Police in Iraq being killed is a sign of "improvement of the security situation"

[ProSense]

Campaign Seen Against Iraqi Security Officials

By ALISSA J. RUBIN
Published: September 25, 2007

BAGHDAD, Sept. 25 — Sunni extremists appear to have begun a systematic campaign to assassinate police chiefs, police officers and other Interior Ministry officials throughout Iraq, with at least 10 attacks in the last 48 hours.

Eight policemen have been killed, among them the police chief of Baquba in Diyala Province. There were assassination attempts on two other police chiefs, which left one of them in critical condition. About 30 police officers have been injured during the attacks, according to reports from local security offices.

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“The main reason behind all these attacks is the signs of improvement of the security situation mentioned in the Crocker-Petreus report,” said Tahseen al-Sheikhly, a spokesman for the Iraqi security forces, referring to the report by the American ambassador, Ryan C. Crocker, and Gen. David H. Petraeus on the increased levels of the American and Iraqi troops in Baghdad and surrounding areas

“The terrorist groups are just trying to say to the world that the report did not reflect the reality of the security situation in Iraq,” Mr. Sheikhly said. “We expect these attacks to increase in the coming days because the terrorists want to tell the world that they still exist although in fact they have failed.”

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Another al-Sheikhly gem

Iraq car bombs kill nine after 28 die in mosque blast

Tue Sep 25, 8:54 AM ET

BAGHDAD (AFP) - A spate of powerful car bombs in Baghdad and Iraq's southern port city of Basra killed at least nine people on Tuesday, a day after a suicide bomber killed 28 people in a Baquba mosque.

In the Iraqi capital, where the number of bomb attacks has dropped since a "surge" of US troops onto its streets six months ago, a double car bombing killed six people and wounded at least 20, security and medical officials said.

The devices exploded almost simultaneously in mid-morning outside Al-Rafidain bank in Zayunah, a mixed inner neighbourhood.

"The blasts occurred 30 seconds apart," a security official said.

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updated 10:31 a.m. EDT, Tue September 25, 2007

24 die in Iraq peace meeting blast

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A suicide bombing in Iraq's volatile Diyala province ripped through a "reconciliation meeting" on Monday night attended by Sunni and Shiite militia leaders -- a brazen attack that killed and wounded dozens and fractured an effort to foster amity between the rival sects.

Iraq's Interior Ministry and the U.S. military counted 24 dead and 37 wounded.

The attacker detonated a suicide belt inside the Shifta Shiite mosque in western Baquba during the daily breaking of the Ramadan fast, Interior Ministry officials said.

Abstention from eating is religious duty for Muslims during the present holy month of Ramadan and the hiatus is broken during an evening meal.

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"Every contractor in Anbar who works for the U.S. military...is paying the insurgency"