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800+ US casualties in May; More airstrikes

Two more US soldiers have been killed in Iraq, the military announced on Thursday, as casualty counts continue to rise. The soldiers were killed on Wednesday when a roadside bomb hit their foot patrol.

The U.S. military late Wednesday reported the deaths of three more soldiers, two killed in a roadside bombing and one who died of a non-combat cause. The bombing victims died Wednesday, the third soldier on Tuesday.

As many as 127 U.S. soldiers died in May and an estimated 700 or more injured bringing the total casualty count for the month to over 800 and almost 20% more than the previous month. Meanwhile, Generals and Administration officials insist that the "plan is working". May's casualties coincide with a "surge" in US reinforcements, which is due to peak next month. Under this plan, US and Iraqi troops are basing themselves in exposed patrol bases in order to control Baghdad street by street.

Once again, airstrikes hit the Sadr City districts of Baghdad. According to police two Iraqis were killed in the U.S. helicopter strike before dawn. A police officer in Sadr City said the helicopter hit a house and car at 4:30 a.m., killing two elderly people sleeping on the roof of their home, a common practice in the extreme heat of Iraq through late spring and summer. The officer said a 13-year-old boy was injured. Such airstrikes are considered war crimes.

In Fallujah, asuicide bomber hit a police recruiting center on Thursday, killing at least 25 people and wounding 50. Police said the bomber detonated his explosives vest at the third of four checkpoints as he stood among recruits who were lining up to apply for jobs on the force. The center had only been opened on Saturday in a primary school in eastern Fallujah. The U.S. military and Iraqi army and police were running the center along with members of Anbar Salvation Council.

Gunmen attacked a police commando patrol, killing a policeman and wounding three others in the Jihad district of southwestern Baghdad and a roadside bomb targeting a police patrol wounded three policemen in al-Khadhra district.

Elsewhere, police killed one gunman and arrested two others after attacking their patrol in Tikrit. Mosul city mortuary received the bodies of five men, including three Iraqi soldiers. Gunmen attacked the house of Ubaid al-Masoudi, a tribal leader, injuring him and his wife in the town of Iskandariya. Two Iraqi soldiers were killed and four injured in attacks in Tal Afar. One Iraqi man was also killed in a rocket attack in that town. posted 31 May 2007

US condorns Sadr City; Turkish buildup

Hundreds of Iraqi and U.S. troops cordoned off sections of Baghdad's Sadr City early Wednesday and conducted a series of raids in an apparent effort to find five British citizens abducted from a nearby government building the day before, local residents said. The residents spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear of reprisals for speaking to the Western media. The kidnappings, if the work of the Mahdi Army as asserted by several Iraqi officials, could be retaliation for the killing by British forces last week of the militia's commander in Basra.

Two Iraqis were killed and four others injured in crossfire from gunbattles that broke out during one of the raids, police said. They had been sleeping on their roofs in a traditional Iraqi custom to escape the brutal heat. Apparently, western forces will do whatever it takes to find the hostages, including killling innocent Iraqis.

In other violence Wednesday, several mortar rounds apparently targeting an American military base in the restive city of Fallujah missed their mark and landed instead on a court house and in a residential neighborhood, killing nine civilians and wounding 15 others.

A police commander's convoy was struck by a roadside bomb in the town of Hamzah, south of Baghdad, killing two guards and injuring two others.

In Baghdad, three people were wounded by a mortar attack in Jamiaa district of western Baghdad. The bodies of 30 people who had been shot were found in different districts of the city on Tuesday.

A roadside bomb targeting a U.S. patrol wounded two civilians in Mosul. Also in Mosul, awoman was killed and two policemen were wounded in clashes between gunmen and police.

Turkey sent more tanks to its border with Iraq on Wednesday in a military build-up that is fuelling U.S. concern about a possible incursion into northern Iraq against Kurdish rebels. A group of 20 tanks loaded on trucks emerged from army barracks in Mardin near Syria and headed towards the Iraqi border in southeast Turkey, already the scene of a major army offensive against rebels of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

Turkish action could accelerate the wave of immigrants fleeing Iraq, that is already estimated to be as much as 50,000 per month. "If the military goes into northern Iraq we will have to leave our lives here and migrate to the West," said one resident.

Speculation about an imminent incursion into Iraq has grown since Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said last week he saw eye to eye with the army over possible military action, despite unease in the United States, Turkey's NATO ally, about such a move. On Tuesday, Turkey formally asked Washington to avoid any further violation of its air space after two U.S. F-16 warplanes briefly flew into Turkish air space near the Iraqi border. posted 30 May 2007

Ten troops killed on Memorial Day; 5 Brits kidnapped

Ten U.S. troops were killed Monday in an attack in Iraq's Diyala province, a U.S. military official said on Tuesday. A Kiowa helicopter was shot down between Baquba and Muqdadiya with small arms, killing the chopper's two pilots. When a quick-reaction force responded, one of the force's vehicles was struck by a roadside bomb, and six more U.S. troops were killed and three injured. Two U.S. soldiers were killed when their patrol was hit by a roadside bomb in southern Baghdad.

Meanwhile, two car bombs rocked separate areas of Baghdad on Tuesday, killing at least 41 people and wounding 109 more. A parked car bomb detonated near a police checkpoint and a busy market area in central Baghdad's Tayaran Square and another parked car bomb exploded in a street market in the southwestern neighborhood of Hay Amil.

Eight people were killed and 35 wounded when mortar rounds landed in the Shi'ite district of Karrada in central Baghdad. A sniper killed a female student near in al-Mustansiriya University in northeastern Baghdad. Gunmen killed three policemen and wounded seven in the Fadhil district of central Baghdad. Police said they recovered the bodies of 33 people from various parts of Baghdad in the past 24 hours.

The U.S. military said it siezed fourteen people during Tuesday raids in Baghdad, Mosul and north of Taji.

Also on Tuesday, five Britons were kidnapped from Iraq's finance ministry. They included four bodyguards employed by Canadian security firm GardaWorld, along with one person thought to be from US management consultancy BearingPoint. They were taken from an Iraq Finance Ministry building on Palestine Street in north-central Baghdad, according to sources at the Interior and Finance ministries after40 police vehicles surrounded the building. The four men were taken out at gunpoint and driven off by men wearing the new uniforms of the national police, a heavily-armed paramilitary unit under the interior ministry.

In Mosul, four policemen were killed by a car bomb and three bodies were found throughout the city. A roadside bomb wounded five policemen in the northern oil city of Kirkuk. A roadside bomb wounded four Iraqi soldiers near Hawija. One person was killed and 11 wounded by a mortar round in Baquba. The bodies of 12 men were found dumped in a large hole in the Uwaireeg area south of Baghdad.

U.S. military leaders in Iraq are seeking ways to redefine success. That is because they are increasingly convinced that most of the broad political goals President Bush laid out early this year when he announced his troop buildup will not be met this summer. Military officers in Baghdad and outside advisers doubt that the three major goals set by U.S. officials for the government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki will be met by then. A new law to share Iraq's oil revenue among Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish parts of the country is the only one of the goals they think might be achieved, and that is seen as a long shot. Two other goals, allowing more Sunni Arabs into government jobs and new provincial elections, are thought unlikely. posted 29 May 2007

Mosque bombed; Memorial Day in US

At least 24 people were killed and another 68 injured in the car bombing in the Sinak commercial district near the Abdul-Qadir al-Gailani mosque in Baghdad, while Americans celebrated Memorial Day. The mosque also contains a shrine that is revered by both Sunni and Shi'ia. Both the mosque's dome and minaret received damage.

"The enemies of Iraq are the only one who get benefit out of that bombing. These enemies have targeted our homeland, religion and our brotherhood," said Mahmoud al-Issawi, the cleric in charge of the mosque.

Also in central Baghdad, a battle raged after insurgents hijacked two buses and kidnapped at least 15 passengers, police said. At least three policemen were killed. The small buses where traveling through the Fadhil neighborhood, a Sunni enclave in central Baghdad, when they were waylaid by gunmen in three cars. Insurgents abducted at least 15 passengers and took them to an abandoned government building neaby.

A roadside bomb killed two people and injured nine when it detonated under a parked car in the central Baghdad district of Bab al-Muadham. Another two people were killed and six were wounded after two mortar rounds slammed into a street in Karrada. A security detainee died on Saturday in Camp Cropper, a U.S. detention facility in southern Baghdad, the U.S. military said. It said the likely cause of death was complications from diabetes.

Elsewhere, Hamad al-Jouburi, the head of a regional "salvation council" set up to fight al-Qaeda, said that gunmen attacked his brother's two houses and abducted four of his sons and set the houses on fire in a village near Baiji.

Iran and the United States on Monday resumed public diplomacy for the first time in more than a quarter century. Iraqi officials said the meeting in Baghdad between the U.S. ambassador, Ryan Crocker, and the Iranian ambassador, Hassan Kazemi-Qomi, was cordial and focused solely on Iraq. posted 28 May 2007

"There's a war out there"; Death counts rise

Another eight American soldiers died in Iraq today, the military announced, raising the American military's death toll to 101 in May.

Americans have opened nearly 1,000 new graves to bury U.S. troops killed in Iraq since Memorial Day a year ago. In the period from Memorial Day 2006 through Saturday, 980 soldiers and Marines died in Iraq - an average of 3.85 deaths a day -, compared to 807 deaths in the previous year.

Almost 8 soldiers are injured for everyone killed, bringing total casualties to almost 9,000 for the year. "We're doing heavy fighting. This is a fight. There's a war on out there," U.S. commander Gen. David Petraeus said on Sunday.

US forces continue to be distrustful of Iraqi civilian society. On Sunday they raided a top Shiite Muslim cleric's home while conducting door to door searches throughout Baghdad. U.S. officials have called any Iraqi that doesn't support the current regime "rogue militants".

As part of the crackdown, the military sent 3,000 more U.S. troops to Diyala, a turbulent province north of Baghdad that has seen heavy fighting in recent weeks. American forces freed 42 kidnapped Iraqis — some of whom had been hung from ceilings and tortured for months, according to the military.

Students of Mustansiriyah university protested against gunment who killed their colleagues last week in the Waziriya neighborhood in northern Baghdad. About 300 students took part in the rally demanding government protection.

Also in Baghdad, two U.S. soldiers were killed by roadside bombs on Saturday -- one in Diyala province north of Baghdad and the second in the west of the capital, the U.S. military said. Forty-four bodies were found in Baghdad on Sunday and twenty on Saturday, all apparent victims of sectarian violence, police said. Gunmen also killed the renowned Baghdad calligrapher Khalil Mohammed al-Zahawi in a drive-by shooting.

Elsewhere, a barrage of mortar rounds struck houses in a Shiite village just northeast of Baghdad, killing three women and a child and wounding seven other children. A suicide car bomber attacked an army checkpoint in Musayyib, killing two Iraqi soldiers. A car bomb targeting an Iraqi army checkpoint killed two soldiers and wounded three near Jurf al-Sakhar.

Meanwhile, in Kut, 100 miles southeast of Baghdad, 70 police officers resigned from an elite police unit and handed over their weapons. One officer who resigned said the Mahdi Army threw a grenade at a colleague's house, killing his mother and wounding his brother. Gunmen killed two farmers and wounded nine others in a drive-by shooting in Nahrawan

In the Basra, British forces on a raid to arrest Shiite militants came under fire and killed three of their attackers, the British military said. posted 27 May 2007

Airstrikes continue against civilians; Christians also targeted

U.S. and British forces continued aerial bombings of civilian areas of Baghdad on Saturday, in clear violation of Geneva Convention protocols that prohibit the targeting of civilians - war crimes continue.

For the second day, U.S. air strikes targeted Sadr City, killing five Iraqis and wouding eight more. US and Iraqi forces called in the air strikes after a raid in which they captured a "suspected terrorist cell leader," the US military said in statement.

An airstrike by British forces in Basra killed eight Iraqis and wounded 22. The British said that they were targeting insurgents. A roadside bomb in Basra on Friday, destroyed the SUV of a foreign defense contractor, injuring three security men.

Coalition forces also stand accused of war crimes against Iraqi Christians. Christian leaders say their churches are being evacuated and monasteries occupied by U.S. occupation troops while cities like Basra and Baghdad were being emptied of Christians as fighting between insurgents and covert forces continues.

"U.S. and Iraqi officials are responsible … They have insulted and humiliated our temples and churches," said Patriarch Amanuel Dali, the head of the Chaldean Catholic community in Iraq. U.S. invasion troops have turned one of Baghdad’s largest monasteries where the Chaldeans had a theology college and a seminary into military barracks.

In Baghdad today, at least six people were killed and 37 were wounded when a car bomb and several mortar rounds exploded in a crowded market of the Bayaa district. Police said they found the bodies of 20 people across Baghdad on Friday.

Elsewhere, gunmen killed a policeman near Hawija southwest of Kirkuk. U.S. forces said they killed two insurgents and detained 23 others during a raid in Taji. The Iraqi military detained 20 Mehdi Army militiamen in the small town of Jihad, 50 miles west of Kut.

President George W. Bush celebrated victory Saturday after he signed into law a long-sought bill committing $100 B to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Meanwhile, US Defense Secretary of State Robert Gates played down speculations of reaching rapid progress in Iraq. posted 26 May 2007

US Airstrikes in Sadr City; 9 US dead

Attackers blew a hole through a highway overpass in west Baghdad on Friday during a city-wide vehicle curfew, security sources said. No one was injured in the blast. Baghdad's roads are closed to all vehicle traffic from 11.00 am to 3.00 pm during Friday curfews.

U.S. forces once again called in an air strike after coming under fire during a raid on the hideout of an alleged weapons smuggling gang in the heavily populated Sadr City district. Residents of Sadr City awoke to a scene of devastation in a marketplace with debris from the airstrike and rubble from buildings littering the area.

Also in Baghdad, U.S. and Iraqi forces detained 20 suspected insurgents in raids targeting al Qaeda in Baghdad and Mosul on Friday, the military said. One person was killed and three wounded in a mortar attack on a residential area of Abu Dshir. The bodies of 22 people were found shot in various districts of Baghdad on Thursday.

Elsewhere, Gunmen killed a sheikh from the Abu Alwan tribe in his car in eastern Falluja on Friday. Police found the bodies of two men handcuffed and shot in Latifiya.

Eight more US soldiers and one marine have been killed in Iraq, the military said Friday, as Congressional "war accomplices" passed a $120 Billion war funding bill despite plunging public support for the mission. wo U.S. soldiers were killed and another was wounded in a roadside bomb attack on their patrol in western Baghdad on Thursday. A U.S. soldier was killed by a roadside bomb in Nineveh province near Tikrit on Thursday.

Cleric Moqtada al-Sadr made a dramatic return to frontline Iraqi politics today, calling for unity and the withdrawal of US troops. 'I want to renew our demand for the departure of the occupation,' he said, warning the Baghdad government that his supporters have enough votes in parliament to block any renewal of the American military mandate. 'Any fighting between our brothers in the Mahdi Army and the Iraqi army and police is forbidden,' Sadr declared, blaming the clashes on 'the occupier.'. posted 25 May 2007

Congressional "War Accomplices"; Two US soldiers killed;

The House is scheduled to vote today on funding for the Iraq war. The bill does not call for a troop withdrawal. The Senate is expected to vote on the same measure on Friday. Members of congress that continue to fund the ongoing occupation of Iraq will be labeled "war accomplices" for their action.

Two soldiers were killed in combat on Wednesday in Anbar Province, the U.S. military said. 3,426 U.S. troops had been killed in Iraq since the start of military operations. Iraqi deaths continue to rise.

In Baghdad at least two Iraqis were killed and fifteen were injured when a bomb, hidden in a garbage truck, exploded by a crowd of construction workers.

Elsewhere in Iraq: At least 27 people were killed and dozens wounded on Thursday when a suicide bomber in a car packed with explosives drove into a crowd of mourners at a funeral in Falluja. Maj. Angel Ortiz said earlier this week that, "Our hope is to do some good so that residents there see things are getting better.” Ortiz is the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Gulf Region Division Fallujah Resident Office officer in charge.

“We’re managing 87 projects in Fallujah and the surrounding area valued at $195 million. We’re working on rebuilding Fallujah’s entire electrical distribution system, constructing four primary healthcare centers each capable of providing medical care to 150 patients daily, and expanding the city’s water treatment capabilities,” much of which was destroyed in 2004 by US forces.

Six policemen were killed and six wounded when a roadside bomb exploded near their patrol in the town of Sulaiman Bek, about 200 miles north of Baghdad. Saboteurs set an oil well on fire in a town near Kirkuk in northern Iraq

Iraq's prime minister Nouri al-Maliki asked Parliament Thursday to approve six new Cabinet members to replace a group which resigned last month on the orders of cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

The six are Sabah Rasoul for Health ministry, Ali al-Bahadli for Agriculture, Amir Abdul-Jabbar for Transportation, Thamir Jafar al-Zubaidi for the Civil Society Ministry, Khiloud Sami for the Ministry of Provincial Affairs, and Zuhair Mohammed Ali Sharba for the Tourism and Antiquity ministry.

It was announced today that a British soldier was killed Monday in Basra. On Monday, British troops engaged in a series of street battles with alleged Sadrist militiamen near the provincial governor’s office. Last month, the provincial legislature voted to remove governor Mohammed al-Waili but he has refused to give up power. A standoff has resulted. posted 24 May 2007

Missing soldier found; Deaths: 9 US, 120 Iraqis; 200,000 troops by Christmas?

More than 250 people were killed and injured in the war today, including 9 dead US soldiers and 122 dead Iraqis.

One of the missing U.S. soldiers may have been found. "Iraqi police did find the body of a man whom they believe may be one of our missing soldiers," Maj. Gen. William C. Caldwell told reporters. "We have received the body and we will work diligently to determine if he is in fact one of our missing soldiers." It was later confirmed that this was the body of Pfc. Joseph Anzack Jr. of Torrance, California.

In the town of Mandali, on the Iranian border 60 miles east of Baghdad, meanwhile, a suicide bomber walked into a packed market cafe and blew himself up Wednesday, killing 15 people and wounding 20 others.

In another devastating attack, a suicide bomber blew himself up in the house of two brothers who were supporting a Sunni alliance opposed to al Qaida in the Anbar province, killing 10 people, including the men, their wives and their children.

In Baghdad, gunmen drove into a commercial area in the al-Sinak district and opened fire on shops, killing four civilians and injuring 14 others, police said.

Roadside bombings and gunbattles across Iraq killed nine U.S. servicemen, and wounded several more. The military said seven soldiers and two Marines were killed in separate attacks Tuesday. Six of the soldiers were killed by roadside bombs and the seventh was killed by small arms fire. The military said only that the two Marines were killed in combat operations in Anbar province.

Two suspected insurgents were killed and 19 others arrested during a raid on Wednesday morning in Sadr City, the U.S. forces said in a statement.

Democrat leaders in the U.S. Congress have abandoned plans to tie support for a $100 billion war funding bill to a timetable for troop withdrawal from Iraq.

The Bush administration is quietly on track to nearly double the number of combat troops in Iraq this year, an analysis of Pentagon deployment orders showed Monday. when additional support troops are included in this second troop increase, the total number of U.S. troops in Iraq could increase from 162,000 now to more than 200,000. Taken together, the steps could put elements of as many as 28 combat brigades in Iraq by Christmas, according the deployment orders examined by Hearst Newspapers. posted 23 May 2007

200+ Iraqi casualties on Tues.; College hit

Baghdad was rocked by violence on Tuesday with more than 140 Iraqi casualties throughout the country.

A parked car bomb exploded near a crowded outdoor market in the Amil district of Baghdad on Tuesday, killing 25 people and wounding 60 more. Nearby buildings were badly damaged and set ablaze, while others were reduced to rubble. Residents ran through the streets with buckets and pots of water, while others frantically tore through the rubble, looking for survivors. Groups of men carried bodies wrapped in tarps out of the damaged buildings.

Also in Baghdad, a roadside bomb exploded near a police station, killing one person and wounding three others in Zayouna district in eastern Baghdad while another bomb exploded in the Mansour district.

At least four college students were killed and 25 wounded in a mortar attack at Ibn al-Haitham college in Adhamiya district in northern Baghdad. In the Baghdad neighborhood of Dora, a sniper shot two Iraqis, killing one and wounding the other,The bodies of 24 people were found shot in different districts of Baghdad on Monday, police said.

Elsewhere, One person was killed and five wounded, all from the same family, by a mortar round in the town of Mahmudiya. A roadside bomb killed one person and wounded another near the town of Hawija. The bodies of two Arbil airport employees were found shot and tortured in the town of Riyadh. Near Baquba, a family of six was killed at a fake checkpoint. An infant and four children were among the dead.

U.S. forces detained 15 suspected insurgents, including two alleged insurgent cell leaders, during raids around Iraq targeting al-Qaeda. U.S. forces killed nine insurgents in a ground and air attack and freed 12 hostages held near the town of Garma, 35 miles west of Baghdad, the military said.

Iraq's military is drawing up plans to cope with any quick US military pullout, the defense minister said yesterday, as a senior American official warned that the Bush administration might reconsider its support if Iraqi leaders do not make major reforms by fall. posted 22 May 2007

Reporter killed; Talibani travels to US

This week started off much the same as the last. Bombings and attacks on Monday, throughout Iraq, resulted in at least 40 Iraqis.

An Iraqi newspaper reporter was kidnapped while leaving a relative's house in Baghdad and found dead several hours later, his newspaper reported Monday. The attack on Ali Khalil, 22, occurred Sunday in Baiyaa, an increasingly volatile neighborhood in Baghdad, according to the Azzaman newspaper.

In Baghdad, four Iraqi policemen were wounded when a roadside bomb exploded near their patrol in Wazirya district. A roadside bomb exploded near an Iraqi army patrol, killing three soldiers and wounding two in Adil district.

The office of Adnan al-Dulaimi, the head of the biggest Sunni group in parliament, said that the Iraqi army had opened fire on his motorcade in Adil district in western Baghdad. There were no casualties.

Elsewhere on Monday: A roadside bomb exploded near a police patrol, wounding three policemen in the main road between the town of Sinjar and Tal Afar. Four people were wounded by a car bomb in the town of Khalis, 50 miles north of Iraq. Police said three Iraqi soldiers were killed and four wounded in clashes with gunmen who attacked a minibus carrying off-duty soldiers near the town of Hibhib, near Baquba. A suicide car bomber rammed his vehicle into an Iraqi army checkpoint in the Sunni stronghold of Falluja, causing an unknown number of casualties.

Saboteurs set an oil by-products pipeline on fire when they planted bombs beneath it in the village of Safra. Four people from al-Ubaidat tribe were killed and five wounded in clashes between them and gunmen in Iskandariya. A roadside bomb exploded near a police patrol, wounding three policemen in Iskandariya.

President Jalal Talabani left Iraq on Sunday for a nearly three-week trip to the United States that was expected to include a medical checkup. "Talabani's health is very good, but he felt tired recently ... because of the work and meetings," said Azad Jindyani, spokesman of Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan.

Iraq's defense ministry will buy new weapons worth more than 1.5 billion dollars, including helicopters and US rifles, the minister announced on Monday. "The Iraqi government has signed a contract with the American government to set up a foreign weapons sales office to buy weapons that
Iraq needs," Defence Minister Abdel Qader Jassim Mohammed said at a Baghdad press conference. posted 21 May 2007

9 more US casualties; 917 dead contractors; Iraqi deaths up

Seven US soldiers and their interpreter were killed by two different roadside bombs in Iraq, the US military said on Sunday. In western Baghdad, six soldiers and an interpreter were killed in a single blast on Saturday while patrolling the capital in search of weapons and bomb-making materials.

In the southern city of Diwaniyah, a roadside bomb tore through a US military vehicle killing one soldier and wounding two others also on Saturday.

May has seen a continued increase in the number of dead and injured - US, foreign, and Iraqi - as the U.S. military escalation takes hold. Total estimated casualties are reaching almost 150 per day, on average and an estimated 50,000 Iraqis are fleeing their homes each month. At this rate, during the next six months expect to see:

3-4,000 U.S. and coalition casualties
145-225,000 Iraqi casualties
300,000 more Iraqis left homeless

A truck bomb laden with chlorine gas exploded before it rammed into a police checkpoint in the town of Zangoura, north of Ramadi, on Sunday, making 11 people sick.

In Baghdad, a car bomb killed two people and wounded 10 others in a parking lot in the commercial district of Bab al-Sharji. Mortar rounds wounded two civilians when they landed on and near the small Bahaa hotel in central Baghdad. A car bomb wounded four people in Ur district of northeastern Baghdad. Four people were killed and eight were wounded when a car bomb exploded near a busy market in al-Shurta al-Rabiae in southwestern Baghdad on Saturday. The bodies of 20 people were found shot in different districts of Baghdad on Saturday, police said.

Gunmen killed Hadi al-Rubaie, a senior figure in the Iraqi National Accord political movement headed by former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, on Friday in Baghdad, his party said on Sunday.

Elsewhere, a roadside bomb wounded two people in a town near the northern Kurdish city of Sulaimaniya on Saturday. The bodies of nine people who had been shot were delivered to a hospital in Tikrit. Police retrieved the bodies of five people, including one that was decapitated, from the Tigris River near the city of Kut. The bodies of four people, including a decapitated man, were found in different districts of Mosul on Saturday.

U.S. troops killed eight insurgents and detained 34 people during operations on Sunday against al Qaeda in Baghdad and in western Iraq, the U.S. military said. Six were killed in an airstrike near Garma, in Anbar province, while two were killed southwest of Baghdad. Two militiamen were killed and four others wounded in clashes between Shi'ite militiamen and Iraqi and U.S. security forces in the southern Iraqi city of Kut.

Casualties among private contractors in Iraq - Americans, Iraqis, and other foreigners - have soared to record levels this year, setting a pace that seems certain to turn 2007 into the bloodiest year yet for the civilians who work alongside the U.S. military in the war zone, according to new government numbers. At least 146 contract workers were killed in Iraq in the first three months of the year, by far the highest number for any quarter since the war began in March 2003, bringing the total number of contractors killed to 917, according to the U.S. Labor Department.

Two roadside bombs exploded near a British patrol in two different districts in northern Basra, wounding a number of British forces, the British military said. South Korea announced one of its soldiers was found dead inside a barber's shop at a South Korean military camp in Iraq.

British prime minister-designate Gordon Brown is planning an about turn in the country s Iraq policy by bringing the troops home as soon as possible, British press reports said Sunday. posted 20 May 2007

Protest in Baghdad; Blair visits; 8 GIs dead

Hundreds of demonstrators took to the streets of Baghdad on Saturday to denouce the frequent raids of the U.S. forces in Baghdad's Shi'ite neighbourhoods, protesters said. Arabic inscription on the banner reads: "We demand the religious leaders to stop insults to Prophet Mohammed by the U.S. forces".

U.S. soldiers raided a neighborhood overnight, detaining several men and damaging homes.

Baghdad was rocked with explosions are mortars hit the Green Zone while Tony Blair was making a surprise visit. Three mortar rounds or rockets exploded, and one person was wounded. Blair's official spokesman called it "business as usual."

Former US president Jimmy Carter on Saturday attacked outgoing British Prime Minister Tony Blair for his "blind" support of the Iraq war, describing it as a "major tragedy for the world".

Senior Iraqi politician Ahmad Chalabi was greeted with mortar fire when he arrived to observe security conditions in Buhriz. His guards exchanged gunfire with the assailants for about 15 minutes before repelling them.

Today the U.S. military announced that eight more GIs died, in addition to the five announced yesterday, bringing the total US casualties in two days to 27. May casualty figures are already running ahead of those of April.

One soldier was killed and three were wounded during a roadside bombing south of Baghdad. Yesterday, a dismounted soldier was killed during a small arms attack south of the capital and another soldier was killed in combat in Anbar province. North of the capital, two soldiers were killed and two more were wounded during a combined roadside bomb and small arms attack. Also, one soldier was killed in Baghdad on Thursday, when his forward operating base received indirect fire.

Also on Saturday: Gunmen wearing Iraqi security forces uniforms massacred 13 people, all members of Iraq's two main Kurdish parties, in Qara Lous, about 60 miles northeast of Baghdad. In Kirkuk, Gunmen killed a police officer when they sped past his home in a car and sprayed him with gunfire. A roadside bomb wounded four civilians in a residential neighbourhood of Kirkuk on Friday. Near the Iranian border, 16 members of one tribe were killed in Qara Lus, just outside Mandali.

A bomb, thought to be from a previous war, killed three children and wounded an old woman in Nasariya.

Fifteen dumped bodies were found in Basra; seven belonged to janitors working for British forces. Also, a police officer was killed an another wounded during an attack on a joint coordination center. In Fallujah, three bodies belonging to members of the Anbar Salvation Council were found.

A long-awaited negotiating session between congressional leaders and the White House over Iraq policy broke up in acrimony on Friday, with Democrats accusing President George W. Bush of refusing to be held accountable for the war. posted 19 May 2007

Ten helicopters hit at Camp Taji; 2 ABC journalists killed

Five U.S. soldiers were among the estimated 110 casualties in Iraq on Friday.

The U.S. military reported that three Task Force Lightning soldiers were killed today in Baghdad when a bomb exploded near their vehicle. On Wednesday, two MND-B soldiers were killed and nine wounded in separate events in the capital. Also, a suicide bomber detonated his cargo near a U.S. convoy in Fallujah; the vehicle was destroyed but no word on casualties.

During the early Thursday (or perhaps earlier in the week, but just now reported) morning, mortar rounds hit the Taji U.S. Air Force base north of Baghdad, destroying one helicopter and damaging nine others.

An Iraqi civilian who works at the base said he saw as many as 16 damaged helicopters, some of them set on fire by the mortar attack. Many U.S. Black Hawk helicopters are based at Taji, including some equipped with medical equipment and manned by medics to rescue wounded U.S. and Iraqi soldiers in the Baghdad area.

Two people were killed and another eight wounded when 10 mortars slammed into Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone, a US embassy official said on Thursday.

Friday, about 50 suspected insurgents opened fire on a U.S.-Iraqi base in downtown Baqouba, wounding two Iraqi soldiers. U.S. forces and helicopters responded, killing at least six insurgents. A suicide bomber blew up his vehicle at an Iraqi police checkpoint in the town of Mussayab, south of Baghdad, killing three people and wounding four. A Kurdish peshmerga soldier was killed in the volatile city of Kirkuk on Friday. Gunmen opened fire on a police vehicle, killing a policeman and injuring his brother along with an adult and a seven-year-old boy nearby.

In Baghdad, apoliceman was killed during an armed attack near the airport. At a soccer field in al-Tobchi, a bomb killed two and injured five, mostly on the field.

Unknown assailants killed two ABC News broadcast journalists in
Iraq on Thursday, the U.S. news organization said on Friday. The men were identified as cameraman Alaa Uldeen Aziz and soundman Saif Laith Yousuf and were returning home from work at the ABC News Baghdad bureau when their car was attacked. The noose on reporters continues to tighten as the White House seeks to control ALL reports coming out of Iraq to the west.

The U.S. military has offered rewards of up to $200,000 for information leading to the return of three missing American soldiers. Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, commander of U.S. troops south of Baghdad, said the offer was made on 50,000 leaflets distributed in the area where the troops disappeared after a pre-dawn ambush Saturday in which four American troops and an Iraqi soldier were killed.

President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Thursday defended their decision to go to war in Iraq.

Democratic congressional leaders on Friday offered the first concessions in a fight with President Bush over a spending bill for Iraq, but the White House turned them down. However, most of these discussions are a shell-game for domestic political consumption. On Thursday, the House passed a $646 billion defense bill, by 397 to 27, that continues monies to fight the war in Iraq through FY08, once again showing that Congress - both parties - is an accomplice in the ongoing occupation and war in Iraq. posted 18 May 2007

Instability; US and Iran to meet

Concern about instability in Iraq grows. Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said Iran and the United States are to meet at ambassador level in Iraq on May 28 to discuss its security situation.

A new report from the London-based Chatham House, also known as the Royal Institute of International Affairs, argues that the Iraqi government is now largely powerless and irrelevant in large parts of the country. The report urges the governments in London and Washington to change track.

There were more than 100 casualties on Thursday including 69 Iraqi and 3 U.S. soldiers killed and at least 30 Iraqis injured. The three GIs were killed by a roadside bomb south of Baghdad, the military said.

In eastern Baghdad, a mortar attack killed one person and injured four others at a soda factory on Thursday. Also in Baghdad, for the second time in a week, suspected insurgents set off a bomb near a bridge on Thursday, killing two Iraiqis and wounding five.

Elsewhere, at least three civilians were killed, including a woman, and four others wounded in clashes between militiamen and security forces in the city of Diwaniya. Gunmen killed a civil servant in a drive-by shooting in Diwaniya, police said. It was not clear why he was targeted.. A roadside bomb killed one civilian and wounded three others in Iskandariya. A policeman was killed and three of his family were wounded when a militant hurled a hand grenade at his home in Hilla. Gunmen killed a police major along with his son in the southern Iraqi port city of Basra. Police found two bodies in the small town of Latifiya and one body in Kirkuk.

Police fired several shots into the air on Wednesday to keep press photographers and camera operators from filming the scene of a bombing under a new policy limiting coverage of the devastating explosions. The Iraqi army killed six insurgents in different parts of Iraq over the last 24 hours, the Iraqi army said in a statement.

The U.S. Senate on Thursday will move to jumpstart negotiations on Iraq War spending as lawmakers in both parties stress the need to clear a bill that President Bush can sign by Memorial Day. Democrats appear to be capitulating and willing to continue the war by funding it. posted 17 May 2007

Green Zone hit; No more foreign troops

A parked car bomb exploded near a market in a Shiite enclave northeast of the capital, killing at least 32 people and wounding 50 on Wednesday. The bodies of 30 people, all of them shot, were found in various parts of Baghdad in the past 24 hours, police said.

Newly declassified data show that as additional forces began streaming into Iraq in March and April, the number of attacks on civilians and security forces there stayed relatively steady.

Two people were killed in mortar attacks on Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone today, the second serious attack in two days. A US embassy spokesman said two Iraqis were killed and 10 other people wounded when up to 10 mortar rounds landed inside the sprawling complex of Saddam-era monuments and palaces.

In Mosul, a s many as 200 insurgents attacked an Iraqi police station and a prison and set off a series of bombs in that northern city today. Two suicide truck bombers also destroyed a Tigris river bridge north of the city of Mosul

A car bomb attack came late on Tuesday in the village of Abu Saydah in the Diyala province. The wounded were taken to hospitals in nearby Muqdadiyah and the main Shiite district of Sadr City in Baghdad.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari rejected on Wednesday a Pakistani proposal for a Muslim peacekeeping force to be sent to Iraq. President Pervez Musharraf floated the proposal on Tuesday, at the start of a meeting of foreign ministers of Islamic nations being hosted by Pakistan. Zebari said his government wanted Iraqi troops to look after the country's security, when the time came for the United States and its allies to draw down their forces in Iraq. "So, my government's position is not for welcoming any more troops," Zebari said.

In Basrah, tires were set on fire by protestors complaining against power shortages outside a power station offices in Basra.

Thousands of U.S. forces continued to search for three American soldiers feared captured by al-Qaida last week after an attack on their convoy south of Baghdad also killed four U.S. troops and an Iraqi soldier. The American military command said Tuesday that it had detained 11 people, including 4 that the military has classified as “high value,” and conducted more than 450 interrogations in connection with the search.

Elsewhere, clashes broke out in the mostly Shiite city of Nasiriyah in southern Iraq on Wednesday, when a militia fought with police there after they arrested two wanted militia members, police said. Nine Iraqis were killed and 75 wounded. A roadside bomb exploded near a mini bus, killing a person and wounding another on Tuesday in the town of Mahmudiya. Four people were killed and four others were wounded by a mortar round attack in Ur district in northern Baghdad on Tuesday.

President Bush on Tuesday chose Lt. Gen. Douglas Lute, the Pentagon's director of operations and a former leader of U.S. forces in the Middle East, to oversee the fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan as a war czar.

The Senate rejected a proposal to withdraw troops from Iraq next year in a symbolic vote on Wednesday. The Senate voted 67-29 against the amendment offered by Wisconsin Democrat Russell Feingold that would have required President George W. Bush to begin a troop withdrawal within 120 days and cut off funding for operations after March 31, 2008. posted 16 May 2007

Abu Nawas St. to be reopened; Arrests, deaths continue

Mortar rounds slammed into the U.S.-controlled Green Zone on Tuesday with at least two rounds exploding in the Green Zone and two others across the Tigris River on Abu Nawas Street, with no casualties and little damage.

The Iraqi government has recently announced plans to reopen Abu Nawas, once known for its fish markets, parks and riverside restaurants. It has been cut off by concrete barriers since just after the fall of Baghdad in 2003. Reopening of this, and other major streets, has been demanded by the Iraqis and the government for quite some time.

In Baghdad, Five people were killed and 16 others wounded when two roadside bomb exploded in quick succession in downtown on Tuesday. Both bombs were near the Taiyran Square in the Bab al-Sharji district.

Elsewhere, a policeman and a civilian were killed and a woman was wounded when gunmen attacked a police checkpoint near Tikrit. Four Iraqi soldiers were wounded in an attack by a suicide car bomber on their checkpoint near Mosul.

One person was killed and two wounded when a roadside bomb exploded near a police patrol in Hawija. Gunmen kidnapped three Iraqis on Monday night at a fake checkpoint near the town of Ishaqi. An Iraqi soldier was killed and four others, including two civilians, were wounded when gunmen attacked an Iraqi army checkpoint on Monday night in Iskandariya.

Iraqi soldiers killed 16 insurgents and arrested 109 others during the past 24 hours in different parts of Iraq, the Defense Ministry said. U.S. forces detained 10 suspected insurgents during raids targeting the Ansar al-Sunna group and al-Qaeda in Iraq networks in Mosul, Falluja and Taji, the U.S. military said.

U.S. Marine was killed in combat on Monday in western Anbar province, the U.S. military said on Tuesday. posted 15 May 2007

Bombs in Baghdad; Youssifiyah lockdown; 16 US Casualties

Bombs continued to hit Baghdad on Monday as violence continues to surge in Iraq. A car bomb killed one person and wounded three others in Palestine Street in northeastern Baghdad. Another car bomb in a parking lot killed one person and wounded four others in the central Karrada district.

A bomb detonted near a police patrol in the southern al-Zafaraniyah district, killing two Iraqi civilians and wounding 14 others, including a number of police officers. The bullet-riddled bodies of 22 people were found in different districts of Baghdad on Sunday.

Deaths were also reported in Mosul: Gunmen killed two members of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party on Sunday and the bodies of six people, including a policeman, were found shot in different districts of the northern city on Sunday.

Two men were killed and two others wounded on the Tikrit-Kirkuk highway. Nine men working for an oil refinery in Baiji were kidnapped. In al-Qurna, two students were killed and two injured in crossfire as they were leaving school.

U.S. and Iraqi forces exchanged fire with suspected Sunni insurgents Monday, killing two people and wounding four during an intensive search for three missing U.S. soldiers in a restive area south of Baghdad

On Sunday, U.S. troops surrounded Youssifiyah and told residents over loudspeakers to stay inside, residents said. They then methodically searched the houses, focusing on possible secret chambers under the floors where the soldiers might be hidden, residents said. Soldiers also searched cars entering and leaving the town, writing "searched" on the side of each vehicle they had inspected. Several people were arrested, witnesses said.

On Monday morning, U.S. and Iraqi forces exchanged fire with gunmen near Youssifiyah during the house-to-house search operation for the missing American soldiers, killing two suspected insurgents and injuring four others, a top Iraqi army officer in the area said. The officer said the coalition's search operation in the region had detained more than 100 suspects. Witnesses said that U.S. forces killed a child in Dujail as well as some livestock.

Five GIs were reported killed today by the military, bringing the deaths of U.S. servicemen and women to 3,400. Eleven other Americans were wounded in attacks.

The U.S military reported than an airman was killed and three others wounded during a roadside bomb attack in southern Baghdad. In northern Baghdad, a soldier was killed and four others wounded during a separate roadside bombing. In southeastern Baghdad, two soldiers were killed and four wounded during a small arms attack. Also, a servicememer died of non-combat related causes.

A Danish soldier was killed and five others were injured by a roadside bomb in Basra on Monday. posted 14 May 2007

US continues war crimes; 200+ Sunday casualties

More than 200 people were casualties of war on Sunday, including 2 U.S. soldiers

Three members of a Sadr City family, who were sleeping on their rooftop, were killed overnight when a U.S. military helicopter opened fire on them. The mother, and her two children, were killed and two other children were seriously wounded.

In Samarra, citizens are besieged by troops and have prolonged periods without running water and electricity, yet are unable to leave their homes due to curfews.

Such attacks on civilians by occupying forces, cutoffs of essential services and other forms of collective punishment are considered war crimes. The Iraq Parliament took up the issue Saturday in a raucous session that included debate on the continuing U.S. military presence in Iraq, security raids and human rights abuses.

Two vehicle bombs in Iraq -- one in a small market, the other outside a mayoral office -- killed at least 55 people Sunday. The deadliest of Sunday's bombings killed 43 people and wounded 115 more when a suicide truck bomb erupted in northern Iraq.

The brunt of the blast destroyed the Kurdistan Democratic Party building that houses the mayor's office in the town of Makhmoor, about 50 miles southeast of Mosul.

Another Sunday blast at a market in central Baghdad killed 12 people and wounded 41 more.

In an effort to downplay the fact that the "surge" isn't working, the Iraq government is now barring press from blast scenes and news leaving Iraq, particularly in English, is being further restricted.

About 4,000 troops fanned out across the region Sunday to search for the missing members of the U.S.-led military patrol who were kidnapped yesterday. An Iraqi insurgent group claimed responsibility for the kidnappings. The U.S. military reported on Sunday that one soldier was killed and another wounded during a roadside bombing near Haditha. Another soldier was killed and one wounded during a bombing the Salah ad Din province.

Elsewhere, gunmen attacked a flour mill, killing five workers and wounding four in the town of Mahmudiy. A roadside bomb targeting a police patrol wounded four policemen at midnight in the Shi'ite holy city of Najaf. The bullet-riddled bodies of 17 people were found in different districts of Baghdad on Saturday.

Iraq's parliament objected Saturday to the construction of walls around Baghdad neighborhoods and called on Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to testify about other security issues. Construction of the walls — particularly in the Baghdad neighborhood of Azamiyah — has been criticized by residents and clerics who say it is a form of sectarian discrimination.

Officials have defended the construction of the barriers, which began last month, as a measure to protect the neighborhood during the security crackdown in Baghdad. When the wall is finished, Azamiyah will be gated and checkpoints manned by soldiers will be the only entries, the U.S. military said.

An Iraqi al Qaeda-led group, the Islamic State in Iraq, on Sunday posted a video of the killing of three detained Iraqi officers, saying the government had ignored demands set for their release. posted 13 May 2007

5 dead, 3 soldiers missing;

Seven U.S. soldiers and an Iraqi army interpreter came under attack Saturday morning during a patrol in a Sunni insurgent stronghold south of Baghdad, leaving five dead - including the interpreter - and three missing, the military said. Troops were searching for the three missing soldiers, using drone planes, jets and checkpoints throughout the area, according to the statement.

An Iraqi army officer also said joint U.S.-Iraqi forces were conducting house-to-house searches in the area and all roads had been closed to Mahmoudiya. Five U.S. soldiers have been charged in the rape of a 14-year-old Mahmoudiya girl and the killing of her and her entire family, and three have pleaded guilty in the March 12, 2006, attack, which was initially blamed on insurgents.

Recovery efforts continue from the bombings on Friday, including a three bridges that were bombed.

On Saturday, unidentified gunmen killed five people, including four women, and wounded three in separate attacks in Salahudin province north of Baghdad. A roadside bomb hit a convoy in Baghdad, killing several.

A bomb also exploded near a Shiite mosque in northeastern Baghdad late Friday, killing at least one worshipper and wounding six.

Smoke billowed from the vicinity of the U.S.-controlled Green Zone after at least two explosions were heard Saturday in Baghdad.

The Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) also changed its name to the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council (SIIC), dropping the word Revolution. posted 12 May 2007

Oil strike looming; 15 US casualties

Thousands of Iraqi oil workers in southern Iraq threatened to strike next Monday if their demands aren't met by the government, an official from Basra oil trade unions said Friday. "If these workers went into strike, that would mean that Iraq's crude oil production and exports from southern oil terminals would stop completely," said an Iraqi official.

Iraq's southern oil fields and terminals handle around 1.6 million barrels a day of crude oil exports, the bulk of the country's oil exports. The workers want the government to increase their salaries, improve their living standards, and provide them with decent accommodation. Such demands were turned down by the government in the past, the official said. "They have given the government a timeframe until May 14 to meet these demands, and if they aren't met they are planning all-out strike," he added.

Two suicide car bombers struck police checkpoints near bridges in a predominantly at an Iraqi checkpoint near the Diyala bridge, killing at least 12 people and wounding 22 more on Friday. The blasts, which struck in quick succession, sent smoke billowing into the sky and shattered the calm of the traditional Islamic day of rest, three hours after the end of a weekly afternoon driving ban.

Four more US soldiers have been killed in Iraq, the military announced Friday. One soldier was shot dead "while conducting combat security operations" in south Baghdad. Another, from the military police, died of his wounds after being hit by gunfire in Diwaniyah. An explosion in the Diyala province, northeast of Baghdad, killed one US soldier and wounded nine others on Thursday, the military announced Friday. In another attack on Thursday one "soldier was killed and two others were wounded when an improvised explosive device detonated on their patrol in eastern Baghdad.

U.S.-led forces targeting car bombing networks across Iraq killed four suspected insurgents and detained nine others in a series of raids that ended Friday, the military said.

President Bush, under growing political pressure, said Thursday the White House will seek agreement with Congress on benchmarks to measure progress in Iraq. After rejecting 9-month withdrawal plan, the House voted on Friday to pay for military operations through July, setting up another showdown with the president. Iraqi parliment members told Dick Cheney that a majority want the U.S. to withdraw by the end of 2007. posted 11 May 2007

Sadr City night airstrike hits civilians; Demonstrations throughout Iraq

U.S.-led forces conducted a night raid early Thursday in the crowded urban Baghdad neighborhood of Sadr City. During the raid, an airstrike was called in after troops received fire from Iraqis defending their homes. U.S. officials claim that three insurgents were killed and three civilians were captured. Iraqi police and medical officials said the airstrike damaged three houses and killed eight civilians and wounded nine others.

Local officials also said an American tank smashed a mourning tent that had been erected to hold bereaved guests of a recently deceased resident, injuring three people who were sleeping inside.

Bodies piled up around the country. Police said they found the bodies of 21 people shot dead in different districts of Baghdad on Wednesday. A hospital received the bodies of three people, two women and a man, from one family in the northern city of Mosul. The bodies of two police officers were also found in Mosul. The bodies of two people shot and tortured were found in the town of Mahaweel. Gunmen killed a policeman while he was heading to work in the town of Hawija.

Spontaneous mass demonstrations, led by both Sunni and Shi'ia erupted across Iraq on Wednesday - in Baghdad, Kerbala, Najaf, and Basra - as Iraqis learned that Vice President Dick Cheney was in town. Demonstrators demanded a complete U.S. withdrawal and burned U.S. flags and effigies of Cheney.

In other news on Thursday, staff workers at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad have been ordered to wear personal protective equipment. The order for workers to wear flak jackets and helmets while outdoors or in unprotected buildings follows an increase in mortar and rocket attacks against the heavily protected Green Zone. posted 10 May 2007

US airstrike kills 6 children; 3 GIs dead

A U.S. attack helicopter killed five bystanders including as many as six children at a primary school when it fired on insurgents north of Baghdad, the U.S. military said on Wednesday. The school is in the village of al-Nedawat close to the Iranian border (on the same day, a US-ordered airstrike in Afghanistan also killed at least 21 civilians, including women and children).

"It's traumatic and entirely unfortunate that this (the Iraq killings) happened," Lieutenant-Colonel Mike Donnelly said by telephone, adding an investigation had been opened into how the civilans could have been killed. Donnelly said insurgents had been seen placing roadside bombs and operating an illegal checkpoint near the town of Mandali in Diyala province, prompting the U.S. military to call for air support.

Three more US soldiers have been killed in separate attacks in Iraq, the military reported on Wednesday. A roadside bomb killed two soldiers southeast of Baghdad on Tuesday while another was shot dead in the restive Diyala province northeast of the Iraqi capital. Four other soldiers were wounded in the Diyala incident.

Also on Wednesday, a suicide truck bomber killed 14 people and wounded 87 when he blew up his payload near the Kurdish regional government's interior ministry in Arbil.

In Baghdad, gunmen attacked workers who were setting up concrete barriers in the Sunni Arab district of Adhamiya, killing one and wounding two others. A roadside bomb targeting police commandos wounded three policemen in Palestine Street in northeastern Baghdad.

Gunmen ambushed a minibus in the town of Iskandariya, south of Baghdad, killing nine people and wounding seven. Gunmen killed two men from the ancient Yazidi faith in the northern city of Mosul. A hospital received the bodies of five people shot and tortured in the city of Falluja.

A roadside bomb killed two people in the town of Shirqat. Near the city of Kirkuk, three Iraqi journalists and their driver who worked for a US-backed newspaper were dragged from their car, tortured and shot dead.

Vice President Dick Cheney dropped in on American military commanders in Baghdad this morning. Air Force Two landed at Baghdad International Airport at 8:56 a.m., local time, and Cheney flew by helicopter to the Green Zone, where he proceeded to the U.S. "bling bling" embassy and meetings with Iraqi officials to press for passage of an oil bill before the Washington-imposed deadline of the end of May. posted 09 May 2007

Final Solution almost in place; Child death rates "surging"

President Bush and Vice President Cheney's final desperate measures for Iraq are almost in place... on the eve of a Washington-imposed deadline for passage of new oil legislation in Iraq.

The final troop contingent in the Administration's controversial plan to improve security, a brigade that includes 152 attack and transport helicopters, will arrive soon in the Iraqi capital. With the arrival of the 3rd Infantry Division's Combat Aviation Brigade, based at Ft. Stewart, Ga., the addition of 28,500 troops begun in mid-February will be complete and commanded by de Herr David Petraeus who believes that the Iraq war "cannot be won militarily".

Meanwhile Iraq's parliament, the only body authorized to write oil law, is resisting efforts to pass a bill - by the end of May - that would essentially re-privatize oil lands of that country. Some theorize that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki will just declare the law by decree, quickly followed by similar by Bush... in direct violation of both the U.S. and Iraqi constitutions and international law.

This will set the stage for the U.S. military to impose a "final solution" on Iraqis and others who oppose such. American troops could be in Iraq "for years," said Major-General Rick Lynch yesterday. He commands US forces south of Baghdad. In addition to 155,000 troops, America has more than 100,000 contract support and paramilitary personnel and 25,000 clandestine operatives employed in Iraq, according to the departments of Defense and Homeland Security.

On Tuesday morning, a suicide car bomber tore through a busy market in the city Kufa, killing at least 16 people and wounding 70...part of more than 200 Iraqi casualties. It exploded in an area that also included a school and the mayor's office, police said. The 16 killed included women and children. In response, local authorities closed the entrances to Kufa and its sister holy city of Najaf — and imposed a vehicle ban around the revered shrines and mosques in the two towns.

Also today, a suicide bomber killed two policemen and wounded 23, including 10 civilians, when he targeted a police station in the town of Khanaqin, north of Baghdad. The bodies of seven people were found shot in and around Falluja and The bodies of three personal guards of Iraq's minister of Higher Education were found shot dead in Baghdad.

The security situation has aggravated in Mosul with gunmen roaming the streets and the authorities losing grip on most parts of the northern city. Communications between the city and the rest of the country has been disrupted by the rebels to hinder military operations by government troops.

Death rates for children in Iraq have surged since the war of 1991, subsequent santions and 2003 invasion. The chance that a child will live beyond age 5 has plummeted faster in Iraq than anywhere else in the world since 1990, says a report released today.

One in eight Iraqi children died of disease or violence before reaching their fifth birthday in 2005, according to the report by Save the Children, which said Iraq ranked last because it made the least progress toward improving survival rates. UNICEF says that the mortality rate for children under age five in Iraq has reached 130 deaths per 1,000 (versus 8 in the U.S.). posted 08 May 2007

Ramadi bombs kill 25; $29m UN appeal

At least 75 people were killed and over 52 injured in separate violent incidents on Monday. An additional six bodies were found overnight.

Two suicide car bombs killed 25 people and wounded dozens more near the town of al-Jazeera, near Ramadi. The first suicide bomber attacked a popular market in an area, killing 10-15 people and wounding 30. Another suicide bomber drove his explosive-laden car into the Salam police station in the same area, killing 10 more, including five policemen and wounding 10.

Five people were killed and two injured when a mortar round struck a house in the Saidiyah neighbourhood in southern Baghdad. Two people were killed and 10 wounded by a mortar attack on the town of Iskandariya. The Bodies of 30 people were found in Baghdad, while two men were found shot in different areas near Hilla. Near Hawija, the body of a policeman was found.

Following clashes near Salman Pak, U.S helicopters fired upon and killed up to 10 gunmen.

On Sunday, the Iraqi Army managed to foil a bomb plot to sabotage an western Mosul oil pipeline to Turkey, capturing four insurgents in the process. The Iraqi army's 3rd Division forces "found during the early hours of Monday 350 kg of TNT laid under the pipeline that carries oil to Turkey in the area of al-Kasak, northwestern Ninawa province," said the division's captain.

The International Committee of the Red Cross appeals for an extra US $29m to step up its humanitarian operation in Iraq - mainly to provide food to 600,000 destitute people who have been displaced by the violence, but also for basic water supplies and to improve medical supplies to hospitals.

There are reports that as many as 400 residents fled the Sadr City area of Baghdad over the weekend. Many of them have travelled to Najaf and Kerbala in the south," said Hussam al-Din, president of the Baghdad-based Iraqi Humanitarian Association for the Displaced (IHAD). "Local NGOs are desperate because we cannot reach the area for security reasons and fleeing families are leaving their homes without enough money to support themselves," al-Din said.

"We and some of our neighbours are fleeing to other districts of Baghdad and today others have left for Karbala in the south as they are scared of the raids. Militants have said they will fight the US troops and for sure when that happens the situation will get much worse, but we hope that we are going to be very far away when that happens in the coming days," said Sayf Mu'tazz, 38, a Sadr City resident who fled the district with his family.

A "Rebuild Iraq 2007" exhibition opened today in Amman, Jordan. The 4th annual tradeshow mostly featured military and police equipment and armor.

One American soldier was killed by small arms fire while on patrol in western Baghdad, the U.S. military said on Monday. posted 07 May 2007

Airstrikes and bombs in Baghdad, violence elsewhere; 18 US military casualties

The Sadr City section of Baghdad is the poorest section of the capitol city. Once again it has been hit by U.S. forces - the "cure" of violence as bad as the "disease".

The military reported today that twelve U.S. soldiers and marines were killed Friday through Sunday and at least six more were injured, bringing the weekend total to 18 US casualties. Other multinational units also suffered losses.

An airstrike was called on the heavily populated district in the middle of the night while residents slept. Sunday's raid began at 1:30 a.m. and ended at 6 a.m. U.S. forces were fired on with automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades, prompting commanders to call in air strikes, said Major-General William Caldwell, a U.S. military spokesman. The U.S. military said it killed up to 10 militants and destroyed a torture room during the raid. Half a city block of homes and cars were also destroyed and and at least one resident was killed and eight others injured.

On Sunday, the Iraq Red Crescent distributed food rations throughout the Sadr City area to help alleviate growing hunger brought on by the ongoing occupation and fighting while U.S. and Iraqi forces continued to conduct raids on resident's homes.

Voilence continued across Baghdad. During mid-morning a car bombing in a crowded Bayaa district market took the lives of 35 people and wounded 80 more. The blast, which erupted about noon in the mixed Sunni-Shiite Baiyaa neighborhood, devastated the market, reducing cars and trucks to their charred skeletons and ripping the roofs and exteriors off of shops. Bystanders used blankets to carry the dead and wounded to pick-up trucks.

Also in Baghdad, a car bomb killed two people and wounded 10 others in the Mansour district in the western part of the city. Late Saturday, a roadside bomb killed one person and wounded nine others in the Karrada district of central. Three people were killed and four wounded when a mortar round landed in the Shi'ite district of Abu Dshir. The bodies of 11 people were found shot overnight in different districts of Baghdad, police said.

North of the capital, two suicide car bombers hit a police center in Samarra on Sunday in a coordinated attack in which gunmen also fired mortar bombs, killing eight people including Samarra's police commander. A gunbattle between unidentified gunmen and Iraqi forces in a market in the town of Baqouba 35 miles northeast of Baghdad killed two Iraqis. Police said they found the bodies of three policemen, shot and tortured, in the town of Garma, near Falluja.

Major General Adnan Thabit escaped a roadside bomb attack near his motorcade in Kirkuk. A roadside bomb exploded near the house of a former member of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party, wounding three of his sons in the city of Kut. Also in Kut, gunmen attacked a policeman and an Iraqi translator working in a U.S. military base, seriously wounding the pair. Police also found the bullet-riddled bodies of three men, who were blindfolded, handcuffed and dumped in the Tigris River in the town of Suwayrah.

Six U.S. soldiers and a civilian journalist were killed Sunday in a roadside bombing northeast of Baghdad. A Task Force Lightning soldier also died Sunday in a non-combat related incident, the military said. Two other Task Force Lightning soldiers were wounded in the attack in Diyala province, according to the U.S. military.

One U.S. soldier was killed and four others were wounded by a roadside bomb in western Baghdad on Friday and two U.S. Marines were killed on Saturday while conducting combat operations in Anbar province in western Iraq, the U.S. military also said on Sunday

A roadside bomb also killed two Multi-National Division soldiers and wounded three in separate incidents on Sunday, the military said separately. posted 06 May 2007

U.S. bizzaroland; Arming Iraq; 28,000 imprisoned Iraqis

Once again, U.S. media - who claimed to have learned their lessons about not falling for White House propoganda, are burying stories of the worsening situation in Iraq. Barely mentioned is the rise in U.S. casualties and the ongoing violence in Baghdad and elsewhere. To read the local news, one would think that things actually are "improving" when the reverse is true. Supporters of both political parties want to minimize the stakes in Iraq as they focus on domestice (U.S.) political campaigns.

America is apparently "bizzaroland" where up means down. "As we have surged, we find the enemy surging as well," said Major General Rick Lynch, who commands an area in central Iraq that wraps around southern Baghdad. Thirteen US soldiers under Lynch's command were killed and 39 wounded last month, mainly as a result of roadside bombs, according to the general, who said the number of attacks in his area has increased.

The Bush administration notified Congress on Friday of plans to sell
Iraq about 400 million rounds of small arms ammunition, grenades, demolition explosives and other military gear and services valued at up to $508 million. As part of the proposed package, the United States would sell 170,000 40mm HEDP grenades, 80,000 C-4 1-1/4 pound plastic explosive packets and 4.2 million feet of detonating cord.

"This proposed sale directly supports the Iraqi government and serves the interests of the Iraqi people and the U.S., as well as offering hope for a more stable and peaceful Middle East," said a Pentagon official without a trace of irony. The last time such as large arms deal was made with Iraq was during the Iraq-Iran war that lasted for eight years and cost the lives of an estimated 1-2 million people.

On Saturday, violence continued unabated. In Baghdad, a U.S. humvee was destroyed (no news on casualties) during a raid in Sadr City that netted several suspected insurgents. A suicide bomber blew up a vehicle against a police station in the western Yarmuk area, killing one officer and wounding 10. One mortar round killed a woman and wounded two men in the largely Shi'ite southwestern neighbourhood of Bayaa. The bodies of 15 people were found dumped across Baghdad on Friday, police said.

Residents and police in a Shiite area in eastern Baghdad said U.S. helicopters early Saturday fired on three houses, killing six men and wounding a woman and five children. The U.S. military said a helicopter supporting ground operations in the area was attacked with small-arms fire but "did not return fire." However, AP Television confirmed the strike showing a shattered wall of one house and a satellite dish punctured by large holes apparently caused by the artillery.

A suicide bomber killed 15 police recruits and wounded 22 others outside near the Abu Ghraib prison, west of Baghdad on Saturday.

In western Baghdad, the city's international airport was closed until further notice. The Voices of Iraq news agency said this was because of damage caused by "indirect shooting." US military forces also said Saturday that Baghdad-based soldiers thwarted an attack a day earlier in the Rashid district, southern Baghdad, 'when they discovered and disposed of a large truck bomb.

Elswhere: in the northern oil city of Kirkuk, a roadside bomb targeting a passing police patrol killed a bystander. The bodies of seven murdered plainclothes policemen in the oil refinery town of Baiji. Unidentified gunmen kidnapped and killed a doctor as he left Mosul's main hospital on Friday.

A curfew imposed in the city of Samarra, north of the capital, after the killing of a policeman yesterday remained in force. But, authorities lifted a similar curfew imposed in the Shi'ite holy city of Najaf after two policemen were wounded in clashes between rival Shi'ite factions yesterday. Yesterday saw intense fighting between Moqtada al-Sadr's Mehdi militia and the rival Badr organization.

U.S. officers here are increasingly troubled by the high number of innocent Iraqis being detained and held in "liberated" Iraq — in some cases for many months — by the Iraqi army. Several officers who serve as advisers to the Iraqis said at least half the people detained by the Iraqi army in Baghdad are innocent. U.S. and Iraqi army officers said the problems worsened March 1, when, as part of the new Baghdad security plan, the U.S. military transferred authority for running operations in Baghdad to the Iraqi military and the Iraqis assumed responsibility for detainees.

The U.S. military works closely with Iraqis in these prisons and keeps a database of all prisoners. “We believe right now it’s about 26,000 to 28,000 detainees in jails,” said Falah Karim Yosif, a member of the predominantly Sunni National Dialog Party and the senior adviser to the chairman of the Iraqi parliament, Mahmoud al-Mash’hadany. Two prisons (Camp Bucca in the south and Camp Cropper near Baghdad) alone reportedly hold 18,000 captives.

A senior U.S. commander was wounded Thursday by small arms fire while inspecting a security wall being built around the Adhamiyah (Azamiyah) district of Baghdad. Col. B.D. Farris, commander of the 2nd "Falcon" Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, was hit by a single bullet Thursday while conducting a survey of the construction site in Azamiyah, the military said in a statement.

Farris was evacuated and is in stable condition, the military said. Col. John G. Castles II will come to Baghdad from the U.S. Army Infantry School at Fort Benning, Georgia, to take on temporary command of the Falcon Brigade, according to the statement. posted 05 May 2007

Parliament: "Go Home!"; 17 US casualties

As calls in the U.S. Congress grow for a scheduled troop withdrawal from Iraq, similar demands are escalating in Iraq's National Assembly. Some 133 of the 275 Iraqi lawmakers from different political blocs, calling themselves the "free deputies," signed a document demanding a scheduled withdrawal of the U.S.-led multinational troops from their country.

Signers of the document, including Kurds, Sunni, and Shi'ia deputies, say that the memo will be handed over the U.S. Security Council. "We call on the Iraqi government to refer to Parliament (as Consitutionally required to do so) when discussing a review of the foreign presence in Iraq and not to deal unilaterally with the issue, as has been the case in the past," said a lawmaker said.

Meanwhile, violence continued unabated in Baghdad and elsewhere.

U.S. forces launched raids in the Sadr City area of Baghdad again on Friday, in what is becomming a regular occurance. Protests erupted during Friday prayers.

Five Iraqi policemen were killed on Friday when a bomb detonated as they patrolled the Hay al-Amel neighborhood. Two more policemen were wounded as the blast tore through their vehicle in the southwest Amil neighborhood.

Militants blew up Radio Dijla, an independent radio station in Baghdad, destroying the offices but causing no casualties, Karim Yousef, the acting director-general said, a day after heavily armed men killed one person there and wounded two. It appears that there are still forces attempting to shut off, or control, the media in Iraq. Forty-six journalists were killed last year in Iraq.

Gunmen kidnapped two guards and set a Shi'ite mosque on fire in the mostly Sunni district of Adhamiya in western Baghdad.

Twenty-five bodies were found in different parts of Baghdad on Thursday. U.S. troops killed three suspected insurgents and detained six during raids in central Iraq on Thursday and Friday, the U.S. military said.

Mortar bombs killed one person and wounding three others from the same family in the town of Mahmudiya. In northern Iraq, a car bomb exploded near the city of Mosul outside the home of Lieutenant Colonel Raad Harush, commander of a local army battalion, injuring him and 13 others, including five family members. Nine bodies were found in Falluja. Police pulled eight bodies bearing signs of torture from the Tigris River in the town of Suwayra.

In the city of Kirkuk, police raised the death toll from a pair of car bombs targeting the homes of a police officer and a local politician late Thursday to six dead and 41 wounded. Four of the dead were children, including an infant of five months, as were most of the wounded.

April was the deadliest month of the year for U.S. service members in Iraq, but it was an even grimmer month for Iraqi security forces who sustained more than 300 dead.

Five U.S. soldiers were killed and eleven others wounded in separate incidents in Iraq on Thursday and Friday. An Army translator was also kileld. A sixth soldier died May 1st of wounds received on April 23 during combat in Anbar province, the U.S. military said on Friday. posted 04 May 2007

Military claims kidnapper killed; Green Zone attack

U.S. forces claimed on Thursday have killed a senior figure from al-Qaeda in Iraq who was accused of the kidnapping last year of U.S. journalist Jill Carroll and members of the Christian Peacemaker Teams (including the death of Tom Fox), despite also claiming to have the kidnappers in custody awaiting trial.

U.S. military spokesman Major-General William Caldwell said Muharib Abdul Latif al-Jubouri, the “senior minister of information&