Death toll rises as we enter fourth day of violence
BAGHDAD, September 18 – Saturday marked the fourth day of the violence campaign the Sunni insurgents started earlier this week. Leaving dead bodies throughout the country the death toll rose to just over 250 this week. Al Qaeda leader in Iraq Al-Zarqawi has stated that this all-out war is a response to the “ethnic cleansing” in Tal Afar by the U.S. and Iraqi troops. Tal Afar was widely considered an insurgent stronghold and a tactical transportation village to get insurgents into Iraq from Syria. Al-Zarqawi depicted this clean-sweep as targeted ethnic cleansing by the Shiite majority, this is just another card he played in his efforts to start a civil war and radicalize Sunnis throughout Iraq.
In a village just east of Baghdad the bloodiest attack of the day took place. While many villagers gathered at the outdoor market to buy food and mingle a car bomb struck the market and killed over 20 people. Cars and shops were obliterated by the explosion. While police officers tried to seal off the area and aid the victims insurgents targeted the area with mortar fire and killed a few more people.
In other small towns men were found tortured and shot totaling the body count for Saturday to 40 deaths. There’s no end in sight yet as Al-Zarqawi’s goal only comes closer by aggravating the Shiite majority.
