106 Shiite Pilgrims Killed In Iraq Attacks

U.S. Military Also Says 9 GIs Were Killed By Roadside Bombs

(CBS/AP) 
Hours after the attack, boys used long-handled squeegees to push pools of blood off the road. The shoes and sandals of the victims were gathered in haphazard piles.

"The government bears some responsibility for this," complained a Shiite parliament member, Bahaa al-Araji. "It has not provided enough security to protect the pilgrims."

In the past two years, the powerful Mahdi army militia watched over pilgrimages to Karbala. But the group agreed to put down its arms under intense pressure from the government, which wanted to avoid any confrontations with U.S.-led forces during a massive Baghdad security crackdown launched last month.

"This year, things are sadly different," said al-Araji.

But Hillah has seen worse. In February 2005, a suicide car bomber hit mostly Shiite police recruits, killing 125 people.

U.S. forces suffered their deadliest day since Feb. 7, when 11 troops were killed, seven when their helicopter was shot down north of Fallujah and four others in combat operations.

The military said six soldiers of the 82nd Airborne Division were killed in a bombing in Salahuddin Province. It was the single largest loss of life in the past three years of combat for the Fort Bragg, North Carolina-based unit, said division spokesman Maj. Tom Earnhardt.

Another three soldiers died the same day in a roadside bomb attack in Diyala province northeast of Baghdad.

Both provinces are Sunni-dominated and have seen a rise in violence since additional U.S. forces moved into Baghdad as part of security sweeps. The Pentagon has pledged 17,500 additional troops for the Iraqi capital.

In a speech to the American Legion in Washington, President Bush said it was "too early to judge the success" of the Baghdad crackdown.

"But even at this early hour there are some encouraging signs," Mr. Bush said. Still, he added: "There are no shortcuts in Iraq."

In the northern city of Mosul, an estimated 140 inmates broke out of an Iraqi-guarded prison, said Brig. Gen. Mohammad al-Wakaa. He gave no other details, but appealed for U.S. helicopters to join the hunt for the fugitives.

Saddam Hussein's nephew, Ayman Sabaawi, escaped from the same prison in December. He was serving a life sentence for financing insurgents and possessing bombs, and remains at large.

In Baghdad, parliament failed to reconvene as scheduled after only about two dozen of the 275 lawmakers showed up. Political leaders claim that talks between various parties kept the deputies away.

But it was seen as another sign of political stagnation when key issues are facing the parliament, including a proposed law to divide Iraq's oil revenue between its three main groups: Sunnis, Shiites and the northern Kurds.

The nine U.S. deaths brought to 20 the number of Americans killed in Iraq this month. At least 3,184 members of the U.S. military 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 2,561 died as a result of hostile action, according to the military's numbers.

[david1737]

"Thank god we have an electoral college, otherwise a bunch of liberal people who have no idea what reality is would get to speak for the entire country."
Posted by cbville72 at 11:40 PM : Mar 06, 2007

Here's a "reality check" the NIE, OCT. 2006:

"the conclusion is that Iraq has made us less safe because it has become a "cause celebre" and a rallying cry for jihad."

[david1737]

cbville72...Read the National Intelligence Estimate...Oct 2006. Please stop the nonsense about your so called "liberal media". If you're that peranoid get some meds and shut off Sean Hanity!

[david1737]

cbville72...Can't blame "liberal media" for the disaster that Bush has created.

[lars008-2009]

Thank god we have an electoral college, otherwise a bunch of liberal people who have no idea what reality is would get to speak for the entire country.
Posted by cbville72 at 11:40 PM : Mar 06, 2007

The electoral college is a relic of the past. The movement to dump it is loud and growing. It'll last one, maybe two more presidential elections and then it's gone. It gives far too high of proportional weight to the opinions of the smaller population states and not enough to the higher population states. The concept was fine, but the relationship between population of a state and it's electoral votes has become wildely out of whack. It's time to fix or dump it and I think dump it will be the choice.
Posted by RandalDS at 12:34 AM : Mar 07, 2007

then you are also for getting rid of the senate?
if they change the electoral college at all it should be to have each state with only two votes...... just like the senate.....

[bm6005]

I can say if Bush II is lying just by looking at his lips. If they're moving, he's lying!!!

[bm6005]

I apologize for your ignorance
Posted by cbville72

If I were you I'd hold that apology for your own ignorance which seems to be quite massive. Speaking of pu$$y's you seem like a good candidate for that title yourself!! Why don't you crawl back under whatever rock you came from NEOCON a$$hole!!

[karlimhof]

%u201CI can say that President Bush is lying when he says he does not want Iraq to be partitioned. All the facts occurring now on the ground make you swear he is dragging Iraq to partition. And a day will come when he will say, %u2018I cannot do anything, since the Iraqis want the partition of their country and I honor the wishes of the people of Iraq.%u2019 %u201D

seymour hersh - great reporter!

[karlimhof]

Partition would leave Israel surrounded by %u201Csmall tranquil states,%u201D he said. %u201CI can assure you that the Saudi kingdom will also be divided (like Iraq), and the issue will reach to North African states. There will be small ethnic and confessional states,%u201D he said. %u201CIn other words, Israel will be the most important and the strongest state in a region that has been partitioned into ethnic and confessional states that are in agreement with each other. This is the new Middle East.%u201D by Seymour Hersh


So, is the end game of the Bush Neocon War - a new map of the Middle East ??

[karlimhof]

Libby's false account of events, he added, was meant to serve as a "blocker ... to cut off all those conversations with people, including the vice president." There is, Fitzgerald said, "a cloud over the White House as to what happened. Don't you think the FBI, the grand jury, the American people are entitled to a straight answer?"

- Patrick Fitzgerald

[searingtruth]

"And so death begat death, and suffering begat suffering, until all had been consumed, and all cause lost."
SearingTruth

A Future of the Brave - www.searingtruth.com

[down-ndirty]

"...media (this site in particular) is so liberally biased it is pathetic." Posted by cbville72

The "liberal media" have been very kind to Bush, otherwise he never would have been re-elected. Besides, Bush never accomplished anything on his own, and he never would have become president without his smearing and slandering neocon ***. He even smeared and slandered his fellow repugnicans.

Face it, cbville, you're in a dwindling minority, still backing a "LOSER." Without slimey Rove, crooked Cheney, and the slandering neocons, Bush would be a "LOSER." Bush has always been a "LOSER" and he will go down in history as a "LOSER." The WORST president ever.

[down-ndirty]

"One other thing for "7 pesos". Bush also carried MORE of the African American vote in '04 than he did in '00." Posted by cbville72

That's correct! According to CNN's polls, Bush got 9% of the African American vote in 2000, and a WHOPPING 11% in 2004.

cbville72, you'd be better off spending your idle time picking fly ***** out of the pepper! "ROFLMMFAO!!"

[randalds]

Posted by frankly6 at 12:55 AM : Mar 07, 2007

lol! It was. It's like what Tony Snow does, repeat the same lie so many times that they think it becomes true and for the morons it does. Got to go though, the repeat of this weeks episode of Rome is coming on and I missed it Sunday. Great show!

[frankly6]

RandalDS


Thanks for the clarification. Smelled like he pulled that one from the same place his head was stuck.

[randalds]

Really? What percent of the African American vote did Bush get?

What is your source?


Posted by frankly6 at 12:29 AM : Mar 07, 2007

Bush got less of the African American vote in 2004, but FOX News reported an exit poll survey right after the election that claimed he got more and even though it's been discredited many many times, it's become part of republican folklore.

[randalds]

Thank god we have an electoral college, otherwise a bunch of liberal people who have no idea what reality is would get to speak for the entire country.
Posted by cbville72 at 11:40 PM : Mar 06, 2007

The electoral college is a relic of the past. The movement to dump it is loud and growing. It'll last one, maybe two more presidential elections and then it's gone. It gives far too high of proportional weight to the opinions of the smaller population states and not enough to the higher population states. The concept was fine, but the relationship between population of a state and it's electoral votes has become wildely out of whack. It's time to fix or dump it and I think dump it will be the choice.

[frankly6]

cbville72

Really? What percent of the African American vote did Bush get?

What is your source?

[cbville72]

One other thing for "7 pesos". Bush also carried MORE of the African American vote in '04 than he did in '00.
Sorry to let minor details like the facts get in the way of your of your fantasyland.

BTW...Who won that election in '04


I apologize for your ignorance

[frankly6]

Wow Bush's new plan is going awsomely!

No wonder why he's got so much support.

[cbville72]

they kicked bush's ******** azz out of the north
but bush became a big man in the south.
dixie freaks and creeps...bush country!
they still love bush in the south.

Posted by seven-pesos at 10:45 PM : Mar 06, 2007

Ok...I'll educate you a little. Bush won more than the South. He carried 30 states in '04. Last time I checked Ohio wasn't in the South. That was the "battleground" state that was going to decide the election. Iowa isn't in the South, Oh yeah.....by the way.....neither is the ENTIRE midwest. Bush carried every one of those states. It again proved to the democrats that they can't win elections by winning NY, CAL "and a few otehr states" Thank god we have an electoral college, otherwise a bunch of liberal people who have no idea what reality is would get to speak for the entire country.