What "APOLOGIZING TO MUSLIME" Will Get You!
Posted on 06/24/2004 8:57:10 AM PDT by Happy2BMe
Jun 24, 9:24 AM (ET) BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Insurgents killed 75 people on Thursday in a wave of attacks across Iraq aimed at sabotaging the handover to Iraqi rule in six days' time. Guerrillas struck in Baquba, Falluja, Ramadi, Mosul and Baghdad, wounding more than 250 people in an intensification of a bloody campaign by Iraqi rebels and foreign militants. Three U.S. soldiers were killed. In Mosul, 240 miles north of Baghdad, multiple car bombings on police buildings rocked the city, killing at least 44 people and wounding 216, the Health Ministry said. Fighting in Anbar province, which includes Falluja and Ramadi in the Sunni Muslim heartlands of central Iraq, killed at least nine people and wounded 27, the ministry said. At least seven large explosions shook Mosul and local television ordered residents to stay at home. Police blocked all major roads and announced a dusk-to-dawn curfew. Apart from the Iraqi casualties, the U.S. military said an American soldier had been killed and three wounded in the blasts. It said a security guard was also killed. Gunfire rattled across Mosul as insurgents fought running battles with U.S. troops and Iraqi police. Four Iraqi national guardsmen were killed and two civilians wounded by a car bomb blast in southern Baghdad, an officer in the force said. Hospital staff put the death toll at five. ZARQAWI'S FINGERPRINTS Scores of black-clad gunmen, some claiming loyalty to Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, attacked a police station and other government buildings in Baquba, 40 miles northwest of Baghdad, in a dawn assault. It appeared to be the first time members of Zarqawi's underground network had surfaced in street combat. Interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi said he believed Ansar al-Islam, a group previously linked to Zarqawi, was behind the Mosul bombings. But he blamed Baathists loyal to Saddam Hussein for the attacks in Ramadi and Baquba. The U.S. Army said two soldiers had been killed and seven wounded in an ambush in Baquba that involved roadside bombs as well as small-arms and rocket-propelled grenade fire. The Health Ministry said 13 people had been killed and 15 wounded in the mixed Sunni-Shi'ite town. U.S. air strikes destroyed three buildings that guerrillas were using to fire on 1st Infantry Division soldiers and Iraqi security forces near Baquba's sports stadium. Many of the fighters wore yellow headbands bearing the name of a Muslim militant group "Saraya al-Tawhid and Jihad" (Battalions of Unification and Holy War). They handed out leaflets warning Iraqis not to "collaborate" with Americans. "The flesh of collaborators is tastier than that of Americans," the leaflets said. Zarqawi's Jama'at al-Tawhid and Jihad group has claimed responsibility for many attacks in Iraq, including this week's beheading of a South Korean hostage. Witnesses said an Iraqi hospital director and his driver were killed on a road near Baquba. A police car burned nearby. In Ramadi, insurgents fired mortars at two police stations and the house of a security official in Ramadi, about 70 miles west of Baghdad. They also clashed with U.S. troops. The U.S. military said seven Iraqi police and 12 insurgents had been killed in the fighting. AIR STRIKES IN FALLUJA Fierce clashes raged for two hours in Falluja where U.S. Marines called in air strikes by planes and helicopters on guerrilla targets in the rebellious town west of Baghdad. A U.S. Cobra helicopter was shot down during the Falluja fighting but the crew walked away unhurt, Marines said. Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, deputy director of operations for the U.S. army in Iraq, said clashes in a number of Iraqi cities had subsided by noon. Iraq's fledgling security forces, the main target of the violence, are crucial to the interim government's prospects for imposing order after the June 30 handover. NATO leaders are likely to agree to a request from Allawi to train Iraqi forces when they meet in Istanbul next week, NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer told Reuters. Eight British servicemen were freed on Thursday after three nights in Iranian hands, ending a wrangle that had threatened to inflame tensions over Britain's presence in Iraq.
By Alistair Lyon
Seal the borders, send special forces into Iran and Syria for disruptive ops, and warn France, Russia, the PRC, misc CIS nations and other outsiders who are suspected of supporting Iran and Syria, as well as the insurgents, that we consider all such support to be an overt act of war, subject to any and all retaliation measures at our disposal. Oh, and naturally, we must muzzle the Dept. of State, the CFR, and all other multilateralist, pacifist anti Clausewitzian forces.
Hey, idiots. THESE are rebels:
THESE guys are terrorist scum:
We are witnessing the beginning of the Iraqi civil war. Phase 3 of the conclict.
What will come in Phase 4?
If foreign terrorists entered the US and started killing hundreds of americans would that also be the beginning of a civil war?
The terrorists already tried to start a civil war in Iraq and failed. This new violence is just desperation and utterly useless.
Internationalization of the conflict. The fall of Saudi Arabia or Pakistan to religious extremists and the nuclearization of Iran. That's my guess anyway.
If the Iranians keep doing dumb, stupid things like feeding mjhahedeen fighters into Iraq and capturing British patrol boats (they tried to caputer 4 USMC patrol boats) - IRAN WILL BE PHASE 4, 5, and 6.
Its folding into a civil war nonetheless. Kurds will have to go to the brink or over it to maintain their freedom and rights with a Shia majority. Sunni's with multiple foreign sponsors and fighters are actively killing policemen and government officials. Shia are split amongst themselves but hope to win control through 'democratic' means. While foreigners are involved, this summer is going to be a rough, no holds barred, civil war.
I don't know if we are really prepared to push the envelope with Iran. I completely doubt that we are prepared to do it before the election without massive provocation. The Iranians seem to be counting on our election cycle to make it difficult for us. Their actions are going to become increasingly outrageous.
This summer is not going to be easy, that's for sure. But a civil war is not going to happen soon. What we have are terrorists killing Iraqis working with the coalition. They don't care if they are sunni, shia or kurd. You never see skirmishes between rival factions of Iraqis. It's always terrorists against coalition forces.
The majority of Iraqis just wants the fighting to stop.
Looks like now it is terrorists/insurgents against iraqi civil authorities. It appears to be both foriegners, former Baathists and and impoverished Shia. Kurds are waiting to see if their rights are protected in the upcoming election and constitutional discussion. I think the war has evolved from its recent state of all muslims against the occupying infidels to various factions against the naiscent Iraqi government. One good sign was the poll published today showing high hopes and support for the Iraqi president and prime minister.
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