Damn You To Hell George W. Bush.

More Than 50 Are Killed in String of Bombings in Central Iraq

By Richard A. Oppel Jr.
The New York Times

Wednesday 04 January 2006

Baghdad - Insurgents killed more than 50 people on today as they unleashed car bombs and suicide attacks throughout central Iraq in the deadliest day since the national parliamentary elections three weeks ago.

Over a daylong period, insurgents struck three very different targets. In the most lethal attack, they hit a favored and particularly easy objective - a funeral packed with Shiite mourners - killing at least 30 people and wounded 36 others during a two-stage bombing of a funeral procession in Muqdadiyah, 60 miles northeast of the capital.

In the first attack, a witness said, a bomber wore a slim explosives pack strapped to his torso and waded into a pack of grieving relatives surrounding the coffin of the nephew of a prominent local Shiite political leader.

Shortly after the first blast, near the coffin, a car bomber was driven into the now frantic crowd and exploded, killing more mourners, according to the witness, Ali Abbas, a 25-year-old student. The Muqdadiyah hospital quickly overflowed with seriously wounded patients and many victims had to be taken to the hospital in nearby Baquba, he said.

Insurgents also struck again at Iraq's fragile fuel infrastructure, attacking a convoy of gasoline trucks making their way to Baghdad to replenish gas stations. Residents have been hoarding gas for use in electrical generators and mobbing gas stations amid rumors - staunchly denied by the government - that another major gas price increase is imminent.

And this morning, Baghdad residents awoke to massive traffic jams and roadblocks as Iraqi security forces responded to a more personal attack: The kidnapping of the sister of Interior Minister Bayan Jabr. Mr. Jabr is one of the most polarizing figures in Iraq, a former Shiite militia leader whom Sunni Arabs have accused of orchestrating a widespread program of assassinating Sunnis.

Continues if you can stomache it....