Four Suicide Bombings Kill 200 in Iraq

Four suicide truck bombers struck nearly simultaneously on Tuesday, killing more people than any other concerted attack since Nov. 23, when 215 people were killed by mortar fire and five car bombs in Baghdad's Shiite Muslim enclave of Sadr City.

The victims were members of a small Kurdish sect _ the Yazidis _ sometimes attacked by Muslim extremists who consider them infidels. It was most vicious attack yet against the Yazidis, an ancient religious community in the region. Some 300 people were wounded in the blasts, said Dakhil Qassim, the mayor of the nearby town of Sinjar.

The carnage dealt a serious blow to U.S. efforts to pacify the country with just weeks to go before the top U.S. commander Gen. David Petraeus and U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker are to deliver a pivotal report to the U.S. Congress amid a fierce debate over whether to begin withdrawing American troops from Iraq.

U.S. officials believe extremists are attempting to regroup across northern Iraq after being driven from strongholds in and around Baghdad, and commanders have warned they expected Sunni insurgents to step up attacks in a bid to upstage the report.

The Yazidis comprise a primarily Kurdish religious sect with ancient roots, that worships an angel figure considered to be the devil by some Muslims and Christians. Yazidis, who don't believe in hell or evil, deny that.

This is more evidence the war is becoming more fractious and more ethnic. The insurgents are regrouping? Oh, really. Does anyone really think this surge will work. I read an article on the Huffington Post discussing why liberals and progressives should give the surge a chance because we don't want to act like conservatives. What? Have you been infected with the DLC/Hillary Clinton mindset? Of course the surge will work in the short term in some neighborhoods, but Iraq wants us out. That is the only thing we need to know. And they will not stop until we are out.

They can call us pessimists, terrorists, terrorist sympathizers all they want. The surge will not work and we need to leave as soon as possible. Update: Forty-one soldiers have been killed this month and one shy of 3700 American soldiers in total.