Roads to Iraq

The night before the bombing: Two eyewitnesses

Samarra_Sunni

Update: There was one small mistake in the translation, the time line says 6,41 should be 6,45, that’s all.

The picture above shows Sunnis in Samarra demonstrating and condemning the bombing of the “Golden Dome�, the Imam in picture is a Sunni imam, you can tell from his white turban, Shiia imams wear a black turban.

I want the readers to know that for Samarra inhabitants, the mosques doesn’t represents a Shiia shrines only but represents the existence of the city also and they are very proud of them, even when the situation went very bad between Sunni and Shiia, Shiia pilgrimages to city never attacked by any group, it’s kind of unwritten code of honor.

Testimonies of two eyewitnesses near the bombed Dome:

Witness 1:

I live in a district very near to the mosque and I will tell you exactly what I saw hours before the bombing.

There is a daily curfew in our city (Samarra) starts from 8,00 in the evening until 6,00 in the morning, in the night before the bombing and just when it’s getting dark there was unusual activities by the ING in the area around the mosque, I heard their cars the whole night until next day in the morning.

The Mosque Guards testimony says: Four people with ING uniforms blind folded them and set the bombs.

The witness continues, so ask I you how could the terrorists enter the area which is usually surrounded by the ING and enter the mosque then runway without being got by the police?.

Witness 2:

Witness 2 gives more detailed information and the Americans connection to the events before the bombing, so I made it as timeline of the events.

My name is Muhammad Al-Samarrai, I own an internet-cafe near the mosque, I sleep in my shop because I am worry about my computers from thieves.

8,30 (evening) joint forces of Iraqi ING and Americans asked me to stay in the shop and don’t leave the area.

9,00 (evening) they left the area.

11,00 (evening) they came back and started to patrol the area until the morning.

6,00 (next day morning) ING leave the area .

6,30 Americans leave the area .

6,40 first explosion.

6,45 second explosion.

He confirmed again that the curfew starts at 8,00 (evening) until next day 6,00 (morning), INGs and the Americans will surround and patrol the city all that time.

101 Comments, Comment or Ping

  1. Very interesting, LB. I would like to post it on Newsvine too, if you don’t mind? You’ll get full credit, of course ;-)

  2. BTW, why don’t you do it yourself? I’ll just seed it then ;-)

  3. I am not very good in using newsvine, I didn’t read the “manual� yet, If you can do it for me I will appreciate it very much

  4. I posted it on newsvine

  5. Newsvine is just as easy as WP — but nevermind, LB, I’ll do it ;-)

    Just saw this one: link is here:

    Gunmen shot dead 47 civilians and left their bodies in a ditch near Baghdad Thursday as militia battles and sectarian reprisals followed the bombing of a sacred Shiite shrine. Sunni Arabs suspended their participation in talks on a new government.

    The hardline Sunni Clerical Association of Muslim Scholars said 168 Sunni mosques had been attacked, 10 imams killed and 15 abducted since the shrine attack. The Interior Ministry said it could only confirm figures for Baghdad, where 90 mosques were attacked in Baghdad, one cleric was killed, and one abducted.

    Officials said at least 110 people had been killed across the country in violence believed triggered by the mosque attack.

    Three journalists working for Al-Arabiya television were found dead in Samarra, the site of Wednesday’s Askariya mosque attack. Al-Arabiya is viewed in Iraq as favoring the United States.

    Looks pretty bad, I think.

  6. OK, I didn’t see your last comment ;-)

  7. I have the “Sunni Clerical Association of Muslim Scholars” letter in Arabic I will translate it later

  8. Your article looks great at Newsvine, but maybe you should add a few more tags like sunni, shiia, samarra, etc. — then more people will find it.

    NB: please notice that they have chosen me as one of today’s Featured Writes in the category ‘Politics’ — I’m so proud ;-)

  9. GC

    Now I am confused–yesterday ’someone’ said the US did this because Sammara was inaccesible to them, but today we learn they are doing patrols around the shrine of all places and used those patrols to divert attention from the four ING saboteurs who didn’t even bother to go under disguise into the area which was so hostile that it was inaccesible. They apaprently spent hours in a most hositle area without drawing the attention of the population which the day before prevented them from entering the city limits. I know logic doesn’t have a lot of value when it intrudes upon desired versions of events, but can’t you do better than this? If this was actually a ’secret’ US mission, don’t you think they could do better than patrols in an inaccesible area using uniformed bombers taking hours to accomplish the deed? This version is about as subtle as 500lb bombs from a B52 doing victory rolls over the rubble. You have to at least make it seem a little more secretive if you want it to be believable. Well, maybe not to your with your target audience. They are willing to believe anything that does not confront the hatred they have for one another–better to direct it elsewhere.

  10. Easy to explain, inaccessible, doesn’t mean the US can’t enter the city, they can enter the city surrounded by hundreds of Iraqi ING during the curfew time in the night while it’s dark but they don’t have a base inside the city or representatives or anything, the nearest American “base” to samarra is few kilometers outside the city and they can’t say anything about how and who run the city.

    Remember, these activities like patrolling the city, US soldier can’t do during a normal daylight, in daylight they are outside the city setting roads checkpoints.

  11. This is a great picture. It brought tears to my eyes. Life here becomes incredibly hard and terrible. I wish this was a nightmare and we all wake up and forget about it. but it is not. it is reallity that there are certain people are trying to drag Iraq into a civil war. May God help us all!

  12. Charles

    LB,

    A typical provocative, uncorroborated, contradictory, illogical post designed to push people over the edge towards violence.

    You will do anything to undermine stability.

    This event will either be a coming together as people pull back from the cliffs edge in horror - or it will be the provocation that sends people headlong over the top.

    If there are any voices of moderation that have yet to speak, now is the time. There are obviously powerful, organized forces behind this but their force is relative. Even if there are 500,000 radicals hell bent on murder and mayhem, don’t let them decide for the other 24,500,000.

    Watch the statements and most importantly the actions of your various leaders. Anyone escalating tensions should be crossed off your list, and you should rally behind whoever pushes hardest for calm. Just make it through this crisis, let tempers subside. The people behind this are deliberately trying to inflame passions because they know people will be easier to manipulate.

  13. You see next time you can use any word you like but don’t use “Your Leaders� they are not mine.

    Although they are Iraqis but they are your leaders, they can on back of American tanks, before they are “leaders� and “politicians� they are businessmen, that’s why the US wants to deal with such monkeys

  14. Charles

    LB,

    My mistake. The second part of my message wasn’t directed at you. I know you are not really a ‘baghdad dweller.’

    The leaders ‘on the back of US tanks’ were elected by the Iraqi people.

    You have made it clear plenty of times that you don’t consider Iraqis who actually live in Iraq as ‘regular’ Iraqis. You think that you and Nadia living in northern Europe are the true Iraqis.

  15. What the hell are you talking about???

    You have made it clear plenty of times that you don’t consider Iraqis who actually live in Iraq as ‘regular’ Iraqis.

  16. Charles

    LB,

    To quote:

    Doesn’t matter who is the new PM, they are all puppets and regular Iraqis are not interested in who is the new PM.

    I’m not sure how you define ‘regular.’ Since the vast majority of true Iraqis turned out to vote in both parliamentary elections, you are both quantitatively and qualitatively incorrect. This shouldn’t surprise any objective observer of your blog.

    You did not vote because you don’t give a damn. Regular Iraqis do not share your contempt for their country.

    You then tried to prove your claim by linking to some article that shows that petroleum production, etc., is down. All that proves is that the terrorists who you seem to consider to be ‘regular’ Iraqis, have been quite successful in destroying THEIR OWN COUNTRY’s infrastructure, and creating a climate of insecurity that stops development projects and investment. Congrats!

    That being said, the very same link you provided shows that general electricity production per capita is up between 25-125% depending upon region.

    The link clearly shows that the vast majority of regular Iraqis support the election, and consider the results legitimate.

  17. IEDwins

    @ALL

    Who is gaining anything from this criminal act of sabotage ?

    The Sunnis ? No definitely not. They want to defeat the US occupation and the ING collaborators not Shi’ite shrines.

    The Shi’ites ? Maybe but when than the Shia ING collaborators - in order to make to create civil war for their US master - so that they keep staying in Iraq. Cause without civil war the US has no fake reason left to stay in Iraq.

    The Iranian Secret Service ? Possible, as it might be possible that Iran wants to incite more Shias to go after US and collaboraters in Iraq. But Iran definitely does not need to do this by bombing Shia mosques, wherefore it is very unlikely Iran is behind it.
    Iran simply could order its agent Sistani to proclaim, that the US has to leave Iraq, or Shias will start Jihad against the US kuffars. That would be enough to start large Shia resistance against the US and the UK forces in Iraq, so no need for the Iranians to do Mosque-bombing.

    US special forces in undercover mission ? Also possible but not likely as they have others to do the criminal job.

    The US CIAda Organisation in Iraq/Mossad and its jerks the kurdish peshmergas ? Also likely, but of cause not Israeli agents because they have their Iraqi ING stooges (kurdish peshmergas) to do the trick.
    The USraelis most benefit from the criminal bombing - as civil war gives them a reason to further stay in Iraq and exploit the country. Civil war between Sunnis and Shias would weaken the Shias as well as the Sunnis, who both hate the US and the Israelis. While the kurds for their part are also benefiting from it, as they are against both the Shia and the Sunnis and do support, as well as get supported by the Usraelis.

    So finally it boils down to these suspects:

    Most probably

    1.) Kurdish ING forces instructed by the Iraqi Interiory Mossad Ministry

    or

    2.) US special forces in undercover mission ( unlikely as stated above)

    What do you say ?

  18. IEDwins, your analysis sounds quite reasonable to me. I didn’t think of the Kurds in that connection, but it’s obvious to me that anything that can provide the US with a good reason for staying on, is highly appreciated. And of course, Israel benefits greatly, too — especially if they are going to attack Iran later this year.

  19. Charles

    IED,

    It seems you are in the habit of looking at words but not reading them.

    When I read the words: “Cause without civil war the US has no fake reason left to stay in Iraq”, I actually think about them. What does it mean? What assumptions are being made? Do those assumptions make any sense? Do they contradict any other assumptions?

    To begin with, the US has been in Iraq for about 3 years and there has not been a civil war. A civil war is obviously not a necessary condition for US troops to be in the country.

    Second, how would the US benefit from a civil war? You are probably one of those convinced that the US is in Iraq to steal resources. But how can that be done efficiently in the middle of a war when the pipelines are being sabotaged, and billions are being spent (more than the value of the oil), and people are dying?

    Think before you write.

  20. Nadia

    =( this is me today =(

  21. Nadia I am at my work right now, can’t use the Internet for too long time (I am very busy), but I hope everything is fine and nothing happened.

    I will check your answer when I go back home

  22. Omar Ali Grant

    Hellow,
    I am a Shia scholar living in London, but I studied in Iraq in the first year after the invasion by the US. Indeed the Imam in the picture is Suunni, his name is Ahmad Abdul ghafour Samarrai. He is a native of Samarra, his PHd thesis is on the Imams of the Prophet’s family, including the two buried in Samarra. he is the Mufti, or highest ranking Sunni Scholar ofIraq, and Imam in the Umm al Qurra mosque in Baghdad, president of the Association of Sunni Ulama, a staunch defender of the insurgence though. So the fault lines are a bit complicated…

  23. Obviously Americans did this. That way a sectarian civil war can break out with our troops in the middle. The tons of blood and dollars spent to build a Democratic Iraq can then go down the tubes in an orgy of Muslim against Muslim fighting and American influence in the region will all but be destroyed. Sure pal, makes sense to me. Certainly Iran, Sadr (same thing), or Al Qaeda have nothing to gain by a civil war but the benefits to the US are numerous and great.

  24. Jerry Aspar

    POLITICAL ESSAYS
    The Declaration Of War - Part 2
    `
    `
    Thursday, February 23, 2006
    Associated Press [1]
    Mosque Bombing an ‘Evil Act,’ Bush
    Says
    `
    “…speaking at a political fund-
    raiser in Indiana, Bush at first
    appeared to blame al-Qaida for the
    bombing, and then emphasized that
    it is unknown who was responsible.

    “‘You want to know how tough al-
    Qaida is, just look at _ we don’t
    know exactly who did the bombing
    ….’”
    `
    The Liar finally gave up on his
    “al-Qaida” BS. Gee, wow.
    `
    So The Liar replaced one lie with
    another: the cowardly “we don’t
    know” lie.
    `
    Don’t worry, The Superpower knows
    the Shi’i mosque bombing –in a
    Sunni area north of Baghdad– is
    a well-planned followup to Iran’s
    earlier declaration of war.
    `
    Earlier declaration of war?
    `
    `
    Excerpts from Part 1 [2]–
    `
    Friday, February 17, 2006
    Reuters
    Iran calls on UK troops to pull
    out of Basra
    `
    Reuters quotes Manouchehr Mot-
    taki, the foreign minister of
    Iran:
    `
    “The Islamic Republic of Iran
    demands the immediate withdrawal
    of British forces from Basra.”
    `
    Basra’s in a narrow strip of
    Iraq –squeezed between Iran and
    Kuwait– that reaches the Per-
    sian Gulf.
    `
    `
    OK, back to Iran’s followup.
    `
    From Iraqi Resistance Report for
    events of Wednesday, 22 February
    2006 [3]:
    `
    “The Foreign Relations Department
    of the Iraq Regional Command of
    the Arab Baath Socialist Party
    issued a statement on Wednesday
    denouncing the criminal attack on
    the tomb of the Imam ‘Ali al-Hadi
    and saying that the pro-Iranian
    Badr Brigades and the US were be-
    hind the attack.”
    `
    [Don't confuse Badr with Sadr.
    `
    The Brigades (or Corps) are the
    military arm of the Supreme Coun-
    cil for the Islamic Revolution in
    Iraq (SCIRI) headquartered in, not
    Iraq, but in Teheran, the capital
    of Iran.
    `
    The Brigades fought alongside The
    Superpower troops invading Iraq.
    `
    Baath --notice, two "a"s-- means
    resurrection (of independence).]
    `
    “The Baath Party statement ex-
    plained:
    `
    “The systematic escalation of
    differences between America and
    Iran have found their main poli-
    tical arena to be Iraq, because
    the most important group of agents
    of Iran are there;
    `
    they are in power [= the puppet
    government set up by The Super-
    power] and are able thereby to use
    the blood of Iraqis…to exert
    pressure on America.
    `
    “Iran has laid out a plan to em-
    broil America in the Iraqi morass
    to prevent it from obstructing
    Iran’s nuclear plans.
    `
    “Particularly since America is
    eager to move on to completing
    arrangements for a withdrawal
    from Iraq, a part of which is the
    signing of binding agreements on
    oil and strategy.
    `
    “America believes that without
    the participation of ‘Sunni’
    parties in the regime those ar-
    rangements will fail.
    `
    “For that reason cutting Iran’s
    claws has become one of the im-
    portant requirements for the
    American arrangements.
    `
    “This is a necessity that the
    American [ambassador] Zalmay
    [Khalilzad] openly spoke of re-
    cently when he declared that no
    sectarian would take control of
    the Ministries of the Interior
    or Defense in the new Iraqi
    puppet ‘government’.
    `
    “Similarly, America has begun to
    publish information that it
    formerly kept hidden regarding
    the crimes of the Badr Brigade
    and the ‘Interior Ministry.’
    `
    “It is therefore in Iran’s in-
    terest to attack holy Shi’i
    Islamic tombs now because it
    seeks to rally the people of
    southern Iraq behind the Iranian
    position [in Iraq] and in defense
    of Iran through increased pres-
    sure on America in Iraq.
    `
    “This is a difficult task for
    them since the vast majority of
    the people of southern Iraq know
    that Iran is planning to destroy
    Iraq and partition it, annexing
    southern Iraq to itself under
    the so-called ‘federation’
    scheme of ‘Abd al-’Aziz al-Hakim
    [the leader of SCIRI].
    `
    “Therefore, they [= Iran's agents]
    have sensed an urgent need to re-
    gain some unity around their posi-
    tion among the southern Iraqi
    people, so as to subordinate them
    to Iran.
    `
    “For this they required a crime
    the likes of which has not been
    committed before – namely an at-
    tack on a holy tomb in an area
    that is not predominantly Shi’i so
    that it could be blamed on the
    Sunnis, and be used to promote the
    rapid spread of the wildfire of
    sectarian strife, in order to
    guarantee Iran sufficient forces
    to keep America embroiled in Iraq
    and to reduce American pressure on
    Tehran.
    `
    “This would also achieve one of the
    most important and oldest American
    goals in Iraq, namely splitting up
    the country.”
    `
    `
    In other words, Iran’s pressure on
    The Superpower includes candy to
    make that pressure palatable…
    `
    That candy is what motivated The
    Liar’s cowardly “we don’t know”
    lie.
    `
    `
    There’s more.
    `
    “…the criminal attack on the
    tomb of the Imam ‘Ali al-Hadi
    was carried out by the agents of
    Iran, supported by American in-
    terests, which consist in com-
    pelling ‘Sunni’ groups to take
    part in their political opera-
    tion.
    `
    “They [= the American interests]
    hope to reach this goal more
    speedily by putting more pressure
    on known Sunni groups by igniting
    a limited sectarian war.”
    `
    A limited sectarian war?
    `
    That notion is what motivated
    polished Rice to warn “against
    characterizing the rising turmoil
    as a harbinger of civil war” [in
    AP's Mosque Bombing story].
    `
    `
    You now may wonder who’s beating
    whom in that already-declared
    `
    IRAN - SUPERPOWER WAR.
    `
    `
    `
    `
    [1]
    `
    link is here
    `
    [2]
    `
    link is here
    `
    [3]
    `
    link is here
    `
    `

  25. American Killers of the Iraquian People . American Thieves of the Iraquian Petroleo .

  26. link is here:

    Let’s be clear: the attack on the Mustafa mosque was no accident, nor was it some stupid move by a low-ranking officer who didn’t know the implications of what he was doing. The attack was a deliberate act of intimidation and provocation directed against the Shi’ia majority by U.S. occupation authorities. It will not be the last.

    The U.S. has no interest in a successful Iraq government, since it is now clear that such a government will be Shi’ia led, and close to Iran politically. Therefore, my guess is that the fallback strategy is to rev up the Shi’ia militants, stir up civil strife, and perhaps even to get the Sunni minority, long the heart of opposition to the U.S., to turn to the U.S. for help, as the Kurds did years back.

  27. Joe B

    OPERATION GLADIO.

    Ring a bell anyone? These people think they are slick but anyone can see through the deception. That is when the media decides to cover it.

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