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| Iraq |
| Iran Blames Al-Qaida for Shiite Shrine Attacks |
| 2004-03-02 |
| An Iranian vice president blamed al-Qaida for Tuesday's attacks on Shiite Muslims in Iraq and Pakistan, condemning the terrorist group's rigid thinking for the bombings and shootings that killed more than 20 Iranian worshippers and wounded 69. Kind of like a pot calling a kettle black. Mohammad Ali Abtahi, Iran's vice president for legal and parliamentary affairs, wrote in a message posted on his personal Web site that al-Qaida considers Shiites more dangerous than their political enemy - the United States. Personal website, so it's unofficial and deniable at a later date. "The reactionary al-Qaida terror group reached a conclusion ... that they have two enemies: the United States as the political enemy and Shiites as the ideological enemy," Abtahi wrote. Al-Qaida, led by Osama bin Laden, is a predominantly Sunni militant group, and draws its members from some of the most conservative streams of Sunni thought - segments of Muslim society that consider Shiites heretics. The Shiites think the same of the Sunnis. And they both hate the Sufis. "Blasts in Karbala and Kazimiya (shrine in Baghdad) today ... are the direct result of this reactionary religious thinking," Abtahi wrote. "And I know reactionary religious thinking when I see it. Hell, we invented it!" A total of 185 people were killed in Tuesday's bombings in Baghdad and Karbala, Iraq; and Quetta, Pakistan. Count keeps going up. Abtahi's comments about al-Qaida are noteworthy because the United States has accused Iran of harboring al-Qaida fugitives, many of whom are believed to have fled there from neighboring Afghanistan in late 2001 or early 2002 during the Taliban's fall. The United States believes those fugitives include bin Laden's eldest son, Saad; Abu Mohammed al-Masri, wanted in connection with the bombings of two U.S. embassies in East Africa in 1998; and Abu Musab al Zarqawi, whom some U.S. officials describe as the key link between al-Qaida and toppled Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. Zarqawi is the prime suspect in today's Iraq bombing, or so it seems...... Iran still wields tremendous influence in the region and many Gulf countries, primarily Saudi Arabia, worry that the now-emboldened Iraqi Shiites - a long-repressed majority in Iraq - will strike up close ties with Iran and become more powerful. Especially with the Shiites being stirred up by these attacks. In Iraq, at least 143 people were killed and hundreds more were wounded in Tuesday's nearly simultaneous bombings in Baghdad and Karbala, which came during the Shiite festival of Ashoura. They coincided with a shooting attack on Shiite worshippers in Quetta, Pakistan, that killed at least 42 people and wounded more than 150. Well, it was a major Shiite festival, but still.... At least 22 Iranian pilgrims were killed and 69 others injured in the Karbala explosions, Iranian Interior Ministry spokesman Jahanbakhsh Khanjani said. Khanjani said some victims in the Kazimiya explosions in Baghdad were Iranian but had no figures. Khanjani estimated that as many as 50 Iranians - or almost a third of the 143 people killed in Tuesday's attacks in Iraq - were believed to be Iranians. He said information was incomplete and no official figures on confirmed Iranian deaths was available. Iran's state media have reported that more than 100,000 Iranian pilgrims went to Iraq to mark the feast. Hummmm, makes a nice cover. The death of Hussein, the grandson of Prophet Muhammad, and his 72 companions in 680 on the plains of Karbala is marked every year with mourning ceremonies in Iran and Shiite communities across the world. Ok, so you are a Black Turban in Iran. You just stole the "election", but your young people are seething. Your secret nuke program has been exposed and there is a US army just across the border making faces at you. What to do to stall for time? Then, the USA releases the captured Zarqawi letter where he states his desire to start a Sunni/Shiite civil war in Iraq. A light dawns. Why not do it yourself, and lay the blame on al-Qaida for the bombing and the US for not protecting the Shiites. Two fall guys for the price of one. The lives of a few iranian pilgrims would be well worth it, and you could always produce the bodies of a few al-Qaida leaders that you "caught" sneaking into Iran if you needed to. |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #4 Wouldn't be the first time. The then-revolutionaries set a theater on fire, then blamed the Shah's security apparatus. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2004-3-2 9:05:21 PM |
| #3 just wait til the turban'd turds start booming an Iranian mosque. Talk about crapping in your own bed. If it were not a human tragedy (innocent people) it would be funny (terrorist clerics iced). |
| Posted by: alaskasoldier 2004-3-2 6:47:49 PM |
| #2 The reaction of the Shiite leaders in Iraq will be interesting and informative of what the future will hold for Iraq. Whether it is Iran or Al Q that is initiating these attacks does not matter. What will matter is what the Shiites will do about it. Will they rant and rave and blame the US, or will they start working with Sunnis, Kurds, and others to rid Iraq of the booming vermin that plague them all. I hope for the latter but I do not have much faith in people that do this to their kids. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2004-3-2 6:10:17 PM |
| #1 iran is now reaping what they have sowed...last step is for uncle sam to come in and clean up the mulla's |
| Posted by: Dan 2004-3-2 5:15:31 PM |