Suicide Bomber in Baghdad Kills at least 40
According to the Los Angeles Times, at a crowded college campus Sunday in Baghdad, a suicide bomber set off a blast that killed at least 40 Iraqis. Most of the victims were female students who were waiting in line in the midday sun to enter classrooms for midterm exams. This was the second attack in recent weeks to target the mainly Shiite Mustansiriya University, and it follows the launch of the latest U.S.-Iraqi security plan. Radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, whose followers virtually control the campus, denounced the plan as a failure and said Iraqi government troops and police should take charge of security and that U.S. troops should leave.
The Star Tribune reported that the school's main campus was hit by a string of bombings last month that killed 70 people. According to the Star Tribune, Muqtada al-Sadr said any crackdown that includes U.S. soldiers was doomed to failure.