What the Iraqi "insurgency" is about - Another reminder

From the Associated Press report (Monday, March 17, 2008):

A female suicide bomber struck Shiite worshippers in the holy city of Karbala on Monday, an official and a witness said, killing at least 43 people and leaving pools of blood on the street leading to one of Iraq's most revered mosques

The blast was the deadliest in a series of attacks that left at least 72 Iraqis dead, including six youths killed when mortar rounds slammed into a soccer field in eastern Baghdad. [....]

The bomber struck after the worshippers had gathered at a sacred historical site about half a mile from the golden domed shrine of Imam Hussein, a grandson of the Prophet Muhammad who was killed in a seventh-century battle.

A police officer, speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to release the information, said the attacker was a woman--as did a witness. [....]

Brig. Gen. Raed Shakir Jawdat, Karbala's police chief, said 43 people were killed and 73 wounded. He denied it was a suicide attack, saying a bomb had been planted in the area. The discrepancies could not immediately be resolved. [....]

The witness, who did not identify himself, told AP Television News that a woman in the crowd had blown herself up.

If true, it would be among the deadliest attacks carried out by women during the Iraq conflict.

Female suicide bombers have been involved in at least 20 attacks or attempted attacks since the war began, including the grisly bombings of two pet markets in Baghdad that killed nearly 100 people last month. [....]

The BBC News report adds:

On 28 April of last year, a car bomb killed at least 55 people and injured about 70 in Karbala, two weeks after a suicide bomber killed at least 42 people in the city.

Monday's attack would seem to be an act calculated to provoke Iraqi Shia Muslims at a time when one of the country's largest Shia militias, the Mehdi army, has declared a ceasefire and reigned in its fighters, the BBC's Adam Brookes reports.

=> Another reminder of who has been steadily murdering Iraqi civilians since 2003 and why they have been doing it.

--Jeff Weintraub