Plenty of trouble afoot in Iraq

[conjur]

Originally posted by: Darkhawk28
Psst... the Las Vegas Sun article is off the AP wire.

Ssshhhh....don't confuse the ignorant. They might hurt themselves.

 

[conjur]

Five U.S. Soldiers Killed in Iraq Attacks
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=domesticNews&storyID=7677234

MOSUL, Iraq (Reuters) - Five U.S. soldiers were killed in separate guerrilla attacks in Iraq, the U.S. military said Friday, three in or near the northern city of Mosul, one north of Baghdad and the fifth south of the capital.

The deaths brought to 1,119 the number of U.S. troops killed in action since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003.

In the latest incident Friday, one soldier was killed and two were wounded when a roadside bomb exploded near a U.S. military base north of the town of Diwaniya, about 180 km (110 miles) south of Baghdad, the military said.

Earlier Friday, a soldier was killed and two were wounded in a car bomb blast about 40 km (25 miles) north of the capital, the military said in a statement.

The other incidents happened Thursday. In the first, a car bomb exploded next to a U.S. army patrol in Mosul, killing one soldier and wounding three.

Another soldier was shot dead in an exchange of fire with guerrillas in Mosul. In addition, a roadside bomb killed a soldier and wounded another in an attack near Tal Afar, about 60 km (40 miles) west of Mosul.

U.S. troops have been battling to keep order in Mosul, where an insurgency broke out in November when almost the entire police force in Iraq's third largest city deserted.

The 8,000-strong U.S. force in Mosul has said it is steadily returning stability to the city.

Thursday, a resident tipped off U.S. troops to the presence of six roadside bombs and the devices were defused, the military said.

I'm still waiting for that proof that America and the world are safer now.

 

[dannybin1742]

I'm still waiting for that proof that America and the world are safer now

ditto


but... freedom is on the march

 

[irwincur]

Psst... the Las Vegas Sun article is off the AP wire.

Even better. We all know that the AP is by far the 'fairest' anti American news source out there...

Care to explain how we were provoked into invading pre-emptively?

Hmm. Read the articles of war again, they are explained there. I doubt you have ever bothered to read what you Senator or House members actually voted for.

Aggression since the cease fire, violation of UN rules, violation of NATO agreements, banned weapon production, UN oil for food scam, murder, attempted assasination, etc... Need I continue. Saddam gave us more than enough reasons. Enough that even the yellow bellied sack of sh*t Clinton was in full agreement with the attack. As long as it wasn't on his watch and he didn't have to risk his 'legacy'.

 

[conjur]

Insurgents attack US patrol, medical team in Baghdad
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-02/21/content_2601328.htm

BAGHDAD, Feb. 21 (Xinhuanet) -- Insurgents detonated a roadside bomb at a US military patrol in Baghdad on Monday and attacked a medical team sent by a helicopter to evacuate the wounded, the US military said.

The attack took place at Dora neighborhood in southern Baghdad, but it was not clear how many US soldiers were wounded or killed in the incident, the military said.

Also in Baghdad, three Iraqis were killed, including an Iraqi intelligence officer, police said.

"A police patrol found a body riddled with bullets, inside a car in eastern Baghdad," a police officer said, adding that "after investigations we identified the victim as an officer from the new Iraqi intelligence."

Elsewhere in the capital, a female official and her driver, working for a mobile communication company, were shot dead by unknown gunmen who fled the scene after the attack, police said.

The motive of the assassinations was not clear, they said, adding that investigations were underway

Those elections sure defeated them terrorists. Now they're not only attacking our soldiers but medical teams, too. :|

 

[conjur]

At Least 15 Iraqi Police Officers Killed By Bomb
http://www.nbc4.tv/news/4228222/detail.html

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- It's been a deadly day for police officers in Iraq, where officials said at least 15 Iraqi officers were killed when a man wearing a police uniform drove a car bomb inside the main police compound in Tikrit.

At least four other police officers were killed in separate attacks across the country, including a car bomb assault on a police convoy south of Baghdad.

Two people were killed in eastern Baghdad when gunmen opened fire on a bakery.

And U.S. officials said two American soldiers also died in separate bombings. Two others have been wounded.

The first U.S. soldier died when a homemade bomb went off in a province northeast of Baghdad. The other was killed in a separate attack near Samarra, about 60 miles north of Baghdad. That attack also injured two soldiers.

The Associated Press reports that as of Wednesday, at least 1,484 members of the military have died since the war began in March 2003.

And on and on the tragedy goes.

 

[lozina]

Originally posted by: irwincur

Even better. We all know that the AP is by far the 'fairest' anti American news source out there...

Hah, so now the AP is anti-American too? LOL please go back into your cave that smells of curdled milk

 

[phillyTIM]

good news, conjur - let chaos reign in iraq and implode that country, the fruit of bush's touch.

let the world behold the example of what george w. bush is all about.

 

[CaptnKirk]

Conservative Mindset

 

[conjur]

Originally posted by: phillyTIM
good news, conjur - let chaos reign in iraq and implode that country, the fruit of bush's touch.

let the world behold the example of what george w. bush is all about.

I certainly wouldn't call it good news. I would call it an example of the failure of this administration to think critically instead of giving in to blind ideology.

 

[phillyTIM]

exactly why there is silver lining on this cloud, conjur - let bush & his feeble regime make a a spectackle of themselves and the situation and drive the citizens of the US & the World into declaring mutiny on that bounty.

 

[conjur]

Iraqi soldiers killed in two bombings
http://www.capitalnews9.com/content/headlines/?ArID=120135&SecID=33

At least 10 Iraqi soldiers were killed and dozens more were hurt in two car bombings.

The first blast happened at Iraqi army base in central Baghdad. Six soldier were killed there. The base is a former airport and a common target for rebels, according to Iraqi police.

The sound of the blast could be heard across the city, and black smoke rose high into the sky. An hour later, a second bomb went off at an army checkpoint in south Baghdad. Four soldiers were killed.

Meanwhile, gunmen killed a judge and his son in the capital. Both were working for the tribunal that will try Saddam Hussein. A tribunal official said the shootings may have something to do with a personal dispute.

But another one of the judge's son's disagrees. He said they were assassinated either because they were on the tribunal, or because they were minority Kurds....

Iraqi survivors mourn as bombing toll hits 135
http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/LondonFreePress/News/2005/03/02/946849-sun.html

HILLAH, IRAQ -- Weeping and beating their chests, hundreds of people inspected corpses at a hospital morgue in Hillah yesterday, trying to identify friends and family who died in a suicide bombing that killed at least 135 people, the single deadliest attack of its kind since the fall of Saddam Hussein. Babil provincial police said the victims included five people who died of their injuries.

This attack has sparked rage in Iraqis who are upset with officials and with Iraqi police for a lack of security to prevent it and also lashing out at the terrorists for carrying out the attack. If Iraqi security doesn't appear soon, that civil war just may break out.

 

[StageLeft]

Iraq doesn't seem to be getting better. I realize it's going to have growing pains, but at some point we need to realize this isn't working and do one of two things: 1) Send more troops or 2) Withdraw. If it doesn't get better we'll see 1) followed by 2), once support for the effort over there starts to nosedive.

I know this is not vietnam, but I think too many people take for granted the idea that the US will be successful here. There is an increasingly large probability that this entire Iraq effort will be a big bum rush and historians will look back at it as a major blunder--not as severe as vietnam, given how few US troops die, but a blunder nonetheless.

 

[Genx87]

We're more concerned with domestic issues, true homeland security, facing the huge national debt, fairness in and independent media, raising our kids, getting an education and a job.

Is that why you spend an entire day on a msgboard trying to convince like minded people?????

Maybe you should take your talents of searching google all day long and apply them in the real world and do some real good.

 

[conjur]

Bomb Outside Iraqi Interior Ministry Kills Four
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=...&sid=a.bejcQHzW6Y&refer=top_world_news

March 3 (Bloomberg) -- A suicide car bomber killed four people today and wounded several others outside the Iraqi Interior Ministry, one of the government agencies fighting the country's insurgents, Baghdad police said.

The bomb went off at 7:30 a.m. local time at the ministry's main gates, Mahmoud Hameed, an official in Baghdad's police headquarters, said in an interview. Two policemen protecting the building and two civilians died in the blast, he said. He didn't have the number of people injured.

``Terrorism is very strategic, they are attacking government ministries now,'' Sergio Catignani, a lecturer at the King's College London Department of War Studies, said in a telephone interview. ``Due to the lack of resources, insurgents have to choose highly symbolic targets that embody the government.''

Separately, two U.S. soldiers died in a hospital late yesterday after being injured by a bomb, the U.S. military said today. Another U.S. soldier was killed in action yesterday, it said.

Witnesses and an unidentified Interior Ministry official said the attack at the ministry was carried out with two car bombs, leaving five police officers dead and another five wounded, Agence France-Presse reported.

In an attempt to clamp down on the insurgency, interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi has extended the state of emergency across Iraq, with the exception of the Kurdish region, for 30 days, the government press office said today.

State of Emergency

The state of emergency allows authorities to impose curfews and restrict movement. It was first imposed on Nov. 7 for 60 days and renewed the day before the national election on Jan. 30 to protect voters.

``Imposing curfews is one of the greatest tools for the security forces,'' Catignani said. ``It limits the movement of the insurgents, and that makes them easier to pinpoint.''

The insurgency is led by al-Qaeda operatives and former members of the Baath Party, who lost their privileges when Saddam Hussein's Sunni Muslim-dominated regime fell in 2003 after the U.S.-led invasion, the U.S. and Iraqi governments have repeatedly said. Iraq's most wanted man, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who espouses an extreme form of Sunnism, claims to be behind a number of assaults.

The Iraqi government ``must create a dialogue with disenfranchised groups so that it wins the hearts and minds of all Iraqis,'' Catignani said.

Targeting U.S. Forces

Insurgents are continuing to kill U.S. soldiers and Iraqis they believe to be collaborating with the U.S.-backed government in an attempt to destabilize the country. Yesterday's two attacks on Iraqi security forces in Baghdad killed at least nine people.

On Feb. 28, more than 110 people died when insurgents targeted security service recruits in Hilla, in the deadliest single strike since Hussein's regime was toppled. A judge and his son, both working for a special tribunal set up to try Hussein, were shot dead in the capital two days ago.

The two soldiers who died in hospital were on patrol in central Baghdad when their vehicle was hit by an improvised bomb at 9 p.m. yesterday, the U.S. military said in an e-mailed statement. The other U.S. soldier was killed in the Babil Province, south of Baghdad, it said in a separate statement.

According to the Pentagon Web site, 1,487 members of the military and four Department of Defense civilians have been killed in Iraq as of 10 a.m. Washington time yesterday.

Yeah...that state of emergency sure stopped those attacks from Nov. - Jan. :roll:

 

[Crimson]

Originally posted by: Skoorb
Iraq doesn't seem to be getting better. I realize it's going to have growing pains, but at some point we need to realize this isn't working and do one of two things: 1) Send more troops or 2) Withdraw. If it doesn't get better we'll see 1) followed by 2), once support for the effort over there starts to nosedive.

I know this is not vietnam, but I think too many people take for granted the idea that the US will be successful here. There is an increasingly large probability that this entire Iraq effort will be a big bum rush and historians will look back at it as a major blunder--not as severe as vietnam, given how few US troops die, but a blunder nonetheless.

You do realize that to this day we still have an extremely large military presence in Germany and Japan right? And we lost 100's of thousands of Americans to liberate those countries.. I'd be willing to guess that we have actually lost more Americans in those countries in PEACETIME than we have in war in Iraq..

While you think Iraq may be looked at as blunder, I think its equally likely it will be looked upon as one of the most important policy decisions ever made.. The catalyst which pushed Iran and other Middle Eastern countries toward democracy.. The fact is we DO NOT KNOW how its going to turn out.. But I think many on the left are cheering for it to fail so they can simply say 'See! We told you so!'.

 

[conjur]

At least 31 Iraqis killed in attacks
Violence comes after date set for meeting of new assembly
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7043921/


The Iraqi resistance has the government wired and civil war is all but inevitable. That was a point Hersh emphasized in his speech the other night.

 

[conjur]

15 beheaded corpses found in Iraq
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/co...tory_page/0,5744,12489510^1702,00.html

THE Iraqi army said today it found 15 beheaded corpses, both men and women, on an old military base near Latifiyah south of Baghdad.

The army raided the old Hatin army base, now believed to be used by insurgents, and found the corpses, said Captain Mohammed Abdel Hussein al-Saedi.

The soldiers launched the operation after reports some Shiite pilgrims on their way to the holy cities of Karbala and Najaf had disappeared near Latifiyah, around 40km south of Baghdad, where rebels frequently launch attacks, Capt. Saedi said.

The resistance has been using an army base??? Nice security in Iraq.

 

[conjur]

Security Forces Find 41 Corpses in Iraq
http://apnews.excite.com/article/20050309/D88NGPJG0.html

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Iraqi officials said Wednesday that 41 bodies - some bullet-riddled, others beheaded - have been found at two separate sites, and they believe some of the corpses are Iraqi soldiers kidnapped and killed by insurgents.

In other violence, a suicide bomber detonated a garbage truck packed with explosives outside the Agriculture Ministry and a hotel used by Western contractors, killing at least three people, officials said. The bomber also died...

...Two other car bombings were also reported. Police 1st Lt. Mohammed al-Duleimi said one car bomber targeted an American checkpoint outside a base in Habaniyah, 50 miles west of Baghdad. Another car bomb exploded near U.S. troops close to a U.S. base in Abu Ghraib, just west of the capital, police Lt. Akram al-Zubaie said...

...Elsewhere, guerrillas struck a police patrol with a roadside bomb in the southern city of Basra, killing one policeman and wounding three more, Lt. Col. Karim Al-Zaydi said.

Authorities found 26 of the corpses late Tuesday in a field near Rumana, a village about 12 miles east of the western city of Qaim, near the Syrian border, police Capt. Muzahim al-Karbouli and other officials said.

Each of the bodies had been riddled with bullets - apparently several days earlier. They were found wearing civilian clothes and one of the dead was a woman, al-Karbouli said.

South of Baghdad in Latifiya, Iraqi troops on Tuesday made another gruesome discovery, finding 15 headless bodies in a building inside an abandoned former army base, Defense Ministry Capt. Sabah Yassin said.

The bodies included 10 men, three women and two children. Their identities, like the others found in western Iraq, were not known.

 

[Deptacon]

Originally posted by: BBond

Originally posted by: ntdz
I wonder how many people got murdered here in the USA in the same time period.

Iraq ~26 million people.

USA ~ 300 million people.

I wonder how many of those murdered in the USA are dead due to the unprovoked invasion of a militarily superior foreign power?

good god, does the rehtoric every stopp sprewing from your mouth?

 

[BBond]

For many people today was not a good day in Iraq.

Security Forces Find 41 Corpses in Iraq

Wednesday March 9, 2005 5:31 PM

By TODD PITMAN

Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Iraqi officials said Wednesday that 41 bodies - some bullet-riddled, others beheaded - have been found at two sites, and they believe some of the corpses are Iraqi soldiers kidnapped and killed by insurgents. At least 30 American contractors, meanwhile, were wounded by a suicide bombing near a hotel.

In another attack, interim Planning Minister Mahdi al-Hafidh escaped assassination after gunmen opened fire on his convoy in Baghdad. One of his guards was killed and two others were wounded, police said.

A U.S. soldier was killed and another was injured Wednesday when a roadside bomb detonated as they were patrolling in the capital, the military said.

Authorities found 26 of the corpses late Tuesday in a field near Rumana, a village about 12 miles east of the western city of Qaim, near the Syrian border, police Capt. Muzahim al-Karbouli and other officials said.

Each of the bodies had been riddled with bullets - apparently several days earlier. They were found wearing civilian clothes and one of the dead was a woman, al-Karbouli said.

South of Baghdad in Latifiya, Iraqi troops on Tuesday found 15 headless bodies in a building inside an abandoned former army base, Defense Ministry Capt. Sabah Yassin said. The bodies included 10 men, three women and two children. Their identities, like the others found in western Iraq, were not known.

Yassin said some of the dead men in Latifiya were thought to have been part of a group of Iraqi soldiers who were kidnapped by insurgents in the area two weeks ago, Yassin said.

In the Baghdad suicide bombing, a garbage truck packed with explosives blew up outside the Agriculture Ministry and the Sadeer Hotel, which is used by Western contractors, killing at least three people, and wounding the 30 Americans, officials said. The bomber also died.

The U.S. Embassy said the 30 injured Americans were among 40 people hurt in the blast, but no Americans were killed. In an Internet statement, al-Qaida in Iraq purportedly claimed responsibility for the attack on the Sadeer, calling it the ``hotel of the Jews.''

The bombing shook nearby buildings in the heart of the capital, injuring dozens of people and sending up a huge column of acrid black smoke. Volleys of automatic weapons fire could be heard before and after the explosion.

Police said a group of insurgents wearing police uniforms first shot to death a guard at the Agriculture Ministry's gate, allowing the truck to enter a compound the ministry shares with the adjacent Sadeer hotel. Guards in the area then fired on the vehicle, trying to disable it before it exploded.

Officials at al-Kindi hospital said at least three dead and eight wounded were taken there. Ibn al-Nafis hospital counted at least 27 wounded, said Dr. Falleh al-Jubouri.

The truck blew up in a parking lot, where several burning vehicles were in flames and 20 others were damaged.

Two other car bombings were also reported. Police 1st Lt. Mohammed al-Duleimi said one car bomber targeted an American checkpoint outside a base in Habaniyah, 50 miles west of Baghdad. Another car bomb exploded near U.S. troops close to a U.S. base in Abu Ghraib, just west of the capital, police Lt. Akram al-Zubaie said.

Elsewhere, guerrillas struck a police patrol with a roadside bomb in the southern city of Basra, killing one policeman and wounding three more, Lt. Col. Karim Al-Zaydi said.

The attack against Iraq's interim planning minister was the latest by insurgents who have repeatedly targeted top Iraqi officials and civil servants viewed as collaborating with U.S. forces.

A woman who answered al-Hafidh's cell phone and refused to be identified confirmed he had survived the attack in the upscale Baghdad neighborhood of Mansour.

"Thank God, he's OK. He's fine,'' she said.

The violence came a day after the U.S. military announced it was speeding up an inquiry into the shooting death of an Italian agent killed Friday by U.S. troops at a Baghdad checkpoint - a friendly fire incident that has strained relations with Italy, a key American ally that sent 3,000 troops to Iraq. The agent was escorting Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena to the airport just after insurgents freed her.

The shooting that killed Italian intelligence officer Nicola Calipari and wounded Sgrena, a 56-year-old journalist for the left-wing Il Manifesto newspaper, angered Italians and rekindled questions about the country's involvement in Iraq.

In Rome, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, in his first major address since the shooting, said Calipari had U.S. military authorization for his operation to win the release of Sgrena.

He said their car stopped immediately when a light was flashed. The U.S. military has said the Americans used hand and arm signals, flashing white lights, and firing warning shots to try to get the car to stop.

The U.S. 3rd Infantry Division, which controls Baghdad, said the vehicle was ``traveling at high speeds'' and ``refused to stop at a checkpoint.''

``When the driver didn't stop, the soldiers shot into the engine block which stopped the vehicle, killing one and wounding two others,'' it said.

Berlusconi said friendly fire is ``painful'' to accept, but he reassured lawmakers that the United States is committed to finding out the truth.

``I'm sure that in a very short time every aspect of this will be clarified,'' he said.

President Bush sent a letter to Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi renewing his promise for a swift and thorough investigation.

U.S. officials said the inquiry will take three to four weeks, and Italian officials were invited to participate.

 

[conjur]

At least 36 die in blast at Shiite mosque
Funeral-goers killed in Mosul suicide attack
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7043921

MOSUL, Iraq - A suicide bomber on Thursday killed at least 36 Iraqis at a Shiite mosque in this northern city as mourners were gathered for a funeral service.

Saher Maher, a doctor at Mosul's hospital, said 36 people had died and that at least 25 were injured.

American troops cordoned off the area around the mosque, but witnesses said the attack took place during a funeral.

?As we were inside the mosque, we saw a ball of fire and heard a huge explosion,? said Tahir Abdullah Sultan. ?After that blood and pieces of flesh were scattered around the place.?

The attack was the first against a Shiite mosque in Mosul, where Shiites make up a small minority.

Sunni on Shi'a violence continues. It's like the Sunnis are hoping to draw them into a civil war.

 

[CaptnKirk]

Sunni on Shi'a violence continues. It's like the Sunnis are hoping to draw them into a civil war

Sunni's were in charge of Iraq's potitical destiny for more than the last half century,
before most of us that post on ATOT P&N were even born.

They constitute about 20% of that countries population, but under Saddam & his predecessors directed the countries persona,
although Saddam was cruel & corrupt, the Sunni kept the fanatical Shia in check
and pretty much left the Kurds in the North to their own devices. (You know how much Kurds like 'devices')

They did not suppress the women in Iraq as the Shia do, and up until recent history,
Iraq was the most advanced Arab country in the world - culturally.

Then in one fell swoop, the Sunni are completely out of power, their country is being run by a foriegn occupancy
that has literally turned over the reigns of control to the Radical Zealots in that country - the Shiites.
Kurds just want to take their gained advantage leverage that into their own country and assimilate
part of Iran and Turkey as their emerging new country, the re-birth of Kurdistan of Olde.

What do you see looking at todays pictures of the populus of Iraq ? Men with beards, hostile youths jumping up and down yelling 'Kill' -
in Arabic . . . and the women.
Where are the women ? They used to be seen, few, but some - in modern dress on the streets, but now - covered and draped in the
'Islamic Law Dress Code' pushed on them by the repressive Shia that are now the leaders that we somehow serendipitously put there.
We have succeded in creating something out of Iraq that is akin to being something between the Taliban of Afganistan,
and the Mullahs rule of Iran.

Hell, they didn't even buy into the CIA planted thugs of Chalabi & Allawi that we tried to force down their throats.

 

[raildogg]

Imagine if there was internet during WW2. What would people like Conjur and his other illiberal buddies would do?

They have been posting nothing but killings and terrible news out of Iraq, when has a lefty ever posted something positive? Like schools popping up, hospitals getting new equipment and ex-Iraqis returning home to rebuild their country.

If these so-called illiberals had the same mindset during WW2 as they have now, WW2 would not have ended in 1945 and many more American lives would have been lost. Secondly, they would have tried to prosecute 60% of our armed forces for war crimes. Just imagine that.

They would have vehemently opposed our dropping the two atom bombs over Nagasaki and Hiroshima, and thus countless hundreds of thousands more American lives would have been lost. Instead, the war came to an end and about half a million or so American lives were saved.

These illiberals would post story after story of the crimes our soldiers are commiting and would disrupt our war effort INSTEAD of posting any story of the horrific Japanese war crimes. Or just as horrific, German war crimes. It's sort of the "blame America first" mentality these peoople have. They can't help it, it's just built into them.

How could we have won WW2 if these people were allowed to run around and spout this much hatred against us? Well they weren't, they were locked up and told to keep their mouths shut until our boys came home and the job was done. Now of course I'm not for locking up the illiberals, that would be the worst possible thing we could do. All I'm asking from these people is to look at the whole picture and be reasonable.

Many people opposed the detention of Japanese, Germans and Italians during WW2. But there were many Japanese, German and Italian spies and people who sympathized with the regimes of their respected countries. I personally think it was a great tragedy that we had to do that, but I could understand the motives of the great Democratic president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt. There hasn't been such a great leader as FDR since and I doubt there ever will be. I also consider Democratic presidents Truman and Kennedy to be the other great presidents after FDR.

 

[CaptnKirk]

Imagine if you had been born with a brain in your head to think with,
and a finger to change channels off of the FOX propaganda machine.

Then you would be able to comprehend what it really means to be a Patriotic American,
instead of a boiler-plate sheep that repeats the Conservative Rights hate-filled matra.

Were you even born before or during WWII - or are you a Post Vietnam pansy ?