There goes the Iraqi gov't

Another university bombing, apparently the second following gov’t assurances that the campus was safe. Just to drive home the point that they can strike when and where they wish, the bastards with the bombs this time used a female suicide bomber. [quote=“NYT”]A female suicide bomber wearing a vest packed with explosives and ball bearings blew herself up at a Baghdad university today, killing at least 40 people, and strewing fingers, pens, purses and bloody textbooks all over the ground.

The blast, at a campus of Mustansiriya University, was one of several bombs and explosions to hit Baghdad, making today one of the worst days of violence since Prime Minister Nuri Kamal Al-Maliki announced a new security crackdown.

An hour after the blast, a new challenge emerged for the prime minister and the Baghdad security plan he has helped devise and has repeatedly called a success.

The radical Shiite cleric Moktada Al-Sadr condemned the security plan in a signed statement, declaring that it had no hope of success as long as American troops were involved. Read aloud to 1,000 shouting supporters in Sadr City, the large Shiite area near the site of the university blast, the statement called on Iraqi security forces to stop cooperating with the United States military.

“There is no good that comes from a security plan controlled by our enemies, the occupiers,” the statement said. “If you stay away from them, God will protect you from horror and harm. Make sure your plans are purely Iraqi and not sectarian.”
[…]
In a campus courtyard about 25 yards from to the left of where the explosion hit, students and neighbors dug small holes in circles around a flower bed. Hussain Ali al-Mousawi, a middle-aged blacksmith who said he lived across the street from the university, collected body parts on a notebook, placing severed fingers, pieces of skull and bloody flesh on pages covered with a student’s jottings notes on subjects like income brackets.

His shirt was covered with blood. He said he had been carrying bodies; the sleeves of his beige cotton, striped shirt were soaked bright red.

He walked over the holes, and placed shovelfuls of clothing, flesh and debris into the ground. Stunned Iraqi policemen stared. All around him students crouched or sat on the ground crying. [/quote] So much for gov’t assurances. And given that it’s al-Sadr’s group that helped put this gov’t together–and they’re no longer supporting it–and given that US forces have begun picking up relatives of Iraqi gov’t officials–just to make sure everyone’s showing up for work or what?–the big cheese has left town. The Iraqi-Kurdish president, Talabani, has left the country for health reasons due to stress. Which is odd, because it’s the prime minister, Nuri Kamel al-Maliki, who said that he wants out of the job asap.

Bets on when the gov’t officially collapses?
That’ll make the occupation even more fun, wouldn’t it?

Missed him by
that
much.

[quote=“CBC”]An Iraqi vice-president suffered bruises in an apparent assassination attempt Monday when a car bomb blast outside a ministry caused him to fall. The explosion killed at least 10 civilians and wounded 18, police said.

An ambulance took Adel Abdul-Mahdi to hospital after he suffered minor wounds from the attack, which occurred at a building where the official was attending a conference.

Abdul-Mahdi, a Shia and one of Iraq’s two vice-presidents, was undergoing routine tests and checks, an aide who spoke on condition of anonymity said. The vice-president was giving a speech when the blast occurred, the aide said.

The conference, which included municipal and public works officials, was in the upscale Mansour neighbourhood, which houses many embassies and has been the scene of kidnappings blamed on militants.

Iraqi’s other vice-president is Tariq al-Hashemi, a Sunni.[/quote]These guys might as well wear targets hung around their necks.