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Iraq: Car bomb killing 120 people, injure 130 at least in Shia Town

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Suen

Member
Didn't see any thread about this, and though Rustynail made an OT for ISIS-related news I felt the effects from this were big enough to deserve its own thread.

A car bomb has killed 120 people and injured at least 130 at a busy market in an Iraqi town, officials have said.

The attack happened in the predominantly Shia town of Khan Bani Saad, north of the capital Baghdad.

Children were among those dead in the explosion, which came as people celebrated the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

The Islamic State (IS) group, which control swathes of the country, has said it was behind the attack.
A statement from the group said one of its members drove three tonnes of explosives into a crowd.


Correspondents say that it was one of the deadliest single attacks in Iraq over the last 10 years and completely destroyed several buildings.

Police major Ahmed al-Tamimi told Reuters the damage was "devastating".

"Some people were using vegetable boxes to collect children's body parts," he said.

Diyala resident Sayif Ali told the AP news that Khan Beni Saad has become a disaster area as its residents continued to search for bodies.

Meanwhile Iraqi parliament speaker Salim al-Jabouri said on Saturday that the attack has revealed an "ugly sectarian chord" and that the government was doing all it could to stop IS from further destabilising Diyala.

The Diyala provincial authorities have declared three days of mourning and cancelled festivities for Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of Ramadan.

IS militants are battling government forces in the north and west of the country.

The group captured parts of Diyala last year. Although IS was later driven out, it still has a presence there.

From what I understand most Shia muslims marked the end of Ramadan on Friday and were going to celebrate their Eid on Saturday. So the bombings basically happened while they were celebrating the end of Ramadan as stated and preparing for Eid the following day. The equivalent in the West would be like blowing up 120 people the day before Christmas.

120 people gone and 130 people (at least!) injured just like that, for no other reason than being Shia muslims.

It's sick.
 

Suen

Member
I posted about this in the ISIS thread earlier. Surprised it wasn't being discussed.
That thread is often overlooked and not given much attention to here. Most people who check that thread are already people who have been following the events in the region. The amount of pages and the date the thread was created probably keeps most away from it.

I find the attitude towards this around the world rather interesting. The lack of attention and media coverage is quite disgusting. Just for the sake of comparison: whenever there is a conflict between Israel and Palestinians and a bunch of innocent Palestinians are killed there are massive protests and coverage around the world about them. Yet when Israelis are killed there isn't much being protested or reported about. The same with Shia muslims, the same with Africans dying from terrorist groups lik Boko Haram in Nigeria or Al Shabab in Somalia. The same with soldiers or minorities in Pakistan being killed left and right. Few to no protests, no massive HRW (a sectarian joke organization) protests or denoncement, no loud call for justice and so on.

Yemen is a perfect example if anything: the Saudi-led airstrikes have killed over 5 000 civilians in Yemen, mostly women and children and yet we really don't hear a single thing about the conflict there. We don't see any protests, anyone denouncing their coalition or calling for justice. I bet many people don't even know there is a conflict going on there.

All of these should be receiving coverage and should be protested against, but only a few are chosen. In a way I find it fascinating how the Arab Sunni states have massively influenced (through bribes or other ways) the media to give attention to only one of them from the region.

Fear. It's always the main motive behind a terrorist attack.
They are killing them for being Shia muslims, not to instill fear. Fear stopped being a word for these victims a long time ago. Now it's just a matter if you'll live another day.
 

Suen

Member
And its not going to get better anytime soon.
IA and PMU are making good progress in Fallujah, although it's going to take time cleaning the city of ISIS since they will need to search house by house (where most ISIS will be hiding). Anyway, eventually they'll need to take over Ramadi as well and then heavily protect the Syrian border where most foreign terrorists come from, basically kill anyone trying to come through it. If that happens then it will eventually become a domestic issue with most terrorists being Iraqi, many very likely remnants of the Baath regime. Of course that still leaves Mosul which would be the next target (sooner than what we may think...IAF has been dropping leaflets in the city in recent times). Anyway you're never going to completely eridicate terrorism anyway, Non-Sunni Muslims, non-muslim minorities and Sunnis who side with the nation will always be the target of terrorism in Iraq; if not by power-hungry locals who reject a democratic system then by foreign terrorist supported by funders from other countries who'd like to see a destabilized Iraq for their own interest.
 

Condom

Member
Oh wow, I've never seen numbers so high for a car bomb, must have been massively crowded.

Whats the point, really!

Genocide. They want to kill every Shia alive, Saudi-Arabia is for a big part responsible and needs to be boycotted. Fucking scum funding terrorism through proxies.
 

Suen

Member
In response to Kenshin's post from the ISIS OT:

http://edition.cnn.com/2015/07/17/m...dex.html?sr=tw071715iraqviolence700pStoryLink

Searched but couldn't find anything. This is not newsworthy or has everyone become numb to the daily violence that goes on in Syria and Iraq? Yet another senseless appalling act. Don't know if it is their intention but I think the Fallujah op is going to be nasty, a lot of Shiites will want payback.

Let's hope they don't retaliate. When ISIS captured and killed 1700 young Shia Air Cadets from TAA (a misleading number from the Western media, it's reported being more like 4000 now) the Shia didn't retaliate and that massacre was much much worse. ISIS recently released a video showing the massacre of these Shia soldiers as the PMU was closing in on Fallujah in an attempt to start sectarian violence buit there's still been no retaliation back for it, and instead both IA and PMU has shown much restraint from going all out on the city for the sake of not harming civilians, many of them who are IS sympathizers or supporters. If there was no consideration for civilians then Fallujah would have been leveled with the ground a long time ago. Literally fucking nothing comes out from that shithole but terrorism while it puts a dent Iraq's economy and kill its future generation. It literally brings nothing useful to the country whatsoever, not even Jordan would fucking want it if Iraq gave it away. Interview with Iraqi Sunni sheikhs, from hotels in Jordan and Erbil, just to show the people in Falluljah, Ramadi and other Anbar areas that IA and PMU are actually dealing with

isis-support.png

I just feel sorry for the innocent civilians who come from there and never wanted to be involved in this mess. Most probably left the city a long time ago, but there are probably those that couldn't make it out.
 
Inna lillahi wa inna ilaihi raajioun.

ISIS is plague worse than death. It's evil incarnate, the very army of Satan himself.
 
fucked up
maybe the rest of the world needs to realize ISIS is an actual big threat, rather than wave their arms and say "boo boo bad terrorists"
 

GamerSoul

Member
Their disregard for human life is, and will always be to me, unsettling and horrifying. Shit is crazy. RIP to the victims who were just trying to live their life like the rest of us.
 
fucked up
maybe the rest of the world needs to realize ISIS is an actual big threat, rather than wave their arms and say "boo boo bad terrorists"

I think the world realizes it's a threat. That isn't the issue.

The issue is does the world actually want to do what it would take to combat and eliminate ISIS? that would entail zero mercy. You are talking about killing men, women, children, supporters, etc.

That's why the world hasn't reacted.

You can find videos of mass executions committed by ISIS indoctrinated children. How do you fight that?
 

mr jones

Ethnicity is not a race!
'Cos they're a group of savages who kill anyone who doesn't subscribe to their warped interpretation of a religion.

Again, this doesn't make sense.

I thought that ISIS was a former branch of Al Qaeda. They're anti-Western. I expect them to attack military bases. Foreign government centers. Hell, even Red Cross hospitals and non-domestic airlines.

They're attacking other muslims. They're destroying traditionally muslim cities. They're brutally slaughtering women and children who aren't involved in any military organization.

What entices men to join in this?
 

Walpurgis

Banned
It's disgusting to see how much publicity this is getting in western media. I found an article on this hidden near the bottom of the headlines on CBC.

c5KYXuH.png
4nfyV4f.png

Third from the bottom in the second list (where I scrolled down).

A couple of white guys get captured and killed by ISIS and the western world mourns and panics. 120 people - women, children, elderly, families - are murdered and 130 injured and the western world doesn't even glance their way.
 

Ushay

Member
Burning prisoners of war, killing children, openly selling slaves, attacking those that celebrate Eid. Why the fuck were these people ever given any association with muslims?

Unbelievable, that such evil is left unchecked in the modern day. What in the world attracts people to their cause?
 
It's disgusting to see how much publicity this is getting in western media. I found an article on this hidden near the bottom of the headlines on CBC.

c5KYXuH.png
4nfyV4f.png

Third from the bottom in the second list (where I scrolled down).

A couple of white guys get captured and killed by ISIS and the western world mourns and panics. 120 people - women, children, elderly, families - are murdered and 130 injured and the western world doesn't even glance their way.

This kind of thing is seen as routine for the Middle East to Western people. Also, nobody understands the context and there isn't much money to be made in selling stories about bd things happening in far away places, it needs to happen close to you to make you think 'man i should click on that link', or happen to people who you think are like you.

I agree that it is pathetic that people are more interested in some remark a celebrity made than these kind of incidents, but at the same time, you've got to recognise how the media works. Of course nobody would give a shit about this in the west.
 

Walpurgis

Banned
This kind of thing is seen as routine for the Middle East to Western people. Also, nobody understands the context and there isn't much money to be made in selling stories about bd things happening in far away places, it needs to happen close to you to make you think 'man i should click on that link', or happen to people who you think are like you.

I agree that it is pathetic that people are more interested in some remark a celebrity made than these kind of incidents, but at the same time, you've got to recognise how the media works. Of course nobody would give a shit about this in the west.
CBC is a crown corporation (gov. funded) so they don't have any pressure to position their news stories on their page to bait clicks. I think you are right that people see it as routine in the Middle East but I am just disappointed by the apathy.
 

Mohonky

Member
That part I know. What I don't know is why. I don't know why there's a group of people killing others, seemingly for no reason.

Islam isn't one hive mind. There are variations of Islam such as Shia, Sunni, Sufi etc. All are Muslims, but their interpretation of Islam varies slightly with differing levels of implication, much like if you want to discuss Christianity or Catholicism, both are similar but have small differences with small or larger implications in their teachings.You can break down Christianity further and there are loads of different variations (Mormons, Lutherans, Protestants etc etc).

All follow the same basic structure but a number of differences exist; some through interpretation, others appeared later for political reasons. ie. King Henry VIII could not divorce his wife who failed to give birth to him a Son to take over his throne, the Church advised him he could not simply divorce her, so he chucked a shit fit and decided fuck it I'll make my own religion where you can divorce and viola, Church of England was created.

One of the main differences is that Europe and most of the Western World have had time to have their wars, get it all out in the open and come to some sort of agreements over land, power and politics and as such time to set aside differences and move forward. Islam is a bit over 600yrs younger and has had plenty of outside interference coming in to pull power in different directions.

Islam began to split approximately 100yrs after Mohammed, again the differences are subtle but enough to divide the Muslims in some key ways. Like most religions the branches mostly divide over differences in interpretations and implication particularly when it comes to power and politics. Don't forget religion is spread by word and teachings and Arabia at the time (and to some degree still is) very tribal, some tribes took on one variation of Islam, other tribes another. So a country isn't necessarily all one or the other, countries may have a fairly balanced number of believers of each denomination while some have a majority of one or the other. The civil war in Iraq is a largely sectarian one that has existed for hundreds of years. Sadam was a Sunni and so the Shia muslims being a minority were largely kept quiet or otherwise oppressed (and you were really fucked if you were Kurdish). Then Sadam went and a new Government came in that was led by a Shiite (Shia), at the time many of the Sunni were fearful that there would be a large backlash against them from the Shia having been largely oppressed during Sadams regime and they were not just being paranoid because there is enough there to suggest the new Shia government hasn't exactly been quick to denounce or even admit the existence of so called 'Shia Death Squads' who basically want the Sunnis out. For some of the Sunnis, ISIS probably looks like a pretty good deal when compared to the Shia government currently in place.

Thats not to say that Sunni and Shia sects can't get a long, it's just to say that when you have a look at most of the conflicts coming out of the middle east, it's largely a Sunni vs Shia one. There are plenty of areas where Sunni and Shia get along, but theres also many where they don't and thats where the problem is.

Islam isnt just a faith, it is an all encompassing structure upon which it speaks of how to live your life but also covers things like law, governance, politics etc, the interpretations of which some believe allows for growth and progression so the needs of the people, the laws and governance should reflect that and adapt as necessary. There really isn't any room for that in Shariah. As far as Shariah is concerned, this is what it says in the Quran, therefore it shall always be, hence you have some loonies that still think stoning a women to death for adultery is the status quo. Such behaviour wasn't unusual for that time period, it was still all the rage for a lot of Christians etc. It's just that we've moved on from that but there are some out there like ISIS, multiple fuckwits in England, various other little hotspots around the world etc. that can't seem to pull their head out of their ass and get with the times.

I'm being very broad in this with little specifics but yeh, ISIS follows a form of Islam that doesn't necessarily reflect the same belief of all Muslims, hence why ISIS, seemingly oddly to many, are killing Muslims also. But Shiites and Sunnis have been killing each other for a long time, it's nothing new. What is new is that ISIS is probably the most extreme group to have ever emerged from this sectarian violence in our lifetime, maybe ever. They don't seem to believe in compromise with anyone, it is their way or death and they have been particularly proud in demonstrating that they will kill anyone and everyone that doesn't fit their particularly brutal lifestyle. If they could get their way, everyone would be indoctrinated into their form of Islam and those would didn't convert or weren't already would be killed or sold into slavery.

Though it has also become rather interesting to see that ISIS members either aren't quite as close to the faith as they make out or that their ranks are increasingly becoming filled with angry young men that just want to go out and kill as they have displayed unusual behaviour not in practice with any real form of Islam in some instances.

But mostly it can be summed up that ISIS is full of fucktards.
 

Breakage

Member
Terrible. It's been overlooked by the UK media as usual. The royal family's "disappointment" over the leaking of some ancient footage seems to be of greater concern.
 

Betty

Banned
You guys are seriously surprised that no one gives a shit?

Take a look at how many attacks there were in Iraq alone in 2014 and maybe you'll realize why people can't quite find it within themselves to get shocked and bothered when yet another Muslim fanatic blows themselves up in that region of the world.

And don't pretend the fall of ISIS will bring about any sort of tangible change, there are plenty of other terrorist groups all doing the exact same things the exact same way.

Now when there's a big massacre on children in schools like the recent Taliban & Al Qaeda attacks, then the west and indeed the world might take some notice, but not for long.

Hell even the recent shooting of marines in Tennessee wasn't as shocking as it would've been a few years back.

These events are just far too common to make most people take notice.
 

LordOfChaos

Member
It's disgusting to see how much publicity this is getting in western media. I found an article on this hidden near the bottom of the headlines on CBC.

Third from the bottom in the second list (where I scrolled down).

A couple of white guys get captured and killed by ISIS and the western world mourns and panics. 120 people - women, children, elderly, families - are murdered and 130 injured and the western world doesn't even glance their way.

If an hippo trampled someone in sub-Saharan Africa, it would be of note but life as usual. If a hippo trampled people in New York City, that would be news.

I don't think it's necessarily racism, just the difference between it happening somewhere where Shia vs Sunni violence is commonplace, vs it happening somewhere unexpected.

I'd hardly call this "barely glancing their way" either, I've seen it repeatedly on todays TV news for what it's worth. Also on CBC.

Granted, there is an aspect of reporting about your own citizens more, i.e. "200 people died on that plane, including two Canadians" etc. But that's nationality - not religion. Those two Canadians could be of any faith or non-faith. I don't particularly think that's racism either - your own audience is a certain nationality, so you report on that more.
 

Skyzard

Banned
If an hippo trampled someone in sub-Saharan Africa, it would be of note but life as usual. If a hippo trampled people in New York City, that would be news.

I don't think it's necessarily racism, just the difference between it happening somewhere where Shia vs Sunni violence is commonplace, vs it happening somewhere unexpected.

When soldiers die in Iraq it hits the front page.
 
CBC is a crown corporation (gov. funded) so they don't have any pressure to position their news stories on their page to bait clicks. I think you are right that people see it as routine in the Middle East but I am just disappointed by the apathy.

It has nothing to do with apathy and more to do with the facts that i) this is happening really, really far, and ii) no Canadians are involved.
 

LordOfChaos

Member
When soldiers die in Iraq it hits the front page.

You mean, in news media of a nation which they belonged to, that would be most interested in them? Again, not really shocking...You'll also notice, American news won't really report on Australian coalition soldiers deaths, does it? Canadian news doesn't really report on British soldiers deaths, does it?

Almost as if, the news of certain countries caters to the interests of those of that nationality. It's not this racism issue you want to frame it as. Otherwise every western countries media would report on every caucasian soldiers deaths, would it not?
 
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