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
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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)
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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)
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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:
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See all 55 CommentsAnyone else tired of endless oil invasions?
Thanks, Bu$h.
Now all of you that weren''t around during Vietnam, welcome to OUR world!! If you think these people are going to Kill each other for something they do NOT understand, you are flat out of your tree!! Sieg Heil Bush
I am sick of seeing young people killed over this nightmare.
Ok we started this and now we are enablers--get the heII out!!
Bush misrepresented the war in Iraq and used our troops as pawns to attract the terrorists.
It seems to me, it''s going to take nationwide protesting for Washington to notice just how angry Americans are!!
I''m 65, but I''ll carry a sign anywhere FOR our TROOPS.
We are saddened and angry at the way our troops have been treated by this government from the onset to now, and no one will be held accountable, thanks to Pelosi, Kennedy, Reed and the rest of the do nothings in OUR Congress.
I really hope they are all voted out in November!!
Go to heII Bush and Cheney!
I sure hope Bu$hCo did not plan the ''New Pearl Harbor'' to generate hatred against Muslems, but every day that passes makes me wonder why the USA invaded Iraq...
Tens of thousands killed because of those lies.
George W Bush - Son of Satan.
Damned for all time!
In the words of Harry Powell, "A liar is an abomination before the eyes of the Lord."
Posted by liberalme ...liberalism is a mental disorder............when the chickens come to roost they''ll be c.ock a doodle doing all over your 5000lb SUV....
we lost the occupation but the surge is working
we lost our conomy but the surge is working
bush is a criminal
republicons are not americans
Posted by liberalme ...liberalism is a mental disorder............when the chickens come to roost they''''ll be c.ock a doodle doing all over your 5000lb SUV....
Posted by underdogus at 06:10 PM : Apr 14, 2008
Don''t have an suv SA sooooooooooo tell me----What Will We Win????????????????????
Posted by liberalme at 05:30 PM : Apr 14, 2008
Not quite if ruins count.
Posted by underdogus at 06:23 PM : Apr 14, 2008
Answer me--you disagreed==What will we WIN???????????? Come on your the genius
Posted by underdogus at 06:23 PM : Apr 14, 2008
That would be unprecedented in modern History.
- Posted by underdogus at
Where do you live? I live in the US we''ve always had FREEDOM and still do--so tell me again
What will we WIN????????????/
Posted by fibonacci_ at 06:28 PM : Apr 14, 2008
I''ve read a lot of double digit IQ posts on this site, naming no names.
Posted by liberalme at 06:48 PM : Apr 14, 2008
The only thing(s) that will be on the run soon are the Banks.
It does not matter what you think about Iraq, Bu$h will pillage the country for the oil... and you will pay the bill.
P. Bush
The statement was issued by his office in the holy city of Najaf a day after more than 1,300 soldiers and policemen were sacked for abandoning their posts or refusing to fight when clashes broke out during an offensive that began last month in the southern oil hub.
"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.
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!!
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.
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.
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 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?!?!?!
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
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.
Aid: "Uh, Herpes?"
Bush: "Right. It''s spreading like Herpes! Wasn''t he that Greek messenger god or something?"
mission accomplished
the surge is working
how did we lose the war?
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!
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!
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