Four Marines Killed In Anbar Explosion

Journalist Killed In Botched Kidnapping; Iraq's First Lady Unharmed By Bomb Attack

(CBS/AP)  A bomb hit a motorcade carrying Iraq's first lady through Baghdad on Sunday, while the U.S. military said a roadside explosion killed four Marines in the deadliest attack in western Anbar province in months.

The motorcade bombing in Baghdad's Karrada district injured four of Hiro Ibrahim Ahmed's bodyguards but left her unharmed, according to the office of her husband, President Jalal Talabani.

She was headed to the city's central National Theater to attend a cultural festival when the attack occurred just before noon, said the presidential office. It was unclear if she was the target or if the bombing was random.

The four Marines were killed in Anbar province on Friday, but no other details of the incident were released.

Anbar was once a stronghold for insurgents battling against U.S. forces. But in the past year the vast desert province has largely been calmed with the rise of the Awakening Council movement - Sunni fighters who now turn their guns on al Qaeda instead of U.S. forces.

Friday's attack was the most lethal in the province since Sept. 6, when four Marines were killed in combat. The military did not release details of those deaths either.

On April 22, two Marines were killed in Anbar when a bomb-rigged truck exploded at a checkpoint in the city of Ramadi.

Despite new reports of violence, military spokesman Rear Adm. Patrick Driscoll told reporters on Saturday that attacks carried out by al Qaeda declined last month after increasing earlier this year.

He said there was "no place for al Qaeda" to hide in Iraq and U.S. troops were continuing to hunt them down in Diyala province and the city of Mosul, where many are believed to have fled north from Baghdad.

Sadr City Clashes

Iraqi health officials said at least 10 people - including two children - were killed in the past 24 hours in the Baghdad neighborhood of Sadr City, a slum of 2.5 million people and a stronghold for the Mahdi Army militia led by anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

Officials at two hospitals in Sadr City spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons.

U.S. and Iraqi forces have been battling militia members there for weeks as part of an Iraqi government crackdown on the fighters.

Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said the battles against the militia fighters in Sadr City would continue.

"It is the full responsibility of the Iraqi government to implement the rule of law," al-Dabbagh said.

The clashes with Mahdi Army have caused deep rifts among Iraq's Shiite majority and have pulled U.S. troops into difficult urban combat.

Militia members have been blamed for firing hundreds of rockets or mortars from Sadr City into the Green Zone, the U.S.-protected area housing the American embassy and much of the Iraqi government. In the past month, more than a dozen people - including two American civilians and soldiers - have been killed inside the zone during the attacks.

Journalist Killed In Mosul

Gunmen killed a woman journalist during a botched kidnapping attempt Sunday in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, police, and family said.

Sarwa Abdul-Wahab, 36, worked as a lawyer defending journalists' rights and freelanced Kurdistan Reporters News Agency.

Police said Abdul-Wahab was walking from her home to a market with her mother when two gunmen pulled up in a car and tried to kidnap her. The gunmen shot her twice in the head when she resisted, her mother said.

Her mother, who identified herself as Umm Mohammed, told The Associated Press that she asked the gunmen to take her instead of her daughter.

"I begged the gunmen to kill me instead, they pushed me away and told me that they wanted her not me," she said by telephone.

Abdul-Wahab was reporting from Mosul for a news agency affiliated to Massoud Barzani's Kurdistan Democratic Party, said police Brig. Gen. Khalid Abdul-Sattar, the security spokesman for Nineveh province.

She was also a member of an association to defending journalists' rights which was formed in 2003, according to Yasir al-Hamadani, the director of the Mosul branch.

"She was a member of our association which is based in Baghdad but has a branch in Mosul," he said, adding that Abdul-Wahab worked at the Salaheddin satellite TV channel and at many local newspapers before working for that agency.

"Besides her work as a journalist, she was activist working with non-governmental organizations as well as being a lawyer," al-Hamadani said. "We are very sorry to lose her. She was very active and very passionate about her work."

The attack took place at about 9:00 a.m. in Bakir neighborhood in eastern Mosul, 360 kilometers (225 miles) northwest of Baghdad, Abdul-Sattar said.

The attack came just over a week after another group of assailants on April 25 gunned down an Iraqi journalist in the southern city of Basra who had been working for a local radio station run by a Shiite political party that is the chief rival of anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

Jassim al-Batat, 38, worked for the local al-Nakhil radio station based in Basra.

Al-Nakhil radio is run by the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council. Its leader Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim has sided with the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki since Iraqi security forces launched a crackdown on al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia in Basra a month ago.

Journalists have frequently been targeted or caught up in attacks in Iraq. More than 175 journalists and media support workers have been killed since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists.

Reporters without Borders, the Paris-based advocacy group, said Friday that 211 media assistants and journalists, including al-Batat, have been killed since the invasion began.

The fate of another 14 journalists and assistants who were kidnapped is not known, the group said.

Hundreds of Iraqi journalists also have been forced into exile since the war started five years ago, Reporters Without Borders said in a report in March. Most fled to Jordan or Syria after receiving threats or surviving murder attempts.

That report found that Iraqi journalists face the unique danger of being targeted by multiple groups including Sunni and Shiite militias, al Qaeda in Iraq, the police and U.S.-led forces.

[missingamerica]

"He said there was "no place for al Qaeda" to hide in Iraq"....

Uhhh...but bombs keep going off. So if there is no place for al Qaeda to hide, how do you explain the bombs?

Did the Boy Scouts of Iraq create an IED merit badge?

[veteran72]

American and Israeli War Crimes: Same Atrocities, Different Responses
Submitted by dlindorff on Thu, 2008-05-01 16:48. General Discussion Media
By Dave Lindorff

In the last few days, both the Israeli military and the US military have fired missiles into homes, in an effort to target what they said were terrorists, in the process killing many innocent civilians.

But what a contrast we see in both the reporting on these events, and in the response within the two countries!

In the Israeli case, the IDF fired a missile into a family home in Gaza, killing a mother and her four young children, who were eating breakfast at the time. The children were aged 6 years through 15 months. While the IDF and the Israeli government blamed the tragedy on Hamas, saying it operates in proximity of civilians and is thus responsible for their deaths, an Israeli human rights group, B%u2019Tselem, has caqlled for a criminal investigation into the killings, saying that Israel and the IDF have violated internation law by firing the missile in a densely populated area where civilian casualties would be likely. A spokesman for the group, Sarit Michaeli, says that Israeli claims that it is not responsible for such deaths are incorrect, and adds that under international law, %u201CEven if you attack a legitimate military target, the anticipated damage has to be in proportion to the anticipated gain.

Mission Accomplished

[prinzowhales]

The Regime has said that if we didn''t fight al Qaeda in Iraq...they would come here...Now, if there is no place for them to ''hide'' in Iraq, as the good admiral claims...Where will they go?--Here?...Here to join that great "American al Qaeda"...the Jewish kid, Adnan Gadahn, perhaps?

[veteran72]

In Afghanistan, in Iraq, in Pakistan, in Somalia and elsewhere, the US regularly launches missiles, often from remote controlled drone aircraft, and drops large bombs on houses and even larger compounds, sometimes destroying whole villages at a time, in order to hit individual alleged terrorists. Often, it turns out on investigation that the target individuals weren%u2019t even present at the scene of these bloody massacres of civilians.

I don''t think the civilians in these countries hold ill will toward us for the murder of their families and neighbors.....they''ll probably just turn out to throw candy and flowers,.....

[veteran72]

So commonplace are these wanton acts of violence by US forces that the US-installed leader of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai, has publicly called for a halt to them, because of the number of innocent Afghan citizens being killed. Iraqis too, are enraged at the number of innocent victims of US bombings in places like Sadr City, where the killing of innocent children by US bombs has become a deadly routine.

No one%u2014not one person%u2014in the US military, the Pentagon or the Bush administration has been prosecuted for war crimes or criminal violations for these atrocities.

It becomes clearer and clearer with the passing of time that Bush%u2019s and Cheney%u2019s so-called War on Terror is actually a War of Terror, being waged against the people of such places as Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Somalia.

At least in Israel, some citizens are willing to call such behavior criminal, and to demand a halt to it.
_______________

DAVE LINDORFF is a Philadelphia-based journalist and columnist. His latest book is %u201CThe Case for Impeachment%u201D (St. Martin%u2019s Press, 2006 and now available in paperback edition). His work is available at www.thiscantbehappening.net

Fight The Criminal Corporate Fascist Neocon Nazis.

[chatmandu002]

More left wing *******.....You''re luck someone else will do your fighting for you. But of course that''s what expected from left wing *******.

[veteran72]

More left wing *******.....You''''re luck someone else will do your fighting for you. But of course that''''s what expected from left wing *******.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Posted by Chatmandu002 at 12:09 PM : May 04, 2008
+ report abuse

Tell us all about it, Capt. Dumbasss.....

[bgwinnett]

Posted by Chatmandu002

And may you be one of the fighting men/women?

[sgtrds]

More blood on Bush''s hands. More murders to add to his toll.

[veteran72]

The bad JU-JU being built up against the US by the War Criminal Bushco Regime will be hard to dispel.
Maybe singinrick can get jebus to reverse time and prevent the 2000 elections from being rigged....

[sgtrds]

Maybe singinrick can get jebus to reverse time and prevent the 2000 elections from being rigged....

Posted by veteran72 at 12:28 PM : May 04, 2008

Wouldn''t count on it. If there really was a jebus then Georgie Peorgie Bushy would have never survived his coke snorting days and wouldn''t have been around to slaughter all of the peole he has in the first place. He and Di*ck Cheney are walking talking killing proof that there is no god.

[singingrick]

More Republicon success. The the body count and the price of gas keep going up.

[chad55555]

It''s almost as dangerious as most of our American cities.There is still more murder and rape on our street then in Iraq a war zone. Being a combat veteran I guess I expect war to be a war not a conflict like a riot on our streets,like we had in N Y and L A. I really think we are giving the Muslims too much free time to build up their weapons(WMD).It''s seems to me it''s going to be a long hard road for America,trouble in and out of the country.
I heart goes out to the people and their families that get harmed in service for America. May God(Christian)one thet started this country. bless the military. THE MIDDLE EAST WILL NEVER BE AT REST,MUSLIMS WANT TO DESTROY JEW''S AND CHRISTIANS.

Wouldn''''t count on it. If there really was a jebus then Georgie Peorgie Bushy would have never survived his coke snorting days and wouldn''''t have been around to slaughter all of the peole he has in the first place. He and Di*ck Cheney are walking talking killing proof that there is no god. ===Actually, they are walking, talking, killing proof of the existence of satan, and the existence of satan proves the existence of God.

[singingrick]

chad55555


lol!

So you''ll be vacationing in Iraq this year? You''d do better to defend your country than the failed policies of a failed ideology and a failed President.

[trillion1]

bagdad is just a troll. And not a very bright one. Why demean yourself by responding?

[j-whitman]

BagdadsHere,,,, I told you of the rising Sunni problems in Anbar --- Are you ready to start listening to us about Iraq & the War on Terror now ???

[sumarongi1]

We need to get the h#ll out of Iraq. We have a situation that was promulgated on false principles and our troops live in a state of siege there. We have our fortified positions and we must go out in armed force in order to move about. Why you ask? Because to do otherwise is to court execution. The Iraqi people in detail hate us, and our presence in THEIR country. The average Iraqi looks at our troops much as the French looked at the Germans. We are invaders trying to enforce our values and agenda on an unwilling populace. When the only way to "win" is to continue to absorb losses, it''s not a "win". Anyone who thinks that any form of Iraqi government we force on them will be stable and be able to stand without our armed fist behind it, is living in a fantasy world. Did we learn nothing from Vietnam? Apparently not.
Much as I wish otherwise, the sacrifice of our troops is historically doomed and should not have been allowed to continue this long. We continue to blindly follow where fools lead us. I love our country, but I have to say I loathe our leadership or the lack thereof.

[sumarongi1]

It hasn''t been all about Saddam, either. Don''t try to feed me the "humanitarian" pap. If we are such humanitarians, where were we in Cambodia when Pol Pot was killing hundreds of thousands of people?
Where were we in Rwanda when 800,000 people were brutally slain in six months? Where were we in Darfur where hundred of thousands have been and are still being slaughtered? Were we in Kenya, where ethnic cleansing has claimed the lives of tens of thousands. BS and more BS. Those people didn''t have anything we want, so who cares, right?
There has never been any proof of an Al Qaeda / Saddam connection, nor proof of a single WMD existing.

[j-whitman]

BagdadsHere,,,, Here''s How McCain, Bush & your GOP''s been lying to you & the USA about the USS Cole,, 3 months after that attack Bush''s administration was in charge -----

They did nothing but pander to Yeman & ignor the survivors;

John P. Clodtfelter Jr. of Mechanicsville, Va., whose son Kenneth died on the Cole, said the families have tried to meet with Bush to press for more action.

"I was just flat told that he wouldn''t meet with us," Clodtfelter said. "Before him, President Clinton promised we''d go out and get these people, and of course we never did. I''m sorry, but it''s just like the lives of American servicemen aren''t that important."

[sumarongi1]

In Afghanistan, we had proof of Al Qaeda and knew Osama was using the Taliban and the heroin trade to finance terrorism. They don''t grow heroin in Iraq.
Let''s not forget our history in the region when we supported the "Shah of Iran", a far worse individual than Saddam, when we granted he and his family asylum in the U.S. after his people finally toppled his regime.
We laid the seeds of hatred in that region many decades ago and continue to do so in Iraq today. This war has done nothing more than swell the ranks of the very terrorists we wish to defeat. It has also been a huge factor in bringing this country to the depths of our present economic debacle and may just be our downfall without a single invader/terrorist entering our country.
Keep our own heads in that sand and we will eventually see the collapse of our way of life, aided by our own corrupt and self-serving corporate regime. You know, the same ones who led us into the war in Vietnam. 58,193 lives and Our own leadership and companies are the epitome of exact mindset that nurtured the problem in THIS country. Those among us that blindly follow because they have lost touch with their humanity and are in denial about their policies and mental aberrations which brought about our present circumstances. If we want to topple a regime, we should clean our own house first.

[j-whitman]

Probe of USS Cole bombing unravels
U.S. efforts frustrated as plotters are freed in Yemen

Almost eight years after al-Qaeda nearly sank the USS Cole with an explosives-stuffed motorboat, killing 17 sailors, all the defendants convicted in the attack have escaped from prison or been freed by Yemeni officials.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24449741/

[j-whitman]

A Bush 3 will lead to more failures in the War on Terror

[underdogus]

j-whitman you''re a failure and a fraud!!

[underdogus]

trillion1 and you''re a coward,and a traitor...

[j-whitman]

underdogus,,,,Try reading the news once in awhile --

Bush has Failed in the War on Terror Pandered to the Enemy in more countries than just Yemen & lied to this country doing it. ----- McCain is Bush 3

[underdogus]

More Republicon success. The the body count and the price of gas keep going up.
Posted by singingrick ..you can''t have it both ways,you wanna fight, or do you wanna pay 10.00$ a gallon of gas? COWARD!!

[underdogus]

j-whitman Bush? you mean the troops right? the troops are a failure, right?

[j-whitman]

underdogus,,,, At least the real Underdog wore a cape - You won''t even put on a uniform.

You will vote for McCain who you know will lose the War on Terror, add to our economic problems, outsource American assets & kill off American farmers ?????

[j-whitman]

underdogus,,,,, Don''t call our troops failures -- It''s the Leadership from the White House that''s been losing the War on Terror ----- Our Troops complete every task they are assigned.

Including getting killed in Anbar McCain said was secure & Mission Accomplished

[underdogus]

j-whitman and you will vote for Obama Hussain right? who will submit to Ahmadinejad,Osama bin laden!!

[no_billary]

...Im Hillary Clinton and I approved this war.

[trillion1]

underdogus is just a mindless troll like bagdad. I never waste time on his childish rantings.

[j-whitman]

underdogus,,,,, You still after all these years know nothing about the Middle East or the War on Terror. Why ?????

[guadalcanal3]

bagdadsHere...I am a Vietnam war veteran...How dare you call us "Vietnam losers"..Where were you?..In your diapers?...Or did you turn yellow and run up to Canada...and wait until that idiot Jimmy Carter pardoned you all...Also I do not want our troops to lose this war...so don''t speak for me or the rest of my brothers and sisters in arms..you disrespecting s.o.b

[writescripts]

You can never win wars where people are willing to blow themselves up in the name of religion. The USA should be in the business of protecting America, and its borders. Really, we have no business getting involved with the internal workings of any government other than or own. Also, American taxes should be for use within the USA and never ''donated'' to other countries for whatever reason.

[jamis_bond]

@guadalcanal3

you can4t win a war against 30 million people!

i am sure 99.99999% of iraqis hate you and your army from bottom of their hearts.


Think it like this, if iraqi army occupied USA what was your reaction as a US citizin? did you let them steal your oil money and kill your felow americans ?!

[downsteamjim]

To J-whitman: The death of 4 Americans must put a smile on your face.

[noloyalisti]

I feel sorry when innocent victims of our arrogant imperialistic oil craven country''s policies are killed. But they have to realize that invasion and occupation are terrorist activities and therefore the military personnel become the terrorists.

Bring them home and impeach bush-cheney.

[underdogus]

Bring them home and impeach bush-cheney.
Posted by noloyalisti The UNITED STATES WILL BECOME A THIRD WORLD COUNTRY IF WE LOSE IRAQ!! GET THAT THRU YOUR THICK SKULL YOU FRIGGIN COWARD!!

[lemonskink]

In the words of George W. Bush, "In 7 months, I''ll be back in Crawford with my feet propped up on muh couch."

[underdogus]

SANDS OF IRAQ HOLDS WORLD''S 2ND LARGEST OIL RESERVE!! WE CAN''T LOSE IRAQ !! YOU FRIGGIN B.ASTARDS!!!

[underdogus]

WW111 HAS BEGUN AND MOST AMERICANS DON''T EVEN KNOW IT!!! COWARDS!!!!!

[guadalcanal3]

jamis_bond...America...love it or leave it...''You'' should leave it and go somewhere where we can take you out with a hellfire missle

[underdogus]

FloydZepp take off your burka you Jihadist imbecile...you''re afraid of Illegals but you support radical Islam!! you friggin coward!!

[beehive21-2009]

Four Marines killed,trying to help the less fortunate,probably,heads are goin roll over it.Lots of smarties posting here, lots of wisdom,huh.

[underdogus]

"oh my god the illegals are taking over" but you friggin cowards throw the red carpet for the Muslims!! not all muslims are terrorist, but all terrorist are muslims!! FloydZepp,JWhitman and their ilk are COWARDS!!!

[smirk5]

Here''s a simple fact that eludes Cons:
The surge isn''t working.

[smirk5]

Year 6 and we are still in an unwinnable quagmire. For Cons, we need to lose troop after troop to justify all the troops we''ve already wasted.

[downsteamjim]

It is a lot better to be fighting for oil in Iraq than drilling in ANWAR. Democrats in congress want us to remain dependent on petty dictators forever.