Suicidal irritations

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A suicide bomber targeting laborers killed 60 people Tuesday in Baghdad and wounded 220 others, Iraqi officials said.

A pickup truck, loaded with about 440 pounds (200 kilograms) of explosives, pulled into central Baghdad's Tayaran Square as hundreds of unemployed Iraqis holding picks and shovels gathered seeking a day's work.

The truck driver signaled to the would-be workers that he had jobs -- prompting people to crowd around the pickup before he detonated his bomb, said an Iraqi Interior Ministry official.

The explosion, which sent a cloud of black smoke into the sky, set several cars ablaze, and gunfire sounded after the blast, Reuters reported.

"A driver with a pickup truck stopped and asked for laborers. When they gathered around the car, it exploded," a witness told Reuters as he helped a stumbling survivor with a blood-stained head bandage.

"They were poor laborers looking for work. The poor are supposed to be protected by the government."

Iraqi police Lt. Bilal Ali Majid told The Associated Press that most of the victims were Shiites from poor areas of Baghdad such as Sadr City.

Bodies were piled up on the roadside and partly covered with paper, the AP reported.

On a nearby sidewalk, two Iraqi men sat crying and sometimes buried their faces in their hands, according to the AP.

"Look at this injured man. He comes from a big family," Ali Hussein, a witness to the attack, told the AP, eyeing a dazed older man with a bloody bandage tied around his head.

Authorities said it was unclear whether the attack was related to the sectarian violence that has strained the fledgling Iraqi government.

Attacks on day laborers have occurred before as Iraqis battle high unemployment in the struggling wartime economy.

Police theorize insurgents carry out such strikes to intimidate people from taking jobs that would help the U.S.-backed government or coalition.

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki called Tuesday's bombing, a "horrible massacre," according to Reuters, blaming it on Saddam Hussein sympathizers and al Qaeda in Iraq.

"These terrorist groups are trying to spread chaos by killing and fueling sectarian
strife," said al-Maliki, a Shiite, in a statement, according to Reuters.

Okay, so, I'm a pretty normal American; hardened to the reports of violence on Iraq, but this one chaps my hide. Some deluded idiot lured a large group of labor-seeking innocents to his minibus by promising work. Then he detonated the bomb, killing at least 60. Now, I know "Jesus loves you," and all that, and maybe my heart isn't quite right, but I have no compassion for such a man. In fact, I hope he's burning in Hell as we speak. His victims wanted to work, not proselytize, not marty themselves. They wanted to feed their families. I hope Hell is especially hot today. It should be mentioned that the bomber was Muslim, and that his actions were driven by his faith. Isn't Islam a beautiful religion?

And, yes, attrocities of such magnitude have occurred in the name of Christ, but I would hesitate to ever claim their perpetrators as "Christian." Not a lot of suicide bombers in heaven. And none who claim Muhammad as a prophet.