At least 33 killed in fresh wave of Iraq violence (Roundup)
Middle East News
Oct 27, 2007, 14:04 GMT
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'Great stories within about the kind of 'success' we can expect in terms of a secure Iraq, as the U.S. military declares 'victory' and walks away '
So that is the way you are going to play it when the day does come, eh? Whatever, useful idiots aside the terrorists will know that they have been defeated.
By the way, the '33 killed' were half terrorists according to the story.
' Bush's statement predicting Iraqi control of all provinces by November was no doubt the trigger'
So terrorists are getting killed because of something Bush had to say... He should say more then.
'When the military leadership makes statements, it's what Cheney wants to hear said.
That is just another one of your lousy little lies.
October 22, 2007
Resistance is futile: You will be (mis)informed.
All describe the bizarro-world contrast between what most Americans seem to think is happening in Iraq versus what is really happening in Iraq. Knowing this disconnect exists and experiencing it directly are two separate matters. It’s like the difference between holding the remote control during the telecast of a volcanic eruption on some distant island (and then flipping the channel), versus running for survival from a wretch of molten lava that just engulfed your car.
I was at home in the United States just one day before the magnitude hit me like vertigo: America seems to be under a glass dome which allows few hard facts from the field to filter in unless they are attached to a string of false assumptions. Considering that my trip home coincided with General Petraeus’ testimony before the US Congress, when media interest in the war was (I’m told) unusually concentrated, it’s a wonder my eardrums didn’t burst on the trip back to Iraq. In places like Singapore, Indonesia, and Britain people hardly seemed to notice that success is being achieved in Iraq, while in the United States, Britney was competing for airtime with O.J. in one of the saddest sideshows on Earth.
No thinking person would look at last year’s weather reports to judge whether it will rain today, yet we do something similar with Iraq news. The situation in Iraq has drastically changed, but the inertia of bad news leaves many convinced that the mission has failed beyond recovery, that all Iraqis are engaged in sectarian violence, or are waiting for us to leave so they can crush their neighbors. This view allows our soldiers two possible roles: either “victim caught in the crossfire” or “referee between warring parties.” Neither, rightly, is tolerable to the American or British public.
Today I am in Iraq, back in a war of such strategic consequence that it will affect generations yet unborn—whether or not they want it to. Hiding under the covers will not work, because whether it is good news or bad, whether it is true or untrue, once information is widely circulated, it has such formidable inertia that public opinion seems impervious to the corrective balm of simple and clear facts.
Anyone who has been in Iraq for longer than a few months, visited a handful of provinces, and spoken with a good number of Iraqis, likely would acknowledge that the reality here is complex and dynamic. But in the last six months it also has been increasingly hopeful, despite what the pessimistic dogma dome allows Americans and British to believe.
That month-long experience was marked by “Jaish al Mahdi” (Mahdi Army or JAM)-related attacks on British soldiers. These attacks were further fueled by enemy media operations which distorted the long-planned draw-down of British troops in Basra city, something I noted in the dispatch “Maysan”...
I’ve written about why an effective and engaged media is especially crucial for the kind of counterinsurgency strategy only now being applied comprehensively in all areas of Iraq. I’ve written about how the current system of over-reliance on questionable sources creates a pressure to rush to judgment.
I’ve written about how dangerous this war is for reporters who claim there is no real consumer demand for articles about Iraq that would justify the risks. The internet erosion of the mainstream media subscriber base and advertiser support doesn’t reduce demand for news from the ground in Iraq, but it does dry up funds for anything but local stringers with spotty notions of accuracy.
But it wasn’t until I spent that week back in the States that I realized how bad things have gotten. I believe we are witnessing a conspiracy of coincidences conflating to exert an incomprehensibly destructive force on the free press system that we largely take for granted. The fact that the week in question also happened to be when General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker were delivering their reports to Congress makes me wonder if things are actually worse than I’ve assessed, and I returned to Iraq sadly convinced that General Petraeus now has to deal from a deck clearly stacked against him in both America and Iraq.
Clearly, a majority of Americans believe the current set of outdated fallacies passed around mainstream media like watered down drinks at happy hour. Why wouldn’t they? The cloned copy they get comes from the same sources that list the specials at the local grocery store, and the hours and locations of polling places for town elections. These same news sources print obituaries and birth announcements, give play-by-play for local high school sports, and chronicle all the painful details of the latest celebrity to fall from grace....
www.michaelyon-online.com/wp/resistance-is-futile.htm
Read the whole thing... Something that you have obviously intuitively grasped and are STILL seeking to exploit. It is going to blow up in your face when the time is right as well as the defeatists in congress who worked to sell out our country for short term gain and bet against the US military.
Opinion polls can be reversed, but the successes we are building in Iraq are a long term trend. In other words, you lost, bitch.
As a sort of 'realism offset' to the line of brainwashed crap coming from the resident propagandist, Petraeus is FAR from ready to declare 'success', either in terms of what's ensued thus far, or how it might turn out. The General is honorable and dealing with facts, and has a far more realistic perspective than the jerk who makes a life's work out of finding rebuttal posts, and then totally avoiding the main thrust of the argument, while nit-picking like an anteater searching for dinner. Petraeus has mitigated the upper level of decay, but can do nothing about the pervasive rot beneath.
www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/10/28/iraq/main3421081.shtml
Petraeus: Iraqi 'Mafia' Is Latest Danger
U.S. Commander Says As Al Qaeda In Iraq's Presence Is Reduced, Focus Is On Crime
(CBS/AP) The threat from al Qaeda in several former strongholds in Baghdad has been significantly reduced, but criminals who have established 'almost mafia-like presence' in some areas pose a new threat, the top U.S. commander in Iraq said Sunday. Gen. David Petraeus stressed, however, the terror organization remained 'a very dangerous and very lethal enemy' - a comment underscored by the abduction Sunday in Baghdad of 10 Sunni and Shiite tribal leaders who joined forces against al Qaeda.
'Its presence has been significantly reduced and its activity and freedom of action have been degraded,' Petraeus told a small group of reporters at a U.S. base near Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit, 80 miles north of Baghdad. He singled out success in what had been some of the most volatile Sunni neighborhoods in Baghdad, including Ghazaliyah, Amariyah, Azamiyah and Dora.
'Having said that ... al Qaeda remains a very dangerous and very lethal enemy of Iraq,' he said. 'We must maintain contact with them and not allow them to establish sanctuaries or re-establish sanctuaries in places where they were before.'
Petraeus said the reduced threat from al Qaeda had given way to nonsectarian crimes - kidnapping, corruption in the oil industry, and extortion.
'As the terrible extremist threat of al Qaeda has been reduced somewhat, there is in some Iraqi neighborhoods actually a focus on crime and on extortion that has been ongoing and kidnapping cells and what is almost a mafia-like presence in certain areas,' he said.
(Current events)
A car bomb Sunday ripped through a Kirkuk bus terminal that serves travelers to Iraq's Kurdish region, killing eight people and wounding 26, according to police Brig. Gen. Sarhat Qadir. The terminal is located in a mainly Kurdish area of Kirkuk, an oil-rich city which Iraq's Kurds want to annex to their self-rule region in the north of the country.
Gunmen sprayed a car carrying five bodyguards of the head of local Sunni Endowments department in the turbulent city of Basra, killing one of them and injuring the rest, police said.
Also in Basra, a mainly Shiite city 340 miles southeast of Baghdad, a local elections official was gunned down late Saturday in front of his house.
Ten Sunni and Shiite tribal leaders who had joined forces against al Qaeda in Iraq were abducted by gunmen in Baghdad. The gunmen ambushed two cars carrying the 10 men in Baghdad's predominantly Shiite neighborhood of Shaab as the sheiks - seven Sunnis and three Shiites - were on their way back to Diyala province after attending a conference with the Shiite-dominated government's adviser for tribal affairs to discuss coordinating efforts against al Qaeda in Iraq. They were representing a so-called Awakening Council, as the anti-al Qaeda groups often are known, in the Salam area, due east of Baqouba, a former al Qaeda stronghold.
Earlier in the Abdul-Hamid village outside the Diyala provincial capital of Baqouba, suspected al Qaeda fighters kidnapped 10 villagers after they clashed with insurgents from a rival group, according to a police officer there.
(What a frustrating existence - getting up each morning and having to justify Bush's failed policies, while protecting his legacy. He's very lucky to have her. No way General Powell would have been able to do this without his head exploding from ethics conflicts. Note particularly Rice's comments in the final paragraph below).
www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-blackwater26oct26,1,48557 76.story?coll=la-headlines-nation
WASHINGTON -- For months, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice fended off demands from Democrats on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee that she testify about a growing list of State Department problems in Iraq.
Rice finally made her appearance Thursday, and faced aggressive questioning about corruption in the Iraqi government, rogue behavior by security guards for private contractor Blackwater USA, and construction defects at the new $600-million U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.
Rep. John Yarmuth (D-Ky.) accused the administration of sugarcoating the situation in Iraq and ignoring rampant government corruption. 'Any person with half a brain would understand that the situation is not good or else you'd want to talk about it,' Yarmuth said.
'Since I'm certain we all have a brain, let me say it this way,' Rice shot back. 'There is a very bad problem of corruption in Iraq. It is a problem in ministries, it is the problem in government, it is a problem with officials.'
(Let's once again look at what she said, as her composure dropped for a moment):
''There is a very bad problem of corruption in Iraq. It is a problem in ministries, it is the problem in government, it is a problem with officials.''
(THAT's why the surge is irrelevant in the long term, without the Iraq government taking the lead. In the short term the surge results reduce U.S. troop deaths, which is what the U.S. voters focus on. Nothing against our public - but they are numb to the overall problems of the Iraq people we're SUPPOSED to be helping to create an actual COUNTRY. Like Bush's feel-good visit to L.A. as the latest photo-op, and his 9/11 appearance on a pile of rubble, he takes the glory, and leaves the problems behind to fester. Schwarzenegger did a superb job after the fires, and Bush rode in for his 'glory moment' like Roy Rogers used to on the rodeo circuit. Here's Petraeus in another interview ... )
www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/1028iraq1028.html
'Al-Qaida in Iraq is just one of many groups, large and small, fighting in Iraq. The Shiite militias in particular have pursued campaigns of sectarian cleansing, at times working with Iraqi security forces to kill and displace Sunni families.
Petraeus said he sees uneven progress in terms of stopping Shiite militia violence. He mentioned Bayaa and al-Amil, two neighborhoods in southwestern Baghdad where the Mahdi Army, a Shiite militia loyal to anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, has emerged as a dominant force, as among the more difficult. He described another nearby area, Sadiyah, as probably 'the toughest that is out there now.''
www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/1028iraq1028.html
'Al-Qaida in Iraq is just one of many groups, large and small, fighting in Iraq. The Shiite militias in particular have pursued campaigns of sectarian cleansing, at times working with Iraqi security forces to kill and displace Sunni families. Petraeus said he sees uneven progress in terms of stopping Shiite militia violence.
(The article below identifies a big reason for the reduction in violence which has NOTHING to do with al Qaeda. In addition, the number of formerly 'mixed' neighborhoods has been reduced, as the Shia have chased the Sunni out of those areas, and taken over their property. In those localities, Shia militia enforce the 'peace', and since the Sunni were removed, violence drops. The risk now is the collapse of the cease-fire amongst the major Shia factions - for the present, al-Maliki is allowing U.S. operations in Shia areas which he formerly would not tolerate. It's impossible to know how long he'll put up with it).
=====================================
ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gkx-3oYeFwuWKCusr2jrojs98w8wD8SH5F6O0
Aide: Al-Sadr Could Lift Cease-Fire
BAGHDAD (AP) — Radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr could end a ban on his militia's activities because of rising anger over U.S. and Iraqi raids against his followers, an aide said Friday amid concerns about rising violence and clashes between rival factions in the mainly Shiite south.
Al-Sadr's call for a six-month cease-fire has been credited with a sharp drop in the number of bullet-riddled bodies that turn up on the streets of Iraq and are believed to be victims of Shiite death squads.
Al-Sadr aide Sheik Assad al-Nasseri said during a sermon in the mosque in Kufa, 100 miles south of Baghdad, that patience with the U.S. operations was running out and the freeze could be lifted anytime. 'It was one decision which could end in one minute and then they will be sorry,' al-Nasseri told worshippers. He blamed U.S. and Iraqi security forces for killing civilians in the crackdown, singling out recent military operations against militia fighters in the mainly Shiite cities of Diwaniyah, 80 miles south of Baghdad, and Karbala, 50 miles south of the capital.
'The detention campaigns against al-Sadr's people were not conducted according to issued arrest warrants as they claim,' he said. 'They went so far as to assault women and children in front of husbands, brothers and fathers. These are shameful things. ... They are more unjust to us than the Saddamists.' Al-Nasseri also complained that an agreement to end violence between followers of al-Sadr and rival Shiite politician Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim had failed to yield tangible results.
(Note that propagandist dum-dum's Michael Yon post just dumps the entire content like a trash truck at a dump site, without a link for attribution. That MIGHT be because Michael Yon is a right-wing blogger, rather than a recognized MEDIA source. For reference, this is his site, which comes supplied with his own ego, free of charge. He quotes Michael Barone as a source, which is a good clue as to his biases. He's also ex- Special Forces, and critical of 'censorship' from Central Command. No wonder he's a dum-dum role model.)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Yon
He has stated several times on his blog that he is not a journalist and has no formal journalism training or experience; he is, however, a published author and his coverage of the Iraq war was submitted for the Pulitzer Prize. Yon is a former Special Forces soldier. He was charged with killing a man in a barroom fight, but the charges were subsequently dismissed when it was determined that he had acted in self-defense. His book, Danger Close, details this event and tells the story of his life up to the age of about 20, after he had completed the selection and training process for the Special Forces. It has been claimed that he was one of the youngest men to become a member of Special Forces.
Yon has accused LTC Barry A. Johnson of US Central Command of 'a subtle but all too real censorship' and 'ineptitude in handling the press'.
(I've made similar comparisons, comparing the surge to treating a cold while the patient dies of a major disease. Friedman uses a similar logical metaphor, and understands the scope of the total problem in a VERY good article. I pasted about 90 percent of it, rather than just the link and a small excerpt as I usually do, because it’s content-rich and based on sound judgment, rather than bias).
www.nytimes.com/2007/10/24/opinion/24friedman.html?th&emc=th
I don’t know whether it was the sheer agony of the debate over Gen. David Petraeus’s testimony, or the fact that the surge really has dampened casualties, or the failure by Democrats to force an Iraq withdrawal through Congress, or the fact that all the leading Democratic presidential contenders have signaled that they will not precipitously withdraw U.S. forces from Iraq, but the air has gone out of the Iraq debate.
That is too bad. Neglect is not benign when it comes to Iraq — because Iraq is not healthy. Iraq is like a cancer patient who was also running a high fever from an infection (Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia). The military surge has brought down the fever, but the patient still has cancer (civil war). And we still don’t know how to treat it. Surgery? Chemotherapy? Natural healers? Euthanasia?
To the extent that the surge has worked militarily, it is largely because of what Iraqis have done by themselves for themselves — Iraqi Sunni tribal leaders rising up against pro-Qaeda Sunni elements, taking back control of their villages and towns, and aligning themselves with U.S. forces to do so. Some Shiites are now doing the same.
There has been no equivalent surprise, though, in Iraqi politics, yet. If you see that — if you see Iraqi politicians surprising you by doing things they’ve never done before, like forging a self-sustaining political compromise and building the fabric of a unified country, then you can allow yourself some optimism.
So far, though, too many of Iraq’s leaders continue to act their part — looking out for themselves, their clans, their hometowns, their militias and their sects, and using the Iraqi treasury and ministries as looting grounds for personal or sectarian gains. As a result, what you have today is more of a spotty truce, with U.S. soldiers still caught in the middle. That is a quiet strategy, not an exit strategy.
Study the travel itineraries of Iraq’s principal factional leaders after the Petraeus hearings. Did they all rush to Baghdad to try to work out their differences? No. Many of them took off for abroad. As one U.S. official in Baghdad pointed out to me last week, “at no point” since the testimony by General Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker “have you had the four key Iraqi leaders in the same country at the same time.” They saw the hearings as buying them more time, and so they took it.
“We have created a real case of moral hazard in Iraq,” said Marc Lynch, a Middle East specialist at George Washington University. “Because all the key players think the Americans are going to bail them out, they have no incentive to make any real concessions to one another.”
Indeed, I continue to believe that everyone has us where they want us in Iraq: We’re holding up the floor for Iraqi politicians to do their endless tribal dance; we are bogged down and within missile range of Iran, so if we try to use any military force to disrupt Tehran’s nuclear program we will pay a huge price; and as long as we are trapped in Iraq, we will never even think about promoting reform elsewhere in the Arab world — to the relief of all Arab autocrats.
No question, there has been more local cross-sectarian dialogue lately, particularly between Shiite and Sunni elders. But that seems to be the limit of Iraqi politics. People there can act as tribes, sects and clans, but not as a unified government — so there is no one systematically consolidating whatever gains the surge has made.
It still feels to me as if we’ve made Iraq just safe enough for its politicians to be obstinate, corrupt or reckless on our dime. Even the moderate Kurds must have developed some kind of death wish, allowing their radicals to simultaneously provoke both Turkey and Iran and risking the island of real decency the Kurds have built in the north.
General Petraeus’s strategy is to keep trying to knit the different militias and tribal fragments in Iraq together into a national army and government so we can shrink our presence. I truly wish him well. But I don’t see it happening without two things: some shock therapy — like a firm U.S. withdrawal signal — to spur Iraqi leaders, and a regional settlement. That is, without resolving the cold war in the Middle East that now pits America on one side and Iran and Syria on the other, I’m not sure you can stabilize Iraq, Lebanon or Israel-Palestine.
Letting everyone know that we’re not staying there forever would be the best way to catalyze both local and regional negotiations and give us something we don’t now have: leverage. Just letting Iraq recede into the back pages does not serve our interests. If we’re going to just forget about Iraq, let’s do it when we’re gone — not when we’re still there.
www.nytimes.com/2007/10/24/opinion/24friedman.html?th&emc=th
To the extent that the surge has worked militarily, it is largely because of what Iraqis have done by themselves for themselves — Iraqi Sunni tribal leaders rising up against pro-Qaeda Sunni elements, taking back control of their villages and towns, and aligning themselves with U.S. forces to do so. Some Shiites are now doing the same.
So far, though, too many of Iraq’s leaders continue to act their part — looking out for themselves, their clans, their hometowns, their militias and their sects, and using the Iraqi treasury and ministries as looting grounds for personal or sectarian gains. As a result, what you have today is more of a spotty truce, with U.S. soldiers still caught in the middle. That is a quiet strategy, not an exit strategy.
As one U.S. official in Baghdad pointed out to me last week, “at no point” since the testimony by General Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker “have you had the four key Iraqi leaders in the same country at the same time.” They saw the hearings as buying them more time, and so they took it.
“We have created a real case of moral hazard in Iraq,” said Marc Lynch, a Middle East specialist at George Washington University. “Because all the key players think the Americans are going to bail them out, they have no incentive to make any real concessions to one another.”
Purchase the November Vanity Fair magazine, and read the lengthy article on massive overcharges by Halliburton, and Kellogg, Brown and Root on their 'cost plus' contracts, which have been renewed with completely inadequate oversight, similar to what Rice testified to with regard to taxpayers expenditures in Iraq. Here's a link as well:
www.truthout.org/docs_2006/100807A.shtml
'Americans working in Iraq for Halliburton spin-off KBR have been outraged by the massive fraud they saw there. Dozens are suing the giant military contractor, on the taxpayers' behalf. Whose side is the Justice Department on?'
=========
In the same issue, you can read a large article on the new U.S. monolith being constructed in the Green Zone, to be known as the U.S. Embassy. THIS is where the new diplomats would be housed, which was the lead story generating the M&C thread in the first place.
www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=14993509
'The new U.S. embassy in Baghdad is shaping up to be the largest and most lavish embassy in the world. Tucked inside the heavily fortified Green Zone, the $600-million compound will include grocery stores, a movie theater, tennis courts and a club for social gatherings.
In 'The Mega Bunker of Baghdad,' Vanity Fair reporter William Langewiesche describes the compound — and argues that it's not being built for diplomacy.'
(Foreign workers were used after their passports were confiscated, and they were effectively turned into slave labor. Since subcontractors ran this, the blame has been passed on to them - see the final paragraph below)
www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,511579,00.html
But now the State Department in Washington is having to face accusations of mismanagement and shoddy building practices. Due to last-minute repairs that will add an estimated $150 million to the building's price tag, the embassy, which was scheduled to open in September 2007, won't open its doors until the beginning of next year.
So far, criticism has been restrained. But behind closed doors, Democrats and senior Iraqi politicians are quietly wondering whether the giant project might turn into a giant disaster.
The State Department's inspector general has opened a probe into the sole-source contracts to determine whether their expense is justified and whether the tendering process was short-circuited in order to privilege particular companies. The First Kuwaiti General Trade and Contracting Company, which won the construction contract, is currently under investigation by the Justice Department for alleged labor abuses.
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The sound of standards droppingOct 27th, 2007 - 17:47:06
(Great stories within about the kind of 'success' we can expect in terms of a secure Iraq, as the U.S. military declares 'victory' and walks away - these links are all within the past few days. Bush's statement predicting Iraqi control of all provinces by November was no doubt the trigger. When the military leadership makes statements, it's what Cheney wants to hear said.)
www.att.net/s/editorial.dll?bfromind=7813&eeid=5372008&_sitecat=1505&dc atid=0&eetype=article&render=y&ac=-2&ck=&ch=ne
US Will Hand Iraqis Control of Karbala
Published: 10/27/07, 11:46 AM EDT
NAHRAWAN, Iraq (AP) - U.S. forces will turn over security to Iraqi authorities in Karbala province, a Shiite region in south, on Monday, the American commander for the area said. The much-delayed process has been punctuated by fierce fighting between rival militia factions.
Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, who is in charge of the 3rd Infantry Division, said the Iraqis were ready to assume full control of their own security in the south-central province, which holds the shrines of two major Shiite saints, Imam Abbas and Imam Hussein. But U.S. troops will remain ready to step in when help is needed. Karbala will become only the eighth of Iraq's 18 provinces to revert to Iraqi control, despite President Bush's prediction in January that the Iraqi government would have responsibility for security in all of the provinces by November.
Lynch dismissed concerns about rivalries among Shiites, two months after clashes between militiamen battling for power erupted during a major pilgrimage in the provincial capital of Karbala, left at least 52 people dead.
'Of course there's violence in the area but not nearly of the magnitude that would cause me to be troubled by it,' he told The Associated Press on Saturday. 'This place is about a struggle for power and influence and there are indeed inter-Shia rivalries where different groups are trying to be in charge and sometimes they revert to violence, but it's not at the magnitude that's got me concerned,' he said during a visit to a new patrol base being constructed in the Shiite city of Nahrawan.
www.iwpr.net/?p=icr&s=f&o=340103&apc_state=henh
Scams Enrage Karbala Residents
Politicians and militia accused of stealing electricity supplies.
Officials and local militia groups in the southern province of Karbala are siphoning off the province’s dwindling power supply, leaving residents to rely on private generators, say local people.
“There are some terrorists who set off bombs, and there some are terrorists who steal, like those officials [who keep electricity for themselves],” said Ali Jafar, a 55-year-old resident of the Shia city’s al-Malimeen neighbourhood.
The Iraqi government estimates it is only supplying about half the electricity to service the needs of the public and businesses across the country, which are demanding more power than ever before. In Karbala, the power runs for about two hours for every four hours of blackouts.
Karbala governor Aqil Mamoud al-Khazali told IWPR that the province receives about one-third of the power it actually needs. Khazali estimated that Karbala province requires 250 megawatts per day, but receives no more than 70 megawatts for its 500,000 population, which has been swollen by an influx of people displaced by violence in other parts of the country.
afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gCYmtOL3MvawuyMD4uYBNPoAxEHA
Deadly clashes erupt in Iraqi Shiite holy city
KARBALA, Iraq (AFP) — Fierce clashes broke out between Shiite militants and Iraqi forces in the Shiite holy city of Karbala late on Sunday, killing six fighters and a soldier, medics and police said.
The fighting erupted when gunmen from the Mahdi Army, the militia controlled by radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, ambushed an Iraqi police patrol, a police officer from Karbala told AFP on condition of anonymity.
He said the patrol was struck by a roadside bomb and later attacked by small arms fire. The clashes erupted hours after the US military declared it had killed 49 'criminals' in Baghdad's Sadr City, the bastion of the Mahdi Army.
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