Carnage in Baghdad as twin blasts strike city
Suicide attacks herald new climate of fear ahead of elections
Devastating twin car bombings wreaked carnage in the heart of Baghdad yesterday, killing at least 132 people and injuring 520 others in the deadliest attack in the country in two years.
The suicide bombers struck at the height of morning rush-hour, the first bomb targeting the justice ministry and the second, minutes later, a nearby provincial council building. Some of those killed and maimed were women with children, who had gone to the council to seek compensation for losses suffered in previous bombings and shootings.
The blasts destroyed buildings, and set dozens of vehicles stuck in traffic on fire, incinerating drivers and passengers trapped inside. Smoke billowed from the area near the Tigris River as mangled bodies littered the streets.
As the emergency services warned that the death toll was certain to rise, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who has staked his political future on establishing security, blamed al-Qa'ida and supporters of former president Saddam Hussein. "It is the same black hands who are covered in the blood of the Iraqi people," he said in a statement.
Yesterday's bloodbath will raise questions about the British government's decision to start deporting Iraqi asylum-seekers back to Baghdad because it was now deemed to be "safe". Forty Iraqis were sent home two weeks ago and although 30 were turned back to the UK by Iraqi officials, 10 others were taken off the plane in the Iraqi capital.
The Iraqi authorities linked yesterday's blasts to bombings on 19 August that targeted the foreign and finance ministries and killed about 100 people. At the time, army and police officers were arrested and accused of negligence for letting the bombers through.
Officials in the Maliki government also maintained that the August attack had Syrian connections, an accusation strenuously denied by Damascus. But claims have continued that "foreign hands" are attempting to destabilise Iraq in the run-up to parliamentary elections expected next January, the second national vote since US troops invaded in 2003,
"These cowardly terrorist attacks must not affect the determination of the Iraqi people to continue their struggle against the remnants of the dismantled regime and al-Qa'ida terrorists, who committed a brutal crime against civilians," Mr Maliki said in a statement after visiting the scene of explosions. "They want to cause chaos in the nation, hinder the political process and prevent the parliamentary election."
The bombings were a stark reminder to US President Barack Obama that Iraq remained unfinished business and his administration cannot afford to focus all their attention on Afghanistan.
US commanders in Baghdad have warned that the large-scale pullout of troops may lead the relative security achieved with General David Petraeus's surge to unravel. The Iraqi President, Jalal Talabani, said: "The perpetrators of these treacherous and despicable act are aiming at blocking the political process, halting it and destroying what we have achieved in the past six years."
After phoning the Iraqi leadership, Mr Obama issued a statement pledging that the US would "stand with the Iraqis". "These bombings... only reveal the hateful and destructive agenda of those who would deny the Iraqi people the future that they deserve," he said.
Yesterday's attack was just a few hundred yards from the heavily fortified Green Zone which houses foreign embassies and Iraqi ministries. The street had been recently reopened to traffic in what was supposed to be a sign of confidence that safety was returning to Baghdad. The scene outside the council was ghastly: petrol and water from burst mains ran through pools of blood on the road. Wet corpses were being covered by blankets then put into grey body bags and taken to mortuaries.
One witness, Mohammed Fadhil, 19, said: "Bodies were hurled into the air. I saw women and children cut in half. Why this? What sins have these people committed? They are so innocent." Riyadh Jumaa, 32, was with her three -year-old son when they were hurled to the ground by the second blast. "What kind of improvement is there in security?" she demanded "None. The ministers are sitting in their offices doing nothing when this happens."
About 25 staff in the council are believed to have perished. Yasmeen Afdhal, 24, said: "The walls of our office collapsed and we all had to run out." Ali Hassan, a clerk, added: "There were families who had come to get compensation for other terrorist action. Now they are victims again."
Deadliest day since 2007: Two years of attacks
2007
*3 February: Truck bomb kills 135 people and wounds 305 at a market in Sadriya, central Baghdad
*18 April: Multiple car bombings kill 191 people around the Iraqi capital
*7 July: Truck packed with explosives covered with hay blows up in a crowded market in the northern town of Tuz Khurmato, killing 150 people
2008
*1 February: Female bombers kill 99 people in attacks blamed on al-Qa'ida at two popular Baghdad pet markets
*6 March: Two bombs explode in Baghdad's mainly Shia Karrada district, killing 68 people
*17 June: Truck bombing in the north-western Baghdad suburb of al-Hurriya kills 63 people
2009
*20 June: Suicide bomber strikes as crowds of worshippers leave the Shia al-Rasul mosque in Taza, near Kirkuk. At least 73 people are killed
*24 June: Bomb kills 72 people at a busy market in Baghdad's Sadr City
*19 August: At least six blasts strike near government ministries in Baghdad, killing 95 people
'Good morning, Afghanistan': War radio
British Forces radio has hit the airwaves in Helmand. Terri Judd reports
The hi-tech equipment, red "On Air" light and the DJs' patter are no different from those at any radio station. But step out of the studio and you are greeted by sandstorms, attack helicopters and armoured vehicles bearing machine guns. At a time when most of us were slumbering happily, at 6.30am Helmand time today, the words "Good Morning, Afghanistan" boomed forth from the first British Forces radio station in the country.
More than 9,000 troops fighting in the southern province's war zone were greeted with the upbeat sounds of The Boo Radleys' Wake Up Boo! - a track selected by British soldiers around the world to be the first broadcast from the new British Forces Broadcasting Service (BFBS) station at Camp Bastion.
"There may be a touch of irony in this choice: 'Wake up it's a beautiful morning,'" conceded Nicky Ness, the controller of BFBS. DJ Dusty Miller, who mimicked Robin Williams's greeting this morning, added: "Mindful of the very particular brand of humour among our listeners, we were worried what they might foist on us - but we were braced to play whatever they asked for. The first song played on the ground in any operational theatre tends to get a bit of an iconic status."
British Forces' radio has been following the troops around the world since an experimental station was sent up in an Algiers harem during the Second World War. It has been there through the Aden crisis, the Turkish invasion of Cyprus, the Falklands conflict, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Balkans conflicts, the handover of Hong Kong and the two Iraq wars, with presenters as diverse as Sir Roger Moore and Kenny Everett.
In Iraq, the team prided itself that it continued to broadcast through mortar attacks and went off-air only once when the building had to be evacuated to clear a rocket that had landed nearby. But the move to Afghanistan has been a long time coming. BFBS originally built and shipped a radio studio to Afghanistan in 2007 but it took two years to finally get a site for the equipment and months more for engineers to restore it since it had been buffeted by the harsh desert conditions.
But it finally opened a new chapter in radio history this morning when Mr Miller and his fellow DJ, Dave Simon, began broadcasting across airwaves dedicated to the troops in Helmand and to their families back home. The ironies the forces have to contend with during their tours of Afghanistan was more than evident in the tracks chosen when the broadcaster asked the forces community to vote for the song that should be the first broadcast. The Boo Radleys track beat competition from such songs as The Sound of Music sung by Julie Andrews, which includes the famous line: "The hills are alive."
Other favourites in the poll included Edwin Starr's Stop The War Now, Razorlight's Before I Fall To Pieces , Dire Straits' Brothers in Arms , It Bites' Calling All The Heroes. Iron Maiden's epic Run To The Hills, The Clash's Rock The Casbah, Leaving On A Jet Plane by John Denver and Take That's Patience were all in contention too. The nomination that came in eighth on the list was the Coming Home debut album by three servicemen who have formed The Soldiers to raise funds for service charities including The Royal British Legion and Help for Heroes.
"Many came in with dedications and we will be playing those messages whether the tracks made the top 10 or not," Mr Miller said. "As a presenter, I intend to make sure that every single request gets played."
To the servicemen and women on Helmand's front line, any contact with home is priceless and that message, Mr Miller said, had come through loud and clear when troops were asked what they wanted from the new station. While service personnel in Afghanistan have been able to tune into BFBS Radio shows from the UK over the past years, this is the first time they will have their own dedicated station and be able to choose the music, messages and shows that are broadcast. They will be able to walk in to the station, use a dedicated military phone or online messaging service.
BFBS began broadcasting digitally in the UK six months ago so for the first time relatives will be able to hear soldiers talking live in Helmand as well as send their own messages out. The mix of dedications with news and music will be broadcast from Afghanistan to the UK three times daily, while those serving in Helmand will hear broadcasts alternating between programmes from Helmand, the UK and bases in Germany.
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