Boots representing Corporal Timothy D. Ross sit among more than 3,400 pairs of combat boots, one pair for every U.S. soldier killed in the Iraq War, displayed as part of 'Eyes Wide Open: An Exhibition on the Human Cost of the Iraq War' in Chicago, May 25, 2007. Eight more U.S. soldiers have been killed in five previously unreported attacks in different areas of Iraq over the past four days, the U.S. military said on Saturday. (John Gress/Reuters)
>Update to today's Post: Statement by Andrew Bacevich.
SECURITY INCIDENTS
Baghdad
Police said they had found the bodies of 12 men, aged between 15 and 24, handcuffed, tortured and killed in the Doura district of southern Baghdad.
Reuters also reports:
- Gunmen killed two people and wounded nine others when they threw concussion grenades at a busy market in Shorja in central Baghdad, police said.
- Gunmen killed two people and wounded eight in the Bab al-Muadham area of central Baghdad, police said.
- Iraqi security forces found the bodies of 20 people across Baghdad on Saturday, police said. Most of the victims had gunshot wounds and were apparent victims of sectarian violence.
- U.S. forces detained 18 suspected insurgents and destroyed a cache of weapons and bomb-making materials during operations against al-Qaeda in Iraq, the U.S. military said.
- U.S. and Iraqi forces detained a militant leader believed to have ties to a network that imports deadly roadside bombs from neighbouring Iran during a raid in Baghdad's Shi'ite militia stronghold of Sadr City. Iran denies giving insurgents or militias weapons or funding.
In addition, Reuters reports, "The Iraqi army killed four insurgents and arrested 137 others during the past 24 hours in different parts of Iraq, the defence ministry said."
During a raid in Sadr City, U.S. forces shot an approaching vehicle and set it ablaze, according to the U.S. military. No injuries reported. However, AP Television News footage showed several cars burned and destroyed in the street, including a van that was scorched black, had its windows knocked out and its upholstery incinerated. The footage also showed a house that appeared to have been ransacked.
AP also reports that following the Shorja Market attack, "Later, the same gunmen ambushed a minibus, killing the driver, stealing the vehicle and abducting six passengers, police said."
Around 10.00am, three policemen were wounded by IED that targeted a convoy of interurban police in Al-Adhamiya neighborhood north Baghdad.
The Association of Muslim scholars claims that a U.S. air raid in western Baghdad killed 10 and wounded "scores". This report is not clear on the date of the alleged incident, but it appears to refer to Sunday morning.
Multi-National Corps Iraq reports today that one MND-B soldier was killed and four injured by an IED on Saturday. Two of the injured RTD, condition of other two unspecified.
Diyala Province (unspecified locations)
Major Gen. Caldwell says that U.S. forces rescued 41 Iraqi civilians Sunday from an al-Qaida hide-out northeast of Baghdad, including some who showed signs of torture and broken bones. No further details are available at this time. There is no information that any suspects were captured in this operation.
A group of gunmen, "disguised" as security personnel, abducted Sunday a high-ranking Iraqi police officer. Quotation marks around "disguised" added by me. They might have been disguised, or they might not have been -- C
One Task Force Lightning soldier killed, two injured in road-side explosion.
Kut
70 police officers resigned Sunday morning and handed over their weapons. Police said they cited their fears of being targeted by anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army militants. Something seems wrong with this, the Mahdi Army is not known for attacks on police. -- C
UPDATE: The information is buried in in this AP story, and the sense is even reversed, but it turns out the police have been engaged in an offensive against the Mahdi Army, which has threatened retaliation. "Earlier this week, Mahdi Army militants captured at least seven members of the police rapid deployment force during a gun battle, police said. The militants beat the police officers and warned them to stop their offensive against the militia or they would kill them, an officer said on condition of anonymity because he feared retaliation."
Nahrawan
Gunmen killed two farmers and wounded nine others in a drive-by shooting in Nahrawan, 30 km (20 miles) south of Baghdad, police said.
Basra
British forces killed three militants during a raid in Basra against those behind a complex attack involving roadside bombs, rocket-propelled grenades and gunfire, the British military said. Four people were also detained.
Shelling of British bases in Basra continues overnight Saturday and into Sunday.
Shirqat
Gunmen killed a police lieutenant-colonel and a captain in a drive-by shooting on Saturday south of Shirqat, 80 km (50 miles) south of Mosul, police said.
Samarra
Two senior police officers killed.
Mosul
One killed and 5 injured by car bomb explosion in Al Dhubat neighborhood.
Salah ed Din Province
Every time I see this name, it's spelled differently, which was starting to annoy me. I have decided to go with the standard English transliteration of the name of the great Kurdish general and empire builder as found in my Random House unabridged dictionary.
Two Iraqi police officers from Salaudeen province police, northern Baghdad, were assassinated by masked gunmen, police said.
OTHER NEWS AND IN-DEPTH REPORTING
Mercenaries continue to operate in Iraq without accountability or even public disclosure of their activities. This report from WaPo's Steve Fainaru and Saad al-Izzi no doubt describes only the tiny public tip of a big iceberg. Excerpt:
A Blackwater guard shot and killed an Iraqi driver Thursday near the Interior Ministry, according to three U.S. officials and one Iraqi official who were briefed on the incident but spoke on condition of anonymity because of a pending investigation. On Wednesday, a Blackwater-protected convoy was ambushed in downtown Baghdad, triggering a furious battle in which the security contractors, U.S. and Iraqi troops and AH-64 Apache attack helicopters were firing in a congested area.
Blackwater confirmed that its employees were involved in two shootings but could neither confirm nor deny that there had been any casualties, according to a company official who declined to be identified because of the firm's policy of not addressing incidents publicly.
Blackwater's security consulting division holds at least $109 million worth of State Department contracts in Iraq, and its employees operate in a perilous environment that sometimes requires the use of deadly force. But last week's incidents underscored how deeply these hired guns have been drawn into the war, their murky legal status and the grave consequences that can ensue when they take aggressive action.
Matthew Degn, a senior American civilian adviser to the Interior Ministry's intelligence directorate, described the ministry as "a powder keg" after the Iraqi driver was shot Thursday, with anger at Blackwater spilling over to other Americans working in the building.
Iran specialist on Council on Foreign Relations, Ray Takeyh, doesn't expect much to come from tomorrow's ambassador-level talks between U.S. and Iran in Baghdad. U.S. threats and saber-rattling against Iran, in his view, make diplomatic progress unlikely. However, Gary Sick is more optimistic. (Audio link)
Quote of the Day
Under the dry grass stem The words are blurred, are thickened, the words sift Confused by the rasp of the wind, by the thin grating Of ants under the grass, the minute shift And tumble of dusty sand separating From dusty sand. The roots of the grass strain, Tighten, the earth is rigid, waits -- he is waiting -- And suddenly, and all at once, the rain! The living scatter, they run into houses, the wind Is trampled under the rain, shakes free, is again Trampled. The rain gathers, running in thinned Spurts of water that ravel in the dry sand, Seeping in the sand under the grass roots, seeping Between crack boards of the bones of a clenched hand: The earth relaxes, loosens; he is sleeping, He rests, he is quiet, he sleeps in a strange land.
-- Captain Archibald MacLeish, U.S. Army, later Asst. Secretary of State, among other accomplishments. This poem, "Memorial Rain," was written in commemoration of his brother, killed in WWI.
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