms about blowing up 'devil-worshipers' than Sunni Kurds.

Oh and don't believe the hype says Cockburn (one of the few journalists outside the Green Zone): The US military has suggested the bombers are operating more ruthlessly in northern Iraq because they can no longer operate in Baghdad because of the success of the American "surge". In reality, the number of car bombings in Baghdad in July was 5 per cent higher than last December and civilian casualties in explosions have increased by about the same percentage.

[Watser?]

It says here the death toll may rise to 500! Rescuers used bare hands and shovels Wednesday to claw through clay houses shattered by an onslaught of suicide bombings that killed at least 250 and possibly as many as 500 members of an ancient religious sect in the deadliest attack of the Iraq war.

...

"This is an act of ethnic cleansing, if you will, almost genocide," Army Maj. Gen. Benjamin Mixon, commander of U.S. forces in northern Iraq, told CNN. He said that was evident from the fact that Yazidis live in a remote part of Ninevah province that has been far from Iraq's conflict.
Death estimates ranged widely. Zayan Othman, health minister for Iraq's nearby autonomous Kurdish region, said 250 bodies had been pulled from the rubble and 350 people were injured. But the death toll was put as high as 500 by some local officials, including Hashim al-Hamadani, a senior provincial security official; Kifah Mohammed, director of Sinjar hospital; and Iraqi army Capt. Mohammed Ahmed.link (http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070816/NATIONWORLD/708160484/-1/LOCAL17)

[D. Scarlatti]

I think I heard Gen. Petraeus say it was because "we haven't surged there yet" or something.

[Petra]

I only caught a snippet on the local news, but they were saying that it looked like the work of Al Qaeda, who are hell bent on continued destabilisation of the country no matter who dies.

[Watser?]

Well, maybe. But I am inclined to believe that this is not random but connected to struggles for territory as Patrick Cockburn says. This unholy idea of having a referendum on the future of Kirkuk will bring a lot more trouble, count on it.