“I Saw The Suicide Bomber And She Was Begging”
U.S. And Iraqis Vow Revenge. Senior American and Iraqi military officials produced photographs today that they said showed two suicide bombers who participated Friday in bombings at two popular pet markets that resulted in Baghdad’s deadliest attacks in months. The two photographs depicted the lifeless faces of two dark-haired women with oblique eye fissures, a wide gap between the eyes and a flat nose bridge — all characteristics consistent with Down’s syndrome.
BAGHDAD - A top U.S. commander said Saturday that two bombings carried out by women wrapped in bombs that killed nearly 100 people in Baghdad underscored that al-Qaida in Iraq remains a serious threat, but he vowed the military would “not give back any terrain” to the terror network.
One of the bombers wasn’t searched because she was known as local beggar and the male guards were reluctant to search women because of Islamic sensitivities.
U.S. and Iraqi officials said Saturday that pictures showed the bombers had Down syndrome and likely did not know they were being used in Friday’s attacks.
Ali Nassir, a 30-year-old day laborer whose hobby is raising birds, said people with disabilities often beg for food and money at the weekly al-Ghazl pet bazaar on Fridays.
“I saw the suicide bomber and she was begging,” Nassir said, adding the woman was known to the vendors. “The security guards did not search her because she is a woman and because it is not unusual to have beggars, mainly women and children, moving around in the market.”
Iraqi officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were authorized to release the information, raised the death toll of Friday’s attacks to at least 99—62 people in the first blast at the central al-Ghazl bazaar and 37 others about 20 minutes later at the New Baghdad area pigeon market in southeastern Baghdad.
Maj. Gen. Jeffery Hammond, the top U.S. commander in Baghdad, said the women appeared to be unwitting attackers.
“It appears the suicide bombers were not willing martyrs, they were used by al-Qaida for these horrific attacks,” he said. “These two women were likely used because they didn’t understand what was happening and they were less likely to be searched.”
He also reiterated military warnings that al-Qaida remains a serious threat despite major inroads against the network since the Americans began sending some 30,000 extra troops to the capital and surrounding areas in the spring.
“These two suicide vest attacks represent the worst of human nature,” Hammond said during a news conference. He said American forces would continue their targeted operations that have succeeded in decreasing attacks.
“We will not give back any terrain here in Baghdad,” he said.
Iraqi officials said they had pictures of the two women’s heads that were found at the scene that proved they had Down syndrome, and they said the explosives had been detonated by remote-control.
“This is very credible information,” said Lt. Gen. Abboud Qanbar, the chief Iraqi military commander in Baghdad, adding the photos would not be released to the public because of humanitarian concerns.
Lt. Col. Steve Stover, a military spokesman for the Baghdad area, said “they were both females and they both looked like they had Down syndrome.” Medical experts with his division had examined the photos and agreed the women probably suffered from the genetic disorder, he said.
A cell phone image of one of the heads viewed by The Associated Press was inconclusive.
The U.S. military, which gave a lower combined death toll of 27, blamed the attacks on al-Qaida in Iraq and said they signaled a new desperation as concrete blast barriers and other security measures have stanched the group’s ability to stage deadly car bombings and similar attacks.
“It sounds like (al-Qaida in Iraq) has stooped to a new low where they’re using people who may not even know what they’re doing and strapped something to them and told them go into a market,” Stover said.
He said one of the women was carrying a backpack that was stuffed with ball bearings and shrapnel to maximize the casualties, while the other one was wearing an explosives vest.
The bombings served as a reminder that Iraqi insurgents are constantly shifting their strategies in attempts to unravel recent security gains around the country. Women have been used in ever greater frequency in suicide attacks—six times now since November.
Friday’s blasts were the deadliest in the capital since an April 18 suicide car bombing that killed 116 and wounded 145.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki vowed to crack down on the militants. “The ugliness of this crime will not deter our security forces. It will increase our determination to continue crushing the dens of the terrorists,” he said in a statement.
Onlookers gathered at the New Baghdad pigeon market Saturday, peering through twisted metal into the charred remains of stalls and shops. Vendors sifted through ruined wares. One man held up a tattered piece of clothing, ripped apart by Friday’s blast or in the frenzied panic that followed.
Haider Jabar, a 28-year-old government employee who lives near the market and often goes for a stroll among the cages, said the woman used in that attack was a stranger to the locals.
“The woman seemed to be handicapped. It was uncommon to have a woman walking inside New Baghdad bird market, this fact had attracted many teenagers who had gathered around her at the time of the explosion,” he said.
Others called on authorities to step up measures to protect the market, which unlike many others in the capital is not surrounding by concrete barriers.
“Every place in Baghdad is exposed to terrorist attacks,” said survivor Badir Sami, 42. “I demand tighter security measures at popular markets like this, where many people gather especially on Fridays.”
Another pigeon dealer, Ali Mansour, said he was packing up his shop after surviving three attacks in the al-Ghazl market.
Al-Maliki, meanwhile, turned his attention to the northwestern city of Mosul, promising what he said would be the final showdown with al- Qaida in Iraq led insurgents said to have taken refuge there to escape U.S.-led offensives in Baghdad and surrounding areas.
U.S. commanders in northern Iraq have said the battle to oust al-Qaida in Iraq from its last urban stronghold will not be a swift strike as al-Maliki suggested, but rather a grinding campaign that will require more firepower.
Iraqi police and military units have been dispatched to the area, and al-Maliki said he was eager to “end the matter as soon as possible,” although he gave no start date. The prime minister also named the commander of the security operations in and around Mosul as newly promoted Lt. Gen. Riyadh Jalal, a senior officer in the region.
“We have come here to start the march of liberating Mosul from terrorists and outlaws,” al-Maliki said during a meeting with Iraqi military commanders in the city, which is the capital of Ninevah province. “The stabilization of this province will send the last message that al-Qaida and the remnants of the former regime are defeated.”
(Agencies)
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Hello world: are you paying attention? Do you see what it is we’re dealing with now? Do you get it yet? Is it sinking in?
February 2nd, 2008 at 3:03 pmHello world: are you paying attention? Do you see what it is we’re dealing with now? Do you get it yet? Is it sinking in?
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The world doesn’t care … No matter what, it’s Bush’s and America’s fault.
The fact that these two woman were Down Syndrome even lessens their concern, as most of the world believes this [population] of our world’s civilization should be discarded from the womb, or even after birth … Why, some “civilized” (Western) countries are trying to eradicate Down Syndrome from their future populations via prenatal testing and socialistic government pressure to abort.
Had these two women been dogs or even goats “the world” might be raising a brow.
February 2nd, 2008 at 3:16 pmDangerous animals must be put down. It is the only humane thing to do. Why sweat it? Just do it!
February 2nd, 2008 at 3:20 pmJam-
Why are retarded people dangerous animals?
February 2nd, 2008 at 3:27 pm@jam
“Dangerous animals must be put down. It is the only humane thing to do. Why sweat it? Just do it!”
AQI & AQA don’t rise to the dignity of an animal. They are beneath animals. Insects maybe?
In any event, all jihadis should be wiped off the face of the earth. And the scum that did this crime should be destroyed at the earliest opportunity. A JADAM or a lead enema is too good for them. Maybe the Iraqis could devise something more appropriate as an execution method?
February 2nd, 2008 at 3:52 pmIn a sick way…amusing. AQ is so unpopular that they have to recruit retards to carry out their dirty work.
February 2nd, 2008 at 3:58 pmIvan -
“recruit” denotes volunteering.
AQI/Terrorists are kidnapping or luring these poor folks into something they have no idea about.
February 2nd, 2008 at 4:18 pm“A cell phone image of one of the heads viewed by The Associated Press was inconclusive.”
I think what the Associated Press is trying to pull with this line - All those American’s are saying that the suicide bomber’s were forced Down’s Syndrome victims, but we, the slimeball Associated Press, can’t say that for sure because that would just generate way too much anger against the APs beloved, misunderstood freedom fighter’s - they can’t possibly confirm that the freedom fighter’s would use poor, unsuspecting mentally challenged victims . . . say it ain’t so . . . God - the media disgusts me.
February 2nd, 2008 at 4:54 pmgod I hope whoever did this is roasting in hell
this is low even for them.
February 2nd, 2008 at 6:51 pm@ Drillanwr:
I posted a comment aspecially for you that, kind of, got lost.
I’d like to repost it:
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Drillanwr;
I submitted this whole nasty story as a tip by mailing it to Pat last Friday. You see, when something awfull like this happens in Iraque on Friday, I hear it early at friday when in Iraq it’s almost saturday and in the US it’s still thursday-night.
Dear Proud Mum of a Wonderfull DS-Daughter.
When I read that awfull story, the first thought that popped up in my mind was your special, wonderfull and beloved daughter.
I read your comments on that topic as I read those above. Some of them brought tears to my eyes from sadness, the others brought also tears, but from being moved and feeling humble.
Please, allow me, from all the way and across the ocean, to give you and your wonderfull daughter a warm cyber bear-hug and a loving kiss to the both of you from me, Jeanet.
Dan (The Infidel) told me somewhere else on this site;”You go girl” for the comment I made there.
For a different reason, but, from the bottom of my heart, I’d like to say to you and your daughter the same;”You go girls!!!”.
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B.T.W. I think the word “retard” is very harsh. (Unless it’s the way you describe extremist Muslims, Moonbats and other shitty excuses-for-human-kind.
)
I think “mentally disabled” is a better word although it’s not a fit description as well, nor does it cover the sparkling personalitys that people with DS have.
Those who are considered “not having a fully functional mind” mostly are more wonderful, genuine, honest and clever human beings than expected. (In contradiction to many who are supposed to be “normal” but seem to be unable to act like it.) The only thing one can do is “give them a chance” in stead of being biased right away.
A boy with DS once said to me:”You have a fat face but I like your eyes”. He just made my day, being honest and…..saying it with the most wonderfull smile I’ve ever seen. It was like a ray of light brightening up that particular dark winters-day.
I’ll swear, I’ll never forget that moment and it still makes me smile with joy, remembering it. The boy died of a heart-condition, which seems to occure more often with DS, but to me he left a legacy with his open mind and eagerness to live. The lesson how to live with many health-problems and the price that needs to be payed for that, still going on, just gathering all the strenght that is left to make the best out of it.
“A day not laughing, is a day not living”.
Speaking of:
I’m signing off for a while, due to some healt-problems.
Don’t make a fuzz about it. I’m like weed! Every time you think you got rid of it, it stares you back in the face
February 3rd, 2008 at 9:29 am