Bush Starts "Second Surge" to Double Number of Troops in Iraq

[MrsSpringsteen]

By SINAN SALAHEDDIN, Associated Press Writer

Twenty beheaded bodies were discovered Thursday on the banks of the Tigris River southeast of Baghdad, while a parked car bomb killed another 20 people in one of the capital's busy outdoor bus stations, police said.

The beheaded remains were found in the Sunni Muslim village of Um al-Abeed, near the city of Salman Pak, which lies 14 miles southeast of Baghdad.

The bodies — all men aged 20 to 40 years old — had their hands and legs bound, and some of the heads were found next to the bodies, two officers said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information.

Meanwhile, a parked car bomb ripped through a crowded transport hub in southwest Baghdad's Baiyaa neighborhood at morning rush hour, killing at least 20 people and wounding more than 50, another officer said on the same condition.

Many of the victims had been lining up for buses, awaiting a ride to work. Some 40 minibuses were incinerated in the explosion, police said.

Associated Press Television News video showed an open square strewn with smoldering car parts and charred bodies with clothes in tatters. Bystanders, some weeping, gingerly loaded human remains into ambulances.

 

[Irvine511]

can someone please, please, please explain to me how staying in a country without a working government, without a functioning military, and defined by centuries and centuries of easily exploited sectarian hatred, is going to make things better? what possible indication do we have that, if we stay the present course, things will look any different at all in 10 years?

 

[Irvine511]

[q]5 U.S. Soldiers Killed in Iraq Attack
LAUREN FRAYER | June 29, 2007 11:41 AM EST |

BAGHDAD — Insurgents launched a deadly coordinated attack on an American combat patrol, detonating a roadside bomb, then firing guns and rocket-propelled grenades at the soldiers, the U.S. military said Friday. Five troops were killed.

Seven soldiers were wounded in the attack on Thursday in southern Baghdad and were evacuated to a military hospital; one has since returned to duty, the military said.

"It was a very violent attack and we thought it did show a level of sophistication that we have not often seen so far in this campaign," Army Maj. Gen. Joseph F. Fil Jr., commanding general of Multi-National Division Baghdad and First Cavalry Division, said Friday.

As U.S. troops have gone through Baghdad in areas previously overrun by militants, "they are starting to fight very hard and that's what we saw yesterday."

The deaths brought to 99 the number of U.S. troops to die in Iraq this month, according to an Associated Press count. The toll for the past three months _ 329 _ made it the deadliest quarter for U.S. troops in Iraq since the war began in March 2003.

At least 3,576 members of the U.S. military have died since then, according to AP figures. The number includes seven military civilians. At least 2,936 died as a result of hostile action, according to the military's numbers.

Meanwhile, radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr postponed a Shiite march to a bombed shrine north of Baghdad that was scheduled for July 5, an aide said.[/q]

 

[MrsSpringsteen]

Oh just give it some time, that surge will eventually work. Patience people, patience. Rome wasn't built in a day!

 

[deep]

Two U.S. soldiers charged with murdering Iraqis

* Story Highlights
* Soldiers accused of killing three Iraqis, planting weapons near bodies


BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Two U.S. soldiers have been charged with the premeditated murders of three Iraqis killed in three separate incidents between April and June of this year, according to a U.S. military statement.

In addition to the murder charges, the two enlisted men are accused of trying to cover up the crimes, committed in Iskandariya, about 25 miles south of Baghdad, by planting weapons next to the Iraqis' bodies, the military said.

The soldiers are identified as Staff Sgt. Michael A. Hensley, of Candler, North Carolina, and Spc. Jorge G Sandoval, Jr., of Laredo, Texas.

Hensley was charged with three counts of premeditated murder, three counts of obstruction of justice and three counts of "wrongfully placing a weapon" next to a body. Hensley was arrested Thursday and taken to Kuwait to be held before the trial.

Sandoval faces one count of premeditated murder and one count of wrongfully placing a weapon next to a body. He was arrested Tuesday at his home in Texas and was also taken to Kuwait, the military said.

Both are assigned to the U.S. Army's 1st Battalion, 501 Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade (Airborne), 25th Infantry Division, based at Fort Richardson, Alaska.

The military statement said the investigation into the killings began when fellow soldiers reported wrongdoing to military authorities.

Also, U.S.-led coalition forces killed about 26 people they described as "secret cell terrorists" and captured another 17 during raids in Baghdad's Sadr City Saturday morning, the U.S. military said -- an operation that brought an angry response from Iraq's prime minister.

The U.S. military said the raids, conducted in the pre-dawn hours in the densely populated Shiite slum, targeted terrorists tied to "Iranian terror networks," which the military said are responsible for helping the flow of lethal aid into Iraq.

An Iraqi Interior Ministry official said local officials reported just seven people killed and that all of them were civilians.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said the attacks were carried out without the proper approval.

"The government will demand an explanation from the multinational forces about what happened in Sadr City earlier today," said al-Maliki, who deplored what he characterized as attacks on civilians under the guise of "fighting terrorists and militias."

Surge will be judged by the number of al-Qaeda body count??

Get those nunbers up.

 

[A_Wanderer]

BAGHDAD -- Iraqi civilian deaths in Baghdad dropped significantly in June, a possible indication that recent American military operations around the country and raids on car-bomb shops in the "belts" ringing the capital are starting to pay off.

But June also marked the end of the bloodiest quarter for U.S. troops since the war began in March 2003.

Unofficial figures compiled by McClatchy Newspapers' show 189 Iraqis, including police and government security forces, were killed in the capital through Friday, a drop of almost two thirds since this year's high in February, when 520 were killed. The average monthly death toll of Iraqis in Baghdad was 410 from December through May.

The downturn in civilian deaths in Baghdad, should the figures hold, could arm Lt. Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. military commander in Iraq, with the kind of results he needs to forestall pressure to set timetables on troop withdrawals. He is scheduled to deliver a progress report on the war to Congress in September.

http://www.centredaily.com/news/nation/story/140542.html