Series of car bombs kills 19 in western Iraq

BAGHDAD — A spate of car bombings killed 19 people Sunday in Iraq's western Anbar province, once a hotbed of insurgency that later become a showcase for restoring peace.

The province was the scene of some of the most intense fighting by U.S. troops during the insurgency. Violence tapered off significantly after local tribes decided to align themselves with U.S. forces instead of al-Qaida in what is widely considered to be one of the key turning points of the Iraq war.

A reinvigorated insurgency in Anbar would pose a grave danger to Iraq's fragile stability as it prepares for crucial parliamentary elections early next year.

The explosions Sunday occurred in Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province about 70 miles (115 kilometer) west of Baghdad. According to a local police official, a parked car first exploded near the Anbar province police headquarters and the provincial council building.

The second car bombing took place as police and bystanders rushed to the scene to help, while a third car exploded about an hour later at the gates to the Ramadi hospital, the police official said.

Police and hospital officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

One bystander, Musaab Ali Mohammed, said he was buying cigarettes from a nearby shop when he heard a big explosion and saw smoke billowing out from the parking lot.

"I saw police cars and firefighters, and they started to carry out the wounded and dead. ... Minutes later, a second explosion took place," he said.

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Such explosions coming in quick succession are usually designed to target rescuers and security forces who rush to the scene to assist and were a hallmark of the insurgent group, Al-Qaida in Iraq, during the height of the insurgency.

Sunday's attacks follow a bombing last week in another Anbar city, Fallujah, in which a car bomb tore through an open-air market, killing at least eight people. At least seven people were killed in late September in Ramadi when a suicide bomber slammed a tanker truck packed with explosives into a police outpost.

Iraqi officials have portrayed such attacks as limited in nature and not an indication that the insurgency is regaining its footing.

A member of the Anbar provincial council, Aeefan Sadoun, told The Associated Press that Sunday's attacks "represent a limited security breach that will be fixed soon."

He said the attacks do not indicate a significant deterioration in security in the once-volatile province.

"The security situation in Anbar is good and al-Qaida will never be able to take over again," he said.

But such attacks may increase in the run-up to the elections expected this January, said Michael Hanna, an analyst with the New York-based Century Foundation, especially because Iraqi Prime Minster Nouri al-Maliki's popularity has resulted largely from the country's relative stability.

"There's still an insurgency. They are able to pull these things off," he said. "There's a very clear political motivation for insurgents to carry out violent attacks, to try to undermine the government ... ahead of what are important elections."

However, Hanna said while the recent attacks are troubling, they haven't risen to the level seen during the insurgency's height, an indication that the insurgency does not have the same capability as it once did.

Comments

[vascopyjama]

All I can say is thank God we got rid of the WMDs and brought peace and prosperity to this poor country. Hopefully we will be able to shower our benevolence on Iran soon.

[Austintatious]

Iraq is another Vietnam, another fool's errand. Misled by our political leaders into a never ending conflict for which there was never a legitimate reason to prosecute and which was, by definition, unwinnable the day it was started; then, continuing that prosecution even in the face of overwhelming evidence of these basic fallacies.

Now, our new President is about to make further investments in the policies of two of the most ignorant and arrogant political leaders this nation has suffered. An opportunity to meaningully change course in Afghanistan such as exists at this moment will not come again; once wasted, this President's course to failure will be firmly set. As difficult as it might be for Obama to change course now, it will always be more difficult as time passes and further commitments are made.

Folks, if we haven't been able to succeed in Iraq, we certainly won't in Afghanistan, for it will be infinitely more difficult to win, there. Meanwhile, the country suffers its worst economic crisis since the Great Depression (in the end, maybe even worse) and this President continues to pour desperately needed American taxdollars down those bottomless pits. The United States of America is fast on the road to a self inflicted failure, largely caused by those we Americans elect to high office. While they may enjoy more than their fair share, Bush and Cheney clearly don't have a monopoly on ignorance and arrogance, for these are traits defining this American culture, as history well demonstrates.

[hark]

I don't understand this "win" thing. Unless we stay forever in countries that we invade and occupy, once we leave they will become whatever they are to become. We cannot stop it. There is no one to surrender to us, no national government to defeat, no referee to award us the title. There are just people who mostly don't want us there while we go around fighting ghosts who either weren't there when we invaded, as in Iraq, or who have mostly left, as in Afghanistan.

I don't understand how we can kill so many innocent civilians and avoid the terrorist label ourselves. Millions were killed in Vietnam. Nobody will ever know how many. At least 100,000 in Iraq, not counting those who perished in Gulf War I, and the thousands who died because of our sanctions.

And now it is the same thing in Afghanistan. Death, mayhem and destruction. That is what we bring. About time somebody called it for what it is.

[Austintatious]

As apt a description of the futility and insanity of America's misadventures in Iraq and Afghanistan as one might find. In addition, your suggestion that the words "win" and "winnable" are not applicable to those situations is correct, of course. On the other hans, I do believe that there are "losers" , the United States among them.

Re the death of Iraqi's as the result of our intervention there, I recall that two reknowned universities conducted studies, some years ago, of the numbers of deaths caused, one way or another, by our invasion and occupation of Iraq. I cannot recall one of those universities but one was Johns Hopkins. Their study concluded that in excess of 600,000 had already died by the time of their study, again, years ago. Our government's figures on Iraqi casualties are notably unreliable, for a variety of reasons.

[duxguts]

Actually we will be staying a little longer than a lot of people realize or our politicians want us to know. Wait for the subtle changes in wording. 'Troops' will become 'Combat Troops' etc. It will be one of the many bases we have around the world that cost us a fortune to run and maintain. Part of our imperial reach and all that. And we haven't built the largest embassy in the world there for nothing.

[balancedsolution]

Good thing we're no longer at war with them. We freed them! Right Cheney?

Well what the heck are we still there for?

To pressure Iran?

Get out and let them fight amongst themselves.

Find a new energy source and nobody will care about america. they will be mad at china.

[JerryLevy]

Let's see, Iraq has a had several free and fair elections, the Americans are leaving, and there is a representative democracy in Iraq. Can anyone tell me the objectives of these people who continue to suicide bomb, car bomb, and murder as many people as they can?

[caribgirl]

The divisions between the sunni, shia, kurds go back thousands of years. No western style democracy is going to change that.

[clearpepsi]

this is the kind of stuff the makes it obvious that the surge did not work... gopers - a culture of failure