Comments on: Baghdad Traffic Accident

By: mkbarth

mkbarth — Sat, 26 May 2007 04:50:22 +0000

I think I have pinned down the date of this burning vehicle. Here is the original DigitalGlobe photograph used by Google Earth.

http://archive.digitalglobe.com/archive/showBrowse.php?catID=10100100033B8A04

It is dated Sep 07, 2004. You can see the smoke midway top to bottom, and half way from the center to left edge.

There are some fairly comprehensive web sites that log attacks in Baghdad. There were some roadside bombs and RPG attacks on that day, but they were all in the northeast part of Baghdad. Here’s a news release.

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/news/2004/09/mil-040907-centcom01.htm

This burning vehicle is in western Baghdad. A traffic accident probably wouldn’t have made the news. And since attempting to eliminate other possibilities doesn’t make a proof, it’s still an open question.

By: D@Z

D@Z — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 13:16:02 +0000

I bet that one in Iraq is a car bomb.

By: Bfrank

Bfrank — Sat, 15 Jul 2006 17:09:49 +0000

My bet is it IS an IED. Look closely and there are groups of people on every street corner up and down the road and on both sides. I can’t imagine that kind of turn out for a car fire. Also, notice the cars downroad detouring across the shoulder to avoid the incident. Again, not necessarily something you would do to avoid an average car fire. I also think you can see damage to the road a couple of carlengths from the burning car.

By: nigerache

nigerache — Mon, 26 Jun 2006 10:51:16 +0000

WELL IM GOING TO IRAQ

By: muhammed

muhammed — Fri, 23 Jun 2006 08:49:01 +0000

marijuana just got legalized in iraq..

By: WRA

WRA — Thu, 22 Jun 2006 17:55:23 +0000

Aaron/Tggb3k, This traffic accident/spill was pointed out in the Belfast Dockyard post. See http://googlesightseeing.com/2006/02/23/belfast-docklands/#comments I do agree, though- perhaps a wreck mega-post is in the works…

By: Brad

Brad — Thu, 22 Jun 2006 03:24:07 +0000

The smoke looks pretty ordinary for any car fire. Not to say that an IED didn’t start it though.

The traffic jam looks very similar to somthing I’ve become quite used to in San Juan, a traffic jam caused by power failure. Any big intersection becomes a mad house.

By: Keith T.

Keith T. — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 23:34:44 +0000

Anyway, it looks to me like there’s a long part behind the smoke which looks sort of like a tanker trailer. The flames are coming from a similarly-colored object which looks too small to be a car on its own. Between the smoke and the “tanker trailer” looks like an amorphous mass. Could this be a truck hauling some liquid that broke apart?

PS Pan further east to see another truck, in the median.

By: Keith T.

Keith T. — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 23:31:20 +0000

DIA was pretty sure this time that it was Saddam’s car.

By: aaron

aaron — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 23:12:30 +0000

tggb3k: http://perljam.net/google-satellite-maps/id/9348/United_Kingdom//Belfast/TRANSIENT__Some_sort_of_spillage/accident_causing_a_major_problem