"Violence in Iraq has fallen sharply from its peak in 2006 and 2007, but deadly attacks remain common a decade after the US-led invasion.... More than 5,000 people have been killed over the past six months in the worst bout of bloodshed in five years, including 979 in September and nearly 1,000 in October, all hallmarks of Al Qaeda, and we sadly know who they are because "in a show of national unity, Shi’ite and Sunni worshippers held joint prayers Friday."
"Widespread insurgent attacks kill 28 in Iraq; Blasts aimed at police and Shi’ite pilgrims, areas" by Sinan Salaheddin | Associated Press, January 01, 2013
BAGHDAD — The attacks appeared aimed at undermining security and confidence in the government by fomenting sectarian conflict. Overall violence has dropped since the nation neared a civil war several years ago, but attacks of a sectarian nature come almost daily, and government forces seem powerless to prevent them....
Although violence has ebbed since the height of the insurgency, some groups presumed to be primarily Sunni extremists are still able to launch deadly attacks nationwide against government officials or civilians. Shi’ite pilgrims are one of their favorite targets....
--more--"
That's your narrative for last year.
"The attack highlights the threats faced by relatively moderate Sunni clerics whom the Shi’ite-led government needs to help rebuild the country and establish security. It follows a series of assaults in what is becoming an increasingly bloody month."
That's your narrative for last year.
"The attack highlights the threats faced by relatively moderate Sunni clerics whom the Shi’ite-led government needs to help rebuild the country and establish security. It follows a series of assaults in what is becoming an increasingly bloody month."
"Nauzad Mohamed, a police officer who was wounded in the attack, said the bomber was ‘‘driving a police car and wearing a police uniform.’’ No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack."
Related(?): Prop 201 tutorial
"The uptick of violence is dampening hopes for a return to normal life. On Wednesday morning, a carload of gunmen sped through a commercial street in Baghdad’s Shi’ite-dominated Ur district and opened fire, apparently at random, killing five pedestrians and wounding nine others, a police officer said. In the southeastern suburb of Nahrawan, also a majority Shi’ite area, drive-by shooters sprayed farmers in a pickup truck with bullets, killing two and wounding three, another police officer said."
Drive by shootings common? Iraqis will never have a "normal" life again considering the destruction and depleted uranium poisoning.
"Iraq bombings kill 65, bring fears of sectarian strife" by Yasir Ghazi and Tim Arango | New York Times, August 29, 2013
BAGHDAD — In the span of roughly an hour, as the streets were choked with morning commuters and shoppers, more than a dozen explosions struck Baghdad on Wednesday, killing at least 65 people and wounding far more, officials said. It was the latest in a series of terrorist attacks that have engulfed Iraq.
The explosions, which struck mainly Shi’ite neighborhoods, follow a series of beheadings in recent days, some of which were claimed by Al Qaeda’s affiliate in Iraq.
They have raised new fears that Iraq, whose population is mainly Shi’ite, is returning to the bloody sectarian violence that gripped the country in 2006 and 2007, nearly tearing it apart.
In a scene reminiscent of those times, just as Baghdad was gripped by panic on Wednesday morning, gunmen stormed the home of a Shi’ite family in the Sunni-dominated town of Latifiya, south of Baghdad, and killed seven people, including four children, with knives.
"Gunmen" killed with knives?
Please get your cover story straight, you second-string shitters.
"Gunmen" killed with knives?
Please get your cover story straight, you second-string shitters.
Later, some local media reports said the bodies of the family members had been decapitated.
In the evening, two more car bombs struck in Amel, a Shi’ite-dominated district, killing six people.
Meanwhile, as the explosions began ringing out across Baghdad in the morning, familiar scenes of panic and fear played out on the streets.
In one neighborhood, a suspicious car was spotted near a parking lot.
“Car bomb!” yelled a traffic policeman.
Pedestrians began panicking and running, not knowing which direction to go. Cars turned around, clogging the streets, as drivers rolled down their windows to prevent shattered glass from entering their vehicles.
After about four minutes the suspicious car exploded, sending a plume of black smoke skyward, killing seven people and injuring more than a dozen others, according to a security official.
The relentless series of coordinated attacks, which involved car bombs and suicide attackers, hit public markets, restaurants, and a bus stop.
In Baghdad alone, at least 65 people were killed, officials said.
Nationwide, the carnage left more than 80 people dead from attacks on soldiers and civilians in Babel, Kirkuk, and Mosul.
For days before the strikes, the local news media published warnings by the government that a new wave of attacks was imminent, and security forces set up new checkpoints and other security measures.
But in the end, the security forces were unable to stop the attacks, further undermining the confidence Iraqis have in the government to protect them.
And jwho benefits?
And jwho benefits?
--more--"
"Al Qaeda in Iraq says it coordinated latest wave of fatal bombings" by Sameer N. Yacoub | Associated Press, August 31, 2013
"Al Qaeda in Iraq says it coordinated latest wave of fatal bombings" by Sameer N. Yacoub | Associated Press, August 31, 2013
BAGHDAD — The Iraqi branch of Al Qaeda claimed responsibility Friday for a wave of coordinated bombings in the Baghdad area earlier this week, as new attacks killed another 14 people in the latest outbreak of violence to hit the country.
Friday’s deadliest attack came after nightfall in a Kurdish neighborhood in the ethnically mixed town of Tuz Khormato. Insurgents set off a nonlethal stun bomb apparently designed to attract a crowd before detonating a real bomb that killed 12 and wounded 10, said the town’s police chief, Colonel Hussein Ali Rasheed.
Tuz Khormato, a frequent flashpoint for violence, sits in a band of territory contested by Arabs, Kurds, and Turkomen about 130 miles north of Baghdad.
Iraq faces its deadliest wave of violence since 2008. The spike in bloodshed has created fears the country is heading back toward the brink of civil war fueled by the country’s sectarian and ethnic divisions.
Hours earlier, Al Qaeda in Iraq, called the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, posted a message on a militant website taking responsibility for the deadly attacks that rocked the Baghdad area Wednesday. Coordinated car bombings and other violence that day killed at least 82 people, mostly in Shi’ite areas of the capital.
??????
The group claimed the attacks were a response to the Aug. 19 execution of 17 Sunni prisoners, all but one of them convicted on terrorism-related charges. It said tight security measures imposed by Iraqi forces failed to stop the attacks, and the group vowed to carry out more attacks against government targets.
‘‘We will avenge the blood of our brothers,’’ the group said.
The authenticity of the statement could not be independently confirmed. It was posted on a website commonly used by jihadists and its style was consistent with earlier Al Qaeda statements.
Translation: It's agenda-pushing, propaganda pre$$ crap.
The bombings were the latest in a wave of bloodshed that has swept Iraq since April, killing more than 4,000 people and worsening already strained ties between Iraq’s Sunni minority and the Shi’ite-led government. More than 570 people have been killed so far in August.
Al Qaeda hopes to tap into the anger of more moderate Sunnis, who began holding rallies in December against the government because of what they feel is their second-class treatment.
Saudi-supported shit.
Among their biggest grievances are the application of tough antiterrorism measures they feel unfairly target their sect, and the treatment of Sunni detainees in Iraqi prisons.
Iraq has executed 67 people so far this year, mainly for terrorism-related charges. It put more people to death last year than any countries except China and Iran, according to Amnesty International. Human rights groups have raised questions about whether defendants receive a fair trial.
Also Friday, police said a gunman on a speeding motorbike opened fire on Sunni worshippers as they were traveled to a mosque for Friday prayer in the Sunni neighborhood of Adel in western Baghdad, killing two worshippers and wounding two others.
Attacks on Sunni mosques have been on the rise in recent months, raising fears that Shi’ite armed groups are starting to carry out retaliatory strikes. Most of the violence in recent years has been the work of Sunni extremists such as Al Qaeda.
CRAP.
Police also reported five more people killed and eight wounded in attacks in Baghdad the previous night. That brought the number of people killed in Iraq just on Thursday to 29.
Medics in a nearby hospital confirmed the casualty figures for all attacks. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity.
--more--"
"Shootings, bombings kill at least 67 in Iraq; Many of the dead were shopping" by Sameer N. Yacoub and Adam Schreck | Associated Press, September 04, 2013
BAGHDAD — A series of coordinated evening blasts in Baghdad and other violence killed at least 67 people in Iraq on Tuesday, officials said, the latest in a months-long increase in bloodshed that Iraqi security forces are struggling to contain.
Many of those killed were caught in a string of car bombings that tore through the Iraqi capital early in the evening as residents were out shopping or heading to dinner. Those blasts struck 11 neighborhoods and claimed more than 50 lives in less than two hours.
The killing comes amid a spike in deadly violence in recent months as insurgents try to capitalize on rising sectarian and ethnic tensions. The scale of the bloodshed has risen to levels not seen since 2008, a time when Iraq was pulling back from the brink of civil war.
The evening’s deadliest attack happened when two car bombs exploded near restaurants and shops in Baghdad’s northeastern suburb of Husseiniyah, a Shi’ite area, killing nine people and wounding 32.
A row of restaurants was also hit in the largely Shi’ite neighborhood of Talibiyah, killing seven and wounding 28. Another car bomb hit the nearby Shi’ite neighborhood of Sadr City, killing three and wounding eight, according to police.
JWho invented the car bomb anyway?
Around the same time, back-to-back car bombs blew up near a police station in the Sadiyah, a mainly Sunni area, killing six and wounding 15. Another blast hit a square in the commercial district of Karradah, killing six and wounding 14.
The blast shattered windows in Karim Sami’s clothing shop. He expressed frustration with the Shi’ite-led government’s inability to stop repeated attacks despite assurances that it is tightening security.
“We started to feel a little bit safe over the past few days because they were relatively calm, but the violence is back,” he said. “Whenever the government assures us that security is being tightened, we see attacks.”
Happens when ours runs drills simulating the attacks.
Car bombs also struck: shopping streets in the religiously mixed western neighborhood of Shurta, killing five people and wounding 12; the southeastern Shi’ite neighborhood of Zafaraniyah, killing four and wounding 11; the southern Shi’ite neighborhood of Abu Dashir, killing two and wounding nine; the mostly Shi’ite New Baghdad area, killing six people and wounding 17; and the largely Sunni Dora neighborhood, killing two and wounding five, according to police.
Another car bomb exploded near an outdoor market in the Shi’ite village of Maamil, in the eastern suburbs of the capital, killing three and wounding 41.
No one claimed responsibility for the attacks, but coordinated car bombings and attacks on civilians and Iraqi security forces are a favorite tactic of the Iraqi branch of Al Qaeda. It typically does not lay claim to attacks for several days, if at all.
So sayeth my lying jewspaper.
Iraqi officials say the lawlessness roiling Syria, where the civil war has taken on sharp sectarian overtones similar to those that nearly tore Iraq apart, is fueling the upsurge of violence inside Iraq. Al Qaeda’s Iraq arm and other Sunni extremist groups are fighting on the side of rebels trying to topple the regime of President Bashar Assad, which is dominated by Alawites, an offshoot of Shi’ite Islam.
“The recent threats of a military operation against Syria have encouraged the insurgents to wage more attacks inside Iraq. We have warned of this, but unfortunately, nobody is listening,” said Ali al-Moussawi, the spokesman for Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
The evening blasts added to a death toll that had been mounting throughout the day.
Authorities awoke to find four bodies with gunshot wounds to the back laying in the streets in different locations around the Iraqi capital.
Their discovery was particularly chilling because it was reminiscent of the sectarian violence that engulfed the country after the US invasion and peaked in 2006 and 2007, when corpses were commonly found dumped on the streets.
It was/is the Salvador Option!
Shi’ite and Sunni leaders have both called for calm as the death tolls mounted in recent months.
--more--"
"Bombings, shooting kill 24 across Iraq" by Sinan Salaheddin | Associated Press, September 11, 2013
BAGHDAD — A new wave of bombings and a shooting in Iraq killed at least 24 civilians on Tuesday, as insurgents try to exploit the country’s political instability and undermine government efforts to maintain security.
The deadliest attack took place in the town of Youssifiyah, just south of Baghdad, when gunmen stormed a house and shot two women and four men dead as they were ritually cleansing the body of a Sunni man ahead of his funeral, said police.
In the nearby town of Latifiyah, a bomb hidden inside a coffee shop killed four and wounded 14, a police officer said.
Youssifiyah and Latifiyah, 12 miles and 20 miles from the capital respectively, were known after the US-led invasion for sectarian violence and dubbed the Triangle of Death. Militants continue to stage attacks in the area, and last week gunmen killed 16 people in an attack on Shi’ite families in Latifiyah.
Near another former militant stronghold, the central Iraqi town of Baquba, three car bombs targeting outdoor markets killed at least 10 civilians and wounded 34, a police officer said. Baquba is 35 miles northeast of Baghdad.
In the capital, shortly before sunset, a bomb exploded near a soccer field in the southeastern Shi’ite-majority suburb of Nahrwan, killing three people and wounding 14 others, police said.
And in the northern city of Mosul, according to police, one person was killed when a bomb attached to his car exploded.
The sticky hallmark of Israel!
Also, authorities unexpectedly shut Mosul’s airport, but they gave differing accounts of why.
The head of the Iraqi Civil Aviation Authority, Nassir Bandar, said the shutdown was done for maintenance reasons. A senior intelligence official cited unspecified technical matters, while an airport official said the move was for security reasons.
Mosul, also a former insurgent stronghold, is about 220 miles northwest of Baghdad.
No one claimed immediate responsibility for the attacks. But coordinated car bombings and attacks on civilians and security forces are a favorite tactic of the Iraqi branch of Al Qaeda. It typically does not lay claim to attacks for several days, if at all.
Did you get that narrative?
--more--"
"Bombing at Iraq funeral, other attacks kill at least 96" by Adam Schreck and Sameer N. Yacoub | Associated Press, September 22, 2013
BAGHDAD — Two suicide bombers, one in an explosives-laden car and the other on foot, hit a cluster of funeral tents packed with mourning families in a Shi’ite neighborhood in Baghdad, the deadliest in a string of attacks around Iraq that killed at least 96 people on Saturday.
The assaults, the latest in a months-long surge of violence, are a chilling reminder of insurgents’ determination to reignite sectarian conflict more than a decade after the US-led invasion.
Thousands of Iraqis have been killed in violent attacks in recent months — a level of bloodshed not seen since Iraq pulled back from the brink of civil war in 2008 — despite appeals for restraint from Shi’ite and Sunni political leaders.
The attack on the funeral was one of the largest single terrorist assaults on civilians in Iraq in recent years.
It happened shortly before sunset in the densely populated Shi’ite neighborhood of Sadr City in northeastern Baghdad.
Police said at least 72 people were killed and more than 120 were wounded in that attack. One bomber was able to drive up near the tent before detonating his deadly payload, and another on foot blew himself up nearby, police said.
The explosions set the tents and several nearby cars on fire, sending a towering plume of thick black smoke over the city.
‘‘I saw several charred bodies on the ground and tents on fire and also burning cars. Wounded people were screaming in pain,’’ said Sheik Sattar al-Fartousi, one of the mourners. ‘‘The scene was horrible. The funeral turned into an inferno.’’
He said the first blast went off as dinner was being served in one of several tents set up for the funeral of a member of the al-Fartousi tribe. He estimated that more than 500 people were attending the event.
Civilian pickup trucks loaded with casualties and ambulances with sirens blaring were seen racing from the scene.
Hussein Abdul-Khaliq, a government employee who lives near the bomb site, said the tents were packed with mourners when the blasts went off.
He described seeing several lifeless bodies on the ground, and wounded women and children. The clothes of several victims were soaked with blood, and firefighters had to leave the scene to refill tanker trucks with water as they struggled to contain an immense blaze, he said.
‘‘This funeral was not a military post or a ministry building, yet it was still targeted,’’ Abdul-Khaliq said. ‘‘This shows that no place and no one is safe in Iraq.’’
And they called it liberation!
Less than two hours after the funeral attack, another car bomb blast struck a commercial street in the nearby Ur neighborhood, killing nine people and wounding 14, according to police.
Ancient Ur.
Earlier in the day, insurgents launched a suicide attack on a police commando headquarters in the city of Beiji, an oil refining center 115 miles north of Baghdad.
Guards managed to kill one suicide bomber, but the three others were able to set off their explosive belts inside the compound, killing seven police officers and wounding 21 others, police said.
In other violence, gunmen shot and killed two prison guards after storming their houses in a village near the restive city of Mosul early Saturday. Two soldiers were killed and four others were wounded when a roadside bomb struck their convoy in Mosul, which is 225 miles northwest of the Iraqi capital.
Medics in nearby hospitals confirmed the casualty figures. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to media.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the day’s attacks.
Al Qaeda’s local franchise in Iraq frequently targets Shi’ite civilians and security forces in an attempt to undermine public confidence in the Shi’ite-led government in Baghdad.
--more--"
"Resurgence of Al Qaeda leaves Iraq in tatters; Death toll worst in half a decade" by Adam Schreck | Associated Press, October 14, 2013
BAGHDAD — First came the fireball, then the screams of the victims. The suicide bombing just outside a Baghdad graveyard knocked Nasser Waleed Ali over and peppered his back with shrapnel.
Ali was one of the lucky ones. At least 51 died in the Oct. 5 attack, many of them Shi’ite pilgrims walking by on their way to a shrine. No one has claimed responsibility, but there is little doubt Al Qaeda’s local franchise is to blame. Suicide bombers and car bombs are its calling cards, Shi’ite civilians among its favorite targets.
And if there is little doubt in my lying, war-promoting, propaganda pre$$ it must be true.
Al Qaeda has come roaring back in Iraq since US troops left in late 2011 and now looks stronger than it has in years.
(Un-flipping-believable)
The terror group has shown it is capable of carrying out mass-casualty attacks several times a month, driving the death toll in Iraq to the highest level in half a decade. It sees each attack as a way to cultivate an atmosphere of chaos that weakens the Shi’ite-led government’s authority. Al Qaeda’s extremist ideology considers Shi’ite Muslims to be heretics.
Then they aren't working with Iran.
The wave of violence continued across Iraq on Sunday, when a string of bombings, many in Shi’ite-majority cities, killed at least 42 people and wounded dozens, officials said.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the latest attacks, but waves of bombings are frequently used by Al Qaeda.
The deadliest of Sunday’s attacks, many of which struck busy commercial areas, happened in the southern city of Hillah, 60 miles south of Baghdad. Back-to-back car bombings hit an outdoor market there, killing eight people and wounding 22, police said.
Two parked car bombs ripped through a commercial area in the city of Suwayrah, 25 miles south of Baghdad, killing five people and wounding 14. Two other car bombs exploded simultaneously in the city of Kut, 100 miles southeast of Baghdad, killing four and wounded 16, according to police.
These all look so professional as to be beyond low-level Al-CIA-Duh assets and such.
Other bombings were reported Sunday in Samawah, Diwaniyah, and Samarra.
Recent prison breaks have bolstered Al Qaeda’s ranks, while feelings of Sunni marginalization and the chaos caused by the civil war in neighboring Syria are fueling its comeback.
Related: Iraq's Prison Camps
Also see: This Draft About Iraq Was Hanging Around
I guess capital punishment is not a deterent after all.
‘‘Nobody is able to control this situation,’’ said Ali, who watches over a Sunni graveyard that sprang up next to the hallowed Abu Hanifa mosque in 2006, when sectarian fighting threatened to engulf Iraq in all-out civil war.
‘‘We are not safe in the coffee shops or mosques, not even in soccer fields,’’ he continued, rattling off some of the targets hit repeatedly in recent months.
The pace of the killing accelerated significantly following a deadly crackdown by security forces on a camp for Sunni protesters in the northern town of Hawija in April. United Nations figures show 712 people died violently in Iraq that month, at the time the most since 2008.
See: Iraq's Sunnis Protests
The monthly death toll has not been that low since. September saw 979 killed.
Al Qaeda has begun actively recruiting more young Iraqi men to take part in suicide missions after years of relying primarily on foreign volunteers, according to two intelligence officials. They said an order had been issued calling for 50 attacks per week, which if achieved would mark a significant escalation.
--more--"
"Iraq hit with spate of attacks; During major holiday period, at least 61 killed" by Adam Schreck | Associated Press, October 18, 2013
BAGHDAD — A barrage of car bomb and suicide bomb blasts rocked Baghdad and two northern Iraqi communities Thursday, killing at least 61 people during a major holiday period and extending a relentless wave of bloodshed gripping the country.
I refuse to believe a pious Al-CIA-Duh would do this.
The bulk of the blasts struck in mainly Shi’ite Muslim parts of the Iraqi capital shortly after nightfall, sending ambulances racing through the streets with sirens blaring. Authorities reported nine car bomb explosions across Baghdad, including one near a playground that killed two children.
It was the deadliest day in Iraq since Oct. 5, when a suicide bombing targeting Shi’ite pilgrims and other attacks left at least 75 dead.
Iraq is weathering its deadliest outburst of violence since 2008, raising fears the country is returning to the widespread sectarian killing that pushed it to the brink of civil war in the years after the 2003 US-led invasion. Iraq’s resurgent branch of Al Qaeda is believed to be behind much of the killing as part of its campaign to undermine the Shi’ite-led government.
Thursday’s bloodshed began early in the morning when a suicide bomber blew up his explosives-laden car among houses in an ethnic minority village in northern Iraq. That attack, in the Shabak village of al-Mouafaqiyah near the restive city of Mosul, 225 miles northwest of Baghdad, killed at least 15 and wounded 52, police said.
The United Nations envoy to Iraq condemned the attack and said rising violence in Ninevah province requires ‘‘urgent action and strengthened security cooperation’’ between regional authorities and the central government.
‘‘The United Nations pays particular attention to the protection of minority communities who continue suffering from heinous attacks (and) economic and social barriers,’’ envoy Nickolay Mladenov said.
Another suicide bomber struck hours later, setting off an explosives belt inside a cafe in Tuz Khormato, killing three and wounding 28, police chief Colonel Hussein Ali Rasheed said.
The town, a frequent flashpoint for violence, sits in a band of territory contested by Arabs, Kurds, and Turkomen about 130 miles north of Baghdad.
The attacks struck as Muslims around the world this week mark the religious holiday of Eid al-Adha, or the Feast of Sacrifice. The holiday marks the willingness of the prophet Ibrahim — or Abraham, as he is known in the Bible — to sacrifice his son in accordance with God’s will. It is often a time for family celebrations and outings.
Related: Late Eid
It will be for me.
The Baghdad explosions went off in quick succession after sunset as families were heading out to parks, coffee shops, and restaurants, police said.
How does that win them public support?
Back-to-back car bombs exploded about two blocks apart in the mainly Shi’ite neighborhood of Husseiniyah, killing a total of 11 and wounding 22, authorities said.
Other mainly Shi’ite neighborhoods hit were the southeastern New Baghdad, where four died and 12 were wounded, and the eastern Sadr City, where a car bomb near a playground killed five, including two children, and wounded 16, officials said.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Thursday’s blasts.
But you know whom to blame.
--more--"
"Suicide bombing in Iraq leaves 35 dead; 10 more killed in other attacks across country" by Sameer N. Yacoub | Associated Press, October 21, 2013
BAGHDAD — A suicide bomber slammed his explosive-laden car into a busy cafe in Iraq’s capital Sunday night, part of a day of violence across the country that killed 45 people, authorities said.
The bombing at the cafe in Baghdad’s primarily Shi’ite Amil neighborhood happened as it was full of customers. The cafe and a nearby juice shop is a favorite hangout in the neighborhood for young people, who filled the area at the time of the explosions.
The blast killed 35 people and wounded 45, Iraqi officials said.
Violence has been on the rise in Iraq after a deadly crackdown by security forces on a Sunni protest camp in the northern town of Hawijah in April. At least 385 have died in attacks in Iraq so far this month, according to an Associated Press count.
Blaming the violence on that camp raid sounds a little too convenient as a cover.
In a village north of Baghdad, a car bomb targeted a police officer’s house, killing his father, brother and five nephews, officials said. Six others were wounded in the blast, which happened when the officer was not at home.
Security forces meanwhile foiled an attack by five suicide bombers disguised in police uniforms who targeted the local council of the western town of Rawah , said Muthana Ismail, head of the local security committee.
Ismail said two attackers were shot while the rest blew themselves up outside. Two police officers and an official were killed, while 20 people were wounded, he said.
Rawha is about 200 miles northwest of Baghdad.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Sunday’s attacks, though car bombings and gun assaults are favorite tactics of Al Qaeda’s local branch.
It frequently targets Shi’ites, whom it considers heretics, and those seen as closely allied to the Shi’ite-led government in Baghdad.
Hospital officials confirmed the casualty figures for all attacks. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to journalists.
On Saturday, a car bomb on a commercial street in northern Baghdad killed three people. Police officials said 11 others were wounded in the capital’s Qahira neighborhood. Shops and cars were damaged.
A car bomb targeting a street full of shoppers killed six people and wounded 16 others in the Mashtal neighborhood of Baghdad on Friday. A day earlier, a wave of car bomb and suicide bomb blasts left at least 61 people dead across the country.
Officials blame Al Qaeda’s local franchise for many of the attacks, and Shi’ite civilians are among its favorite targets.
The power of Al Qaeda has soared in Iraq since US troops left in late 2011 and now looks stronger than it has in years.
The terror group has shown it is capable of carrying out mass-casualty attacks several times a month, driving the death toll in Iraq to the highest level in half a decade. It sees each attack as a way to cultivate an atmosphere of chaos that weakens the Shi’ite-led government’s authority.
I'm having a deja-vu.
Recent prison breaks have bolstered Al Qaeda’s ranks, while feelings of Sunni marginalization and the chaos caused by the civil war in neighboring Syria are fueling its comeback.
--more--"
"New wave of attacks kills at least 66 people in Iraq; Shi’ite areas bear the brunt of the violence" by Sinan Salaheddin | Associated Press, October 28, 2013
BAGHDAD — A series of attacks including car bombings in Baghdad, an explosion at a market, and a suicide assault in a northern city killed at least 66 people Sunday across Iraq, officials said, the latest in a wave of violence washing over the country.
Coordinated bombings hit Iraq multiple times each month, feeding a spike in bloodshed that has killed more than 5,000 people since April. The local branch of Al Qaeda often takes responsibility for the assaults, although there was no immediate claim for Sunday’s blasts.
Wouldn't they be bragging about it?
Sunday’s attacks made up the deadliest single-day series of assaults since Oct. 5, when 75 people were killed in violence.
Wouldn't they be bragging about it?
Sunday’s attacks made up the deadliest single-day series of assaults since Oct. 5, when 75 people were killed in violence.
Police officers said the bombs in the capital, placed in parked cars and detonated over a half-hour period, targeted commercial areas and parking lots, killing 42 people.
The deadliest blasts struck in the southeastern Nahrwan district, where two car bombs exploded simultaneously, killing seven and wounding 15, authorities said.
Two other explosions hit the northern Shaab and southern Abu Dashir neighborhoods, each killing six people, officials said. Other blasts hit the neighborhoods of Mashtal, Baladiyat, and Ur in eastern Baghdad, the southwestern Bayaa district, and the northern Sab al-Bor and Hurriyah districts.
In the northern city of Mosul, a suicide bomber drove his explosives-laden car into a group of soldiers as they were sealing off a street leading to a bank where troops were receiving salaries, killing 14, a police officer said. At least 30 people were wounded, the officer said.
Also in Mosul, police said gunmen shot dead two off-duty soldiers in a drive-by shooting.
Another AmeriKan gift to Iraq.
Another AmeriKan gift to Iraq.
The former insurgent stronghold of Mosul is about 225 miles northwest of Baghdad.
In the afternoon, a bomb blast killed four people and wounded 11 inside an outdoor market in the Sunni town of Tarmiyah, 30 miles north of Baghdad, authorities said.
Sunday night, police said mortar shells landed on homes in a Shi’ite district of Madain, a town just south of Baghdad, killing four people and wounding nine, officials said.
Such coordinated attacks are a favorite tactic of Al Qaeda’s local branch. It frequently targets civilians in markets, cafes, and commercial streets in Shi’ite areas in an attempt to undermine confidence in the government, as well as members of the security forces. All of the car bombings Sunday in Baghdad struck Shi’ite neighborhoods.
Pretty good trick for such a franchised and diffuse enemy.
Pretty good trick for such a franchised and diffuse enemy.
In Mashtal in Baghdad, police and army forces sealed off the scene as ambulances rushed to pick up the wounded. Pools of blood covered the pavement.
The force of the explosion damaged a number of cars and shops.
At one restaurant, the blast overturned wooden benches and left broken eggs scattered on the ground. In Shaab, a crane lifted away at least 12 charred cars as cleaners swept away debris.
Medical officials confirmed the casualty figures for all attacks. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity, as they were not authorized to publicly release the information.
Violence has spiked in Iraq since April, when the pace of killing reached levels unseen since 2008. Today’s attacks bring the death toll across the country this month to 545, according to an Associated Press count.
On Saturday, gunmen broke into the home of two anti-Al Qaeda militiamen in Baghdad and killed them and their entire household, a total of seven people, officials said.
--more--"
Time to get out your calculator:
3 dead in separate attacks by gunmen
Total dead: 128
At least 20 killed in Iraq bombing
69 killed in new wave of car bombings in Iraq
Attack kills Iraqi policeman, 12 others
Ten die in strikes by Iraqi insurgents
Three attacks leave 26 dead in Iraq
9 dead in security checkpoint attacks
Eight people killed in violent attacks in Iraq
Car bombs leave 33 dead across Iraqi capital
Attacks in Iraq kill general and 5 others
24 killed in two bombings as flare-up continues in Iraq
At least 80 killed in Iraq bombings, house raid
Insurgent attacks in Iraq kill at least 46
Insurgents bent on destabilizing Iraq with sectarian and ethnic divisions are pushing it back toward the brink of civil war.
Total dead: 322
Widespread attacks kill 46 in Iraq
58 die in new wave of attacks across Iraq
Wave of bombings, attacks in Iraq kill at least 67
Attacks on security forces kill 12 in Iraq
Iraq army says bombings, clashes kill 9 in north
Maliki went north but couldn't get a deal.
11 killed in attack on Iraqi Sunni town
Bombings at two Iraqi markets kill 23
Bomber kills 16 at Iraqi funeral
Suicide bomber kills 20 at funeral in Iraq
Mosque explosions kill 18 in Iraq
33 killed by bomb hidden in air conditioner at mosque
Wave of car bombs, other attacks kill 33 in Iraq
Total dead: 154
Explosions kill at least 33 in Iraq
66 people killed in attacks in Iraq
Wave of car bombs kills at least 55 in Baghdad
Bombs in Baghdad, other Iraq attacks kill 45
16 killed as attacks continue across Iraq
Total dead: 215
And let us not forget an "Army sergeant who died eight years ago in a mortar blast while serving in Ramadi, Iraq."
Related: Leominster family gets tank for park to remember son killed in Iraq
And while we are remembering things:
"10 years after US-led invasion, peace evades Iraq; At least 65 killed, 240 injured in attacks in capital" by Tim Arango | New York Times, March 20, 2013
BAGHDAD — Iraq closed a painful decade just as it began: with explosions reverberating around the capital.
Beginning in the early morning Tuesday with the assassination of a Ministry of Finance official by a bomb attached to his vehicle and continuing for hours, the attacks were a devastating reminder of the violence that regularly afflicts Iraq.
And they somehow seemed more poignant coming on the eve of the 10th anniversary of the US-led invasion of Iraq, which is being marked in the West by new books, academic studies, and polls retesting public attitudes a decade later.
By midmorning, the familiar sight of black smoke rose above a cityscape of palm fronds, turquoise-tiled mosque domes, and squat concrete buildings. By evening, the numbers stacked up: at least 65 dead and more than 240 wounded in separate attacks that included 16 car bombs, two adhesive bombs stuck to cars, and one assassination with a silenced gun.
The stacked up numbers regarding the whole thing? Over two million by now.
Most attacks hit Shi’ite neighborhoods, and their targets were varied: restaurants, a bank, a vegetable market, and a parking garage. Others were near a courthouse and a university, and some seemed to have no other target than innocent passersby.
Many Iraqis say they are worried about an increase in sectarian tensions, and, while there were no immediate claims of responsibility, the attacks were carried out in the fashion of Al Qaeda in Iraq, the Sunni insurgent group left weakened but not vanquished by the US military....
I was told above they were stronger than ever in Iraq!
Iraq’s agonies unfurl at an unpredictable but relentless pace. Weeks of calm pass and a sense of normalcy returns, and then with certainty the cadence of everyday life, governed by traffic jams and electricity blackouts, is violently interrupted....
--more--"
"On balance, the Iraq war was worth it" by Jeff Jacoby | Globe Columnist, March 20, 2013
Yeah, for war profiteers and Zionist neo-cons.
Ten years ago this week, the United States led an invasion of Iraq with the explicit purpose of overthrowing Saddam Hussein. The preceding months had been filled with vehement protests against the impending war, expressed in editorials, in advertisements, and in rallies so vast that some of them made it into the Guinness Book of World Records. With so many people against the invasion, who supported it?
Well, if you were like the great majority of Americans — you did.
I'm so proud I was not one. I didn't even support bombing Afghanistan.
In February and March 2003, Newsweek’s polls showed 70 percent of the public in favor of military action against Iraq; Gallup and Pew Research Center surveys showed the same thing.
We were lied to about WMD!
Congress had authorized the invasion a few months earlier with strong bipartisan majorities; among the many Democrats voting for the war were Senators John Kerry, Hillary Clinton, and Joe Biden.
It's one party, the WAR party, with two factions.
Though the Iraq war later became a favorite Democratic club for bashing George W. Bush, Republicans and Democrats alike had long understood that Hussein was a deadly menace who had to be forcibly eradicated. In 1998 President Bill Clinton signed the Iraq Liberation Act, making Hussein’s removal from power a matter of US policy.
All that proves is the war crimes were a bipartisan effort. As for that toothless tiger being a threat.... sigh.
But bipartisan harmony was an early casualty of the war. Once it became clear that Hussein didn’t have the stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons that were a major justification for the invasion, unity gave way to recrimination. It didn’t matter that virtually everyone — Republicans and Democrats, UN inspectors and CIA analysts, coalition allies, even Hussein’s own military officers — had been sure the WMD would be found. Nor did it matter that Hussein had previously used WMD to exterminate thousands of men, women, and children. The temptation to spin an intelligence failure as a deliberate “lie” was politically irresistible.
SIGH!
Related: Prop 102: Iraq and Government Lies
Oh, Bush and Bliar knew there were no WMDs there? Then they were lies!
When the relatively quick toppling of Hussein was followed by a long and bloody insurgency, opposition to the war intensified. But then came Bush’s “surge,” and the course of the war shifted dramatically for the better.
Did it? Look at the place now!
By the time Bush left office, the insurgency was crippled, violence was down 90 percent, and Iraqis were being governed by politicians they had voted for. It was far from perfect, but “something that looks an awful lot like democracy is beginning to take hold in Iraq,” reported Newsweek in early 2010. On its cover the magazine proclaimed: “Victory at Last.”
And so it might have been, if America’s new commander-in-chief hadn’t been so insistent on pulling the plug.
Oh, we should have stayed.
In October 2011, President Obama — overriding his military commanders, who had recommended keeping 18,000 troops on the ground — announced that all remaining US servicemen would be out of Iraq by the end of the year. Politically, it was a popular decision; most Americans were understandably weary of Iraq. But abandoning Iraqis and their frail, fledgling democracy was reckless.
It's because the Iraqis told us to leave, and Bush always said if they asked us to leave we would (expecting, of course, any puppet we put in place would not talk back).
“It freed Prime Minister Nouri Maliki to be more of a Shiite sectarian than he could have been with the US looking over his shoulder,” as military historian Max Boot observed this week.
Why should we put credence into the observations of a lying neo-con who pushed for invasion based on lies? What kind of "expert" is that?
As Maliki moves against his Sunni opponents, some of them “are making common cause once again with Al Qaeda in Iraq, [which] has recovered from its near-death experience” during the surge, Boot declared. It is cold comfort that so many warned of such an outcome in 2011.
So was the Iraq war worth it? On that, Americans are a long way from a consensus. It is never clear in the immediate aftermath of any war what history’s judgment will be. But this much we do know: The invasion of Iraq 10 years ago ended the reign of a genocidal tyrant, and ensured that his monstrous sons could never succeed him. It struck a shaft of fear into other dictators, leading Libya’s Moammar Khadafy, for example, to relinquish his WMD.
And you see how that worked out for him!
It let Iraqis find out how much better their lives could be under democratic self-government.
That is such an ill statement it is beyond response.
Like all wars, even wars of liberation, it took an awful toll. The status quo ante was worse.
--more--"
Also see:
1 year on, Iraq going its own way
We lost!
A war’s misleading anniversary
For a war we were lied into.
Iraq war’s failures breed rising sense of isolationism
That's what happens when you blare lies from the front pages, Globe.
A decade after invasion, killings go on in Iraq
But it's a better life!
"Hundreds protest perks of lawmakers
BAGHDAD — Hundreds of demonstrators took to the streets of Iraqi cities on Saturday to protest lawmakers’ perks despite an intense security crackdown, while gunmen in the capital stormed a Sunni mosque and killed five at dawn in the latest bout of sectarian unrest rocking the country. Protest organizers demanded an end to what they say are generous pension benefits granted to members of Parliament. Demonstrators also aired longstanding grievances about widespread corruption (AP)."
I don't really care about elections here so why would I care about Iraqi elections over there? From what I understand the television and newspaper coverage is terrible.
And to top it all off Maliki is embarrassed with protests when he comes here to ask for help.
Obomber can help him by calling off the Al-CIA-Duh dogs -- as if he had control of them.
UPDATE: Iraq suicide bomber kills 7 police outside Baghdad
Judging by the hits no one gives a shit about dead Iraqis or my apologies for having lagged on coverage; however, it took a lot of my time to put this together and I did it with a labor of love to a certain degree (felt it was important). But since no one gives a shit why should I anymore?
Time to get out your calculator:
Sept 2012:
3 dead in separate attacks by gunmen
Oct 2012:
Total dead: 52
Nov. 2012:
Total dead: 128
Jan. 2013:
At least 20 killed in Iraq bombing
Iraqi soldiers killed, 3 abducted by gunmen
Total dead: 125
Iraq gunmen kill 7 Sunni fighters
Suicide bomber hits Al-Qaeda foes killing at least 22
Car bombings kill 36 as Iraq protests escalate
Series of car bombs rocks Iraq; 37 dead
Total dead: 102
Series of bombings kills 22 in Iraq
Raid on Iraqi Justice Ministry kills 24
Attacks in Iraq kill 11 people, officials say
2 car bombs kill 9 in southern Iraq
A Qaeda group claims responsibility for Iraq attack; 65 dead
Total dead: 131
Bomb kills 7 at Iraqi police station
Attacks across Iraq leave 10 dead
Suicide bomber’s blast kills 20 others
Iraq fighting brings fear of civil war
Clashes of Iraqi forces, tribes spread
Total dead: 37
Car bomb attacks kill 8 in central Iraq
Mosque bombing kills 7 in Iraq
Gunmen abduct 8 as attacks kill 16
Bomb attacks in Baghdad kill 10
Bombs target Shi’ite areas in Iraq; 21 dead
More attacks across Iraq kill 20 people
Iraqi premier orders army shake-up after attacks
Surge in Iraq violence kills 14 more
Coordinated car bombs slay scores in Baghdad
Another 33 killed in Iraq violence
Spate of Iraqi violence stirs concerns on Syria; 95 dead
Total dead: 275
14 Iraqis killed in checkpoint ambush
Loyalists of Saddam Hussein’s former regime are responsible for much of the violence?
Gunmen kill Iraqi provincial candidate
Car bombs kill at least 57 in Iraq
Iraqi suicide bombers hit Baghdad mosque, kill 34
Attacks kill 51 people in Iraq
Iraq bombings leave at least 42 dead
Sectarian violence kills 23 in Iraq
Bombings in Iraq kill at least 19
Total dead: 241
Attacks kill at least 53 in Iraq
42 killed in wave of violence in Iraq
Wave of bombs in Iraq kill at least 58
Total dead: 125
Feb. 2013:
Iraq gunmen kill 7 Sunni fighters
Suicide bomber hits Al-Qaeda foes killing at least 22
Car bombings kill 36 as Iraq protests escalate
Series of car bombs rocks Iraq; 37 dead
Total dead: 102
March 2013:
Series of bombings kills 22 in Iraq
Raid on Iraqi Justice Ministry kills 24
Attacks in Iraq kill 11 people, officials say
2 car bombs kill 9 in southern Iraq
A Qaeda group claims responsibility for Iraq attack; 65 dead
Total dead: 131
April 2013:
Bomb kills 7 at Iraqi police station
Attacks across Iraq leave 10 dead
Suicide bomber’s blast kills 20 others
Iraq fighting brings fear of civil war
Clashes of Iraqi forces, tribes spread
Total dead: 37
May 2013:
Car bomb attacks kill 8 in central Iraq
Mosque bombing kills 7 in Iraq
Gunmen abduct 8 as attacks kill 16
Bomb attacks in Baghdad kill 10
Bombs target Shi’ite areas in Iraq; 21 dead
More attacks across Iraq kill 20 people
Iraqi premier orders army shake-up after attacks
Surge in Iraq violence kills 14 more
Coordinated car bombs slay scores in Baghdad
Another 33 killed in Iraq violence
Spate of Iraqi violence stirs concerns on Syria; 95 dead
Total dead: 275
June 2013:
14 Iraqis killed in checkpoint ambush
Loyalists of Saddam Hussein’s former regime are responsible for much of the violence?
Gunmen kill Iraqi provincial candidate
Car bombs kill at least 57 in Iraq
Iraqi suicide bombers hit Baghdad mosque, kill 34
Attacks kill 51 people in Iraq
Iraq bombings leave at least 42 dead
Sectarian violence kills 23 in Iraq
Bombings in Iraq kill at least 19
Total dead: 241
July 2013:
Attacks kill at least 53 in Iraq
42 killed in wave of violence in Iraq
Wave of bombs in Iraq kill at least 58
Aug. 2013:
69 killed in new wave of car bombings in Iraq
Attack kills Iraqi policeman, 12 others
Ten die in strikes by Iraqi insurgents
Three attacks leave 26 dead in Iraq
9 dead in security checkpoint attacks
Eight people killed in violent attacks in Iraq
Car bombs leave 33 dead across Iraqi capital
Attacks in Iraq kill general and 5 others
24 killed in two bombings as flare-up continues in Iraq
At least 80 killed in Iraq bombings, house raid
Insurgent attacks in Iraq kill at least 46
Insurgents bent on destabilizing Iraq with sectarian and ethnic divisions are pushing it back toward the brink of civil war.
Total dead: 322
September 2013:
Widespread attacks kill 46 in Iraq
58 die in new wave of attacks across Iraq
Wave of bombings, attacks in Iraq kill at least 67
Attacks on security forces kill 12 in Iraq
Iraq army says bombings, clashes kill 9 in north
Maliki went north but couldn't get a deal.
11 killed in attack on Iraqi Sunni town
Bombings at two Iraqi markets kill 23
Bomber kills 16 at Iraqi funeral
Suicide bomber kills 20 at funeral in Iraq
Mosque explosions kill 18 in Iraq
33 killed by bomb hidden in air conditioner at mosque
Wave of car bombs, other attacks kill 33 in Iraq
Total dead: 154
October 2013:
Explosions kill at least 33 in Iraq
66 people killed in attacks in Iraq
Wave of car bombs kills at least 55 in Baghdad
Bombs in Baghdad, other Iraq attacks kill 45
16 killed as attacks continue across Iraq
Total dead: 215
And let us not forget an "Army sergeant who died eight years ago in a mortar blast while serving in Ramadi, Iraq."
Related: Leominster family gets tank for park to remember son killed in Iraq
And while we are remembering things:
"10 years after US-led invasion, peace evades Iraq; At least 65 killed, 240 injured in attacks in capital" by Tim Arango | New York Times, March 20, 2013
BAGHDAD — Iraq closed a painful decade just as it began: with explosions reverberating around the capital.
Beginning in the early morning Tuesday with the assassination of a Ministry of Finance official by a bomb attached to his vehicle and continuing for hours, the attacks were a devastating reminder of the violence that regularly afflicts Iraq.
And they somehow seemed more poignant coming on the eve of the 10th anniversary of the US-led invasion of Iraq, which is being marked in the West by new books, academic studies, and polls retesting public attitudes a decade later.
By midmorning, the familiar sight of black smoke rose above a cityscape of palm fronds, turquoise-tiled mosque domes, and squat concrete buildings. By evening, the numbers stacked up: at least 65 dead and more than 240 wounded in separate attacks that included 16 car bombs, two adhesive bombs stuck to cars, and one assassination with a silenced gun.
The stacked up numbers regarding the whole thing? Over two million by now.
Most attacks hit Shi’ite neighborhoods, and their targets were varied: restaurants, a bank, a vegetable market, and a parking garage. Others were near a courthouse and a university, and some seemed to have no other target than innocent passersby.
Many Iraqis say they are worried about an increase in sectarian tensions, and, while there were no immediate claims of responsibility, the attacks were carried out in the fashion of Al Qaeda in Iraq, the Sunni insurgent group left weakened but not vanquished by the US military....
I was told above they were stronger than ever in Iraq!
Iraq’s agonies unfurl at an unpredictable but relentless pace. Weeks of calm pass and a sense of normalcy returns, and then with certainty the cadence of everyday life, governed by traffic jams and electricity blackouts, is violently interrupted....
--more--"
"On balance, the Iraq war was worth it" by Jeff Jacoby | Globe Columnist, March 20, 2013
Yeah, for war profiteers and Zionist neo-cons.
Ten years ago this week, the United States led an invasion of Iraq with the explicit purpose of overthrowing Saddam Hussein. The preceding months had been filled with vehement protests against the impending war, expressed in editorials, in advertisements, and in rallies so vast that some of them made it into the Guinness Book of World Records. With so many people against the invasion, who supported it?
Well, if you were like the great majority of Americans — you did.
I'm so proud I was not one. I didn't even support bombing Afghanistan.
In February and March 2003, Newsweek’s polls showed 70 percent of the public in favor of military action against Iraq; Gallup and Pew Research Center surveys showed the same thing.
We were lied to about WMD!
Congress had authorized the invasion a few months earlier with strong bipartisan majorities; among the many Democrats voting for the war were Senators John Kerry, Hillary Clinton, and Joe Biden.
It's one party, the WAR party, with two factions.
Though the Iraq war later became a favorite Democratic club for bashing George W. Bush, Republicans and Democrats alike had long understood that Hussein was a deadly menace who had to be forcibly eradicated. In 1998 President Bill Clinton signed the Iraq Liberation Act, making Hussein’s removal from power a matter of US policy.
All that proves is the war crimes were a bipartisan effort. As for that toothless tiger being a threat.... sigh.
But bipartisan harmony was an early casualty of the war. Once it became clear that Hussein didn’t have the stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons that were a major justification for the invasion, unity gave way to recrimination. It didn’t matter that virtually everyone — Republicans and Democrats, UN inspectors and CIA analysts, coalition allies, even Hussein’s own military officers — had been sure the WMD would be found. Nor did it matter that Hussein had previously used WMD to exterminate thousands of men, women, and children. The temptation to spin an intelligence failure as a deliberate “lie” was politically irresistible.
SIGH!
Related: Prop 102: Iraq and Government Lies
Oh, Bush and Bliar knew there were no WMDs there? Then they were lies!
When the relatively quick toppling of Hussein was followed by a long and bloody insurgency, opposition to the war intensified. But then came Bush’s “surge,” and the course of the war shifted dramatically for the better.
Did it? Look at the place now!
By the time Bush left office, the insurgency was crippled, violence was down 90 percent, and Iraqis were being governed by politicians they had voted for. It was far from perfect, but “something that looks an awful lot like democracy is beginning to take hold in Iraq,” reported Newsweek in early 2010. On its cover the magazine proclaimed: “Victory at Last.”
And so it might have been, if America’s new commander-in-chief hadn’t been so insistent on pulling the plug.
Oh, we should have stayed.
In October 2011, President Obama — overriding his military commanders, who had recommended keeping 18,000 troops on the ground — announced that all remaining US servicemen would be out of Iraq by the end of the year. Politically, it was a popular decision; most Americans were understandably weary of Iraq. But abandoning Iraqis and their frail, fledgling democracy was reckless.
It's because the Iraqis told us to leave, and Bush always said if they asked us to leave we would (expecting, of course, any puppet we put in place would not talk back).
“It freed Prime Minister Nouri Maliki to be more of a Shiite sectarian than he could have been with the US looking over his shoulder,” as military historian Max Boot observed this week.
Why should we put credence into the observations of a lying neo-con who pushed for invasion based on lies? What kind of "expert" is that?
As Maliki moves against his Sunni opponents, some of them “are making common cause once again with Al Qaeda in Iraq, [which] has recovered from its near-death experience” during the surge, Boot declared. It is cold comfort that so many warned of such an outcome in 2011.
So was the Iraq war worth it? On that, Americans are a long way from a consensus. It is never clear in the immediate aftermath of any war what history’s judgment will be. But this much we do know: The invasion of Iraq 10 years ago ended the reign of a genocidal tyrant, and ensured that his monstrous sons could never succeed him. It struck a shaft of fear into other dictators, leading Libya’s Moammar Khadafy, for example, to relinquish his WMD.
And you see how that worked out for him!
It let Iraqis find out how much better their lives could be under democratic self-government.
That is such an ill statement it is beyond response.
Like all wars, even wars of liberation, it took an awful toll. The status quo ante was worse.
--more--"
Also see:
1 year on, Iraq going its own way
We lost!
A war’s misleading anniversary
For a war we were lied into.
Iraq war’s failures breed rising sense of isolationism
That's what happens when you blare lies from the front pages, Globe.
A decade after invasion, killings go on in Iraq
But it's a better life!
"Hundreds protest perks of lawmakers
BAGHDAD — Hundreds of demonstrators took to the streets of Iraqi cities on Saturday to protest lawmakers’ perks despite an intense security crackdown, while gunmen in the capital stormed a Sunni mosque and killed five at dawn in the latest bout of sectarian unrest rocking the country. Protest organizers demanded an end to what they say are generous pension benefits granted to members of Parliament. Demonstrators also aired longstanding grievances about widespread corruption (AP)."
I don't really care about elections here so why would I care about Iraqi elections over there? From what I understand the television and newspaper coverage is terrible.
And to top it all off Maliki is embarrassed with protests when he comes here to ask for help.
Obomber can help him by calling off the Al-CIA-Duh dogs -- as if he had control of them.
UPDATE: Iraq suicide bomber kills 7 police outside Baghdad
Judging by the hits no one gives a shit about dead Iraqis or my apologies for having lagged on coverage; however, it took a lot of my time to put this together and I did it with a labor of love to a certain degree (felt it was important). But since no one gives a shit why should I anymore?
