[Wednesday August 15 2007 07:15:01 AM GMT]

ஈராக்கில் அமெரிக்க படைகளுக்கு எதிராகவும், அரசுக்கு எதிராகவும் தீவிர வாதிகள் கார் குண்டு தாக்குதல் நடத்தி வருகிறார்கள். இந்த நிலையில் சன்னி-ஷியா பிரிவினருக்கு இடையே கோஷ்டி மோதலிலும் தினம் ஏராளமானவர்கள் பலியாகி வருகிறார்கள். சமீபகாலமாக யாசிடி என்ற பிரிவினருக்கு எதிராகவும் தாக்குதல் நடந்து வருகிறது.

நேற்று சிந்கார் மாவட்டத் தில் மோசல் அருகே உள்ள அல்கதா மியா மற்றும் அல் அட்னியா ஆகிய கிராமங் களில் தற்கொலை படை தீவிர வாதிகள் 4 எண்ணை லாரி களில் வந்தனர். அந்த லாரிகள் நிறைய வெடிகுண்டுகள் நிரப்பப்பட்டு இருந்தன.

அந்த லாரிகளை தீவிர வாதிகள் வீடுகள் மீது அடுத் தடுத்து மோதி வெடிக்க வைத்தனர்.

வெடிகுண்டு லாரிகள் பயங்கர மாக வெடித்து சிதறியதில் நூற்றுக்கணக்கான வீடுகள் தீ பிடித்து எரிந்தன. ரோடுகளில் நிறுத்தப் பட்டிருந்த கார்களும் தீப் பிடித்தன. இந்த வெடிகுண்டு தாக்குதலில் 190 பேர் உடல் சிதறி பலியானார்கள். 200-க்கும் மேற்பட்டவர்கள் படுகாயம் அடைந்தனர்.

தாக்குதல் நடத்திய தீவிரவாதிகளும் உடல் சிதறி பலியானார்கள். இந்த 2 கிராமங்களுமே சுடு காடு போல காட்சி அளிக் கிறது. ஒரே நாளில் 190 பேர் தீவிரவாதிகளின் தாக்கு தலுக்கு பலியாகி இருப்பது ஈராக் அரசை அதிர்ச்சிக் குள்ளாகி இருக்கிறது.

இந்த தாக்குதல் நடத்துவதற்கு முன் பாக்தாத் நகரில் தீவிரவாதிகள் அந்த நாட்டு மந்திரி ஒருவரை கடத்தி சென்று விட்டனர். ஈராக்கின் எண்ணை துறையின் துணை மந்திரியாக இருப்பவர் அப்துல் ஜபார் அல்வாகா. பாக்தாத் நகரில் உள்ள இவரது வீட்டுக்கு ராணுவ உடையில் வந்த 50 தீவிரவாதிகள் துப்பாக்கி முனையில் மந்திரியை கடத்திச் சென்றுவிட்டனர்.

-நன்றி தமிழ்வின்.

Iraq blast toll hits 200; dig for victims persists

Four simultaneous suicide attacks target small Kurdish religious sect

Four suicide bombers struck communities of a small Kurdish sect in northwestern Iraq, on Tuesday evening, killing at least 200 people. A child injured in one of the attacks is seen in this image taken from a television report.

BAGHDAD - Rescuers dug through the muddy wreckage of collapsed clay houses in northwest Iraq on Wednesday, uncovering victims of four suicide bombings that Iraqi officials said killed at least 200 people in one of the worst attacks of the war.

The victims were members of a small Kurdish sect — the Yazidis — sometimes attacked by Muslim extremists who consider them infidels.

Four suicide truck bombers struck nearly simultaneously on Tuesday, killing more people than any other concerted attack since Nov. 23, when 215 people were killed by mortar fire and five car bombs in Baghdad’s Shiite Muslim enclave of Sadr City.

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Some 300 wounded

It was most vicious attack yet against the Yazidis, an ancient religious community in the region. Some 300 people were wounded in the blasts, said Dakhil Qassim, the mayor of the nearby town of Sinjar.

Qassim said the four trucks approached the town of Qahataniya, 75 miles west of Mosul, Iraq’s third-largest city, from dirt roads and all exploded within minutes of each other. He said the casualty tolls were expected to rise.

“We are still digging with our hands and shovels because we can’t use cranes because many of the houses were built of clay,” Qassim said. “We are expecting to reach the final death toll tomorrow or day after tomorrow as we are getting only pieces of bodies.”

The bombings came as extremists staged other bold attacks on Tuesday: leveling a key bridge outside Baghdad and abducting five officials from an Oil Ministry compound in the capital in a raid using gunmen dressed as security officers. Nine U.S. soldiers also were reported killed, including five in a helicopter crash.

The carnage dealt a serious blow to U.S. efforts to pacify the country with just weeks to go before the top U.S. commander Gen. David Petraeus and U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker are to deliver a pivotal report to the U.S. Congress amid a fierce debate over whether to begin withdrawing American troops from Iraq.

U.S. officials believe extremists are attempting to regroup across northern Iraq after being driven from strongholds in and around Baghdad, and commanders have warned they expected Sunni insurgents to step up attacks in a bid to upstage the report.

Ancient religious sect targeted

The Yazidis comprise a primarily Kurdish religious sect with ancient roots, that worships an angel figure considered to be the devil by some Muslims and Christians. Yazidis, who don’t believe in hell or evil, deny that.

The Islamic State in Iraq, an al-Qaida front group, distributed leaflets a week ago warning residents near the scene of Tuesday’s bombings that an attack was imminent because Yazidis are “anti-Islamic.”

The sect has been under fire since some members stoned a Yazidi teenager to death in April. She had converted to Islam and fled her family with a Muslim boyfriend, and police said 18-year-old Duaa Khalil Aswad was killed by relatives who disapproved of the match.

A grainy video showing gruesome scenes of the woman’s killing was later posted on Iraqi Web sites. Its authenticity could not be independently verified, but recent attacks on Yazidis have been blamed on al-Qaida-linked Sunni insurgents seeking revenge.

A curfew was in place Wednesday across towns west of Mosul, and U.S. and Iraqi forces were conducting house-to-house searches in response to the bombings, according to Iraqi police and Army officers who spoke on condition of anonymity out of security concerns. Twenty suspects were arrested, they said.

Fact File Deadly Iraq bomb attacks

A list of some of the deadliest bomb attacks in Iraq since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in 2003.

Feb. 1, 2004

117 people are killed when two suicide bombers blow themselves up in Arbil at the offices of the two main Kurdish factions in northern Iraq.

March 2, 2004

171 people are killed in twin attacks in Baghdad and Kerbala.

Feb. 28, 2005

A suicide car bomb attack in Hilla, an area south of Baghdad, kills 125 people and wounds 130.

Sept. 14, 2005

A suicide bomber kills 114 people and wounds 156 in a Shiite district of Baghdad.

Jan. 5, 2006

Two suicide bombers kill more than 120 people and wound more than 200 in the cities of Kerbala and Ramadi.

Nov. 23, 2006

Six car bombs in different parts of the Sadr City neighborhood of Baghdad kill 215 people and wound 250. Feb. 1, 2007

Two suicide bombers strike at a market in the Shiite town of Hilla, killing 61 people and wounding 150.

Feb. 3, 2007

Truck bomb kills 135 people and wounds 305 at a market in the Sadriya quarter of central Baghdad.

March 6, 2007

Two suicide bombers strike in Hilla killing 105 pilgrims. Insurgents also launch attacks against Shi'ite pilgrims in a total of 12 attacks. In all 137 pilgrims died and 310 were wounded.

March 27, 2007

Two truck bombs explode in Tal Afar, close to the Syrian border and the regional capital of Mosul. The final death toll reached 152.

April 18, 2007

Multiple car bombings kill 191 people around Baghdad. Near a popular market in the central Sadriya neighborhood, one car bomb killed 140 people and wounded 150, police said.

Aug. 14, 2007

At least 175 people were killed when four suicide bombers driving fuel tankers attacked residential compounds home to the ancient minority Yazidi sect in northern Iraq.

Source: Reuters •

என்ன கொடுமை இது? பாவம் அந்த அப்பாவி மக்கள்!

ஈராக் ஒரு சாபக்கேடான நாடு தினம் தினம் எத்தனை மனிதர்கள் கொல்லப்படுகின்றனர்