BAGHDAD, June 24, 2008
2 GIs, 2 U.S. Workers Killed In Iraq Blast
Sadr City Blast Targeted U.S. Convoy, Killing Americans And At Least 6 Iraqis
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Qasim al Sudani, an Al Sadr city council member lies on a bed in hospital in Sadr city, Baghdad as relatives and friend stand next to him, on Tuesday, June 24, 2008. Sudani is one of three council members who was wounded after a bomb struck a municipal council building Tuesday in Baghdad's Shiite Sadr City district. (AP Photo/Karim Kadim)
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A U.S. Army soldier patrols in Salman Pak, about 15 miles south of Baghdad, Iraq, on Monday, June 23, 2008. (AP Photo/Loay Hameed)
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Leigh Rich hugs her son, Australian soldier Private Kenneth Pegg, on his return home from Iraq at the Brisbane International Airport Sunday, June 22, 2008. The return of the soldiers from the Overwest Battle Group (West) Four marks the end of Australian soldier combat deployment in Southern Iraq. (AP Photo/ Tony Phillips)
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An Iraqi woman reacts at the scene were a female suicide bomber detonated her explosives in Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, Iraq, on Sunday, June 22, 2008. A female suicide bomber struck near a government compound northeast of Baghdad on Sunday, killing at least 15 people and wounding 40, the police said. (AP Photo)
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Iraqi men and police officers inspect bodies outside a morgue who were killed after a female suicide bomber attack in Baqouba, Sunday, June 22, 2008. (AP Photo)
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Photo Essay Week In Iraq Photos A daily diary with scenes of the latest attacks and snapshots from the effort to rebuild a nation.
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Interactive Iraq: 5 Years At War Five years after the U.S.-led invasion, the war wears on.
U.S. troops captured a suspect who tested positive for explosive residue after fleeing the scene, the military said. It blamed Shiite extremists for the attack.
The explosion occurred a day after a suspected Sunni gunman opened fire on U.S. soldiers attending a municipal council meeting southeast of Baghdad, killing two of the troops and wounding three others. An interpreter was also killed in that attack.
Tuesday's blast occurred in the office of the council's deputy chief as Americans and Iraqi officials were gathered nearby about half an hour before a meeting to elect a new chairman, said Hassan Karim, Sadr City's top administrator.
Karim said he was sitting in his office, which is located at the same building and about 50 yards from the targeted office, when the bomb exploded. He said he ran out of his office and found the corridors engulfed in smoke.
He couldn't confirm the number of casualties, saying that several employees and visitors were inside the building.
"I only saw three council members on the ground who were wounded before the Americans ordered us to stay in another office fearing another explosion could take place," Karim told the Associated Press in a telephone interview.
After that, he said, the U.S. troops started investigating the employees and the guards of the building. A witness said the Americans rounded up the guards in the immediate aftermath. U.S. troops sealed off the building and the area.
The district council office is in a southern section of Sadr City that is largely controlled by U.S. and Iraqi troops following weeks of fighting in the area amid a government crackdown against the militias.
Deputy council chief Hassan Hussein Shammah, who was believed to be the attack's main target, was wounded in his leg.
"We were getting ready for the weekly meeting to discuss the services in the area. Suddenly a huge explosion took place," he told AP Television News from his hospital bed.
The U.S. military said one soldier was wounded in addition to the two soldier fatalities. U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Mirembe Nantongo said the dead American civilians included one State Department and one Defense Department employee.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, in Berlin for a conference on Palestinian security, was informed of the attack shortly after it occurred and spoke with U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker about it, according to State Department spokesman Sean McCormack.
An official of the Iraqi Interior Ministry said six Iraqi civilians were killed and 10 others wounded. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to release the information.
U.S. military officers have been working vigorously to restore and promote local administrations amid a sharp drop in attacks over the past year, with the goal of preventing areas from falling back under the control of rival Sunni and Shiite extremists.
Their increased presence in local communities has made them more vulnerable to attacks, but American commanders have cited it as a necessary factor in a strategy that has helped drive down the levels of violence to the lowest point in more than four years.
The U.S. military blamed Tuesday's attack on "special groups criminals," a term it uses for Shiite militiamen refusing to follow a cease-fire order by anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
"This was the fourth meeting of this district council, led by hardworking Iraqis determined to make a difference and set Sadr City off on the right path. Special Groups are afraid of progress and afraid of empowering the people," said Lt. Col. John Digiambatista, operations officer with the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division.
The attack in Madain also targeted Americans who were attending a municipal council meeting in the area, also known as Salman Pak, about 14 miles southeast of Baghdad.
U.S. troops killed the assailant, who was believed to be a former member of the municipal council, after the attack, which occurred in an area with a history of Sunni-Shiite tension.
In related developments:
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- Rest in Peace Chief!! We''ll miss you.
- Reply to this comment
- Two more dead Americans, who were sacrificed in needless a War based on LIES. Sacrificed as cannon fodder for the Lying Corporate Rulers of this nation, pursuing Oil and Regional Dominance of the middle east.
FIVE MILES of end to end US troop coffins, think about it next time you are driving along the highway.
Bush and Cheney deserve to be Jailed for Life for the all the death and destruction they have unleashed. And the pathetic spineless Democrats have blood on their hands as well.. - Reply to this comment
- IRAQ
%u2018He Should Never Have Gone to Iraq%u2019
More borderline troops are being sent to the front, sometimes with tragic results.
By Dan Ephron | NEWSWEEK
Jun 30, 2008 Issue
Pvt. David Dietrich had a history of cognitive problems. He struggled in boot camp at Fort Knox, Ky., striking at least one of his superiors as unfit for the military. Dietrich was so slow at processing new things, some fellow soldiers called him Forrest Gump. His squad leader, Pfc. Matthew Berg, says Dietrich couldn''t hit targets on the rifle range and had trouble retaining information. "He was very strong physically, but mentally he wasn''t really all there," Berg says. Recruited as a cavalry scout, one of the toughest specialties in the Army, Dietrich seemed to lack the essential skills for the job: concentration, decisiveness and the ability to move around without being noticed. He was sent for psychological evaluations at least twice, yet somehow Dietrich advanced%u2014from Fort Knox to Germany and on to Iraq in November 2006. Eight weeks later, at 21, Dietrich was killed by a sniper while conducting reconnaissance from an abandoned building in Ramadi. - Reply to this comment
- The U.S. general who led the Army''s investigation of the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal says the Bush administration "has committed war crimes" as a result of what happened to detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay "when the Commander-in-Chief and those under him authorized a systematic regime of torture."
Those declarations, by retired Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba, are contained in the preface he wrote for a new report by Physicians for Human Rights, "Broken Laws, Broken Lives: Medical Evidence of Torture by US Personnel and Its Impact." The group said its findings %u2014 "based on internationally accepted standards for clinical assessment of torture claims" %u2014 are the first to use medical evidence to document first-hand accounts of torture. Eleven former detainees were examined.
Taguba testified before Congress in 2004 about the abuses at Abu Ghraib after the U.S. invasion of Iraq in March 2003. His damning report ultimately led to his being pushed out of the Army.
http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2008/06/taguba-bush-adm.html - Reply to this comment
- LOL!! I see you miss me already. LOL!! Don''''''''t worry. I''''''''m going to a different news channel forum and you "people" can hate allll youuu want unchallenged.
Bye Haters.
Posted by bhoogren at 07:25 PM : Jun 24, 2008
We were unchallenged WHILE you were here.
Now beat it troll - adults are talking!
Posted by hungry1968 at 07:33 PM : Jun 24, 2008
I hope the door does hit him in the as*s on his way out. - Reply to this comment
- I''''m sure that it will be greeted as a liberator at the other site.
Posted by FeelFree4U at 07:34 PM : Jun 24, 2008
And all the right wing mental midgets will get on their soap box''s and applaud his arrival - Reply to this comment
I''m sure that it will be greeted as a liberator at the other site.- Reply to this comment
- LOL!! I see you miss me already. LOL!! Don''''''''t worry. I''''''''m going to a different news channel forum and you "people" can hate allll youuu want unchallenged.
Bye Haters.
Posted by bhoogren at 07:25 PM : Jun 24, 2008
We were unchallenged WHILE you were here.
Now beat it troll - adults are talking!
Posted by hungry1968 at 07:33 PM : Jun 24, 2008
And the door has been officially slammed in the snakes face - Reply to this comment
- LOL!! I see you miss me already. LOL!! Don''''t worry. I''''m going to a different news channel forum and you "people" can hate allll youuu want unchallenged.
Bye Haters.
Posted by bhoogren at 07:25 PM : Jun 24, 2008
We were unchallenged WHILE you were here.
Now beat it troll - adults are talking! - Reply to this comment
- Re: "I''''m going to a different news channel..."
Try www.michaeltotten.com.
It is not really a news channel, but it is jam-packed with hateful, dishonest, craven blather, for eunuchs only.
I think that you will really like it.
Posted by FeelFree4U at 07:30 PM : Jun 24, 2008
He''s got to slither off, to dump off more of his rotten candy and dead flowers to another board - Reply to this comment
Re: "I''m going to a different news channel..."
Try www.michaeltotten.com.
It is not really a news channel, but it is jam-packed with hateful, dishonest, craven blather, for eunuchs only.
I think that you will really like it.- Reply to this comment
- I''m going to a different news channel forum.
Posted by bhoogren at 07:25 PM : Jun 24, 2008
GOOD - Reply to this comment
- Posted by bhoogren
As you slither away
Posted by red164
... .... ...
LOL!! I see you miss me already. LOL!! Don''t worry. I''m going to a different news channel forum and you "people" can hate allll youuu want unchallenged.
Bye Haters. - Reply to this comment
- The vast majority of Bush/Cheney supporters are gutless cowards and pus*sies just like their heros Bush and Cheney are.
Posted by SgtRDS-E4 at 07:05 PM : Jun 24, 2008
Draft dodging cowards all of them.
Funny too that all of these gutless wonders, that refuse to serve due to "yellow" fever, are always the first to call those of us that DID serve, cowards, traitors, etc, etc. - Reply to this comment
- This could lead a person to wonder if English is not your native Language.
Posted by bhoogren at 06:58 PM : Jun 24, 2008
By pointing out that you''re an incompetent / Bush supporter, that can''t articulate himself / herself?
Again, I''m sorry. I forgot to "dummy down" for you.
ar7tic7u7late --adj. -- Expressing oneself easily in clear and effective language - Reply to this comment
- Posted by bhoogren
As you slither away - Reply to this comment
- ALSO
BAGHDAD %u2014 A disgruntled local official opened fire Monday on U.S. soldiers attending a municipal council meeting southeast of Baghdad, killing two of them and wounding four other Americans, U.S. and Iraqi officials said.
The assailant died in a hail of gunfire after the attack, which occurred in the town of Madain, also known as Salman Pak, about 15 miles south of Baghdad in an area with a history of Sunni-Shiite tension.
U.S. officials confirmed two American soldiers died and that four Americans, including a civilian interpreter, were wounded.
Iraqi police and witnesses said the attack took place in front of the Madain municipal building where the Americans had come to confer with local authorities.
U.S. officials said the Americans were leaving the building when the assailant opened fire about 1 p.m. However, the U.S. officials released no further details except that the assailant was killed.
"The attacker came out of his car with an AK-47 rifle in his hand and started firing on the American soldiers until he was killed by the return fire," said Hussein al-Dulaimi, 37, who owns an agricultural machine shop across the street. - Reply to this comment
Re: "I think it''s because they are such complete cowards that they think they need Bush and Cheney to protect them from the "evildoers". To help them fight back the terrorists under their beds and in their closets. They''re frightened children."
Posted by SgtRDS-E4
That seems to be a fair assessment.- Reply to this comment
Re: "You hater monkeys have fun and be sure to drink plenty of moveon.or Kool-aid. LOL!!"
Posted by bhoogren
Progressive/liberal, or bloodthirsty Zionist eunuch?
You decide.- Reply to this comment
- They don''''t even have the stones (being a castrate and all) to admit to being a Bush regime supporter/apologist.
Posted by FeelFree4U at 07:07 PM : Jun 24, 2008
I think it''s because they are such complete cowards that they think they need Bush and Cheney to protect them from the "evildoers". To help them fight back the terrorists under their beds and in their closets. They''re frightened children. - Reply to this comment
