BAGHDAD, April 8, 2007
4 U.S. Soldiers Killed In Diyala Province
Explosion Near Vehicle Claims Troops In Volatile Region; Truck Bomb Kills 18 In Baghdad
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Iraqis gather around a car bomb wreck in Sadr City in Baghdad, Saturday, April 7, 2007. At least three civilians were killed and six were injured in the blast. (AP Photo/Ali Abed)
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Photo Essay Iraq In Pictures A daily diary with scenes of the latest attacks and snapshots from the effort to rebuild a nation.
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Interactive Battle For Iraq The government, the insurgency, key players, background and photos.
Separately, the U.S. military on Sunday announced the deaths of four American soldiers, killed a day earlier in an explosion near their vehicle in Diyala province northeast of Baghdad.
The bombing in Mahmoudiyah, 20 miles south of Baghdad, involved a pickup truck parked next to the city General Hospital, an Iraqi army officer said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak about the matter.
Other reports said the explosion was a rocket attack.
The hospital was slightly damaged by flying debris and shrapnel, but shops and residential buildings bore more damage. Many of those wounded were in their homes at the time of the blast.
In Other Developments:
people to the hospital with breathing difficulties from a possible
chemical agent, police said. Doctors said the victims' faces turned yellow and they were unable to open their eyes. One hospital official said the chemical was chlorine, and that the victims were expected to recover. Chlorine has been used in at least nine attacks in Iraq since January, mostly in bombings by al Qaeda in Iraq.
The four U.S. soldiers killed Saturday were assigned to Task Force Lightning, the U.S. military said in a statement. A fifth soldier was wounded in the blast.
Diyala province, which lies northeast of Baghdad, has seen a spike in attacks on U.S. and Iraqi forces since the start of a plan two months ago to pacify the capital. Officials believe militants have streamed out of Baghdad to invigorate the insurgency in areas just outside the city.
At least 3,274 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an AP count. The figure includes seven military civilians.
U.S. forces also captured a senior al Qaeda leader and two others in a raid Sunday morning in Baghdad, the U.S. military said.
The al Qaeda figure was identified as "the gatekeeper to the al Qaeda emir of Baghdad" and was linked to several car bomb attacks in the Iraqi capital, the military said in a statement, without naming the captive.
Thousands of Iraqis streamed toward the Shiite holy city of Najaf for a demonstration Monday to mark the fourth anniversary of the fall of Baghdad. Anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr issued the call for a peaceful demonstration to mark the anniversary.
Witnesses said thousands of residents of Baghdad's largest Shiite slum, Sadr City, boarded buses and minivans Sunday for Najaf.
"The faithful should participate in a demonstration in Najaf on April 9, demanding that the occupiers withdraw from our lands. They should carry or wear Iraqi flags," al-Sadr said in a statement released by his office.
On Sunday, Iraqi flags could be seen flying from most houses and shops in Sadr City. Drivers and motorcyclists affixed them to their vehicles. Police escorted convoys of pickup trucks overflowing with young boys waving Iraqi flags, en route to Najaf.
An Iraqi flag was hoisted over a military base in Basra, Iraq's second-largest city, as Iraqi troops took control of the facility Sunday from British forces. The Shat al-Arab base is the second base transfered to Iraqi control in Basra over the past month.
A suicide bomber attacked a police checkpoint near a market in southwest Baghdad, killing a policeman and four civilians and wounding 22 people, two police officials said.
Roadside bombs also killed two Iraqi policemen in separate attacks in the capital and Fallujah, 40 miles west of the capital, police said.
© MMVII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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- Hey didntinhale it sounds like you are a brainwashed little neocon, watch your children don't turn on you!Do you even have a thought in your head outside of what the so called "christian" right spouts out and what bush and dead eye di ck spout out?
- Reply to this comment
- I would say to the House, as I said to those who have joined this Government: 'I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat.' We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind. We have before us many, many long months of struggle and suffering. You ask, what is our policy? I can say: It is to wage war, by sea, land and air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us: to wage war against a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark, lamentable catalogue of human crime. That is our policy. You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word: It is victory, victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory, however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival. Winston Churchill Speech in the House of Commons, after taking office as Prime Minister (13 May 1940)
Never, never, never believe any war will be smooth and easy, or that anyone who embarks on the strange voyage can measure the tides and hurricanes he will encounter. The statesman who yields to war fever must realise that once the signal is given, he is no longer the master of policy but the slave of unforeseeable and uncontrollable events. Winston Churchill - Reply to this comment
- peace-at-any-price, safety-first instead of duty-first,
The things that will destroy America are prosperity-at-any-price, peace-at-any-price, safety-first instead of duty-first, the love of soft living, and the get-rich-quick theory of life. Theodore Roosevelt - Reply to this comment
- %u201CIt is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.%u201D Theodore Roosevelt
"Criticism is necessary and useful; it is often indispensable; but it can never take the place of action, or be even a poor substitute for it. The function of the mere critic is of very subordinate usefulness. It is the doer of deeds who actually counts in the battle for life, and not the man who looks on and says how the fight ought to be fought, without himself sharing the stress and the danger." (1894) Theodore Roosevelt
To sit home, read one's favorite paper, and scoff at the misdeeds of the men who do things is easy, but it is markedly ineffective. It is what evil men count upon the good men's doing. - The Outlook December 21, 1895 Theodore Roosevelt - Reply to this comment
- Most people think they learned in high school everything they need to know about history and politics.
William Lederer was right in 1961; we are a "nation of sheep."
If not for the "sheep" we would not be in the mess we're in now.
Posted by nyteryder2 at 09:10 PM : Apr 08, 2007
I dropped out of high school after 10th grade and one of the main reasons was I felt like I was starving there. They kept trying to teach me easy cr*ap that I didn't want to bother with and restricted me from learning the things I wanted to, so I quit and joined the Air Force. At least there I was a part of something much more important then school, plus I had the chance to do all of the learning I wanted to on my own. After that I went to college, but within a semester had that same suffocating feeling and quit it. I've never regretted it. The problem with many people is that they pretty much ignore their way through high school and, as you said, figure that's all they need. They really are sheep because they don't have a real hunger to know the truth or to learn on their own. They do make me angry for their willingness to be lemmings, but more then that I feel sorry for them for their self-inflicted stupidity. I agree, they are the main reason we're in the mess we're in even more so then the as*sholes in the White House. - Reply to this comment
- lars008:
So whats your point? That Clinton and Albright were hyping Saddam's WMDs? Common knowledge. They have blood on their hands for the 500,000 Iraqis died from US led sanctions (banning all forms of humanitarian aid and supplies in the 1990s).
You really need to read Scott Ritter's books and articles (ex-Marine, Republican, who led inspector teams in the 1990s). If the corporate media had voices like his pre-invasion (instead of cheerleading for War Ratings), we might have avoided this needless, horrific Iraq disaster.
But, the Clinton crimes still pale in comparison to the Cheney Bush LIES to Invade a nation that was NOT a threat to the US. Clinton's actions did not kill 3,200 Americans, and another several hundred thousand Iraqis. They did not make the US LESS safe, they did not strengthen Iran's position in the Middle East. They did not destabilize the region. They did not draw our Armed forces AWAY from Al Quaeda...
This is the Bush DISASTER LEGACY. Bury your head in the sand and wave your fake patriotic flag as you cheer Bush/Cheney and the NeoCon murderous thugs as they shame our nation and rob our future.
Its NOT about Clinton vs Bush. Its about good decent hard working average citizens, who yearn for peace and a world based on hope and loving kindenss, but who are constantly being abused and exploited by the super wealthy and powerful who gain by instilling fear hate and revenge. - Reply to this comment
- All liberals need to see this link. It tells about the collective histeria those pathetic maniacs who support the republicons-GOP to bring about the destruction in the Middle-East.
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/2007/02/mccain_courts_a.html
Discard those people from power or from religious influence. Because those inconscient idiots don't get it. They got to understand, that a nuclear catastrophy in one spot in the Middle-East has repercussions all over the world, iuncluding the USA and Israel. Remember Chernobyl?
This McCain is a real a$$-kisser. This time it's a dirty one. He starts smelling damp and nasty. His nose is turning brown too. - Reply to this comment
- "[W]e urge you, after consulting with Congress, and consistent with the U.S. Constitution and laws, to take necessary actions (including, if appropriate, air and missile strikes on suspect Iraqi sites) to respond effectively to the threat posed by Iraq's refusal to end its weapons of mass destruction programs." Letter to President Clinton, signed by: -- Democratic Senators Carl Levin, Tom Daschle, John Kerry, and others, Oct. 9, 1998
"Saddam Hussein has been engaged in the development of weapons of mass destruction technology which is a threat to countries in the region and he has made a mockery of the weapons inspection process." -Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D, CA), Dec. 16, 1998
http://www.house.gov/pelosi/priraq1.htm
"Hussein has ... chosen to spend his money on building weapons of mass destruction and palaces for his cronies." -- Madeline Albright, Clinton Secretary of State, Nov. 10, 1999
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1584/is_9_10/ai_59021377
Adversarial Myopia
http://www.federalobserver.com/archive.php?aid=8570 - Reply to this comment
- "Saddam Hussein has been engaged in the development of weapons of mass destruction technology which is a threat to countries in the region and he has made a mockery of the weapons inspection process." - Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D, CA), Dec. 16, 1998
http://www.house.gov/pelosi/priraq1.htm
"One way or the other, we are determined to deny Iraq the capacity to develop weapons of mass destruction and the missiles to deliver them. That is our bottom line." - President Clinton, Feb. 4, 1998
http://www.cnn.com/US/9802/04/us.un.iraq/
"If Saddam rejects peace and we have to use force, our purpose is clear. We want to seriously diminish the threat posed by Iraq's weapons of mass destruction program." - President Bill Clinton, Feb. 17, 1998
http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/1998/02/17/transcripts/clinton.iraq/
WASHINGTON (Feb. 18) -- In preparing the nation for a possible war with Iraq,
http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/1998/02/18/iraq.political.analysis/
"Iraq is a long way from [here], but what happens there matters a great deal here. For the risks that the leaders of a rogue state will use nuclear, chemical or biological weapons against us or our allies is the greatest security threat we face." --Madeline Albright, Feb 18, 1998
http://www.fas.org/news/iraq/1998/02/20/98022006_tpo.html
"He will use those weapons of mass destruction again, as he has ten times since 1983." --Sandy Berger, Clinton National Security Adviser, Feb, 18, 1998
http://www.usatoday.com/news/index/iraq/iraq172.htm - Reply to this comment
- "People should actually educate themselves rather then taking the government at it's word (or slogans) and they find that our "freedom" has nothing at all whatsoever to do with the wars being fought in the middle-east." Posted by RandalDS
Educate themselves? They should, but it's "too much work." Their attitude is "Why read a book or research a candidate when someone will tell me all I need to know." Yeah, right!
Most people think they learned in high school everything they need to know about history and politics.
William Lederer was right in 1961; we are a "nation of sheep."
If not for the "sheep" we would not be in the mess we're in now. - Reply to this comment
Author Thomas Friedman on Obama's Afghanistan plan and the war on terror.
