I am still astounded by the lack of Arab condemnation of the Arabs who continue to murder Iraqi Shia. The Arabs have proven time and time again that they care only when Americans kill Iraqis.
Also I find it strange that the media calls it "sectarian" violence only when Shia militias kill innocent Sunni Arabs, as they did in 2006. Are these attacks not sectarian in nature?
"A bicycle loaded with explosives killed five people and wounded 37 at a market in Mussayab, south of Baghdad, on Sunday and a bomb on a bus killed at least three more further south in Kerbala, police and health officials said.
The explosives in the first attack were stored in a water cooler attached to the bicycle, and women and children were among the dead and wounded, police said.
Mussayab, 60 km (40 miles) south of Baghdad, is home to both Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims, but the town center where the explosion took place is mostly Shi'ite.
Fifteen people were wounded in the second incident, hospital officials in the Shi'ite holy city of Kerbala, 80 km (50 miles) southwest of Baghdad said. One of the dead was a police officer at a checkpoint the bus was driving toward. Some police sources put the dead at five.
The attacks bore hallmarks of Sunni Islamist insurgents such as al Qaeda, who often attack crowded, mostly Shi'ite areas, but many Iraqis also fear an increase in intra-Shi'ite rivalries ahead of a parliamentary election in January."
Update: 'The bombs Sunday, the first day of the Iraqi work week, killed both police officers and civilians and struck Sunni as well as Shiite areas.
In the deadliest of the attacks, a bomb placed on a parked motorcycle exploded near a police patrol and a crowded kabob restaurant near the southern city of Hilla, killing five people and wounding 37.
“No ambulance came at the beginning — that happens all the time,” said Habeb Alwan, 25, who said he saw the blast. “Police closed the area of the explosion and people started to fight with them because they wanted to get to the scene to check on their relatives.”
Hilla, a predominantly Shiite city about 60 miles south of Baghdad, was the site of a 2005 suicide bomb that killed at least 114 people, until then the deadliest single attack since the 2003 invasion.
Elsewhere, a magnetic bomb attached to a minibus filled with 21 passengers exploded near a checkpoint in the Karbala province, southwest of Baghdad, killing three people and wounding 12 others. Karbala, home of one of the most sacred Shiite mosques, had been relatively peaceful until a spate of attacks in the past few months.
Near Ramadi, the southwest point of Iraq’s Sunni Triangle, a car bomb and a suicide bomber wearing a belt laden with explosives killed two police officers and wounded five people. Ramadi, once one of the most dangerous cities in Iraq, has for two years been a model for progress in Iraq since tribal leaders and United States counterinsurgency forces defeated an Al-Qaeda cell. But recent attacks there have led to concern that Al-Qaeda and other insurgent forces may be regaining strength.
Sheik ali Al-Hatem, a leader of the Sunni Awakening, the group credited with bringing down violence, blamed the “deteriorating of the security situation” on the police and provincial council, saying, “There are no police here — they are just a name with no actions.”
Since September, at least eight attacks on police officers and other officials have killed more than 70 and wounded dozens more in Anbar Province, which includes Ramadi.
Also on Sunday, an improvised explosive device in Mosul province killed two Iraqi soldiers and injured a third, and four police officers were killed in two shootings there.
In October, 453 Iraqi civilians and security personnel were killed, up from a low of 379 in September but considerably below a high of 677 in April, according to the Ministry of Information. The statistics do not count deaths in the northern Kurdish region. In June, United States troops withdrew from cities and towns, handing security responsibilities to Iraqi forces.'
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