Interruption - Truck Bomb

Yesterday's truck bomb interrupted more than our classes -as the loud boom shattered the silence, rattled the building and caused the corner classrooms (2 sides of windows) to flex- it also interrupted 2 years of relative peace in the city of Hawler (Erbil).
After the blast at about 9:00 am (which caused a variety of reactions from students and teachers in the building), my students made some predictions as to the possible cause of the now smoking area (viewable from our windows) in a desensitized kind of fashion... and then we resumed lessons. About 10 minutes later, we were instructed to return home so that the University could check for damage and (consider policy for such events?)


This picture was taken via a student's cell phone from the roof of our building. (Note that shirt worn by man in the picture is NOT typical - this must be one of the workers from 'North Kurdistan') The source was just outside the Ministry of Interior.This created some panic as two of our students are empoyees there and apparently there was to be a meeting yesterday morning meaning that we could assume that 100% attendance was required. Luckily, our students' safety was quickly confirmed by a couple of cell phone calls.


This second picture is of one of the buildings damaged in the blast... Note the brown bits on the right of the building. These were granity-type tiles which used to cover the entire building. Another building - the ministry guard's building - was completely demolished. Windows were blown out in some of the buildings in the immediate surroundings, including one in our administration building... even though we were probably about a half kilometer away.

As it turns out, the explosives were on a truck filled with cleaning products. But as to the reasons behind the blast or the people responsible, it seems the speculations of foreign news reports are as good as local speculations... The explosion which killed 19 people and injured about 80 (maybe more as we still don't know about those trapped under the rubble) corresponded with Dick Cheney's visit to Baghdad (and the usual violence there) and also with the killing of 4 Iraqi journalists in Kirkuk. In fact, so far, the news of this item seems to have been downplayed although it was being the first for some time in this part of Kurdistan. Some students mentioned that although they personally didn't believe the attack was Al Quaida, the anti-terrorism committee is/was based in the Ministry of Interior building and there were purportedly prionsers of the extreme-Islamist persuation held there.

In any case, it is work as usual today!