Violence surges across Iraq, coalition forces under attack (Roundup)

[bemildred]

Source: DPA

Baghdad - An explosion rocked Baghdad's Shiite-dominated Sadr City on Saturday killing two Iraqis, while multi-national forces were attacked in Diwaniya overnight, reports said.

The violence occurred amid reports of a planned three-mile wall around a notorious Baghdad Sunni district.

In one of the violent incidents, a blast ripped through Sadr City in eastern Baghdad killing two people and wounding eight others, the Voices of Iraq news agency reported.

Eyewitnesses told the local news source that the blast was caused when a bomb-laden bus was detonated as it passed a checkpoint.

Read more: http://news.monstersandcritics.com/middleeast/news/article_1294558.php/Violence_surges_across_Iraq_coalition_forces_under_attack%3Cb%3ERoundup_

[Spinzonner]

1. I guess it's time for the counter-surge

[maddezmom]

2. just to keep it one place, an earlier LBN link with some of today's incidents

Truck bomb attack wounds 8 U.S. troops, destroys overpass
Source: CNN

BAGHDAD (CNN) -- A bridge overpass on a highway that connects Baghdad with Jordan was blown up by a suicide truck bomb that also killed one Iraqi civilian and wounded eight U.S. troops Friday afternoon, according to the U.S. military.

The attack was aimed at a U.S. military checkpoint along the Baghdad-Amman highway just northeast of Saqlawiya between Ramadi and Falluja and about 45 miles west of Baghdad, according to a U.S. military spokesman. The overpass partially collapsed onto the highway, the miltary said.

In other violence reported Friday, the bodies of 19 people were found in various sections of Baghdad, a Baghdad police official said. Each body was found with hands bound and a bullet in the head, he said. (Posted 4:42 a.m.)

more at the link:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=2816268&mesg_id=2816268

[bemildred]

3. Yeah, most of this didn't look new, but I liked the headline. nt

[maddezmom]

4. here is one of the dumbest headlines: Dozens detained in Iraq air assault

Dozens detained in Iraq air assault
BAGHDAD (CNN) -- Iraqi security forces detained an insurgent and 46 "suspicious" people in an air assault operation on Friday in the northern Iraqi province of Nineveh, the U.S. military said on Saturday.

Coalition advisers backed Iraqi forces in an air assault -- an operation in which aircraft carry troops to battle -- in the village of Fadiliya.

U.S. and British aircraft normally carry out air operations in Iraq. But, the military statement on the incident doesn't specify which unit would have been involved in the raid. (Posted 11:08 a.m.)

http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/04/21/saturday/index.html

[bemildred]

6. That means they don't feel safe in ground vehicles.

That is a very expensive way to arrest suspicious people, but you don't get IED'd, and the people you are after don't get much warning from the locals.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

5. Germany.

[rodeodance]

7. 2 troops dead-----one US and one Polish:

The US-led coalition forces, however, said on Saturday that an American soldier was killed and two others were wounded when their patrol was attacked by an explosive device in southwestern Baghdad.

Security sources also told Voices of Iraq that the British consulate in Basra, 550 kilometres south of Baghdad, came under fire from five Katyusha rockets. The attack occurred near dawn and did not yield to human losses, according to the source.

Also on Saturday, the Polish Defence Ministry said that a Polish soldier was killed and four were wounded in an explosion during a night-time patrol also in Diwaniya.

[alcibiades_mystery]

8. How are they going to build a wall? Ridiculous

Every segment they put up will be blown up the next day, supposing that they can even protect the laborers who are constructing the segments in the first place.

They're really aiming for a French-Algeria War style Casbah here; I thought all these commanders were meant to have watched The Battle of Algiers?

[maddezmom]

9. FALLUJA - Gunmen shot the head of the Falluja municipal council, Sami al-Jibouri, in central Falluja

FALLUJA - Gunmen shot the head of the Falluja municipal council, Sami al-Jibouri, in central Falluja, police said.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L2121918.htm

[maddezmom]

10. more: Fallujah council leader assassinated

Fallujah council leader assassinated By SINAN SALAHEDDIN, Associated Press Writer
2 minutes ago



BAGHDAD - The chairman of Fallujah's city council, an outspoken critic of al-Qaida who took the job in the former Sunni insurgent stronghold after his three predecessors were assassinated, was killed in a drive-by shooting on Saturday, police said.

The assassination of Sami Abdul-Amir came as insurgents target Sunnis willing to cooperate with the U.S. and its Iraqi partners, particularly in Anbar, the volatile province that includes Fallujah, 40 miles west of Baghdad.

Police said the 65-year-old sheik was shot to death by attackers in a passing car as he was walking outside his home. His predecessor, Abbas Ali Hussein, was shot to death on Feb. 2.

Both men were critics of al-Qaida in Iraq, which is battling a growing number of Sunni tribes that have turned against it in a violent struggle for control of Anbar — a center for anti-U.S. guerrillas since the uprising in Fallujah in 2004 that galvanized the insurgency.

more:http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070421/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq;_ylt=Aov9tjiy1GJY6_o9mVnQ5O9vaA8F

[maddezmom]

12. Fallujah council leader assassinated, 4th killed on job in just over a year

The chairman of Fallujah's city council, an outspoken critic of al-Qaida who took the job in the former Sunni insurgent stronghold after his three predecessors were assassinated, was killed in a drive-by shooting on Saturday, police said.

more:http://www.dailycomet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070421/API/704211507

[maddezmom]

11. new word: officialdom = Green Zone

Report of mortars striking Baghdad's Green Zone
BAGHDAD (CNN) -- Two mortars landed in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone on Saturday, an Iraqi Interior Ministry official said.

The military said indirect fire, a term used to describe mortar and artillery fire, caused several explosions, but there have been no casualties reported.

The area in the Iraqi capital is the command center for U.S. and Iraqi officialdom, and it has been the object of attacks in recent weeks.

http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/04/21/saturday/index.html

[maddezmom]

13. 3 civilians in Baquba shot dead

3 civilians in Baquba shot dead
BAGHDAD (CNN) -- Gunmen killed three civilians in Baquba on Saturday night, according to a security official in Iraq's Diyala province. Two of the civilians were shot dead in a market in central Baquba.

Earlier today police raided the same market and detained seven suspected insurgents. Another civilian was found shot to death in a different neighborhood. Baquba is the capital of Diyala -- located north and east of Baghdad. (Posted 3:12 p.m.)


more:
http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/04/21/saturday/index.html

[xchrom]

14. they had a fire sale on rugs...and surges.

[bemildred]

15. Three More U.S. Soldiers Killed In Iraq

BAGHDAD -- The U.S. military reported the deaths of three soldiers in separate attacks in and around Baghdad Saturday.

A roadside bomb killed one soldier and wounded two others while they were on a foot patrol southwest of the capital.

A military vehicle was also hit by a roadside bomb and then came under small-arms fire in southwestern Baghdad. One soldier was killed and three wounded in the attack.

http://www.nbc5.com/news/12743034/detail.html?rss=chi&psp=nationalnews

Can you imagine a US city, where three cops were being killed every day?

[0rganism]

16. remind me again, what part of this "surge" is going well?

Would that be the part about building a wall?