Iraqis Dispute U.S. Airstrike Death Toll
Military Says Basra Attack Killed 1 Militant, Iraqi Cops Say 6 Civilians Dead
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Iraqi Defense Ministry spokesman Mohammed al-Askari shouts instructions to Iraqi Army soldiers to secure a street in a show of force in a militia stronghold that has seen some of the fiercest fighting in the southern city of Basra some about 340 miles south of Baghdad, Iraq, Wednesday, April 2, 2008. (AP Photo/Nabil al-Jurani)
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Iraqi soldiers secure a street in a show of force in a militia stronghold that has seen some of the fiercest fighting in the southern city of Basra, about 340 miles south of Baghdad, Iraq, Wednesday, April 2, 2008. (AP Photo/Nabil al-Jurani)
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Iraqi woman walks past the demolished car that was destroyed during a bombing and recent clashes between the Mahdi Army and Iraqi government forces backed by the US military in Sadr City, Baghdad, Iraq, Tuesday, April 1, 2008. (AP Photo/ Karim Kadim)
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Residents check damage to their apartments after a bombing and recent clashes between the Mahdi Army and Iraqi government forces backed by the US military in Sadr City, Baghdad, Iraq, Monday, March 31, 2008. (AP Photo/Karim Kadim)
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Twelve-year-old Haidar Mohammed, foreground, lies in hospital in the Shiite enclave of Sadr City in Baghdad, Iraq, Monday, March 31, 2008. The boy was wounded in clashes Sunday between the Mahdi Army and government forces backed by the American military. (AP Photo/Karim Kadim)
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The attack came as the Iraqi government apparently shifted gears in its offensive against Shiite militias, staging more targeted raids instead of attacking the gunmen head-on after a week of fierce clashes that spread to Baghdad and other southern cities.
The U.S.-led coalition directed "aerial fires" against enemy forces fighting Iraqi troops Wednesday near the militia stronghold of Qibla in Basra, said Lt. David Russell, a military spokesman. That district that has seen some of the fiercest fighting in the offensive that began March 25.
Russell said one militant was killed and a house was destroyed. The military later confirmed that an American plane had conducted the strike.
An Iraqi police officer in Basra, speaking on condition of anonymity because of security concerns, said six civilians were killed and two wounded in an 8 p.m. strike against a house in Qibla.
Meanwhile, the Iraqi military said Thursday a suicide bomber had attacked an Iraqi checkpoint near Mosul, in northern Iraq, killing seven people and wounding 12. The U.S. military confirmed the Wednesday night attack but put the casualty toll at five dead and 19 wounded.
The blast has occurred in the Addayah area about 20 miles west of Mosul while Iraqi soldiers were checking vehicles. The dead include a woman and a 5-year-old child. Mosul is believed to be the last major urban center where al Qaeda maintains a substantial presence.
The deadly airstrike comes after accusations by followers of anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr that the Iraqi army violated an Iranian-brokered agreement to pull his fighters off the streets.
Those complaints raised concern that fighting could flare again as the Iraqi government and Shiite militias maneuver for control of Basra - the country's oil capital 340 miles southeast of Baghdad and a major commercial center of 2 million people.
Violence in the Shiite south and in the north, where al Qaeda operates, illustrates the fragile state of security in Iraq as the U.S. moves to reduce its troop levels after five years of war.
Iraqi troops met no significant resistance as a dozen-vehicle convoy drove Wednesday into the Hayaniyah district of central Basra, scene of fierce clashes last week with al-Sadr's Mahdi Army fighters.
Troops set up checkpoints and searched a few houses before leaving the neighborhood after a couple of hours, witnesses said.
An Iraqi cameraman working for the U.S.-funded Alhurra satellite television station was shot in the leg as he filmed the operation in Hayaniyah.
Later, the camera operator, Mazin al-Tayar, told Alhurra by telephone that the soldiers faced "many roadside bombs and mortar rounds" during the operation, although there were no reports of military casualties.
One of the bombs exploded near a vehicle carrying the local Iraqi army commander, Lt. Gen. Mohan al-Fireji, but caused no injuries, according to Defense Ministry spokesman Mohammed al-Askari, who was traveling with the general.
The Basra joint operations center announced that Iraqi soldiers had detained two suspected militia figures in the Qibla area. A gun battle erupted during the raid and an Iraqi army vehicle was set on fire.
Nevertheless, Basra's provincial governor, Mohammed al-Waili, said the overall situation in the oil-rich city was "very calm and stable" and that normalcy was returning.
"We issued orders to all government employees to go to their offices starting from today and they will be obliged to work their full schedule," he said.
But Basra residents contacted by telephone said many people were fearful that the truce might not last.
In related developments:
© MMVIII, CBS Interactive 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 37 CommentsAl Queda in Iraq was only a small band of extremists that wasn''t even originally called Al Queda at all.
The Al Queda boogieman don''t even exist! And never did! It''s one of the biggest bald faced lies presented to you by the Bush administration!
It wasn''t even Al Queda in the planes (or whatever the hell they were) that hit the WTC...they were mercenaries out of Saudi Arabia.
Follow the money, then you''ll find your boggiemen.
Posted by liberalbias1 at 04:22 PM : Apr 03, 2008
I love lists!
Posted by SgtRDS at 08:26 PM : Apr 03, 2008
I am jealous.
Posted by liberalbias1 at 04:22 PM : Apr 03, 2008
I love lists!
Posted by Grim56Z at 12:34 PM : Apr 03, 2008
Only when Petraeus doesn''t pay them to be mercenaries like Blackwater USA.
It is called extortion.
We do know that SAS members have been captured in Basra dressed in Arab garb after murdering a policemen in an auto full of explosives...We do know that Israeli contractors have been captured by US Marines after the drove around firing first at Arabs, then at Marine positions...and they were quickly released from Abu Ghraib and spirited out of the country
This is like the kind of "dirty war" fought by the fascists in Algeria and Argentina...like the American OPERATION GLADIO that blew up train stations, murdered dozens, to discredit the Left in Italy.
What''s really funny about the Bush bobble-head dead-enders that insist that the imaginary "al-Qaeda-in-Iraq" is real, is that if this fictitious band of boogie-men WERE NOT a complete hoax, then this would mean that the Bush regime was not only a spectacular failure, but that they have actively made things much worse, and have weakened our security.
In other words, in order for these treasonous fools to justify staying in Iraq, where no such justification exists, they are forced to argue that their own puppet-Fuhrer is completely impotent and incompetent, and that illegally invading Iraq was COMPLETELY COUNTER-PRODUCTIVE!
Talk about a band of tragically comical dupes!!!
Hows that old saying go? Sticks and stones.
Posted by fedupwithit1 at 02:37 PM : Apr 03, 2008
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You seem pretty good at calling names yourself.
How did you determine ANYONE is a NEOCON? What test did you use?
I want to see the test and take it - I want to answer every question on that test. Give me the website please?
Who knows for sure. One thing I do know they will be back and play their songs like broken records. Nothing original -same thing over and over and over.
Have you ever noticed how they sound like one of those artificial intelligence telephone answering robots that seem like humans but then you figure out they are machines since they seem to be in another world and cannot carry on a normal conversation or debate??
Posted by hungry1968 at 01:44 PM : Apr 03, 2008
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And what education should a person have to live up to your standards of being educated - ( besides agreeing with you of course ).
Posted by guyfrompa45
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Feelfree is simply an "anti".
When the news is on Feelfree1''s side then Feelfree1 will quote it and use is as "fact".
When the news is not on Feelfree1''s side then Feelfree1 will engage in massive misinformation or maybe it''s honest psychotic delusion and say things like:
"Since "al-Qaeda-in-Iraq" appears
to be little more than a
Made-in-USA psy-ops ruse, we can
be fairly certain that this is
just more nonsense."
Posted by FeelFree1 at 12:02 PM : Apr 03, 2008
I suggest that FeelFree1 be just taken like the National Enquirer or other "ALIEN HAS ELVIS BABY" tabloid and enjoyed for the comic relief supplied.
Posted by Grim56Z at 12:34 PM : Apr 03, 2008
-I second that!!
Posted by liberalbias1 at 12:36 PM : Apr 03, 2008
They are nothing more than a large insurgent group that pledged allegiance to Osama bin Laden''s idea of throwing America and Israel out of muslim holy lands.
In other words, if we weren''t over there in the first place, they wouldn''t have been CREATED AFTER THE INVASION, in order to band together to drive us out.
That is right along the same line as if someone in Cleveland said, "I think that Israel should get the hell out of the Palestinians rightful homeland", the Bush cabal would quickly label them "al Qaeda in Ohio".
A little education goes a long way. You should try it sometime.
They tried to frame their inside man but he had the foresight to record the da*ning words of his FBI handlers and not only escape the FBI''s treachery but win money and return to Egypt.
THIS IS THE NATURE OF THE ''TERRORISTS'' THAT THREATEN AMERICA...Just as in Nazi Germany, the terrorists under Hitler burned the Reichstag to blame opponents...
Who are the real enemies of the United States? The vile, loathsome and treasonous dog now occupying the White House! The man who, even after years of a ''war on terror'' refuses to secure the US border! (And, who remarkably rules a public who are content to believe that ''al Qaeda'' would never amble across the southern border of the US to plant a shoe bomb on a Trailways bus....because they are ''tied down in Iraq'')
You''ll never see them explaining the four foot diameter steel columns at the WTC cut by a fuel fire hundreds of feet above the the fires...fires that the recordings of the NY Fire Department heroes inside the building and approaching the level of the plane''s impact that showed that they thought these fires were negligible.
DOWN WITH THE EVIL DEMOPUBLICAN REGIME! FREE AMERICA NOW!!
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