Iraqi PM Appeals For Reconciliation
But Bloodshed Surges, Raising Bagdad's Death Toll To 180 In 4 Days
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Play CBS Video Video U.S. Warning On Iraq Stability Amid raging sectarian violence in Iraq, a senior State Department official said time is running out for the Iraqi government. David Martin has more.
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Video Explosive Violence In Baghdad Police said more than 100 were killed by execution, car bombs and mortar fire, and a U.S. official warned the Iraqi government is in danger of collapse. Lara Logan reports.
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Video Gruesome Day In Iraq After a gruesome day in Iraq, a House subcommittee is meeting with Iraqi leaders in an effort to help unite the war-torn country. Aleen Sirgany reports.
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Iraqi children perform a 'peace ballet' at the opening ceremony of the National Dialogue and Reconciliation Meeting, in Baghdad, Iraq, Saturday Sept. 16, 2006. (AP Photo/Ali Abbas, Pool)
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Iraqis walk past a pool of blood at the site where four people were killed and 17 wounded when a car bomb went off in east Baghdad near the passport office, Sept. 14, 2006. (AFP/Getty Images)
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Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein testifies during his trial, Sept. 14, 2006. (AP Photo/Erik de Castro)
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A man cleans the wreckage of a car bomb in front of his house in Baghdad, Sept. 14, 2006. (AP Photo/Samir Mizban)
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A man injured in a car bombing is treated, Sept. 14, 2006. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)
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Interactive Saddam's Judgment Background on the former Iraqi leader's alleged crimes, his life and capture, plus video and photos.
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Interactive Religion In Iraq An interactive guide to Iraq's religious, ethnic and ideological mix.
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Who's Who Iraq Insurgency More on the militant groups behind the insurgency in Iraq and their motivations.
Violence has escalated sharply in Baghdad over the past week, except for Friday, when only three killings were recorded — two Iraqis shot to death and a U.S. soldier killed by a bomb.
Saturday's toll raised the city's violent deaths to more than 180 just since Wednesday — either slain by bombs and gunfire or tortured and shot before being dumped, a hallmark of reprisal killings being waged between Shiite and Sunni Muslims.
Appealing again to Iraq's divided sects, Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki urged Iraqis to put aside their sectarian, ethnic and political differences and embrace his reconciliation plan.
“National reconciliation is a correct way of thinking and carries a high feeling of responsibility,” al-Maliki said. “To succeed in this today, we have to embrace the culture of dialogue and reconciliation.”
In other developments:
Al-Maliki's plan is intended to bridge the communal animosities fueling Iraq's violence. Among its 24 points, it offers amnesty to members of the Sunni Arab-led insurgency not involved in terrorist activities and calls for disarming primarily Shiite sectarian militias.
But no major Sunni insurgent group has publicly agreed to join the plan, and no steps have been taken to rein in Shiite militias. Since the plan was unveiled in late June, car bombings, mortar attacks and shootings have killed hundreds of Iraqis.
©MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Michelle Obama tells how her role as the First Lady has changed her perspective.
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See all 175 CommentsChrist called the Pharisees "sons of the devil", so you need to drop this John-Lennonesque view of him as a hug-the-world hippie like you seem to be. He wasn't like that. He also said "many will hate you because of me". He was no wilting flower.
This just in folks- there's terrorists in Iraq. Contrary to your unsubstantiated beliefs that we are somehow profiteering from Iraqi oil, or that "oil companies should fund the war".
Many of you have the resolve of the Vichy French circa 1942.
I think you said it all, let the oil companies finance the Iraqi War!!!!!...that makes more sense than anything i've heard...you should run for prez with that as your platform!!! YOU'd WIN, supreme court or no supreme court!
Impressive powers of prophecy, given that Islam was only invented 600 years after Jesus' death, and that Mohammed was born about 500 years after the New Testament was written.
In fact the berm is a last-minute act of desperation, an attempt to stop the unravelling of Operation Forward Together. So last-minute, in fact, that spokesmen don't even know if the barrier is to be a berm or a trench.
Berms have already been built around five major Iraqi towns: Mosul, Samarra, Falluja, Tal Afar, and Rutbah in western Anbar.
The results are not promising. In Mosul and Tal Afar, within weeks of the berm's completion, local US forces were back to their old, failed technique of large, heavily-armed insurgent sweeps.
In Samarra the berm destroyed priceless archaeological sites but failed to prevent the Golden Dome bombing which set off a major escalation in sectarian violence.
The barrier offers no sort of answer to this problem. The best it can do is to slow Sunni attacks while giving the Shiites free rein. Indeed that may even be its real purpose, because the idea seems to have originated with the notorious Sunni-killers of the Interior Ministry.
Even a complete ban on vehicular traffic yesterday for Friday prayers failed to prevent dozens of bodies, presumably almost all of them Sunnis, from turning up all over the city.
Such a ban, longer-term, would certainly have some effect on death squad activity, but at the cost of damaging the economy and increasing frustration against the government. It doesn't seem feasible.
The current effort to get police cars under central control and track their use is definitely a necessary measure that will help some.
But there is still no plan in place that is going to stop the sectarian violence. The damage was done when Shiite militias were allowed to pack the security forces with their gunmen.
In 2006 An Iraqi judge says Hussien was not a dictator but he was.
In 2000 An American judge said Bush was President but was not!
Oh, that's right, it's not a civil war is it, because Cheney is telling Bush it isn't so - therefore, it isn't a civil war.
Meanwhile, taxpayers contnue footing an ever increasing bill for a war that should never have been started, and Cheney continues making a profit of the backs of taxpayers and soldiers.
Bush on the other hand still lives in a dreamland, while a war he started to impress his daddy still rages on, claiming more innocent lives.
Hmmmm. I wonder who is responsible for the deaths of more innocent lives - GW Bush or Bin Laden?
No. killed in 9/11 - 2,819
No. of Amerian soldiers killed in Iraq - 2,680
No. of Iraqi civilians killed (estimate[1]) - 45,000
So far, Bush is the winner.
[1] Some say this figure is much higher
Is it good to give power to talibans in Afghanistan because majority of them are pushtoons who are the desends of a Persian jew named Bakhte Nasr.USA is suffering because of those guys whose knoledge about the world is limited to BEER,BASE BALL and BREASTS.The Islamic Extremists we are fighting don't care about who is from what family or what race.They only care about who accepts their Radical Ideology and who doesn't.If you don't agree with me,let the White American Al Qaeeda terrorist Adam Gadahn be the president of USA then see how good he'll be with the people of his race and country.
it is going to take a lot more deaths and destruction before anything gets done. I think that after Nov, the money Bush keeps asking for to fund the disaster of Iraq, is going to dry up. If the Dems in up in control, they will stop funding it. If not, the continued death rate and public opinion will eventually force even this idiot to see the light. Although he has claimed that US soldiers will stay there as long as he is president....
I say it again and again. Please bring our troops home. They do not belong in that hell. The mission of putting a democracy in place has failed for now. (If that was the original mission, which I doubt) Keeping our troops there is accomplishing nothing, absolutely nothing. They cannot do their job of training in the current state of chaos reining now. The most they can do is keep the green zone safe. Not worth getting killed over.
Bring them home and try again. This time WITH the UN, then the chance for success will be higher.
Al Maliki is a jew, he decends from a jewish tribe in Iraq, Hamid Karzai is a former executive at Halliburton. Stunning appointments, truly.
'Withdrawing before there is a stable and legitimate Iraqi authority would turn Iraq into a failed state, in the heart of the Middle East. We have seen a failed state emerge after U.S. disengagement once before, and it cost us terribly. In pre-9/11 Afghanistan, terrorists found sanctuary to train and plan attacks with impunity. We know that there are today in Iraq terrorists who are planning attacks against Americans. We cannot make this fatal mistake twice.'
http://mccain.senate.gov/index.cfm?fuseaction=Newscenter.ViewSpeech&Content_id=1622
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