Prison raids and bombings are only the latest in a wave of violence that has swept throughout Iraq in the past four months killing more than 300 people and further weakening the Baghdad government’s hold on the country. Since the Muslim holy month of Ramadan began on July 10, the attacks have intensified and occur on a nearly daily basis.
An al Qaeda group claimed responsibility Tuesday [23rd July] for coordinated attacks on two Iraqi prisons that a lawmaker said freed more than 500 inmates, including some senior members of the militant group. The attacks occurred Sunday night at Abu Ghraib, west of Baghdad, and al-Taji prison, north of the capital. At least 21 inmates and at least eight prison guards were killed, the Iraqi Justice Ministry said, while 25 inmates and 14 guards were wounded.
Mortar fire and suicide bombs were used to gain access to the jails, whose inmates include al-Qaeda prisoners. Most of them were senior members of al-Qaeda who had been sentenced to death, he told Reuters news agency:
“It’s obviously a terrorist attack carried out by al-Qaeda to free convicted terrorists with al-Qaeda,” the agency quoted an unnamed security official as saying.
Abu Ghraib was used to torture opponents of the regime during Saddam Hussein’s rule, and its infamy increased in 2004 when photographs were published showing detainees being abused by US guards.
On Tuesday, an al-Qaeda affiliate calling itself the ‘Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant’ said it carried out the attacks on the prisons. The group, which was formed of al-Qaeda groups in Iraq and Syria, said it had spent “months planning” the attacks on Abu Ghraib to the west of the capital and Taji to the north.
Justice ministry spokesman Wissam al-Firaiji earlier said the attackers, whom he called terrorists, had been well-armed. “The attack against Taji jail alone was carried out by nine suicide bombers and three car bombs driven by suicide bombers,” he told reporters. “The attackers also lobbed more than 100 mortar shells,” he said, adding that the inmates were “under control” again.
The title of this article appears to blame America and democracy for a crime committed by radical terrorists…the prison attacks were planned and executed by the same al qaeda terrorists that the USA has been fighting for over a decade..to try to equate this terrorist action with American led quest for democracy is a typical propaganda device used by haters of freedom and democracy…the editors should know that your readers are not all so uneducated as to be fooled by this cheap trick…
Your cherished freedom and democracy are cloaked hypocricy, imprisonment without charges and spying on other nations and innocent civilians. The acts of cruelty committed by American forces, remember Faluja and Abu Gharaib, would be a case for crimes against humanity if there was a just world. Let me point out to you that Sadam probably hated AL Qaueda as much or more than America. So there was no AQ in Iraq until Americans destroyed all Iraqi infrastructure, institutions, army and religious tolerance and harmony. You’re absolutely right readers are not uneducated that they may be duped into believing that some sort of a just war was fought in Iraq, under false pretenses of WMD. Remember that liar “uncle Tom” at the UN? Remember also what that a great man Hans Blixt said for months prior to the attack on Iraq. The “noble” Americans discredit him with lies and destroyed his reputation. In the aftermath who would you believe now Hans Blixt or that liar Colon Powel? Eddied, who pays you to comment on these sites?
@zak…no one pays me..I am comfortably retired and don’t need any payment to follow the problems in Pakistan caused by radicals who have distorted the media by blaming the west for all of the problems in the Middle East…your denial of responsibility for the chaos caused by extremist Muslims and the carnage they are causing by targeting innocent civilians in Mosques and marketplaces are enough motivation for me to speak out against these atrocities…and to speak out against those who would purposely twist the truth into blaming other outsiders for the problems being caused by internal unstable radicals who give Islam a bad name…
Eddied,
Who is the greater evil, the one who beguiles the already confused to pull the trigger or the one actually pulling the trigger.
Offcourse as Muslims these pathetic butchers that call them selves TTP and FSA and their equivalent in Libya should be vanquished.
Eddied,
At the same token there are many Muslims who have a justified freedom struggle from displacement, genocide, denial of basic human rights at the hands of tyrannical puppets or occupied by foreign powers.
The world ignores these peoples, the UN stays silent and internet self styled voices of reason and justice are oblivious to them as if their cries are non existent.
Surely you can’t beleive you have nble intentions by putting a pseudo intellectual spin on your argument.
The acid test for any of these pseudo intelelctuals is a simple question:
Do you Feel Palestinians have been dispalced and massacred and driven from their ancestoral homes and lands and the violence continues…
Do you feel Kashmiris have been displaced and massacred and driven from their ancestoral homes and lands and the violence continues…
Assad is an angel comapred to the FSA? Syria was magical and beautiful, it’s history inspiring and it’s ruins and architecture jaw dropping. Who has burnt Syria!!
The answers will be predicatable and no one truly shall speak for the truth and provide a way out of genocide and displacement of Palestinians, Kashmiris and Syrians but will be quick to condemn the opressed and the victim.
That is what is expected from people like Eddied who paint a gloom picture of Muslims as if theya r eincapable of governance yet they have held the longest seat of civilisation, modern progression, great societies in comparison to other empires and it’s last empire / civilisation was disbanded bny the same people who pull the strings to divide and destroy the Muslim lands only a mere 80 + years ago.
The FSA, the Butchers of Libya are akin to the butchers who Lawrence of Arabia armed against the legitimate superior governance of yesterday that existed in the Muslim lands.
Look how those butchers and marauders were painted in the Western written history books.
But good on the West for fooling the Muslims all the time..
The saying, “you can fool the people some of the time and not all the time” does not apply tot he stupid Muslims of Arab and Greater Middle East referring to Central Asia inc. Pakistan.
This dim witted bafoons are so pathetic and can not see history repeating itself so why not West take the advantage.
Until Muslims actually behave LIKE Muslims, honourable, courageous top-down change will not come any day soon and continue to be the fools of the Great Games played by the West using Islam as the scape good for economic regeneration.
Last paragraph to read:
>>Until Muslims actually behave LIKE Muslims, honourable, courageous top-down change will not come any day soon and continue to be the fools of the Great Games played by the West using Islam as the SCAPE GOAT for economic regeneration.<<<<<