Posted on 02/26/2006 10:48:27 PM PST by BlackVeil
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Violence killed at least 29 people Sunday, including three American soldiers, and mortar fire rumbled through the heart of Baghdad after sundown despite stringent security measures imposed after an explosion of sectarian violence.
A ban on driving in Baghdad and its suburbs helped prevent major attacks during daylight Sunday, but after nightfall explosions thundered through the city as mortar shells slammed into a Shiite quarter in southwestern Baghdad, killing 16 people and wounding 53, police said.
Mortar fire also hit a Shiite area on the capital's east side, killing three people and injuring six, police reported.
Nevertheless, officials announced they would let vehicles back on the streets at 6 a.m. Monday in part because shops were running out of food and other basics. Gasoline stations were closed, and people were unable to go to work Sunday, a work day in this Muslim country.
The vehicle ban, which followed a curfew that kept everyone in the Baghdad region inside for two days, was part of emergency measures imposed after Wednesday's bombing of a Shiite shrine in Samarra triggered a wave of reprisal attacks on Sunni mosques and clerics, pushing Iraq to the brink of civil war.
With the relaxation of emergency measures, officials said that Monday would present a major test of whether the worst of the crisis had passed. As dawn approached, the roar of U.S. jet aircraft could be heard patrolling the skies over this tense city.
... ___
Associated Press writers Alexandra Zavis, Bassem Mroue, Qassim Abdul-Zahra and Jalal Mudhar in Baghdad, Ali al-Fatlawi in Hillah and Hana Abdellah in Baqouba contributed to this report.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
I though our super duper techology could detect and stop a mosquito from 10 light years away, yet the mortars keep a comin'.
Technology ... remember how they said that having computers would mean less work ...
"Business Resuming in Baghdad. Life Returning to Normal. Sunni, Shiite and Kurd Leaders Working Together to Unite the Citizens."
There is a large scale demonstration expected in Baghdad today. We'll see how that goes, but this doom and gloom reporting while ignoring the positives has just gotten so old.
Thanks for keeping the thread honest; Allegra! :-)
Do the AP/UPI/Reuters/CNN people ever leave the hotel to get their news?
Or are they still using teen boys as runners?
Personally, I think these "correspondents" just sit around the hotel bar there at the Palestine and suck down drinks while collaborating on which lies they're going to tell that day in order to support their Hate Bush / Hate America agenda.
That Arab woman journalist from Al-Arabia was actually out at Samarra - when she was killed. There have been a record number of journalists killed in Iraq, so the poor security situation is one reason for "bar-room" reporting.
Wouldn't doubt that for a second.
Wonder if anyone gets pics...
The woman who was killed worked for al-Araybia, not the liberal U.S. media.
There is no excuse for the distorted, blatantly biased reporting coming out of Iraq by the Alpahbet/Reuters/CNN/AP/slanted print media crowd.
I don't go gallivanting around Iraq on my own whim either, but I see and hear enough here to know that what they report is a lot of slanted BS.
Do you have an idea what the character of the demonstration is supposed to be? That is, is it a call for unity, or one faction against another? Gateway Pundit is reporting several unity demonstrations:
Unity Protests Break Out in Basra, Mosul, Hillah, Al Kut, Karbala...
I hope it's a unity march, but judging by the planned location, it's hard to tell.
Thanks, Allegra.
Firefight going on in Sadr City right now.
That's two.
I smell Mookie Sadr.
(I'm not near any of this. I'm in the central part of town.)
Thanks for the updates. Does not sound good.
If I get any more details that I'm allowed to spill, I'll let you know.
After my last post I went over to google news to see what they had as headlines. They were not screeming negative news about the skirmishes, which was a sign to me that the MSM saw no particular advantage to their agenda in highlighting it.
It will eventually show up, but maybe in one of their "lump it all together" stories --- the ones that rehash everything from the last week to make it sound as if it were all today's events.
I think the Iraqi's are going to pull this off right, and actually be much stronger in the long run. Over the last dozen years or so I've met a number of Iraqi's who fled Saddam's regime. It gives me a little taste of what you must be experiencing with knowing so many Iraqi's and working with them for years. These people deserve real peace, freedom, and prosperity. It is just that getting there brings so many ugly moments --- but also some times of great encouragement.
Thanks for the updates.
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