Healing Iraq Blog

A coordinated series of car bombings and mortar attacks by Sunni insurgents – the deadliest yet since the American invasion in 2003 – has killed at least 161 Iraqis and wounded up to 260 at the Shi’ite district of Sadr City, northeast of Baghdad. They targeted several checkpoints and marketplaces at three busy streets leading into Sadr City from across the Army Canal, which separates it from the rest of Baghdad. The death toll is likely to increase as hospitals in Baghdad struggle to accommodate and provide treatment for the wounded.

The bombings at 3 p.m., Thursday, followed a bold attack by dozens of masked Sunni gunmen, armed with rocket-propelled grenades and sniper rifles, against the Health Ministry at Bab Al-Muadham in central Baghdad. The gunmen attempted to storm the ministry but were kept at bay by ministry guards. They continued to shoot at the ministry from the rooftops of surrounding buildings until U.S. and Iraqi forces arrived at the scene, two hours after the attack had started. The Health Ministry is housed in Baghdad’s Medical City, where the Baghdad Medico-legal Institute (the main morgue in Baghdad), Baghdad University’s medicine and dentistry colleges, as well as several health departments and hospitals are located. The Defense Ministry is just across the street, but it took two hours for Iraqi and U.S. troops to intervene.
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