More Than 50 Dead In Saturday Bombings

More than 50 Dead in Saturday Bombings

Guerrillas killed 5 GIs and wounded 5 others in Baiji on Saturday with roadside bombs.

They also blew up a market in southern Baghdad near the Diyalah Bridge, killing 13 and wounding 20.

At a funeral in a town northeast of Baghdad for a man killed by suicide bombings on Friday, suicide bombers struck again, killing 35. The Scotsman reports: “Ambulances streamed into the main hospital in Baqouba ferrying the wounded. But the facilities were so crowded that dazed and bloodied survivors lay in agony in the hallways because of the backlog. Doctors and nurses rushed from stretcher to stretcher trying to determine who needed surgery first.”

At the Iraqi national reconciliation summit, the Shiite delegation of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq walked out when a Christian Iraqi implied that they were traitors and puppets of the US and alleged that the new Iraqi consitution was written by the Americs. The delegation only returned to the table when it received an apology from their hosts and a pledge that the Christian delegate would be prevented from “abusing the platform.”

Another issue that roiled the conference during its first day was the question of withdrawal of US and coalition troops. The Sunni Arabs demanded a timetable for withdrawal. The Shiites did not want to discuss the issue.

On the other hand, Sunni cleric Harith al-Dhari reached an agreement with a leader of the Badr corps (Shiite paramilitary) to investigate the torture and near-starving of nearly 200 mostly Sunni Arab prisoners.

The Iranian foreign ministry said in Cairo Saturday that the problems in Iraq are political, not religious. (There was a time when the Khomeinists refused to make that distinction).\