Scores Dead In String Of Iraq Blasts

Double-Bombing In Baghdad Targeted Police Recruits; Car Bomb In Mosul Kills At Least 16

Multiple bombs that hit Iraqi security forces in Baghdad and Mosul have killed at least 33 people and wounded dozens more.

Four U.S. soldiers and an Iraqi general were among the wounded.

The bloodiest attack in the capital began when a suicide bomber detonated an explosives vest packed with ball-bearings in a line of recruits at the entrance to Baghdad's police academy. Minutes later, the U.S. military says a car parked 150 yards away exploded, apparently aimed at those responding to the first blast. At least 16 people were killed and nearly 50 wounded.

In Mosul, police say a suicide car bomber detonated his explosives as a joint U.S.-Iraqi convoy drove by in a crowded commercial area. At least 15 people were killed and 30 wounded in that attack, officials said.  Bloodied police uniforms and a military boot left by victims were scattered with the crumpled metal hulk of the car bomb on the charred street in the aftermath of the bombing, according to Associated Press Television News footage.

The attacker apparently was a teenage boy whose head was taken to a local hospital, a police officer said. An AP photographer saw the head and confirmed it appeared to be a teenage boy.

Those killed included five policemen and 11 recruits, while the wounded included 11 policemen and 35 recruits, according to police and hospital officials 
In Mosul, a suicide car bomber detonated his explosives as a joint U.S.-Iraqi convoy drove by in a crowded commercial area, a police officer said. The officer also declined to be identified for the same reason.

At least 15 people - most civilians - were killed and 30 wounded in that attack, the officer said. An official at the morgue where the bodies were taken confirmed the death toll.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/12/01/iraq/main4639587.shtml?tag=topHome;topStories

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{There has been a marked increase in these sorts of bombings as of late. Whether Bush's exit agreement with Iraq is followed or Obama's plan for a quicker departure is implemented these terrorists and insurgents will follow us right out the door. Once we are gone the true "war for Iraq" will begin. The first victim will be the Maliki government and any hope of democracy. War lords, Islamic fundamentalists, al-Qaeda, Iran, Kurds, Sunnies and Shiites and many other groups will fight it out for their chunks of the oil rich nation. The country will splinter and areas will be absorbed or be ruled by war lords and ethnic and religious groups. Little of what we now know as "Iraq" will survive our departure.

This is the Bush legacy. Chaos.

Nothing would change even if we stayed for another 5 years. We won the war in no time flat but had lost the peace even before the shooting had stopped. No plans, no intelligence, no idea what to do after we took Baghdad. We continue to reap the rewards of such ignorance and the sad story of this period in our history is already written on the battle scarred walls of Iraq. We just couldn't read the writings on the wall. We broke it and we own it......now we are going to throw it in the garbage.

Meanwhile the neocons who are responsible for this disaster are mostly in hiding, trying to seem invisible while the suffering goes on. There will be much blood shed between now and when the last American soldier or Marine leaves but nothing like we will see after. The real bloodletting of Iraq is yet to begin.}