Iraq: July 13, 2005

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A suicide bomber driving through a poor neighborhood in Baghdad, seeing an American military vehicle, drove as close as he could and detonated his explosives. One U.S. soldier was killed, and three wounded. But the American vehicle was surrounded by over fifty Iraqi children, because the soldiers were giving out candy. At least 32 children, mostly aged 10-13, were killed, and another three dozen wounded. These kinds of attacks have made the terrorists very unpopular in Iraq, just as similar attacks in Egypt and Algeria (during the 1990s) turned the population against Islamic terrorists there. Tangible examples of that hatred are seen daily as more and more Iraqis report terrorist activity. This has led to more arrests of terrorists, and the capture of bomb making materials, workshops and the bomb makers themselves.