BAGHDAD, April 14, 2008
37 Killed Or Found Dead Across Iraq
12 Die After Car Bomb Explodes Near Iraqi Army Convoy; U.S. Soldier Killed By Roadside Bomb
-
-
Residents clean up after their shops burned down in eastern Baghdad, Monday, April 14, 2008. Several shops at the market in eastern Baghdad were set on fire after a road side bomb struck a U.S. humvee vehicle, police said. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)
-
A Mahdi Army fighter controls a road in Basra, Iraq, March 29, 2008. Following last month's offensive, in which many Iraqi police and soldiers refused to fight against Shiite militia. Thirteen hundred Iraqi forces members have since been fired. (AP Photo/Nabil al-Jurani)
-
-
Photo Essay Week In Iraq Photos A daily diary with scenes of the latest attacks and snapshots from the effort to rebuild a nation.
-
Interactive Iraq: 5 Years At War Five years after the U.S.-led invasion, the war wears on.
A U.S. soldier also was killed Monday by a roadside bomb in the northern Salahuddin province, the military said, raising to at least 4,033 the number of American military members who have died since the war started in March 2003.
The violence comes as the Iraqi government continues to deal with the failure of a major offensive that began on March 25 to dislodge militia groups from Basra, Iraq's second-largest city.
Iraqi security forces were surprised by the ferocious resistance mounted by the outnumbered militiamen, despite artillery and air support provided by U.S. and British forces.
More than 1,000 security troops - including a full infantry battalion - refused to fight or joined the militias, handing them weapons and vehicles.
The government and police officials announced Sunday that those forces along with some 300 police in the southern city of Kut had been fired for abandoning their posts or refusing to fight.
That decision drew an angry response from al-Sadr, who demanded Monday that the security forces be reinstated.
"All the brothers in the army and police who gave up their arms to their bothers (Sadrists), were only obeying their grand religious leaders and they were driven by their religious duties," the anti-U.S. cleric said.
"I call upon all concerned authorities to reconsider their decision to dismiss those people from the army and the police. I demand they be reinstated and even rewarded for their loyalty and devotion to their religion," he added.
The fighting, which quickly spread to other cities in the southern Shiite heartland and Baghdad, ebbed after al-Sadr ordered a cease-fire but sporadic violence continues.
A commander in the police department's serious crimes directorate, Maj. Ali Haider, was shot to death Sunday night, police said. Haider was a member of the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, a Shiite political party that is often at odds with factions loyal to al-Sadr.
U.S. officials have praised Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, himself a Shiite, for showing determination in confronting the militias, but they also have said the Basra operation was hastily arranged and badly executed. Critics said it highlighted the Iraqi army's poor leadership and the low morale among its rank and file.
Clashes also continued in Baghdad, where Iraqi and U.S. troops have confronted the Mahdi Army. A large section of a market area in eastern Baghdad was set ablaze early Monday when a bomb exploded next to a convoy of U.S. military vehicles driving down a commercial thoroughfare. The U.S. military said no casualties were reported in the 2 a.m. blast.
Another roadside bomb hit a minibus in downtown Baghdad, killing five passengers and wounding nine, police said.
In northern Iraq, meanwhile, a parked car bomb exploded near an Iraqi army convoy in the Rabiaa area west of Mosul, killing 12 Kurdish soldiers and wounding five, police chief Col. Mutlaq al-Shimmari said.
A suicide bomber also blew himself up during a funeral for a Shiite family in Tal Afar, to the south of Mosul, killing five people and wounding 22, Mayor Najim Abdullah said.
Those attacks came hours after an explosives-laden car blew up in the city itself.
Mosul, 225 miles northwest of Baghdad, is believed to be the last urban stronghold of al Qaeda in Iraq
Elsewhere in Iraq, the military said U.S. soldiers unearthed a mass grave Sunday containing as many as 30 badly decomposed bodies near Muqdadiyah, about 60 miles north of Baghdad.
In other developments:
© MMVIII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Michelle Obama tells how her role as the First Lady has changed her perspective.
- 1
- 2
- 3
- next
See all 55 CommentsPosted by lovesamerica at 12:13 AM : Apr 15, 2008
It was his Presidential policy to go into Iraq. The next person elected will be judged on how they get OUT of Iraq!! Has nothing to do with blame, just dumb foreign policy decisions.
"A U.S. soldier also was killed Monday by a roadside bomb in the northern Salahuddin province, the military said, raising to at least 4,033 the number of American military members who have died since the war started in March 2003"
This is inaccurate. As reported yesterday in CBS News, more than 4, 590 have died in Iraq. The practice of discounting accidental deaths in a combat zone to hide the cost of this war is pathetic. About 20% of the names on the wall at the Vietnam memorial are of men who died accidentally. By this standard they should be rubbed out.
When Americas sons and daughters die accidentally, are then not a cost of war?
START WAR CRIMES TRIALS NOW!
AMERICA STAND UP OR SHUT UP!
Just 37 dead in one day? Not the usual 50 or 75? Good news. Surge must be working. Time to celebrate.
Now pardon me while I wave my flag and put another ribbon magnet on my Hummer.
Sincerely,
Mindless Republican
Deliver Iraq to the Mullahs in Iran.
And at what cost to us.
Over 4000 Dead Americans.
$12 Billion a month.
At home people are losing their homes.
And we''re giving free cash to the sunni warlords and islamist hoodlums as part of the "surge."
As Harry Powell said, "A liar is an abomination to the Lord."
The Liar-in-Chief, George W Bush is an abomination to the Lord!
He''s the Son of Satan - Damned for all time!
Gen. Petraeus, are you going to reinstate the Iraqi soldiers and police who refused to fight the militia---who exposed themselves for what they were traitors, and made themselves useless to al-Sadr---OR, are you going to uphold their dismissal?! At least, you found out the traitors in your midst in one fell swoop!
mission accomplished
the surge is working
how did we lose the war?
Aid: "Uh, Herpes?"
Bush: "Right. It''s spreading like Herpes! Wasn''t he that Greek messenger god or something?"
Posted by yongamerica at 08:25 PM : Apr 14, 2008
Rather you than me, as wouldn''t fancy my chances of coming back from that adventure much. I do hope you have volunteered, if you aren''t part of the military already.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7232011.stm#map
Instead of going full force into Afghanistan, we cut-and-ran from the war on terror ignoring all of the problems there, to instead create the disaster in Iraq. Meanwhile, "THE REST OF THE WORLD" is cleaning up our mess:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7232011.stm
Posted by yongamerica at 08:25 PM : Apr 14, 2008
Bush has our military stretched so thin, that we couldn''t invade Qatar right now.
And you want to invade Iran?!?!?!
Posted by yongamerica at 08:25 PM : Apr 14, 2008
Are you really being serious here?? I mean, do you desperately want a war with China or even Russia? That''s what you''re asking for....if you are being serious.
Posted by AJMarine1 at 08:32 PM : Apr 14, 2008
Exactly.
Myself and j-whitman have been discussing this same prospect on several different threads.
Al Sadr is the power in Iraq. If Iraq wants to become a country, they are going to have to deal with him, or just let him, and Iran, run things.
WOW!!!
Can you imagine an American politician asking something like that of an American governmental agency?
It''s like a state finding out that 1300 state troopers are aiding criminals, and then the head of that criminal gang asking the governor to give them their jobs back, after they were fired!!
- 1
- 2
- 3
- next
See all 55 Comments