A major attack on Sadr City

It's not Thanksgiving everywhere.

Police report that suicide bombings and mortar attacks on Sadr City, Baghdad's Shiite slum, killed 144 and wounded 236.

The bombs and mortar shells struck at 15 minute intervals beginning about 3 p.m., with the first suicide bombing killing about 10 people in a vegetable market.

More from Reuters,

A further 201 people were wounded, police said, and the Health Minister said the toll could rise. "Many of the dead have been reduced to scattered body parts and are not counted yet," Ali al-Shemari told Reuters.....

Six parked vehicles each packed with as much as half a metric ton of explosives, as well as mortars landing in the area, devastated streets and a crowded market in the sprawling Sadr City slum in east Baghdad, Major General Jihad al-Jabori of the Interior Ministry told Iraqiya state television.....

The Sadr City blasts destroyed whole streets, leaving bloodied remains amid mangled vehicle wrecks. Fierce fires were left blazing after the attacks.

As the US has been conducting raids in Sadr City for the last few days forcing the militia off the streets, the anger will first be cast on the Sunnis and then on the US.

Calls for the militias to be disbanded are now off the table for awhile, and the rumored talks with Sunni insurgents may be off as well.

(Remember, this horrific death toll is just in Sadr City, not Baghdad or Iraq as a whole. A total curfew has been called. Friday prayers tomorrow.)

Later: These attacks are all aimed at Sadr. Strikes within his Sadr City Base, a strike on his Health Ministry, and a car bomb detonated behind his headquarters.

Also: Notice who is missing.

Top officials held an emergency meeting at the home of Shiite leader Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim apparently to discuss deteriorating security. President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd; Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi, a Sunni; and U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad attended, an aide to al-Hakim said.

Afterward, the three Iraqi officials appeared on national television, with al-Hashimi reading a statement urging calm and calling on politicians to work hard to reduce tensions that have brought a surge in sectarian bloodshed over the past year.

No Maliki? His choice or theirs? Khalilzad was there. Very odd.