2 January 2008
On New Year’s day 30 people in Baghdad were killed by a suicide bomber in a horrific explosion. The people were gathered at a house where scores of friends and relatives had gathered to pay tribute to a man killed three days earlier by a car bomb in Tayaran Square in central Baghdad. There were many children in the group. I thought that the U.S. had gotten a handle on insurgent groups in Baghdad. This attack was one of several attacks on Tuesday that included the killing of five family members in Diyala Province. Iraq remains very dangerous despite a recent drop in killings.
The blast was unusual because of its heavy toll but also for its location in a neighborhood that has a large Iraqi military and police presence with many checkpoints and barriers intended to prevent attackers from entering the area. Observes stated that no stranger had entered, so either the bomber was a relative or someone well known to the family. In the last year, Sunni militia groups have been working with the American military to establish security and drive out Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, an insurgent group that American intelligence says is led by foreigners.
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