Posted on 11/22/2005 12:46:34 PM PST by The South Texan
Iraq Bomber Kills 17; U.S. Toll at 2,100 By BASSEM MROUE, Associated Press Writer
BAGHDAD, Iraq - A suicide car bomber attacked a police patrol Tuesday in the northern city of Kirkuk, killing at least 17 people, and three U.S. soldiers died in two separate attacks, pushing the American death toll in Iraq to 2,100, officials said.
In Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit, insurgents fired a mortar at a U.S. ceremony attended by top officials to hand over a presidential palace to Iraqi authorities, sending the U.S. ambassador and top commander scrambling for cover but causing no injuries.
The attackers in Kirkuk lured the patrol to a busy commercial street by shooting a policemen, then struck with the suicide bomb as authorities investigated the shooting, said police Capt. Farhad Talabani. The bombing took place on a road leaving Kirkuk, 180 miles north of Baghdad.
Police Brig. Gen. Sarhad Qader gave the casualty figure of 17 dead and 26 wounded but did not say how many were civilians.
Attacks on the security forces in Kirkuk are common. Insurgents last week in Kirkuk opened fire on a police patrol, killing three officers, while a roadside bomb a few miles away killed two more police officers.
The U.S. military said a U.S. soldier assigned to the 2nd Marine Division wask killed after a bomb detonated near his vehicle Monday near Habaniyah, 50 miles west of Baghdad. There are several U.S. Army units assigned to the Marine division.
In addition, two soldiers from Task Force Freedom were killed Saturday by small arms fire while on patrol in Mosul, 225 miles northwest of Baghdad, another statement said.
As of Tuesday, at least 2,100 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in 2003, according to an Associated Press count. At least 1,638 died as a result of hostile action, according to the military's numbers. The figures include five military civilians.
The attack on the ceremony in Tikrit, 80 miles north of Baghdad, occurred as a U.S. colonel was giving a speech. A mortar whistled as it fell into a field about 300 yards away from the palace, but it failed to explode, according to an AP reporter at the scene.
U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad and the U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. George Casey, briefly went inside the palace, but emerged a few minutes later to continue the ceremony.
"This was an ineffectual attempt to stop the progress that goes on every day in Iraq," said Lt. Col. Barry Johnson, a spokesman for the U.S. command.
Later, Hamad Hamoud Shagtti, the Salahuddin provincial governor, received a symbolic key to the palace and a deputy governor raised the Iraqi flag over the complex. They toured the building, which Saddam ordered built for his mother in 1991 and is considered the largest and most elaborate of the palaces constructed during his rule.
Johnson said the handover of the palace was an important step forward in Iraq's development, something that insurgent attacks have done little to slow down, despite daily violence.
The palace is part of a complex on more than 1,000 acres overlooking the Tigris River. There are 136 buildings on the property, with a combined 1.5 million square feet of administrative and living space, including 18 palaces, the U.S. command said.
The turnover of the complex to the Finance Ministry and the provincial government was "a landmark event highlighting the increased capability of the Iraqi government to administer and govern itself," said a statement by Col. Billy J. Buckner, a spokesman for the Multi-National Corps-Iraq.
Since it was taken over by U.S. troops in 2003, the palace has served as a division headquarters for U.S. forces based in the region.
"Although 28 other coalition operating bases have already been turned over to Iraqi Security Forces control this year, the Tikrit Palace complex is the most significant transition of real estate thus far," the U.S. statement said.
Iraq's anti-corruption commission said Tuesday that members of the former government who are under investigation will not be allowed to run in next month's parliamentary elections.
Judge Radhi al-Radhi issued a statement saying there are some ministers, undersecretaries and directors who are accused of financial and administrative corruption.
"Since there are financial corruption dossiers for these officials at the Iraqi special courts, they are not qualified to take part as candidates in the coming elections," the statement said.
A commission official, who asked not to be identified because he is not authorized to speak to the press, said Minister of Public Works Nasreen Berwari, who is the wife of Vice President Ghazi al-Yawer, and Hazin al-Shaalan, a former defense minister, are among those banned.
___
Associated Press writer Zaki Mahmoud in Tikrit contributed to this report.
That didn't come out too good - sorry!
Good thing they weren't around from 1942-1945.
"Go balloons, go balloons! Go balloons! I don't see anything happening. Go balloons! Go balloons! Go balloons! Standby confetti. Keep coming, balloons. More balloons. Bring it- balloons, balloons, balloons! We want balloons, tons of them. Bring them down. Let them all come. No confetti. No confetti yet.
No confetti. All right, go balloons, go balloons. We need more balloons. All balloons! All balloons! Keep going! Come on, guys, lets move it. Jesus! We need more balloons. I want all balloons to go, goddammit. Go confetti. Go confetti. More confetti. I want more balloons. What's happening to the balloons? We need more balloons.
'We need all of them coming down. Go balloons- balloons? What's happening balloons? There's not enough coming down! All balloons, what the hell! There's nothing falling! What the f*** are you guys doing up there? We want more balloons coming down, more balloons. More balloons. More balloons'...
As the death toll rises there will be reports and commentary in the MSM about playing 'tit for tat' with the 3000 or so lives lost on 9/11...-sickening...
"As the death toll rises there will be reports and commentary in the MSM about playing 'tit for tat' with the 3000 or so lives lost on 9/11...-sickening..."
That thought came to my mind just the other day. I can just see the headlines from AP and the round the clock discussions about it on PMSNBC and CNN.
Want to bet on whether any UF official mentioned the number 2,100. I bet not and that would make the above a LIE on the part of AP and the reporter.
I feel the same way. Only my bitterness is extended to the dems as well. They're a tag team both trying to defeat America's efforts in this war.
Too bad we can't round them all up (the dems and the media) and turn them over to the Iraqi people and let them deal with them!
"insurgents fired a mortar at a U.S. ceremony attended by top officials to hand over a presidential palace to Iraqi authorities, sending the U.S. ambassador and top commander scrambling for cover..."
In the first 5 minutes of their morning show, Matt and Katie ran the video from this incident twice. I'm guessing they showed it at least a dozen times by the end of their show. Katie was absolutely orgasmic.
True.We know if this had not become partisan early on there would have been more progress and less lives lost.We cannot ever diminish the fine work day after day by OUR FINEST the and Allies and now the Iraqi blood brothers.It would have been preferable had not the world and terrorists see the divide and disturbance brewed by the plush distractors. Many counted upon to their own peril that the collapse of will or support would occur.They have blood on their hands and have served an enemy which will cut them later.
A-Pee news...
We lose over 100 people a day to automobile accidents. Approx 40,000 people a year.
If the press covered it the same way, you would be terrified every time you got behind the wheel. If you decided to walk instead of drive you would be worried about being hit by a car.
I guess I am old fashioned; I expect people to get killed on both sides of a military action: and not have it portrayed as something really unusual. - tom
Actually one can find the threads to that and grooming toward future support.They don't seem to know they will also get their heads cut off but find safety in the back of the line.
Bigtime corruption everywhere.Some are involved to survive.Whipe it all out and have corrupt officials in this country distort and disturb an effort which has expended so much sacrifice.Interesting how everything has to perfect when it's somebody else and complete disaster doesn't touch those who bitch from a podium.
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