BAGHDAD, April 29, 2008
Sadr City Fighting Leaves Dozens Dead
Clashes From Weekend Continue As U.S. Military Battles Shiite Militias
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A 1-year old is treated for wounds in a hospital in the Shiite enclave of Sadr city in Baghdad, Iraq, Tuesday, April 29, 2008. The child was injured by shrapnel during recent clashes in Baghdad's Sadr City. (AP Photo/Adil al-Khazali)
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Mourners carry a coffin holding their relative killed in clashes in the Shiite stronghold of Sadr City in Baghdad, Iraq on Tuesday, April 29, 2008. (AP Photo/Karim Kadim)
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Iraqis inspect damage after an overnight airstrike in eastern Baghdad, Iraq on Tuesday, April 29, 2008. (AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed)
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Lt. Col. Steve Stover, a U.S. military spokesman, says the clashes broke out after a U.S. patrol was attacked about 9:30 a.m. with rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns.
He says six U.S. soldiers were wounded in Tuesday's fighting but none of their injuries were life-threatening.
The violence appeared to be a continuation of the weekend's heavy clashes involving attack helicopters and Abrams main battle tanks in which about 45 militants and four U.S. soldiers have died.
A showdown between the Iraqi government and the Mahdi Army militia - led by anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr - has increasingly drawn U.S. forces into battle. American commanders are particularly focused on trying to curb a rise in mortar and rocket attacks on the heavily fortified Green Zone in central Baghdad that houses Iraq's government and many foreign embassies.
Overnight clashes resulted in 42 injuries, officials at the Imam Ali and al-Sadr general hospitals said. Eight more were killed and 25 wounded in continuing firefights on Tuesday morning, said the officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
AP Television News footage showed men helping women cross the street and children running for cover behind blast walls amid gunshots.
Men helped carry several blood-soaked injured people onto stretchers to a local emergency hospital. Outside the hospital, the dead were placed inside plain wooden coffins.
Also in Baghdad, a senior government official was killed in a roadside bombing in the north of the city.
Dhia Jodi Jaber, director general at the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, was hit by a roadside bomb as he left his home on Tuesday morning, the ministry's spokesman Abdullah al-Lami said.
Insurgents frequently target governmental officials and institutions in a bid to disrupt the government's work.
In the southern city of Basra, where the government began its crackdown on Shiite militias on March 25, Iraqi military commander Lt. Gen. Mohan al-Fireji announced the discovery of a huge weapons cache containing roadside bombs, mortar launchers and Iranian-made weapons.
More details on the amount of weapons or how authorities knew they were Iranian-made were not immediately available.
In other developments:
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- From "The Hollow Men" by T. S. Eliot
Mistah Kurtz%u2014he dead.
A penny for the Old Guy
..............................
IV
The eyes are not here
There are no eyes here
In this valley of dying stars
In this hollow valley
This broken jaw of our lost kingdoms
In this last of meeting places
We grope together
And avoid speech
Gathered on this beach of the tumid river
Sightless, unless
The eyes reappear
As the perpetual star
Multifoliate rose
Of death%u2019s twilight kingdom
The hope only
Of empty men.
V
Here we go round the prickly pear
Prickly pear prickly pear
Here we go round the prickly pear
At five o%u2019clock in the morning.
Between the idea
And the reality
Between the motion
And the act
Falls the Shadow
For Thine is the Kingdom
Between the conception
And the creation
Between the emotion
And the response
Falls the Shadow
Life is very long
Between the desire
And the spasm
Between the potency
And the existence
Between the essence
And the descent
Falls the Shadow
For Thine is the Kingdom
For Thine is
Life is
For Thine is the
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper. - Reply to this comment
- Our brave men and women are doing a spectacular job. We thank you every day .
I for one believe that it is time to go after the head of this snake, and cut it off. Why are we *** footing with Al Sadr, the roly polly despot in need of a shave. - Reply to this comment
- I can really see why the al-Maliki, the Quisling scum bag, and his Demopublican Regime handlers would be upset with Saddam''s government for executing war profiteers....Hits real close to home doesn''t it Cheney?
- Reply to this comment
Is there anything you don''''t have a conspiracy theory for, POW?
Posted by USBrit at 12:23 PM : Apr 29, 2008
------------------------------------
Where is the conspiracy? Rumsfeld said in Congressional hearings in response to a query from Representative McKinney that Dyncorps had been "put in the penalty box" for a few months in which they would not be eligible for new government contracts for their white slavery rackets.- Reply to this comment
- getcentered and the rest of the anti''''s, do you know the difference between occpation and liberation, it''''s time to get uot the dictionary and look it up.
Posted by notblue at 12:20 PM : Apr 29, 2008
Occupation: the invasion and control of an area or country by military force, usually accompanied with martial law. Examples include 1939 Poland, 1990 Kuwait, and 2003 Iraq.
Liberation: to release from tyranny or dictatorial control. Examples include 1944 Paris, 1991 Kuwait, and the 2003 liberation of terrorists and insurgents from Saddam Hussein''s control. - Reply to this comment
- Al Sadr''s people slaughtered 23 Marines early in the war in Najaf and all Bush and his buddies did was slap him on the wrist. Anyone who thinks Bush, the neocons, or Rush Limpballs want anything resembling peace or stability in the Middle East is an idiot. Oil prices would drop sharply if there was peace or stability int he region. The plan is to keep it unstable until the oil runs out so the powerbrokers and speculators can rake in billions for doing nothing but using your tax dollars and your kids who join the military to drive up the price of oil. Idiots.
- Reply to this comment
- FloydZepp of course they make it up as they go along.
People like demslie and notblue know that their way is failed so by goodness they are going to take as many down with them as possible.
The one interesting fact is that if you combine both of the polls for Clinton and Obama you will see that in the end the Democrats are going to win so bad that it will be a blood bath for the GOP not only in the Senate by in the House and the President.
Getting funnier by the minute. - Reply to this comment
- Posted by demslie
You are the most hate-filled sorry answer for a human being I have ever come across. You should really turn yourself in for serious treatment. - Reply to this comment
- Taliban and Al Qada are hiding out in their closets because they are too afraid to face the Coalition. They can try on every sun dress and evening gown on the clothes rack. If they were really honest, A.Q. would drop the pretense and fight. There is no reason to die wearing women''s cosmetics and underwear.
- Reply to this comment
- Posted by Prinzowhales
Is there anything you don''t have a conspiracy theory for, POW? - Reply to this comment
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