Enemy war crime in Tal Afar may have caused reprisal attack

NY Times:

As many as 50 people were killed in what appeared to be reprisal attacks in Tal Afar after a double suicide-vehicle bombing there on Tuesday killed 85 people and wounded 150, Iraqi officials and a witness said today.

Armed attacks broke out against Sunnis in the Sunni neighborhood of Al Wahda, with Shiite Iraqi security forces suspected of taking part, they said.

“Some of the families of the victims were enraged, and with cooperation of some policemen they attacked the Sunni areas,” said a resident in the city, Muhie Muhammad Ebrahim. “I can say that a public slaughtering took place, but there was no reaction from the authorities.”

Twelve police officers suspected of taking part in the reprisal killings were arrested, said an official in the Iraqi army, who declined to be identified. And the Iraqi prime minister, Nuri al-Maliki, a Shiite, ordered a committee be formed to investigate allegations the gunmen included some Iraqi police.

In the most destructive of the two suicide attacks in Tal Afar on Tuesday, the bomber was driving a truck partially filled with sacks of flour for bread that concealed his explosives. He started handing out the sacks to people, saying it was free aid. But as a crowd gathered around his vehicle, he detonated the bomb. Dr. Salah Qadou, the head of the hospital there, said today the death toll from the two attacks had risen to 85.

Today, ambulances circulated through the northern city to pick up bodies. The hospital was running low on medical supplies and blood. The police said that dozens of people demonstrated in front of the mayor’s office, calling for him and the police commander to resign.

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Al Qaeda has used the flour scam before to lure non combatants to their death. What is interesting is how the Times leads with the retaliation war crime rather than the original war crime which was truly egregious. The first time al Qaeda used the flour scam they were selling it at greatly reduced prices. This time it was an attack camouflaged as a charitable donation. That is some hearts and minds campaign they are running. Al Qaeda is one of the most depraved an evil enemies we have ever faced. It is utterly amazing that the Democrats and Chuck Hagel are so eager to surrender to them.

Gateway Pundit raises questions about the "retaliation" story. He thinks it may be a hoax.