Yesterday was the deadliest day since the escalation strategy began, resulting in the deaths of over 200 people. A car bomb killed 140 in a single blast at the Sadriyah marketplace, making it the deadliest single such car bomb attack since the US-led invasion four years ago. Many Iraqis today are expressing their outrage over the impact that escalation is having on their lives:
“The security plan has big shortcomings. Since such incidents reoccurred, security should have been tightened. There is negligence,” said Naseer al-Ani, a Sunni Arab MP from the Iraqi Islamic Party.
“After two months of the security plan in the hot areas of the city, the attacks have moved to the cold, quiet areas to make them hot, while the hot areas burn,” said [Iraqi parliament member] Nasar al-Rubaie.
Aljazeera.net reported that locals “cursed at the security plan of the prime pinister” in the scene of the bombings. The website added that when Iraqi Army units appeared on the scene, outraged locals hurled insults at the soldiers and chased them out of the area. A US Army patrol entered the district shortly afterwards, only to be received by stones and slugs thrown by the residents. The American force withdrew from the scene as well.
“Where is the government? Where is the security plan?” [65-year-old Abu Adnan] raged, while bystanders crowded to see the three metre (yard) wide and two metre deep hole ripped out of the black tarmac by the force of the car bomb.
“How could anyone bring a car bomb to this place? What were those innocents guilty of?” [28-year-old Imad Basim] demanded. “Where is the government and its security plan?”
“The government is talking about the security plan but dozens of people are dying every day. No one is protecting us,” Sabah Haider, 42, told Reuters as he stood beside a dozen incinerated minibuses.
Rahim Ali, also in Sadriya, said: “The Americans say they are here to protect the Iraqi people but they are doing nothing.”
The increasing presence of the U.S. occupation is fueling a bloody cycle of violence: it motivates terrorists to carry out attacks; the locals blame the attacks on the U.S.; the terrorists then find a new recruiting pool willing to carry out new attacks.
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