4 U.S. Soldiers Killed In Roadside Bombing

Also, Suicide Bomber Targets Iraqi Official In Baghdad, Killing 8

(CBS/AP) 
In addition to the Karradah attack, a bomber slammed his explosives-packed car into an army checkpoint in a volatile Sunni district in western Baghdad, killing two people and wounding two.

A bomb in a parked car exploded as a bus packed with workers passed by in the city of Iskandariyah, 30 miles south of Baghdad in the so-called "Triangle of Death," killing at least four people and wounding 24, police said.

The top official in the main Shiite district of Sadr City was seriously wounded when gunmen ambushed his convoy in eastern Baghdad, killing two of his bodyguards, according to police and a local official. Rahim al-Darraji had been involved in negotiations with U.S. and Iraqi government officials seeking to persuade the Shiite militias to tamp down the violence against Sunnis.

Police reported at least 25 other people were killed or found dead Thursday, including a vegetable seller who was hailed as a hero after he died when a bomb concealed in a package exploded as he was trying to carry it away from a populated area in Sadr City.

"May God bless his soul. He gave his life to save other lives," fellow peddler Haitham Mohammed said, wiping away tears.

Twenty bullet-riddled bodies also were found, most of them in Baghdad, a small number compared with the average of 50 that were turning up before the Baghdad security plan. Most were believed to be victims of Shiite militias led by the Mahdi Army loyal to radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. The drop in execution-style killings is in large part because Shiite parties have been successful in persuading the Shiite militias to pull armed fighters off the streets to avoid a showdown with the Americans. Many fear the fighters will re-emerge if the U.S. forces leave.

In other developments, a judge said the death sentence for Saddam Hussein's former deputy, Taha Yassin Ramadan, had been upheld on appeal, and the former vice president will be hanged for his role in the killing of 148 Shiites in 1982 in Dujail, north of Baghdad.

Judge Mounir Haddad, a member of the court's nine-judge panel, said the decision on Ramadan's execution was unanimous and relayed to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government, which will set the date.

The panel ignored appeals from international human rights groups. Human Rights Watch and the International Center for Transitional Justice said the evidence was insufficient for such a punishment. Ramadan was convicted in November along with Saddam and six others in the killings of Shiites in Dujail following an assassination attempt against the former Iraqi leader in 1982. Three other defendants were sentenced to 15 years in jail in the case, while one was acquitted.

Saddam was hanged Dec. 30, and two of his co-defendants in the Dujail case — his half brother and former intelligence chief Barzan Ibrahim, and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, former head of Iraq's Revolutionary Court — were executed in January.

The Shiite-led government also announced plans for a minute of silence across Iraq on Friday to commemorate the anniversary of the 1988 chemical weapons attack on the Kurdish town of Halabja in northern Iraq, according to state TV. Saddam ordered the attack as part of a scorched-earth campaign to crush a Kurdish rebellion in the north.

[bluestardad]

DITCH MITCH McCONNEL AND LINDSY GRAHAM THEY ARE IN THE POCKET OF AIPAC!

HERE ARE THE SENATORS UP FOR REELECTION IN 08 WRITE THEM OR QUIT COMPLAINING! ASK THEM WHO IS PAYING THEIR SALARIES? 50 YEARS OF SACRIFICE IS ENOUGH! We cannot want peace in the Middle East more than those who live there! Follow the money see how many Congressmen are influenced by AIPAC money and how they are voting on Iraq!

http://www.aipac.org/forms/join_aipacClubs.htm


Alexander, Lamar- (R - TN)
Allard, Wayne- (R - CO)
Baucus, Max- (D - MT)
Biden, Joseph R., Jr.- (D - DE)
Chambliss, Saxby- (R - GA)
Cochran, Thad- (R - MS)
Coleman, Norm- (R - MN)
Collins, Susan M.- (R - ME)
Cornyn, John- (R - TX)
Craig, Larry E.- (R - ID)
Dole, Elizabeth- (R - NC)
Durbin, Richard- (D - IL)
Enzi, Michael B.- (R - WY)
Graham, Lindsey- (R - SC)
Hagel, Chuck- (R - NE)
Harkin, Tom- (D - IA)
Inhofe, James M.- (R - OK)
Johnson, Tim- (D - SD)
Kerry, John F.- (D - MA)
Landrieu, Mary L.- (D - LA)
Lautenberg, Frank R.- (D - NJ)
Levin, Carl- (D - MI)
McConnell, Mitch- (R - KY)
Pryor, Mark L.- (D - AR)
Reed, Jack- (D - RI)
Roberts, Pat- (R - KS)
Rockefeller, John D., IV- (D - WV)
Sessions, Jeff- (R - AL)
Smith, Gordon H.- (R - OR)
Stevens, Ted- (R - AK)
Sununu, John E.- (R - NH)
Warner, John- (R - VA)

If you think Americas sacrifice is worth it contact your ELECTED OFFICIAL and tell them http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/

The House Speakers email address: [e-mail]

[karlimhof]

"Normally the Iraqis know the drill ... if something happens ... get down, hands up ... They started to take off, so I shot at them," Wuterich says


If that is "standard operating procedure" of American armed forces - well, then, we're no better than the israelis killing "rock throwers".

[dallison7]

Go crawl into a corner until November of next year when you pull the lever for Hillary or Obama. That is what you really want to do.
Newsflash.....if either of those two get the Dem. nomination, they will get beat, just like '00 and '04

YOUR RIGHT .... they better find more voteable canidates. cause those two will lose.

Posted by usadvisor101


And which republican will beat either of them? Rudy, the male *** whose law firm runs a lobby for Chavez, McCain the 70 year old has-been who enjoys falling asleep while he decomposes, or Romney... member of the most bizzare cult on earth who believes 'in his heart' that scripture was revealed to the 'prophet' Joe Smith by a 'talking salamander'?

ROFLMAO!!!

[randalds]

This man appears to be yet another broken-minded, double-brainwashed victim of the Bush crusade.

God help America.
Posted by feelfree1 at 12:44 AM : Mar 16, 2007

In this case it's not just Bush. Basic Training is not as much a physical conditioning and it is a mental one. I went through it 17 and I know that if, at the end of the training, my sergeant pointed a finger at someone and ordered me to fire I would have. It eats into you. Nearly 40 years later and I can recall almost every detail of the training. I know all of my sergeants names and what they looked like. I still remember my Fight number and my Training Squadron number. I can still do facing movements. It really is a form of brainwashing.

[baldfrog-2009]

badaxmofo another cockroach
on Rove's payroll to publish on here to stir the pot. Get off your butt and go join the Marines and stop wasting time on here and put some action into your fecal paranoids Rovian ideas.

[feelfree1]

Re:

"In other developments:

"Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich, who is charged with killing 18 civilians in Iraq, said that he%u2019s sorry about the deaths but would make the same decision again today. The Iraqis, including women and children, died when Wuterich and his men reacted to an attack that killed a comrade in Haditha."
***
What Sgt. Frank Wuterich appears to be stating here, is that he is 'real sorry' about needlessly executing 18 innocent civilians, but if one of his buddies gets blown up by another unrelated roadside bomb, he would once again, recklessly and disgracefully execute another 18 innocent civilians.

This man appears to be yet another broken-minded, double-brainwashed victim of the Bush crusade.

God help America.

[emhawks]

I'm sure everyone has heard/read this by now, but our beloved Vice-President's corporation (Halliburton) is moving its headquarters to Dubai.
".....money trumps peace, sometimes."
- George W. Bush

"Death has a tendency to encourage a depressing view of war."
- Donald Rumsfeld

[jerr11]

The slaughter continues. The bodies of dead American soldiers continue to pile up.

Meanwhile, the Bush twins are living it up, Dad and Mom are enjoying the good life in Crawford and DC, and uncle ******** Cheney is laughing all the way to the bank with his Halliburton buddies.

Of course they don't want to "cut and run." They're all making a killing from this war!

[condumism]

The pro war, pro nazi loving GOPigs offer no plans for america except chaos, anarchy, hypocrisy, lies, inbreeding, and pure ignorance. Tonites posts support these allegations. I can assure you that all the GOPigs have left in America is a stangelhold on fascism, permeating with cronyism and dissinforamtion throughout the original confederate states of the south, now the only remaining remnants of America hater's left in the USA. Secede, white southern trash, SECEDE TOMORROW!

[mh4cbs1]

Four more dead US troops. 3,200 total. 800 killed "contractors" you never hear about.

Americal is NOT at War. Our troops are at War. America is at the Mall. Wealthy Americans are spending their massive tax cuts on Hummers and McMansions, while we get stuck with massive national debt. Taxpayers pay $600 Biilion (so far) for this obscene War. How much went to Haliburton? Blackwater? The War Corporations? Who sacrifices? Who Profits?

Bush and Cheney deliberately LIED us into this disaster. If you haven't figured that out then you either haven't done your homework or you are in a state of denial ('Good German' style).

Bush and Cheney belong in JAIL!