IRAQ: Another day, another play, another bomb
This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.
Last month, we wrote about the revival of Baghdad’s National Theater and the resilience of the actors, actresses, directors and writers who had kept their artistry alive through the war and who finally were launching their first nighttime performances since the U.S. invasion of March 2003.
On Saturday, bombers struck outside the theater just before sunset. Police say an Oldsmobile blew up as people were heading to the theater in the capital’s Karada district. Initial reports from police said five people were killed and 23 injured. A dozen cars along the busy street were badly damaged or destroyed.
In northern Iraq, at least 12 people were killed and 36 wounded when a bomb struck the city of Tall Afar outside Mosul. The city has been repeatedly hit by suspected Sunni insurgents who are believed to cross over from nearby Syria to fuel the violence brewing in that region between Sunni Arabs and Kurds vying for power.
Both attacks showcased the instability across Iraq, where violence has greatly decreased in the past year but where regular Iraqis’ view of things often differs from the U.S. military’s vision. The United States consistently points out the positives -- lower attack numbers, lower death and injury tolls each month, arrests of suspected insurgents. The people who live in the neighborhoods, go to work each day and contend with the unpredictable nature of things, look at life differently.
‘There is no security since the Americans came to Iraq,’ complained Ali Kadem Attiya, a firefighter on the scene of a bombing last Monday in Baghdad. He accused the U.S. invasion of planting the seeds of sectarianism between Sunnis and Shiites. ‘The ones who promised us democracy -- where is the democracy?’
A waiter who had survived that blast, Mohammed Kareem, said he didn’t feel safe outside because he feared Iraqi soldiers were not vigilant enough to spot threats, such as boxes left on the street that might contain bombs. ‘There is no safety at all. I’ve started to feel afraid again, and when I get back home, I thank God,’ he said. Kareem predicted things will get worse as tension heats up in advance of provincial elections, which are planned for January, and as the Iraq and U.S. governments try to seal a pact to govern the future of American forces here.
As we wrote in today’s paper, Prime Minister Nouri Maliki may have dropped his last resistance to the current draft and is expected to recommend the Cabinet approve it. From there, the pact would be sent to Parliament. There’s no guarantee it will pass. About the only guarantee in Iraq is that there will be another bomb going off, maybe not tomorrow and maybe not the next day, but someday.
--Times correspondents in Baghdad