HOW MANY MORE?

[Saguaro]

11 bodies found in Baghdad
BAGHDAD (CNN) -- Eleven unidentified bodies were found in Baghdad on Saturday, corpses believed to be people slain in the Sunni-Shiite sectarian warfare that has engulfed the capital.

The bodies of shot and tortured people are dumped across the Iraqi capital every day, although much fewer initially had been found daily since the Baghdad crackdown began in February.

However, there has been a bit of a spike in numbers this week. Seventeen bodies were found on Tuesday, 30 on Wednesday, 25 on Thursday, and 16 on Friday. (Posted 1:02 p.m.)

2 dead in Karrada district bombing
BAGHDAD (CNN) -- At least two people were killed on Saturday when a bomb placed under a parked car detonated in central Baghdad's Karrada district, an Interior Ministry official said.

Five others were wounded, the official said. (Posted 12:47 p.m.)

3 killed in mortar strike on Baghdad soccer field
BAGHDAD (CNN) -- At least three young men were killed and four others wounded on Saturday when a mortar hit a soccer field in the Shiite enclave of Abu Dsheer in southern Baghdad's Dora district, an Iraqi Interior Ministry official said.

The people were all under the age of 20 and were playing soccer at the time, about 7:30 p.m., the official said. (Posted 12:22 p.m.)

Suicide bomber kills 16, wounds 21 in Iraq
BAGHDAD (CNN) --A suicide bomber in Iraq on Saturday killed at least 16 Iraqi army recruits outside a recruitment center in Abu Ghraib, on Baghdad's western outskirts, an Interior Ministry official said.

The bomber detonated an explosives belt about 10 a.m. Twenty-one other people were wounded. (Posted 11:54 a.m.)

[Deadshot]

:sad

[Saguaro]

Bombs kill 40, wound 85 in Iraq Sunday
BAGHDAD (CNN) -- Three bombings claimed at least 40 lives and wounded 85 Iraqis Sunday, officials said.

A suicide car bomb exploded outside the police headquarters in Samarra early Sunday, just as a curfew imposed to prevent such attacks was lifted, according to an Iraqi interior ministry official.

The blast killed six police officers and wounded 10 others, a Samarra police official said. The curfew was immediately re-imposed.

A parked car bomb exploded in a market in southwestern Baghdad's Baya'a section around noon Sunday, killing 29 people and wounding 65, according to an interior ministry official.

A parked car bomb blast killed at least five people and wounded 10 in near the Labor Ministry in central Baghdad's Mansour district, the official said.

[Deadshot]

This crap is happening EVERY frickin' day!

[Saguaro]

:focus

[Saguaro]

:roll

[Deadshot]

Look, didn't you just get banned from AWE for this kinda of crap? Why don't try to contribute?

[April15]

Look, didn't you just get banned from AWE for this kinda of crap? Why don't try to contribute?It is mystic magic that he/she is going for.

[Jane]

Mayhem will happen when the coalition forces leave. Then voices will be heard "why didn't we stay".

[Saguaro]

How could it be any worse than it is now ?

[April15]

Mayhem will happen when the coalition forces leave. Then voices will be heard "why didn't we stay".If it is not mayhem now then why are we there? I know. George had a vendetta. Nation building for a legacy he wanted to obscure his other failures.

[Jane]

Infrastructure and religious sectors of Iraq will continue the mayhem. It will be MUCH worse when we leave. :no

[Saguaro]

How can you know that for sure ?

[Deadshot]

Infrastructure and religious sectors of Iraq will continue the mayhem. It will be MUCH worse when we leave. :no

So how long do we stay?

I think you're wrong. I think they'll have a Civil War after we leave and an enemy will take it over. But as far as death and destruction...well they've had four years of that. We haven't stopped it.

Let them have a chance...

[April15]

Like a drunk at a social gathering any time is the wrong time to come and it is never to early to leave. The hosts will be so glad to get organized and have peace again.

[Saguaro]

BAGHDAD - Two suicide car bombers attacked a market and a police checkpoint on the outskirts of Ramadi, killing at least 20 people and dealing a blow to recent U.S. claims of success in reclaiming the Sunni city from insurgents.

The violence came a day after roadside bombs killed eight American soldiers, including six who died in a single blast in the surrounding province of Diyala. The mounting U.S. casualty toll highlights the dangers facing troops as they take to the streets more as part of a security crackdown in the Baghdad area.

The first attack targeted a public market about noon northwest of Ramadi, 70 miles west of Baghdad, killing 10 civilians and wounding about 30, police said.

About 15 minutes later, another bomber detonated his vehicle at a nearby police checkpoint, killing five police officers and five bystanders and wounding 10 others, police said.

The U.S. military has struggled for years to secure Ramadi, the capital of the insurgent stronghold of Anbar province.

The city has shown recent signs of calming, with whole neighborhoods being walled off and military units moving off the major bases and establishing smaller U.S.-Iraqi posts in the most violent areas downtown. But the violence has continued as insurgents fight back for control.

Violence also has surged north of Baghdad, where militants have fled the security crackdown in Baghdad that began on Feb. 14.

Iraqi security forces targeted again
A bombing and an ambush in Baqouba, a Sunni insurgent stronghold northeast of Baghdad, killed two soldiers and two policemen Monday as militants apparently step up a campaign against Iraqi security forces.

The attacks began about 4:30 a.m. when a booby-trapped house exploded during a raid, killing two Iraqi soldiers and wounding three. About six hours later, gunmen ambushed a police station elsewhere in the city, killing two officers and wounding two others, police said.

The bullet-riddled body of a policeman bearing signs of torture also was found outside the northern city of Kirkuk.

[sparks]

So how long do we stay?

I think you're wrong. I think they'll have a Civil War after we leave and an enemy will take it over. But as far as death and destruction...well they've had four years of that. We haven't stopped it.

Let them have a chance...

I wholeheartedly agree. Forgive the pun but eventually we will have to have a drop dead date...so why prolong it any further? Let's just bail and let them fight their own Civil War...it's not really ours to fight.

[Saguaro]

BAGHDAD - A car bomb tore through a busy market in the Shiite holy city of Kufa on Tuesday, killing at least 16 people and wounding 70 in an attack sure to further enflame tensions between Iraq’s Sunni and Shiite populations.

The bombing came a day after Iraq’s Sunni vice president threatened to leave the Shiite-dominated government unless key unspecified amendments to the constitution were made by May 15.

The blast at Kufa struck about 10 a.m. in an area that also included a school and the mayor’s office. The 16 killed included women and children, said Salim Naima, spokesman of the Najaf health department.

“It was a huge explosion, its force threw me a few meters away from my wife,” said Hussein Abid Matrod, a 38-year old taxi driver who was shopping with his wife and suffered shrapnel wounds to his back and legs. “I saw many people on the ground as smoke mixed with dust, and the smell of the gunpowder was everywhere.”

Panicked people ran through the corridors searching for their relatives at al-Furat al-Awsat hospital in nearby Najaf. Women in black abayas, traditional Islamic cloaks, pounded their chests and faces in grief.

“We are poor people looking for anything to secure our livelihood and we have nothing to do with politics. Why do they do this to us?” asked Firas Abdul-Karim, a 23-year-old day laborer who was wounded in the blast.

The revered Kufa mosque was about 400 yards from the blast. Millions of Shiite Muslim pilgrims visit the shrines at Kufa and its sister holy city of Najaf, home to top Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani as well as radical anti-U.S. Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

Baghdad crackdown blamed for unrest in south
The predominantly Shiite southern areas have seen a spike in violence and unrest, blamed in part on militants who have fled a security crackdown in Baghdad.

On April 28, a suicide car bomber killed 68 people in a crowded commercial area near two of Iraq’s most sacred Shiite shrines in Karbala, 45 miles northwest of Kufa. That attack came two weeks after a car bombing killed 47 people killed and wounded 224 wounded in the same area.

Hillah, about 60 miles south of Baghdad, also has been hit by some of the deadliest bombings this year, including a double suicide attack that killed 120 Shiite pilgrims and another one that killed 73 people in a market. Kufa itself was struck by a Dec. 30 at the fish market that killed 31 people.

Also Tuesday, a roadside bomb went off next to a passing mini bus in the Shiite area of Zafaraniyah on the southeastern outskirts of Bagdad, killing three passengers and injuring five others, police said.

At least 68 people were killed or found dead nationwide on Monday, police said, including the bullet-riddled bodies of 30 men found in Baghdad — the apparent victims of sectarian death squads.

All but two were found in west Baghdad, including 17 in the Amil neighborhood where Sunni politicians have complained of renewed attacks by Shiite militiamen, said a police official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not supposed to release those details.

A suicide bomber struck a market on the outskirts of the city of Ramadi, west of Baghdad, Monday afternoon, killing eight people, said police Col. Tariq Youssef. About 15 minutes later, a second car bomb struck a nearby checkpoint, killing five people, including two policemen, Youssef said.

The attacks occurred in areas controlled by the Anbar Salvation Council, an alliance of Sunni tribes formed last year to drive al-Qaida from the area. Council officials blamed the attacks on al-Qaida.

“They committed this crime because we have identified their hideouts and we are chasing them,” said Sheik Jabbar Naif al-Dulaimi.

MSNBC.COM

[AnnEsthesia]

Oh, but they are safer now!

[Deadshot]

I wholeheartedly agree. Forgive the pun but eventually we will have to have a drop dead date...so why prolong it any further? Let's just bail and let them fight their own Civil War...it's not really ours to fight.

:agree :clap

[Saguaro]

BAGHDAD (CNN) -- At least 12 people were killed and 50 were wounded early Wednesday when a truck bomb exploded outside an office of the Ministry of the Interior in Irbil in northern Iraq, according to a Kurdish Coalition spokesman.

Bombings are rare in northern Iraq, a region known as Kurdistan.

In Baquba, a suicide car bomber detonated near a collection of police vehicles, killing six police and wounding 13 other members of the force.

Baquba is located 40 miles (60 km) north of Baghdad.

In eastern Baghdad, one civilian was killed and two Iraqi soldiers were wounded when a car bomb exploded near an army checkpoint on Palestine Street

[Saguaro]

Twenty-two people were killed and 60 were wounded Friday in two southeastern Baghdad bombings, an official with the Iraqi Interior Ministry told CNN. Two suicide bombs -- one in a car and another in a fuel tanker -- exploded in quick succession in the predominantly Shiite Zafaraniya district, each targeting an Iraqi police patrol. A bridge over the Tigris River was substantially damaged.


Seventeen unidentified bodies were found on Friday in Baghdad, the Interior Ministry said. This brings the number of such corpses found in the capital city this month to 236.

[Saguaro]

17 bodies found dumped in Baghdad on Saturday
BAGHDAD (CNN) -- Seventeen unidentified slain bodies were found dead across Baghdad on Saturday, an Interior Ministry official told CNN.

This brings the number of corpses found across Baghdad this month to 253.

Shot and tortured bodies have been a common sight every day on the streets of Baghdad since the attack on the Askariya Mosque in Samarra in Feb. 2006 -- an incident that sparked sectarian violence.

[crazierthanever]

:but Dubya says Iraq will BECOME a mess if our troops leave. :huh2 :(

[issac the dragon]

I heard a reporter on CNN say no one has a normal life in Baghdad. They are afraid to go to work, or shopping, afraid to send their children to school. Think about what Baghdad was like under Hussein. Thanks Bush! Keep up the good work. Another year and a half and we can shovel the rubble over the bodies.

[Wabash]

How could it be any worse than it is now ?

Most of the really violent area is in and around Bagdad...about 10% of the country...the rest is fairly squared away.
The insurgents are desparate, it's their last stand...and they are going all out...in one area.

[Trueblue]

Oh, well that makes it better. :roll

[Saguaro]

Reuters CT May 13, 2007
A car bomb near the office of a leading Kurdish party in northern Iraq killed 30 people and wounded 50 others on Sunday, police said.

The blast took place near the local office of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) in Makhmour, a town near the Kurdish city of Irbil, the capital of the autonomous region of Kurdistan.

Colonel Abdul Qadir al Harky, the head of police in Makhmour, said there were many bodies under the rubble and he expected the death toll to rise.

"The bomb hit area with several government offices," he said. Other security sources said that the KDP were having a local meeting at the time of the attack.

At least 15 people were killed and 100 wounded when a truck bomb exploded near the Kurdish interior ministry in Arbil last week.

[Deadshot]

After the Virginia Tech massacre many from Iraq said they just couldn't understand why we where so upset about it...they lose 30 + people a day EVERY DAY!!

You ask "How many more?" I think it's been too many for about 4 years now. But even Republicans look like in September are willing to put a stop to it.

[Deadshot]

On This week with George Stephanopoulos he announced 25 American Soldiers died this week. :sad

[Saguaro]

Dozens killed in bombings (AP)
Two vehicle bombs in Iraq-- one in a small market, the other outside a mayoral office -- killed at least 65 people Sunday, government sources said.

The deadliest of Sunday's bombings killed 50 people and wounded 115 more when a suicide truck bomb erupted in northern Iraq, local health officials and a Kurdistan government spokesman said. (Watch how the rural offices fell victim to the blast )

The brunt of the blast destroyed the Kurdistan Democratic Party building that houses the mayor's office in the town of Makhmoor, the spokesman said. Makhmoor is about 50 miles (80 kilometers) southeast of Mosul. It is located near the borders of Irbil and Nineveh provinces, just outside the Kurdish-controlled region of northern Iraq.

The bomb exploded at a gas station, damaging several other local government offices, the Makhmoor police chief told Iraqi state TV.

The attack appears to have been orchestrated by al Qaeda, said Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih, a Kurd.

"Because of the pressures on al Qaeda in Baghdad and in al Anbar [province], they are adapting and are moving into other areas and trying to inflict mayhem in those areas to basically force us to change tactics," Salih said.

The blast erupted as local officials from various nearby towns held a meeting, a KDP official said. It is unclear if the officials were among the dead and wounded.

The wounded were rushed to area hospitals. Hospital officials in Irbil said they received at least 12 dead people and at least 60 with injuries. At least 50 people were hospitalized at Mosul General Hospital, but there was no breakdown of the casualties.

The attack comes four days after at least 12 people were killed and 50 were wounded when a truck bomb exploded outside an Interior Ministry office in Irbil in northern Iraq, according to a Kurdish Coalition spokesman. Also, last month, suicide bombers targeted KDP offices in Zamar and Tal Iskuf, killing more than a dozen people.

The KDP and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan are the two major Kurdish political movements in Iraq.

Another Sunday blast at a market in central Baghdad killed 15 people and wounded 35 more, an Interior Ministry official said.

Three policemen were among the dead and four police officer were wounded in the attack, the official said.

The bomb detonated at al-Wathab Square, the entrance to Baghdad's Sadriya and Shorja markets. The square is often crowded with cars because it is the closest point to which vehicles can travel around the markets, which are closed to traffic because of past bombings. The crowded markets are now surrounded by blast walls.

Sadriya market was the target of an attack last month that killed 140 people -- the worst bombing in the capital since the war began.

[AnnEsthesia]

Where do you get your information that most of the country is safe now?

[Wabash]

Where do you get your information that most of the country is safe now?

National news media...ABC, NBC, CBS

This bombing up north is rare...the news has said on numerous occassions that Bagdad and about a 40-50 mile perimeter around it is the only real trouble spot...the north has been pretty quiet as has the south...

[Deadshot]

Wabash is right here. North is fairly secure and so is the South - many Brits have pulled out.

But what is funny is that a good analogy would be that Northern Missouri and Southern Missouri is safe, but KC and St. Louis are REALLY dangerous. Well guess where the majority of people live?

Bahgdad and the surrounding areas, i.e. Da middle. They're losing, on avg., 20 people a day dead. We lose, on avg., 15 people a week. Those numbers are WAY to high.

[Wabash]

Hopefully as all the "surge troops" come into play...the strategy will work...

[Deadshot]

Hopefully as all the "surge troops" come into play...the strategy will work...

Even the Republicans are getting antsy. By early August there had better be MAJOR improvments. The news out of Iraq today, Mother's Day, about soldiers being kidnapped and killed does not bode well for the surge.

55 dead Iraqis today. Another bad sign. :sad

[Wabash]

Even the Republicans are getting antsy. By early August there had better be MAJOR improvments. The news out of Iraq today, Mother's Day, about soldiers being kidnapped and killed does not bode well for the surge.

55 dead Iraqis today. Another bad sign. :sad

I agree.....

[Deadshot]

I agree.....

What do you do if you're Bush?

He really has never admitted he's done wrong and he hasn't done a lot of comprimising...what if it doesn't work?

[Wabash]

What do you do if you're Bush?

He really has never admitted he's done wrong and he hasn't done a lot of comprimising...what if it doesn't work?

Punt....
That's why all politicians hire Spin Meisters...

[Trueblue]

:mad He cannot spin his way out of this, any more than he can fall through the seat of an outhouse and then hire somebody to tell us he smells good.

[sparks]

:mad He cannot spin his way out of this, any more than he can fall through the seat of an outhouse and then hire somebody to tell us he smells good.

:rofl

[Wabash]

:mad He cannot spin his way out of this, any more than he can fall through the seat of an outhouse and then hire somebody to tell us he smells good.


If the surge works, he'll be smelling like a rose...so don't count W out yet TB.... :cheeky
We have All Summer..

[Deadshot]

If the surge works, he'll be smelling like a rose...so don't count W out yet TB.... :cheeky
We have All Summer..
.
:bump

We have all summer, that is quite true. But one has to wonder if we couldn't accomplish this goal in 4 years what are 3 short months going to mean to us.

To be honest, Wabash, I HOPE the surge works. Because this isn't a Bush thing, it's a stop the American and Iraqi deaths thing. But so far it doesn't look good. :sad

[Trueblue]

If the surge works, he'll be smelling like a rose...so don't count W out yet TB.... :cheeky
We have All Summer..

Wrong again.

He's lied to us repeatedly, and if the surge works, we'll be thrilled-but it won't erase the last four years.

[Saguaro]

Insurgents in Baghdad killed 10 people in two attacks on Tuesday, a bombing strike at an outdoor market and mortar fire near Sadr City, authorities in Iraq said.

• Baghdad police found 18 unidentified bodies dumped across the capital Monday, an Interior Ministry official said, adding that 293 corpses have been found across the capital so far this month.

[Deadshot]

Insurgents in Baghdad killed 10 people in two attacks on Tuesday, a bombing strike at an outdoor market and mortar fire near Sadr City, authorities in Iraq said.

• Baghdad police found 18 unidentified bodies dumped across the capital Monday, an Interior Ministry official said, adding that 293 corpses have been found across the capital so far this month.

For those of you keeping count that would be almost 20 people a day!

Kinda makes that VT thing look like small potatoes, doesn't it?

[Saguaro]

BAGHDAD (AP)- A bomb in a parked car exploded near a market in a Shiite enclave northeast of the capital, killing at least 32 people and wounding 50, police said Wednesday. Hospital officials and some of the wounded said it appeared that chlorine gas was used in the attack, but police denied the reports.

The attack occurred about 7:45 p.m. Tuesday in the village of Abu Saydah in the volatile Diyala province, local police said, giving the casualty toll.

The wounded were taken to hospitals in nearby Muqdadiyah and the main Shiite district of Sadr City in Baghdad.

Hospital officials and victims said it appeared chlorine gas was used in the attack as many of the wounded were having difficulty breathing and had their sight affected. But officials at the provincial police’s joint coordination center denied that toxic gas was involved.

One man had a white cloth across his eyes as he lay in his hospital bed; others were bandaged from head to toe.

Abu Saydah is a mainly Shiite village about 25 miles northeast of the Sunni insurgent stronghold of Baqouba, the capital of the province that has seen a recent spike in violence largely blamed on militants who fled Baghdad ahead of a U.S.-Iraqi security crackdown.

Chlorine gas used?
Kadim Hussein, a 45-year-old farmer who was taken to the Imam Ali hospital in Sadr City, claimed the hospitals in Baqouba would only accept Sunnis.

“My eyes became puffy due to the chlorine gas that was packed in the car bomb,” he said, adding he also had difficulties breathing. “Also I had many pieces of shrapnel in my chest and right shoulder.”

A hospital official, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity, said the facility had received three bodies and 11 of those wounded who all showed symptoms of chlorine poisoning

[Saguaro]

BAGHDAD (CNN) -- Gunmen dressed in Iraqi military uniforms raided Qara Lus, a town near the Iranian border Saturday morning, killing 15 men and wounding a woman, according to a Baquba police official.

The raid was in the Hamid al-Shafi district of Qara Lus, 60 miles east of Baghdad in the Diyala province, which is populated by Kurdish Shiites.

The gunmen, who claimed they were on an official military mission, ordered residents to leave their homes and then separated the men from the women and children, the official said. They then shot the men, he said.

Iraqi officials at the Diyala Joint Coordination Center said that all Iraqi Army units near the town were contacted and they said they had no military operations there.

--CNN's Jomana Karadsheh and Mohammed Tawfeeq in Baghdad contributed to this report.

[Deadshot]

BAGHDAD (CNN) -- Gunmen dressed in Iraqi military uniforms raided Qara Lus, a town near the Iranian border Saturday morning, killing 15 men and wounding a woman, according to a Baquba police official.

The raid was in the Hamid al-Shafi district of Qara Lus, 60 miles east of Baghdad in the Diyala province, which is populated by Kurdish Shiites.

The gunmen, who claimed they were on an official military mission, ordered residents to leave their homes and then separated the men from the women and children, the official said. They then shot the men, he said.

Iraqi officials at the Diyala Joint Coordination Center said that all Iraqi Army units near the town were contacted and they said they had no military operations there.

--CNN's Jomana Karadsheh and Mohammed Tawfeeq in Baghdad contributed to this report.

Thanx for keeping us informed :thumbsup

[Saguaro]

BAGHDAD (CNN) -- At least 25 people were killed and 60 were wounded when a parked truck carrying vegetables exploded in an outdoor market in western Baghdad late Tuesday morning, the Interior Ministry said.

The attack took place in the Amil neighborhood around 11 a.m. (3 a.m. ET)

About an hour earlier, gunmen killed a family of six near the city of Khalis, about 40 miles (65 km) north of Baghdad, police said.

According to an official with Baquba police, the gunmen stopped the family at a fake police checkpoint before killing the father, mother and their four children.

[Saguaro]

BAGHDAD (CNN) -- A suicide bomber walked into a cafe in a Diyala province town on Wednesday and detonated his explosives, killing at least 22 people and wounding 40, an Iraq Interior Ministry official said.

The incident occurred in Mandali, a Shiite Kurdish town near the Iranian border. Diyala is north and east of Baghdad. --From CNN's Mohammed Tawfeeq

[Saguaro]

BAGHDAD (CNN) -- At least 28 people were killed and 52 others were wounded Thursday when a parked car bomb detonated during a funeral procession in central Falluja, an Iraqi Interior Ministry official said.

Falluja is located in Anbar province, a Sunni-dominated region west of Baghdad that has been the scene of fighting during the Iraqi war between U.S. and Iraqi forces and insurgents.

[Saguaro]

BAGHDAD (CNN) -- At least 14 people were killed in attacks and 20 dead bodies were found Friday in Iraq, officials told CNN.

According to a Diyala province security official:

The deadliest attack occurred in Diyala province, where gunmen attacked a Shiite village north of Baquba, killing eight men and wounding six who clashed with the gunmen. Also, a number of houses were set on fire.

Two other Shiite villages were attacked east of Baquba. One civilian was killed and five were wounded. Five houses were set on fire. Diyala, a mixed province, is north and east of Baghdad. -

[Ringo]

If it is not mayhem now then why are we there? I know. George had a vendetta. Nation building for a legacy he wanted to obscure his other failures.

Your signature line is hillarious, as Liberals are the ME< ME< ME< crowd, and we do not want to work for it, we are ENTITLED!!

Fucking A George had a Vendetta, he wanted the assholes responsible for 9/11 Dead along with their friends and supporters! Grow a pair someday boy!:roar

[Saguaro]

Then he should have stayed out of Iraq.No Iraqi had a thing to do with 9/11

[AnnEsthesia]

Then he should have stayed out of Iraq.No Iraqi had a thing to do with 9/11

Shh... don't confuse him with FACTS. ;)

[Saguaro]

BAGHDAD (CNN) -- The number of slain unidentified bodies found dumped in Baghdad and other parts of Iraq appears to be on the rise -- a sign that this grisly symbol of sectarian strife remains a tough challenge for the capital's highly touted security crackdown.

There have been 586 corpses found in Baghdad this month, surpassing the total of 585 for the entire country in April, according to data collected by the Iraqi Interior Ministry.

The toll of 586 includes 19 unidentified bodies found in different parts of Baghdad on Saturday.

Most of the bodies found -- nearly all in Baghdad -- have been shot, tortured and/or bound. Victims also have been discovered in other cities, including Mosul and Baquba.

[Saguaro]

BAGHDAD (CNN) -- A powerful car bomb detonated Monday afternoon in a busy commercial district in central Baghdad, killing 21 civilians and wounding 66, an Interior Ministry official said.

The bomb, in a parked car, exploded shortly after 2 p.m. (6 a.m. ET) and the force of the blast could be felt in a wide surrounding area, police said.

Video of the aftermath showed debris littering the streets near the blast site, where a plume of black smoke reached up into the sky. Iraqi firemen in yellow helmets doused the flames with a hose, as Iraqi men and boys crowded the streets.

The blast went off near a Sunni mosque which was damaged by the attack, but police believe civilians on the street were the target.

[Saguaro]

BAGHDAD (CNN) -- Two car bombs rocked separate areas of Baghdad on Tuesday, killing at least 42 people, an Interior Ministry official said.

Around 1:30 p.m. (5:30 a.m. ET), a parked car bomb detonated near a police checkpoint and a busy market area in Tayaran Square in central Baghdad. At least 25 people were killed and 55 were wounded in the attack, the official said.

About an hour later, another parked car bomb exploded in a street market in the southwestern neighborhood of Hay Amil, the official said. Initial reports indicated 17 civilians were killed and 36 were wounded, the official said.

In another attack, a civilian was killed and three were wounded when a roadside bomb detonated south of Baghdad.

Additionally, authorities in Baghdad found 31 unidentified bodies around the city, an Interior Ministry official said. The total number of such bodies found so far this month is 695 in the capital alone, the highest number since January

[Saguaro]

BAGHDAD (CNN) -- Iraq's civilian death toll grew sharply in May despite an ongoing push to pacify the Iraqi capital, reversing a similar steep decline in April, an Interior Ministry official said Thursday.

Figures compiled by the country's health, defense and interior ministries showed 1,949 civilians were killed in the past month, up 30 percent from 1,501 deaths recorded in April, the official said. May's toll also topped the 1,872 civilian deaths recorded in March and 1,646 in February.

The new totals include 746 bodies found dumped on the streets of Baghdad -- a hallmark of the sectarian warfare that has wracked the country for more than a year. Twenty-nine of those turned up on Thursday alone.

Another 2,023 civilians were wounded, according to the Interior Ministry count.

[Trueblue]

But don't try to say that it's worse for women there now.

[Saguaro]

BAGHDAD (CNN) -- Three children were killed and a suspected insurgent was wounded Friday when a tank fired on three men planting an improvised explosive device outside Falluja, the military said.

Multi-National Corps - Iraq said the tank crew did not see the children before they fired, and it was not clear how they were killed.

Two tank crews were patroling a major highway southeast of Fallujah where previous IED attacks have occurred, when they saw three suspected militants who appeared to be working with IED components, the military said. The crews waited until they believed the area was clear of everyone but the suspected militants, it said, and then fired once. Two of the suspected militants fled in a car and the third ran away, the military said.

A patrol examining the scene later found two blast sites -- one on the road where the men were and another by a nearby canal.

Civilians in the area said two children, ages 7 and 9, were killed by a blast near a canal, and a wounded 11-year-old was taken a hospital, but died, the military said. It said the tank crews' view of the scene was obscured by dust from the initial blast, and they did not see any secondary explosions, which could have been the detonation of IED material

[Chuck]

A good example of how we are better than the terrorists. The terrorists would have killed the children intentionally. Not us. We will investigate and maybe prosecute those involved.

[Saguaro]

BAGHDAD (CNN) -- At least 10 people were killed and 27 others wounded when a car bomb exploded in an outdoor market east of Baquba in Balad Ruz Sunday morning, a Diyala Province security official told CNN.

Within Baquba, gunmen shot and killed two civilians in a market, the official said.

[Indy]

I am tired of all the killing over there. Get our guys out!

[Chuck]

Send me back!

[Deadshot]

Saguaro thanks for keeping up this thread. We all need to remember the sacrifices these people have made. Thank you again. :bow

[Saguaro]

You are very welcome :)

[Saguaro]

BAGHDAD (CNN) -- A suicide car bomber exploded near a police station Thursday in the northern Iraqi town of Rabia, killing nine people -- including four police -- Iraqi army and hospital officials said.

The attack also wounded 22 others, most of them civilians, the officials said.

Guards at the station opened fire on the vehicle as it approached, trying to stop the attack, but the bomb still exploded.

Rabia is located in Nineveh province, about 300 miles (500 km) north of Baghdad. -- From CNN's Mohammed Tawfeeq

[Deadshot]

Don't stop posting this. We must never forget the death and destruction that we've become a part of in Iraq. We MUST learn from our mistakes

[Saguaro]

BAGHDAD (CNN) -- Gunmen attacked the house of a senior Baquba police official Friday, killing at least 14 people, a Diyala province security official told CNN.

The dead included the official's wife and his bodyguards.

The attackers also abducted a young man, who remained unaccounted for.

According to the security official, it was not immediately known if Col. Ali Jwairni was in his house in Kana'an, southeast of Baquba, at the time of the attack.

Baquba is located about 30 miles (50 km) north of Baghdad.

In southern Iraq, at least 15 people were killed and 25 others were wounded when a minibus filled with explosives blew up at a bus terminal in Qurna early Friday, an Interior Ministry official said.

Qurna is about 60 miles (100 km) north of Basra.

Meanwhile, in northern Iraq at least 13 people were killed and 14 others were wounded in separate blasts targeting a Shiite mosque south of Kirkuk Friday afternoon, a Kirkuk deputy police chief told CNN.

A car bomb and suicide bomber wearing an explosives laden vest were meant to explode outside al-Thaqalain mosque, the chief told CNN.

Instead the car bomb exploded as worshippers were exiting the mosque following Friday prayers while the suicide bomber self-detonated outside a police station about 200 meters away.

The mosque was located in Daquq, a town about 45 km south of Kirkuk.

-- CNN's Jomana Karadsheh contributed to this report

[Chuck]

Ya know Chuck ,to be truthful, I don't believe the reports anymore .


Seems funny to me that you don't believe the reports of us killing the enemy but you sure seem to believe all these about us being killed, with no problem.

[Saguaro]

I have a problem with them stating the Taliban members killed.Too many times they have stated that they "got " some top person in the Taliban or Al Quida, only to find out that they were wrong.

[Sal Monella]

The crazies will never be totally eliminated. We can only hope to keep the damage at a minimum.

We do owe them to stay and help them rebuild what we destroyed. Beyond that we need to help them get the tools to be able to live in a safe environment.

I would tend to think the same amount of people die here in the United States from violence as they do in the Middle East...just to put a perspective on things.

If we leave I do believe in time they will resort back to their original state. Some crazy person will gain power and get support from the radicals and the average citizen will be afraid to fight back.

Can we totally believe what the media reports these days? They tend to distort the truth for ratings.

[Chuck]

I have a problem with them stating the Taliban members killed.Too many times they have stated that they "got " some top person in the Taliban or Al Quida, only to find out that they were wrong.

And many times they have been right too.

[Saguaro]

BAGHDAD (CNN) -- Scores of people were wounded and at least seven were killed when a suicide bomber behind the wheel of an explosives-laden truck slammed into an Iraqi police station near the northern Iraqi town of Tikrit Sunday morning, a Tikrit police official said.

The blast killed at least seven police officers and wounded a mix of about 52 police officers and civilians. Tikrit hospital officials said some of the wounded were listed in critical condition and the death toll could rise.

In addition, the blast destroyed part of the targeted police station, located in Albu Ajil, a town about 5 km (3 miles) east of Tikrit, the police official said.

Tikrit is the hometown of Iraq's former dictator, Saddam Hussein.

--From CNN's Mohammed Tawfeeq

[Saguaro]

BAGHDAD (CNN) -- Bombs blasted two separate fuel stations in the Iraqi capital city Sunday, killing at least three civilians and wounding 12 others, an Iraqi interior ministry official said.

A parked car bomb exploded outside a fuel station in southwestern Baghdad killed at least one civilian and wounded five others Sunday, the official said.

The station was in Saydiya, a mixed Sunni-Shiite neighborhood.

About fifteen minutes later, a car bomb exploded at another fuel station in southwestern Baghdad, killing at least two civilians and wounding seven others, the official said.

That attack targeted cars queuing at the station, located in the Shiite neighborhood of Bayaa.

[Deadshot]

:sad :shakehead :sad

[Kurtz]

BAGHDAD (CNN) -- Scores of people were wounded and at least seven were killed when a suicide bomber behind the wheel of an explosives-laden truck slammed into an Iraqi police station near the northern Iraqi town of Tikrit Sunday morning, a Tikrit police official said.

The blast killed at least seven police officers and wounded a mix of about 52 police officers and civilians. Tikrit hospital officials said some of the wounded were listed in critical condition and the death toll could rise.

In addition, the blast destroyed part of the targeted police station, located in Albu Ajil, a town about 5 km (3 miles) east of Tikrit, the police official said.

Tikrit is the hometown of Iraq's former dictator, Saddam Hussein.

--From CNN's Mohammed Tawfeeq

BAGHDAD (CNN) -- Bombs blasted two separate fuel stations in the Iraqi capital city Sunday, killing at least three civilians and wounding 12 others, an Iraqi interior ministry official said.

A parked car bomb exploded outside a fuel station in southwestern Baghdad killed at least one civilian and wounded five others Sunday, the official said.

The station was in Saydiya, a mixed Sunni-Shiite neighborhood.

About fifteen minutes later, a car bomb exploded at another fuel station in southwestern Baghdad, killing at least two civilians and wounding seven others, the official said.

That attack targeted cars queuing at the station, located in the Shiite neighborhood of Bayaa.

Saguaro, as a Moderator in the MIA and a poster here at TPA, I wanna thank you for your continual updatin' of MIA and American concerns.

[Saguaro]

:) You are welcome.Thanks for the kind words

[Deadshot]

Saguaro, as a Moderator in the MIA and a poster here at TPA, I wanna thank you for your continual updatin' of MIA and American concerns.

Agreed. Thank you Saguaro! :bow

[Saguaro]

BAGHDAD (CNN) -- Iraq Police gathered 16 unidentified bullet-riddled corpses throughout Baghdad Sunday, an official with Iraqi Interior Ministry said.

So far in June, a total of 246 bodies have been found around the Iraqi capital, the result of killings mostly blamed on sectarian violence.

[Semantics]

BAGHDAD (CNN) -- Iraq Police gathered 16 unidentified bullet-riddled corpses throughout Baghdad Sunday, an official with Iraqi Interior Ministry said.

So far in June, a total of 246 bodies have been found around the Iraqi capital, the result of killings mostly blamed on sectarian violence.

:(

[Saguaro]

BAGHDAD (CNN) -- Attackers killed seven people in Baghdad and four in Diyala province, and militants targeted mayors of two Iraqi cities, authorities in Iraq said Tuesday.

Elsewhere, 26 slain bodies have been found on the streets of the capital, bringing the number of unidentified bodies found in Baghdad this month to 289. Such killings thought to be related to sectarian animosity.

Iraq's Interior Ministry said a roadside bomb exploded around 3 p.m. Tuesday in a busy commercial area near the Shurja market in central Baghdad, killing two civilians and wounding two

[Deadshot]

:cry

[Saguaro]

detainee killed in Iraq
BAGHDAD (CNN) -- U.S. and Iraqi authorities on Wednesday reported the deaths of two U.S. soldiers in roadside bomb attacks, eight insurgents during fighting, three Iraqi police in a bombing, and one detainee at a prison facility in southern Iraq.

Also, the Interior Ministry reported the kidnapping of a journalist, and the U.S. military reported the arrest of an alleged sniper thought to be responsible for killing a U.S. soldier.

The military said a Multi-National Division-Baghdad soldier died and two were wounded in southern Baghdad early Tuesday when their vehicle was hit by an improvised explosive device.

Another Multi-National Division-Baghdad soldier was killed when a roadside bomb detonated during combat operations in eastern Baghdad on Monday.

With the deaths, the U.S. military has suffered 3,512 deaths in Iraq since the war started and 33 this month alone

[quiet man]

this will go on until they run out of things to blow up. :drevil

[Saguaro]

BAGHDAD (CNN) -- Iraq's Interior Ministry on Thursday said 25 slain, unidentified bodies were found on the streets of Baghdad Wednesday.

These killings -- which have been a daily occurrence since the first Al-Askariya Mosque attack in Samarra last year -- are thought to be the result of the Sunni-Shiite sectarian violence that flared up after that attack. That Shiite mosque was attacked again on Wednesday.

The slain bodies, found dumped across the capital, are usually bound, peppered with bullets, and tortured.

There have been 314 such killings in Baghdad this month.

[Deadshot]

BAGHDAD (CNN) -- Iraq's Interior Ministry on Thursday said 25 slain, unidentified bodies were found on the streets of Baghdad Wednesday.

These killings -- which have been a daily occurrence since the first Al-Askariya Mosque attack in Samarra last year -- are thought to be the result of the Sunni-Shiite sectarian violence that flared up after that attack. That Shiite mosque was attacked again on Wednesday.

The slain bodies, found dumped across the capital, are usually bound, peppered with bullets, and tortured.

There have been 314 such killings in Baghdad this month.

:sad :cry :shakehead

[Saguaro]

BAGHDAD - U.S. and Iraqi forces began major military operations Monday to the north and south of Baghdad, while Iraqi officials said 36 people were killed in clashes in southern Iraq.

An official in the office of Iraq’s national security adviser confirmed the operations, which were also launched in the Tharthar area near Fallujah and in Diyala province.

Iraqi security forces were in the lead, backed by U.S. forces, the official said on condition of anonymity for security reasons. He refused to estimate the number of troops involved, or how long the operations would last.

The U.S. military confirmed operations were under way but did not give more details.

“We started operations a couple days ago in some areas and we started operations this week in other areas,” military spokesman Lt. Col. Christopher Garver said. He declined to be more specific, saying only that the operations were taking place across Baghdad and across Iraq.

Clashes in Amarah
Meanwhile, Iraqi and British forces fought a fierce battle with Shiite militiamen while conducting house-to-house searches early Monday in and around Amarah, 200 miles southeast of Baghdad. It was unclear whether the fighting was part of the new military operations.

A doctor at Amarah’s general hospital said 36 bodies had been taken to his facility, though he could not determine how many were militiamen and how many were civilians. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to media.

More than 100 people were injured in the fighting, and at least three of those killed were Iraqi policemen, police and hospital officials said.

The British military in Iraq could not immediately comment on the reports, but a Ministry of Defense spokeswoman in London said details of the fighting were still “quite sketchy” but that there were no British casualties.

The spokeswoman, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with ministry policy, said the British soldiers played a supporting role to Iraqi security forces during the raid and fighting.

'Secret cells'
The U.S. military released a statement saying at least 20 insurgents had been killed and six wounded in coalition operations targeting “secret cells” in Amarah. Another suspect was detained, it said.

The men were believed to be members of a terrorist network that imports deadly armor-piercing weapons made in Iran known as “explosively formed penetrators,” or EFPs, the statement said. They also were suspected of bringing militants from Iraq to Iran for terror training, it added.

Coalition forces came under small arms fire and rocket-propelled grenade attacks in the raids and called in air support, the military said. The suspects were killed by fire from aircraft, it said.

The U.S. statement did not specify whether the coalition troops were American or British.

Iraqi police said the Mahdi Army, the militia commanded by radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, was involved in the clashes, which lasted for about two hours before dawn.

Amarah is the provincial capital of Maysan province, a predominantly Shiite region that borders Iran. Iraqi forces took over control of security from British troops there in April.

The city has seen intense militia fighting, most recently in October 2006, when the Mahdi Army briefly took control of the city and fought prolonged gunbattles with local police. At the time, Amarah’s police force was believed to be dominated by a rival militia, the Badr Brigades. More than 30 people were killed in the standoff.

Elsewhere Monday, eight people were killed in clashes that erupted between Iraqi police and Mahdi Army fighters in Nasiriyah, about 70 miles south of Amarah, police said. More than 60 people were injured, most of them police, they said.

[Semantics]

:kickcan

[Saguaro]

KASTAMONU, Turkey (CNN) -- The phone calls were chilling. The voice on the end always delivering the same message: Don't work with the foreigners.

Gorges Toma, an Iraqi electrician who worked with Western contractors, did what he was told and stopped working. But it did little to help save his brother whose charred body was found in his car. "Right after I stopped [working], they killed my brother," Toma says.

He sold his car and anything else of value and moved his family of nine to Turkey, where they remain more than two and a half years later. (Watch family eat on floor in cramped quarters )

The Toma family is among the growing refugee population to have fled Iraq since the war began in March 2003.

According to a report released this week by the U.N.'s refugee agency, there were 1.4 million Iraqi refugees at the end of 2006, most of them in Syria and Jordan. Another 1.8 million Iraqis were displaced inside their own country, according to the report by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. ( Iraq drives up refugee count )

In Turkey, there are an estimated 10,000 Iraqi refugees. The Toma family, from Mosul, Iraq, are now living in Kastamonu, a picturesque northern Turkish city nestled in foothills near an ancient castle.

They expected to only be here for a few months. But months turned into years of waiting.

"We just want to get out of here. We have no money, nothing. God is kind, we just want to get out," says the family matriarch, 77-year-old Isin Yelda.

"They killed my son," she says, weeping as she clutches a childhood photo of her son who drove water trucks for the U.S. military.

When the Tomas left Iraq on December 10, 2004, they spent three months in Istanbul, Turkey, where they say they felt welcomed by just about everyone. But the Turkish government places refugees like the Toma family, who are waiting to be resettled, in 21 locations outside of the country's major cities.

And so they ended up here, in this small Muslim city of 60,000 without a church. The Tomas are Christians.

'We are barely getting by'
Assimilating to life in Kastamonu has proven extremely difficult. So difficult, that the family's oldest daughter, Sura, 25, chose to return to Iraq to a convent.

"I miss my sister," 11-year-old Raghad says, breaking down in tears in their cramped two-room home.

Her mother, also sobbing, tries to comfort her.

Gorges Toma explains that it was just too hard for his oldest daughter to stay -- not able to speak the language, not feeling accepted, and being confined.

"She prefers the hell that is Iraq than Turkey. That was the psychological impact of this place on her," he says.

Leaving the town without permission is illegal. Every day, with no exception, all members of the Toma family over the age of 18 must report to local authorities. So each day, they head to the police station to sign next to their names.

Under Turkish law, they also cannot legally work.

"We are barely getting by," says Toma.

The family is able to make ends meet with the help of relatives and others chipping in.

"How am I going to pay off this debt?" the father asks.

"We're able to get odd jobs once in a while, but sometimes we work, and then they don't even pay us."

They all say they never imagined that after leaving Iraq, life would continue to be just as hard, but for different reasons.

"I have to get out [of Turkey]," says 27-year-old Salwan Toma. "I have no desire to go back to Iraq, but here, it's almost like a prison. I want stability, a house, car. I want to get married, to have a life."

He spends most of his time at an Internet cafe chatting online with friends. He just found out that a friend of his was killed in Mosul in a drive-by shooting at a church.

Family accepted into U.S.
The life they call a nightmare might be coming to an end. The family has been notified that they will be resettled in the United States, and they are just waiting to complete the final steps. But they remain anxious until they get that final phone call.

"I don't really have dreams anymore," says Gorges Toma's wife, Selwa.

"America -- it will be better than here."

If they do make it to America, they will be one of the few Iraq refugees. According to the U.S. State Department, 701 Iraqi refugees have been allowed into the United States since April 2003. The U.S. government has pledged to let in 7,000 Iraqis this year.

The UNHCR says of the ten thousand Iraqis in Turkey, 556 cases have been accepted to go to the United States.

"Whatever is in America," Toma says, "it will be a thousand times better than what we had in Iraq or Turkey because there are work opportunities. There is no discrimination, no hatred."

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/06/20/damon.iraqrefugees/index.html

[Saguaro]

Two U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq
BAGHDAD (CNN) -- Two U.S. soldiers died Wednesday when a roadside bomb exploded near their vehicle southwest of Baghdad, the U.S. military said in a statement.

Four other soldiers were wounded in the incident. All the soldiers were assigned to Task Force Marne, the military said.

The soldiers' names were withheld pending notification of relatives.

The deaths bring to 3,532 the number of U.S. service members who have died since the Iraq war began.

[Semantics]

3532 :(

[cassandra]

The deaths bring to 3,532 the number of U.S. service members who have died since the Iraq war began.



:headshake So sad. 3,532 family members dead. Prayers for those families effected.

[sparks]

Of course the number of the wounded and maimed far outnumber those who have died. :heart

[Saguaro]

BAGHDAD (CNN) -- A suicide bomber rammed an explosives-laden oil tanker into a municipal building in the northern Iraq city of Sulieman Bek, 50 miles (80 km) south of Kirkuk, killing at least 16 people and wounding 75 late Thursday morning, Salaheddin police sources said.

The building housed the police headquarters, mayor's office and city council, police said. Several nearby homes were also damaged.

Earlier, at least four mortar rounds landed inside Baghdad's heavily-fortified Green Zone which houses the U.S. embassy, an Iraqi interior Ministry official said.

A column of black smoke was seen rising from the Green Zone.

On Wednesday, three Iraqi police officers were killed and 10 people wounded when a suicide car bomb exploded at an Iraqi police checkpoint in Ramadi about 65 miles west of Baghdad Wednesday afternoon, an Iraqi interior Ministry official said.

--CNN's Mohammed Tawfeeq in Baghdad contributed to this report. (Posted 4:45 a.m.)

[Deadshot]

:sad ...Lest we forget...

[Saguaro]

BAGHDAD (CNN) -- The U.S. military on Friday reported the death of a U.S. soldier on Thursday in southwestern Baghdad.

Thirteen U.S. troops have been killed in Iraq on Wednesday and Thursday -- 11 U.S. soldiers and two Marines.

This brings the number of U.S. military deaths in the war to 3,546 and 69 in June.

The soldier killed in the southwest was from Multi-National Division-Baghdad and died during combat operation, the military said

[Saguaro]

BAGHDAD (CNN) -- Police in Baghdad found 21 bodies across the capital Tuesday, Iraq's Interior Ministry said.

This brings the number of corpses dumped this month alone in Iraq's capital to 504. Police believe the deaths are the result of sectarian violence. --From CNN's Mohammed Tawfeeq

[Saguaro]

BAGHDAD (CNN) -- A U.S. Marine died during combat operations in Anbar province Tuesday, a military statement released Wednesday said.

Since the start of the war, the U.S. military has suffered 3,567 deaths in Iraq.

[Trueblue]

I was relieved that Senator Lugar addressed the current situation in Iraq. Calls for continuing the war there until the surge has a chance to work overlook what's happening to our soldiers and the Iraqis between now and then.

[Saguaro]

BAGHDAD (CNN) -- Seven people were killed and 15 were wounded Wednesday when a car bomb exploded in a Shiite neighborhood in Baghdad, an Interior Ministry official said.

The bomb detonated around 9 p.m. near Abdul Muhsin al-Kadhimi Square in Kadhimiya.

Separately, 21 bullet-riddled bodies were found on Wednesday across Baghdad's capital, an Iraq Interior Ministry official said.

This bring the number of slain bodies found this month in Baghdad to 525. The presence of such bodies reflects Sunni-Shiite civil warfare in Iraq, authorities said.

[Saguaro]

BAGHDAD (CNN) -- Insurgents went on the attack in Baghdad and Samarra on Wednesday. Eleven people were killed in the attacks, and two people were killed by police after one of the attacks.

Five Iraqi National Police officers were killed when a roadside bomb struck their patrol in central Samarra's Ajbariya neighborhood about 12:30 p.m. Wednesday, Samarra Police Capt. Yousif Mohammed Ali said. Two people were shot to death and two were wounded when the police began shooting in angry reaction to the bomb blast, he said.

Five civilians died when a bomb hidden under a parked car exploded in an outdoor market in northern Baghdad's Sulekh Sunni neighborhood around noon, the official said. Ten people were wounded by the blast.

A member of Iraq's National Police was killed Wednesday in a suicide car bombing in southern Baghdad, police told CNN. The attack occurred at a National Police checkpoint near the Jadriya Bridge. Four police officers were wounded in the 3 p.m. incident. --

[Deadshot]

:sad :cry :sad

[Saguaro]

BAGHDAD (CNN) - A car bomb exploded at a bus station in southwestern Baghdad's Bayaa neighborhood Thursday morning, killing at least 22 people and wounding 31 others, an Iraqi Interior Ministry spokesman said.

Bayaa is a predominately Shiite neighborhood.

The 8:15 a.m. (12:15 a.m. ET) attack burned at least 40 cars and damaged half a dozen shops.

A few minutes earlier, two people died and 14 others were wounded when two mortar rounds landed in the busy Shurja market in central Baghdad

[Saguaro]

BAGHDAD (CNN) -- A U.S. soldier was killed by a roadside bomb Thursday in eastern Baghdad, the U.S. military said.

The bomb struck a combat patrol. Another soldier was wounded.

The number of U.S. troops killed in Iraq this month now numbers 93. The death toll for U.S. military personnel in the Iraq war stands at 3,570.

[Saguaro]

BAGHDAD - Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki condemned a U.S. raid Saturday in Baghdad's Shiite Sadr City slum — a politically sensitive district for him — in which American troops searching for Iranian-linked militants sparked a firefight that left 26 Iraqis dead.

The U.S. military said all those killed in the fighting were gunmen, some of them firing from behind civilian cars. But residents said eight civilians were killed in their homes and angrily accused American troops of firing wildly during the pre-dawn assault.

Sadr City is the Iraqi capital's largest Shiite neighborhood — home to some 2.5 million people — making U.S. raids there potentially embarrassing for al-Maliki's Shiite-led government. The district is also the stronghold of the Mahdi Army, a militia loyal to anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who was once al-Maliki's ally.

"The Iraqi government totally rejects U.S. military operations ... conducted without prior approval from the Iraqi military command," al-Maliki said in a statement concerning the Sadr City raid. "Anyone who breaches the military command orders will face investigation."

Al-Maliki last year banned military operations in Sadr City without his approval after complaints from his Shiite political allies. The ban frustrated U.S. commanders pushing for a crackdown on the Mahdi Army, blamed for sectarian killings.

Al-Maliki later agreed that no area of the capital was off-limits, after President Bush ordered reinforcements to Iraq as part of the Baghdad security operation.

Also Saturday, the military announced that two American soldiers were charged with the premeditated murder of three Iraqis and with planting weapons on the bodies to cover up the slayings, which took place between April and June near Iskandariyah, 30 miles south of Baghdad.

Staff Sgt. Michael A. Hensley from Candler, N.C., was jailed Thursday in Kuwait, facing three counts each of premeditated murder, obstructing justice and wrongfully placing the weapons. Spc. Jorge G. Sandoval, arrested at his home in Laredo, Texas, faces one count each of premeditated murder and planting a weapon, the military said.

In Muqdadiyah, 60 miles north of the capital, police said a suicide bomber blew himself up near a crowd of police recruits, killing at least 23 people and wounding 17. The U.S. military also said a U.S. soldier was killed and three others were wounded Friday when a sophisticated, armor-piercing bomb hit their combat patrol in southern Baghdad.

U.S. troops have discovered a mass grave with as many as 40 bodies near Fallujah in western Iraq, the U.S. military said Saturday. Between 35 and 40 bodies — with gunshot wounds and bound limbs — were discovered at site, the statement said. U.S. military officials are investigating, it said, without elaborating, and it was unclear who the victims were.

The U.S. military said it conducted two pre-dawn raids in Sadr City, killing 26 "terrorists" who attacked U.S. troops with small arms fire, rocket-propelled grenades and roadside bombs. But Iraqi officials said all the dead were civilians.

An American military spokesman insisted all of those killed were combatants.

"Everyone who got shot was shooting at U.S. troops at the time," said Lt. Col. Christopher Garver. "It was an intense firefight."

U.S. troops detained 17 men suspected of helping Iranian terror networks fund operations in Iraq, a military statement said. There were no U.S. casualties.

Witnesses said U.S. forces rolled into their neighborhood before dawn and opened fire without warning.

"At about 4 a.m., a big American convoy with tanks came and began to open fire on houses — bombing them," said Basheer Ahmed, who lives in Sadr City's Habibiya district. "What did we do? We didn't even retaliate — there was no resistance."

According to Iraqi officials, the dead included three members of one family — a father, mother and son. Several women and children, along with two policemen, were among the wounded, they said.

Houses, a bakery and some other shops were damaged by U.S. tank fire during the assault, Iraqi officials said. In the Shiite holy city of Najaf, Sheik Salah al-Obaidi, a spokesman for al-Sadr condemned Saturday's raids: "The bombing hurt only innocent civilians."

A policeman wounded in the raid, Montadhar Kareem, said he was on night duty in the Habibiya area when U.S. troops moved in and "began bombing houses in the area."

"The bombing became more intense, and I was injured by shrapnel in both my legs and in my left shoulder," Kareem said from a gurney at Al Sadr General Hospital.

Hours afterward, a funeral procession snaked through the streets of Sadr City's Orfali district. Three coffins were hoisted atop cars.

One resident who goes by the nickname of Um Ahmed, or "mother of Ahmed," stood outside her home as mourners passed by.

"We are being hit while we are peacefully sleeping in our houses. Is that fair?" she cried. The woman gave only her nickname, fearing reprisal.

The U.S. military statement said American troops opened fire on four civilian cars during the assault — one that failed to stop at a checkpoint, and three others that insurgents were using for cover as they fired on U.S. soldiers.

"Every structure and vehicle that the troops on the ground engaged were being used for hostile intent," Garver said. Some of the 26 dead were in civilian cars, some had been hiding behind cars and others had fired on U.S. troops from nearby buildings, he said.

[Saguaro]

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Four U.S. soldiers and a Marine were killed in attacks in Baghdad and Iraq's western Anbar province, the military said Monday. The five deaths took place in separate attacks Sunday, the military said in a statement.

In Baghdad, a U.S.-Iraqi patrol was hit by a roadside bomb in a western district of the capital, then gunmen opened fire, killing one American soldier and wounding two Iraqi policemen.

A second soldier was killed when gunmen attacked his patrol in southern Baghdad, the military said in a statement.

Two soldiers and one Marine assigned to Multi National Force-West were killed while conducting combat operations in Anbar, the military said, without providing further details.

The servicemembers' names were not released pending notification of their families.

The deaths brought to 3,582 the number of members of the U.S. military who have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. The figure includes seven military civilians. At least 2,939 died as a result of hostile action, according to the military's numbers.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070702/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_us_casualties;_ylt=ApR9fZj_YHtYwjvxDGiUBB2s0N UE

[Deadshot]

:shakehead :sad :cry

[Deadshot]

"Updated: 10:30 p.m. CT July 4, 2007
BAGHDAD, July 4 - Nearly five months into a security strategy that involves thousands of additional U.S. and Iraqi troops patrolling Baghdad, the number of unidentified bodies found on the streets of the capital was 41 percent higher in June than in January, according to unofficial Health Ministry statistics.
" http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19604814/

Dear Mary mother of God and sweet baby Jesus WHEN will this crap stop?!? :beg :shakehead

[Saguaro]

BAGHDAD (CNN) -- Iraq police on Saturday found 21 bullet-riddled bodies in Baghdad, an Iraqi interior ministry official said Sunday.

Dumped, slain bodies are found daily in the capital and police think these deaths have evolved out of Sunni-Shiite sectarian vendettas.

This brings the total of unidentified bodies found in the capital during July to 291.

[Saguaro]

BAGHDAD (CNN) -- A car bomb Sunday at a busy Baghdad square killed at least 10 people and wounded 25, an official with the Iraqi Interior Ministry told CNN.

The blast took place near shops and restaurants close to the Green Zone, the official said, adding that three stores were charred by the explosion.

It was not immediately clear whether the blast was the source of large plumes of smoke Sunday morning

[Deadshot]

:sad :shakehead

[Saguaro]

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A suicide truck bomber detonated in a commercial section in the northern Iraq city of Kirkuk, killing at least 65 people, an Iraqi army spokesman says.



Maj. Gen. Anwar Mohammed Amin said 170 people were wounded in the attacks Monday afternoon.

Video from the scene showed a large crater surrounded by dozens of mutilated bodies, some of them still on a bus.

A Kirkuk police official said in addition to the truck bomb, a car bomb also detonated in Kirkuk's al-Qalah neighborhood.

Kirkuk is an oil rich city about 240 kilometers (150 miles) north of Baghdad.

Bombs and mortars killed at least nine people in Baghdad Monday morning, while police found the bullet-riddled bodies of another 22 people in the Iraqi capital on Sunday, according to an official with Iraqi Interior Ministry.

Five Iraqi soldiers were killed and nine others were wounded when a roadside bomb exploded near an Iraqi army patrol on a highway in the Boub al-Sham district of northeast Baghdad at about 12:30 a.m., the official said.

A car bomb exploded on a commercial street in Baghdad's Karrada district at about 8:45 a.m. Monday, killing one person and wounding three others, the official said.

Two mortar rounds landed on a residential area in Abu Dsheer Shiite neighborhood of southern Baghdad around 9 a.m., leaving three people dead and three wounded, the official said.

The 22 bodies found by police on Sunday brought to 313 the number of people killed and then dumped along Baghdad streets during July in what police believe is the result Sunni-Shiite sectarian vendettas, the official said

A U.S. soldier, assigned to Task Force Lightning, died as a result of injuries suffered from an explosion while conducting operations in northern Iraq's Ninewa province Sunday, the U.S. military said.

The number of U.S. troops killed in July is 36 and the number of U.S. military killed in the war is 3,615.


http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/07/16/iraq.main/index.html

[Deadshot]

So is this how the surge works?

[Zanoog]

:gaah :cry

[Saguaro]

BAGHDAD (CNN) -- A suicide truck bomber detonated in a busy commercial district in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk Monday afternoon, killing at least 80 people and wounding 170 others, according to Iraqi police and military officials.

Video from the scene in Kirkuk's al-Qalah neighborhood showed a large crater surrounded by dozens of mutilated bodies, some of them still on a bus.

Several shops and stores were badly damaged by the blast. A Kurdish political office affiliated with the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) also sustained some minor damage.

Minutes after the suicide truck bomber detonated around noon (4 a.m. ET), U.S. and Iraqi security forces found and defused a car rigged with explosives. It was located near Kirkuk's main medical facility, Azadi hospital, northeast of the city center.

At 2:20 p.m., a car bomb targeting a police patrol in southern Kirkuk detonated, killing one police officer and wounding three others, police said.

Kirkuk is an oil rich city about 240 km (150 miles) north of Baghdad.

In Baghdad, car bombs and other attacks on Monday killed more than a dozen people, while police found the bullet-riddled bodies of another 22 people in the Iraqi capital on Sunday, according to an official with Iraqi Interior Ministry.

[Saguaro]

BAGHDAD (CNN) -- Three U.S. soldiers were killed by roadside bombs while fighting in the Iraqi capital Tuesday, U.S. military statements released Wednesday said.

One soldier was killed by a roadside bomb in eastern Baghdad and four other soldiers were wounded.

The military said the explosion occurred while the soldiers were on patrol.

According to the statement, the troops later found two insurgents behind the attack and killed them.

Two other U.S. soldiers were killed in western Baghdad when a roadside bomb exploded near their vehicle.

The Multi-National Corps - Iraq soldiers were conducting "combat operations," the military said.

With the new fatalities, the number of U.S. service members killed since the onset of the war is 3,620, according to a CNN count

[Saguaro]

BAGHDAD (CNN) -- Iraq police found 15 bodies throughout Baghdad on Wednesday, an Iraqi interior ministry official said Thursday.

The slain bodies are dumped daily in the capital and police think these deaths are the result of Sunni-Shiite sectarian vendettas.

This brings the total of unidentified bodies found in the capital during July to 377.

[Deadshot]

:cry :shakehead

[AnnEsthesia]

It is so sad. This whole war will wind up being a loss for everyone. Yep, Saddam is gone, but how many people will have lost everything, including their whole family? Can you really blame them for feeling rather ungrateful that Saddam is gone, but their whole world has been destroyed?

[Saguaro]

BAGHDAD (CNN) -- Seventeen corpses were found dumped across Baghdad on Thursday, an Iraqi Interior Ministry said.

The total of such bodies found in the capital during July now stands 394. Slain and unidentified bodies have been common in the Iraqi capital and are seen as victims of sectarian violence. -- From CNN's Saad Abedine

[Saguaro]

SAN ANTONIO, Texas (AP) -- The five badly burned soldiers arrived around 11 p.m., sedated and swathed in bandages from head to foot -- the screech of the plane's wheels on the tarmac and waiting ambulances marking the end of a 7,500-mile journey.

Dr. Kevin Chung waited inside Brooke Army Medical Center as the ambulance convoy zipped through its gates. He knew the soldiers were coming in from Germany, after being evacuated from Iraq.

A three-continent marathon, and this was the finish line.

Now Chung and some 30 doctors, nurses and others took over.

They cut open the men's bandages and, using diagrams of the human body, mapped the soldiers' burns -- shading in red for third-degree, blue for second-degree -- to plan for surgery.

They called the soldiers' families. They needed permission to operate.

Quickly.

The men had been injured days earlier when a roadside bomb turned their Bradley fighting vehicle into an inferno. One man who had escaped ran back to help a trapped comrade.

"This one's the hero," Chung said, as the first stretcher rolled in.

"They're all heroes," a nurse replied.

Chung did a bronchoscopy to check the "hero's" lungs. He threaded a fiber-optic scope into the tube connecting the soldier to a ventilator. Tar-like soot deposits appeared on a video monitor.

To Chung, it looked as if someone had smoked 100 packs of cigarettes in 10 minutes.

If this soldier -- the one who had escaped -- had so much lung damage, what about the men who had been trapped?

He examined them and answered his own question.

Their lungs were worse.

Celebrating small steps

Brooke's burn center -- the only one of its kind for the nation's military -- has its own rhythms and rituals.

The center's 40 beds are tucked in a fourth-floor wing of the sand-colored hospital at Fort Sam Houston. In the halls and on the walls, there are constant reminders of the war -- the scarred young men, the clocks set to Iraq and Afghanistan time.

This is a place where patients celebrate every small step toward recovery and where a clenched-teeth grimace speaks more eloquently than words.

It's also a place with a quiet sense of urgency.

Doctors operate in womb-like, 90-degree heat, sometimes six at once working on a soldier; nurses, in boots, masks and long gowns, sweat as they scrub down patients in steaming showers; families congregate, longing for the day loved ones will emerge from the cocoon of bandages.

In another era, another war, many patients probably would never have made it this far.

But troops today have better body armor, fast evacuation from the battlefield to war zone hospitals, then state-of-the-art treatment in Germany and the United States.

Brooke has special teams that fly to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany to bring home the most severe cases on a C-17 transport, sometimes handling emergencies in midair.

Once patients arrive at Brooke, skin grafts are usually done within 24 hours to stave off infection, the major cause of death. Decades ago, doctors waited days or weeks to do surgery.

"The faster you get the burn off the patient, the better off you're going to do," says Dr. David Barillo, chief of the flight evacuation team.

Brooke's burn center also treats civilians. But these days there is a steady flow of wounded from Iraq and Afghanistan -- more than 570 thus far, of which only about 6 percent have died. Many survivors, however, are permanently scarred. Some also suffer from blast-related wounds, such as head injuries or fractures. Others can't walk, cut their food or tie their shoes.

"We now have an entirely new population of burn survivors ... with oftentimes lifelong and life-changing injuries," says Dr. Evan Renz, a Brooke surgeon.

Some will recover. Others will learn new ways to become independent.

"You have to believe that you're doing the best thing for the patient by helping them survive," Renz says. "You have to believe that in the end, when all is said and done, they will be glad they made it through."

'You walk a tightrope'

Chung woke from a quick nap on his office couch the morning after the five badly burned soldiers arrived, and walked down the hall to check on them.

All were stable. But the news quickly turned grim.

One soldier went into shock. His heart, lungs and kidneys failed. He died without regaining consciousness.

With burns, Chung says, patients can rally, then suddenly take a turn for the worse -- all the while dealing with excruciating pain.

"I can't think of a more devastating injury," he says. "In the most tragic instances a lot of us say to ourselves ... sometimes life is worse than death."

Of the five burn patients, one was transferred out of intensive care.

The "hero" was rebounding, too. Then an infection set in -- and he died.

Within three weeks, four of the five were gone.

Chung had lost patients before, but each one, he says, leaves him shaken.

"You walk a tightrope," he says. "I tell the family members that they need to be realistic. At the same time, I don't want to be the person to take away hope. How can you justify giving up on anybody?"


http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/07/20/home.wounded.ap/index.html

[Saguaro]

BAGHDAD (CNN) -- A bomb hidden inside a minibus exploded in a Shiite neighborhood of eastern Baghdad Saturday morning, killing at least seven people and wounding 12 others, according to an Iraqi Interior Ministry official.

The blast -- at 11:45 a.m. -- happened in the Baladiyat district on the edge of Sadr City, the official said.

At least one person was killed and five wounded when a car bomb exploded outside an ice factory in Mahmoudiya, a town about 20 miles south of Baghdad, Saturday morning, the official said

[Saguaro]

BAGHDAD (CNN) -- A suicide vehicle bomber Sunday struck a meeting of Sunni leaders allied with U.S. and Iraqi security forces, killing five and wounding 10 others north of Baghdad, an Iraqi Interior Ministry official said.

Around 11 a.m., the bomber drove an explosives-packed minivan into a house in the Jurf al-Milih district near Taji, where the Taji Salvation Council was convened, the official said.

The council includes a number of Sunni tribal leaders who have allied themselves with Multi-National Forces and Iraqi security forces to fight al Qaeda militants in the region about 12 miles (20 km) north of Baghdad

[Deadshot]

Fuck the Surge!

[issac the dragon]

How Fred Barnes measures success. Barnes writes in the Weekly Standard, “Bush and the Republicans aren’t dominant. They’re a minority, but an unusually effective one. One measure of this: At the end of 2007, there will be more American troops in Iraq than when Democrats took over Congress in January.” thinkprogress.org.

And the bell keeps tolling.

[Saguaro]

BAGHDAD (CNN) -- Four car bombs Monday targeting civilians and police in central Baghdad killed at least 16 and wounded 40 others, according to Iraq's Interior Ministry.

The latest bombing struck Serwan, a popular restaurant near the Green Zone in Karradt Marim district, killing at least four people and seven others, the ministry official said.

Earlier, two car bombs struck a supermarket and a government facility where identity cards are issued in the Karrada district Monday morning. Nine people -- including three police officers -- were killed and 28 others were injured, the official said.

Hours later, a car bomb struck a police patrol in the Alwiya commercial area of Karrada district, killing three -- two police and a civilian -- and wounding five others including three police. That attack happened around 11:15 a.m.

[Saguaro]

BAGHDAD (CNN) -- A suicide car bomber exploded in a busy commercial area of Hilla Tuesday morning, killing at least 22 people and wounding 60 others, police said.

The attack took place near a children's hospital around 9 a.m. (1 a.m. ET).

Hilla is a Shiite city located about 60 miles (100 km) south of Baghdad.

In southeastern Baghdad, one person was killed and three were wounded, including two police officers, when a roadside bomb exploded near their patrol in the Zayouna district, an Iraqi Interior Ministry official said.

Also on Tuesday, the ministry announced that the bodies of 24 people had been recovered across the capital a day earlier. They are believed to be the victims of sectarian violence between Sunni and Shiite Muslims. For July, the total stands at 468.

The U.S. military said that "coalition forces detained 20 suspected terrorists during raids Tuesday targeting al Qaeda in Iraq." The operations occurred north of Baghdad.

[Trueblue]

How Fred Barnes measures success. Barnes writes in the Weekly Standard, “Bush and the Republicans aren’t dominant. They’re a minority, but an unusually effective one. One measure of this: At the end of 2007, there will be more American troops in Iraq than when Democrats took over Congress in January.” thinkprogress.org.

And the bell keeps tolling.

:no

[toxic]

BAGHDAD (CNN) -- Four car bombs Monday targeting civilians and police in central Baghdad killed at least 16 and wounded 40 others, according to Iraq's Interior Ministry. ...Nine people -- including three police officers -- were killed and 28 others were injured, the official said.... killing three -- two police and a civilian -- and wounding five others including three police. That attack happened around 11:15 a.m.


If US Troops left Iraq, it would be overrun with Iraqis.
- Pat Buchanan

[Saguaro]

U.S. Marine was killed in fighting in Anbar province in Baghdad on Saturday, the U.S. military said.

Following are the latest figures for military deaths in Iraq and Iraqi civilians killed in attacks since the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003:

U.S.-LED COALITION FORCES:

United States 3,636

Britain 163

Other nations 129


IRAQIS:

Military Between 4,900 and 6,375#

Civilians Between 67,945 and 74,336*


# = Think-tank estimates for military under Saddam Hussein killed during the 2003 war. No reliable official figures have been issued since new security forces were set up in late 2003.

* = From www.iraqbodycount.net (IBC), run by academics and peace activists, based on reports from at least two media sources. IBC says on its Web site that the figure underestimates the true number of casualties.

The U.S-led military coalition toll includes casualties from Iraq and the surrounding area where troops are stationed.

[Saguaro]

BAGHDAD (CNN) -- Deadly car bombs targeted throngs of Iraqis who spilled into a Baghdad streets on Wednesday to cheer their national team's latest soccer victory in the Asian Cup games.

A suicide car bomb killed at least 10 people and wounded 62 in the Mansour district of the western section of the capital, an Interior Ministry official said.

Later, in the southeastern neighborhood of Ghadir, a car bomb killed at least seven and wounded at least 27, the same Interior Ministry source told CNN.

Meanwhile, people shooting guns in the air in celebration led to the deaths of two people and the wounding of 12 across the capital city, the ministry said

[Saguaro]

BAGHDAD (CNN) -- The U.S. military in Iraq on Thursday reported seven recent troop deaths.

A U.S. soldier was killed Wednesday "during a small arms fire engagement" in southern Baghdad, the military said Thursday. The soldier was from Multi-National-Division-Baghdad.

Three Marines and one sailor assigned to Multi National Force-West died Tuesday during combat in Diyala province. Also, a soldier in the Diyala capital of Baquba died Tuesday of wounds from an improvised explosive device.

This brings the number of military deaths in the Iraq war to 3,643 and the number this month to 64

[Saguaro]

BAGHDAD (CNN) -- At least 26 people were killed and at least 75 were wounded Thursday when a car bomb detonated in the main street of central Baghdad's Karrada district, Iraq's Interior Ministry told CNN.

[Saguaro]

BAGHDAD (CNN) -- Five people were killed on Saturday in a Baghdad car bombing, the Interior Ministry said.

The bomb exploded in Uqba Bin Nafie square in eastern Baghdad around 12:15 p.m. Ten people were wounded as well.

Earlier in the capital, a mortar struck on the Amil neighborhood in southwestern Baghdad, wounding four people, police said

[Saguaro]

BAGHDAD (CNN) -- Two U.S. soldiers assigned to Multi-National Division-Baghdad were killed Sunday in separate attacks in and around the Iraqi capital, the U.S. military said.

One soldier was killed as a result of a small-arms attack north of Baghdad; the other was killed during combat operations in eastern Baghdad, according to separate military news releases.

With the deaths, 3,648 U.S. military personnel have died in the Iraq war, including 69 in July.

The pace of U.S. troop casualties in Iraq has been gradually dropping in recent weeks because American and Iraqi forces are stabilizing once volatile and dangerous areas, a U.S. commander said Thursday

[Saguaro]

BAGHDAD (CNN) -- A car bomb struck Tayaran Square in central Baghdad on Monday afternoon, killing six people and wounding 12 others, an Interior Ministry official told CNN.

The attack happened in the commercial district hours after an overnight curfew in the Iraqi capital in an effort to stem violence in the wake of the Iraqi national soccer team's victory in Sunday's Asian Cup final. -- From CNN's Mohammed Tawfeeq

[Saguaro]

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- About eight million Iraqis -- nearly a third of the population -- are without water, sanitation, food and shelter and need emergency aid, a report by two major relief agencies says.



Oxfam and the Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) Coordination Committee in Iraq have issued a briefing paper that says violence in Iraq is masking a humanitarian crisis that has worsened since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.
The paper, called "Rising to the Humanitarian Challenge in Iraq," is the latest documentation of the misery faced by Iraqis.

"Eight million people are in urgent need of emergency aid; that figure includes over two million who are displaced within the country, and more than two million refugees. Many more are living in poverty, without basic services, and increasingly threatened by disease and malnutrition," said the relief agencies' report. The population of Iraq is 26 million.

It said that not addressing the needs of Iraqis in urgent need of water, sanitation, food and shelter would further create more unrest in the country.

"Despite the constraints imposed by violence, the government of Iraq, the United Nations, and international donors can do more to deliver humanitarian assistance to reduce unnecessary suffering. If people's basic needs are left unattended, this will only serve to further destabilize the country."

The report found that about 43 percent of Iraq's population endure "absolute poverty," and that more than half "are now without work."

Child malnutrition rates have jumped from 19 percent before the invasion four years ago to 28 percent now, and there are two million internally displaced people, many of whom have no or little access to food rations.

The number of Iraqis "without access to adequate water supplies" is 70 percent, up from 50 percent since 2003. The country continues to suffer a "brain drain."

While ending the warfare is the biggest priority, Iraq's government, the coalition nations, U.N. agencies and international donors can do more to deal with this problem, the report said.

It made a number of recommendations including suggesting that those in need deserve greater help from local authorities, that households headed by widows need a payment increase and that there should be new I.D. cards to enable displaced people to get food rations.

The briefing paper also stressed that Iraqi security forces should be ordered not to "harm civilian life, property, or infrastructure, and should respect the population's right to assistance."


The relief groups called on countries not involved in the Iraq war to increase funding to the country.

"Since many humanitarian organizations will not accept money from governments engaged in the conflict, it is important that donors from other countries, such as Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Sweden, and Switzerland, increase their funding for humanitarian action." the report said.

[Saguaro]

BAGHDAD (CNN) -- A U.S. Marine assigned to Multi National Force-West was killed while conducting combat operations in Iraq's Anbar province Monday, the U.S. military said.

With the deaths, 3,652 U.S. military personnel have died in the Iraq war, including 73 in July.

[Saguaro]

CNN) -- Three coalition troops and three Afghan civilians were wounded when a suicide car bomb exploded near a coalition convoy in Kabul Tuesday, according to a coalition statement. There was no immediate word on the nationalities of the troops

[Saguaro]

BAGHDAD (CNN) -- Police found 25 slain bodies across the capital on Monday, the Interior Ministry said.

The dumped bodies found daily are thought to be the result of Sunni-Shiite sectarian violence.

The total number of such deaths this month now stands at 593.

[Saguaro]

BAGHDAD (CNN) -- Bombers on Wednesday killed at least 69 people in four Baghdad attacks that targeted heavily trafficked commercial locations frequented by Iraqis of all sects.

At least 50 have been killed and at least 60 others were wounded in the gas station bombing in western Baghdad on Wednesday, the Interior Ministry told CNN. Ten civilian cars were burned.

A fuel tanker rigged with explosives detonated near the station in the Mansour district. The incident occurred at 1:45 p.m. local time.

The blast rattled the windows of Baghdad buildings and dark smoke from the attack could be seen over the city.

Earlier Wednesday, at least 15 people were killed and 20 others were wounded when a suicide car bomb exploded in a busy square in Baghdad's central Karrada district earlier, the Interior Ministry said.

[bluedog]

BAGHDAD (CNN) -- Bombers on Wednesday killed at least 69 people in four Baghdad attacks that targeted heavily trafficked commercial locations frequented by Iraqis of all sects.

At least 50 have been killed and at least 60 others were wounded in the gas station bombing in western Baghdad on Wednesday, the Interior Ministry told CNN. Ten civilian cars were burned.

A fuel tanker rigged with explosives detonated near the station in the Mansour district. The incident occurred at 1:45 p.m. local time.

The blast rattled the windows of Baghdad buildings and dark smoke from the attack could be seen over the city.

Earlier Wednesday, at least 15 people were killed and 20 others were wounded when a suicide car bomb exploded in a busy square in Baghdad's central Karrada district earlier, the Interior Ministry said.

Better there than here, if its not stopped there "IT WILL END UP HERE". Plain, simple and true. BD

[Saguaro]

They weren't there before we invaded

[Saguaro]

BAGHDAD - A suicide car bomber slammed into an Iraqi police station northeast of Baghdad on Thursday, killing at least 13 people, police said.


Most of the victims were policemen and recruits lining up outside the station in Hibhib, a town 12 miles north of Baqouba, a police officer said on condition of anonymity out of security concerns. Baqouba is the capital of Diyala province northeast of Baghdad.

Fifteen others were wounded in the attack, the officer said.

Hibhib lies in an area dominated by Sunni insurgents and is considered a stronghold of both Saddam Hussein loyalists and the Islamic State of Iraq, an al-Qaida-linked group. The small town was the site of a U.S. airstrike in June 2006 that killed al-Qaida in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070802/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq;_ylt=Av6izvFq_yg9zikho3Bf0xOs0NUE

[Saguaro]

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Two U.S. soldiers in the division operating south of Baghdad were killed and 10 wounded in an attack on Tuesday, the military said on Thursday.

The attack on the last day of July -- described as indirect fire, which refers to rockets or mortars -- brings the total of U.S. troops killed that month to 80. July was the least deadly month for U.S. forces since last November.

The U.S. military has hailed the reduction in deaths among its forces as a sign that this year's strategy of sending additional troops to Iraq and spreading them into neighborhoods in Baghdad and other cities is improving security.

In each of the last three months, the death toll among U.S. troops was more than 100, making the April-June period the deadliest quarter-year of the war. Eighty-one U.S. service members were killed in March.

However, Iraqi government figures released on Wednesday showed a sharp rise in the number of Iraqi civilians killed in July to 1,653 from 1,227 in June.

The July figure of civilian deaths was in line with previous months this year after June had seen deaths fall by more than a third.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070802/ts_nm/iraq_usa_deaths_dc

[Saguaro]

BAGHDAD (CNN) -- Iraqi police found 37 slain bodies across the city on Thursday and Friday, Iraq's Interior Ministry said Saturday.

On Friday police found 13 bodies, and on Thursday police recovered 24, the ministry said.

Scores of dead people thought to be victims of sectarian violence are found daily in the capital.

The total number of bodies found in Baghdad this month now stands at 62

[bluedog]

They weren't there before we invaded

That's a strange thing to say, considering that Musab al-Zarqawi fled the battlefield in the Afgan terr. and fled to Baghdad to have surgery in 2002, with 24 of his Al Quedia men at his side and then set up a training camp in Northern Iraq as large as 600 men and killed over 700 people before he himself was killed in 06. And in 1992 the vice presidential candidate, Al Gore, made a 45 minute speech concerning terrorism in Iraq and Saddam ties thereof and how the republicans were at fault for threatening world peace due to "their" lack of action......yet "you" now say that Saddam had no ties to terrorism? Humm. BD

[bluedog]

That's a strange thing to say, considering that Musab al-Zarqawi fled the battlefield in the Afgan terr. and fled to Baghdad to have surgery in 2002, with 24 of his Al Quedia men at his side and then set up a training camp in Northern Iraq as large as 600 men and killed over 700 people before he himself was killed in 06. And in 1992 the vice presidential candidate, Al Gore, made a 45 minute speech concerning terrorism in Iraq and Saddam ties thereof and how the republicans were at fault for threatening world peace due to "their" lack of action......yet "you" now say that Saddam had no ties to terrorism? Humm. BD

But....But....But Saddam was "contained" and had "no" control over the "Northern" region. Yes, that's why Saddams private physician performed surgery and allowed Mr. Zarqawi to remain in Badhdad with 24 of his bodyguards. And Saddam never had control over the north and the US never once had to engage in combat enforcing the "no fly" zone in the north. And Saddam magically reformed from an agent of terrorism into a complete "saint" right after the Clinton administration left office, "RIGHT"? BD

[Saguaro]

BAGHDAD (CNN) -- At least 28 people were killed and 50 others were wounded Monday morning when a suicide bomber driving an explosives-laden truck detonated in northern Iraq, an Iraqi army official in Tal Afar said.

The attack took place in Qubbak -- a Shiite Turkmen village about 6 miles (10 km) northeast of Tal Afar.

At least 10 houses were badly damaged by the explosion that left a 10 foot (three meters)-deep hole, according to the official.

In Baghdad, a roadside bomb exploded Monday morning in southeastern Baghdad's Zafaraniya district, killing at least eight people and wounding 16 others, an Iraqi Interior Ministry official said.

Also in southeastern Baghdad, three people were killed and 11 others were wounded when a roadside bomb exploded in the Ghadir neighborhood around midday.

Along Jamhouriya Commercial Street in central Baghdad, a third roadside bomb exploded, wounding six people, the ministry said.

Separately, Iraqi police found 18 unidentified bodies across the capital on Sunday, adding to the 21 discovered on Saturday, Baghdad police said.

This brings the total for bodies found in Baghdad in August to 101.

[DATA]

Four U.S. soldiers are killed by roadside bombs in the Baghdad area, the military says, raising to at least 19 the number of troop deaths in the first week of August. The latest casualty figures could signal a resurgence in attacks after July's eight-month low.

More... (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=12555667&ft=1&f=1001)

[Saguaro]

BAGHDAD - Four more U.S. soldiers were killed in roadside bombings in the Baghdad area, including three in a single strike, the military said Tuesday, raising to at least 19 the number of troop deaths in the first week of August.

The numbers signaled a resurgence in attacks after July saw the lowest number of U.S. casualties in eight months. U.S. commanders have warned they expected militants to try to upstage a September report on military and economic progress in Iraq.

Iraq's political crisis also worsened as five more ministers announced a boycott of Cabinet meetings — leaving Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's unity government with no members affiliated with Sunni political factions.

Al-Maliki, meanwhile, arrived in Turkey for a state visit likely to be dominated by Turkish warnings to either crack down on rebel bases in northern Iraq or face a possible incursion. He was slated to travel to Iran on Wednesday.

The U.S. military said three Task Force Marne soldiers were killed Saturday when a roadside bomb struck their convoy south of Baghdad, the military said.

One Multi-National Division — Baghdad soldier was killed and another wounded Monday when their vehicle was targeted by an armor-piercing explosively formed penetrator, or EFP, in a western section of the capital, according to a separate statement.

Washington has accused Iran of supplying Shiite extremists with EFPs to step up attacks against American forces. Tehran denies the allegations.

The military also said earlier that four soldiers were killed in a powerful combat explosion in restive Diyala province north of the capital on Monday.

The deaths raised to at least 19 members of the U.S. military who have died this month, or a rate of about three per day, putting August on track for a heavier toll after a drop in July. Seventy-nine American troop deaths were reported, the lowest number since 70 killed in November.

More than 100 American forces died each month in the April-to-June period as the incoming U.S. troops were deployed with the Iraqi army in Baghdad's dangerous streets and security outposts.

Despite the relatively low number in July, Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno, the U.S. second-in-command, has blamed nearly three-quarters of the attacks on rogue Shiite militias the military believes are being armed and trained by Iran, which he said was increasing its support ahead of the pivotal report to be delivered to Congress in September.

Despite the new U.S. accusations of Iranian medd