Calls for calm as crowd stones Iraqi PM

Reuters ^

[Lunatic Fringe]

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Angry fellow Shi'ites stoned Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's motorcade in a Shi'ite stronghold of Baghdad on Sunday in a display of fury over a devastating car bomb that tore through their area.

Maliki was visiting the Sadr City slum to pay respects to some of the 202 victims of last week's devastating bombing.

"It's all your fault!" one man shouted as, in unprecedented scenes, a hostile crowd began to surge around the premier and then jeered as his armored convoy edged through the throng away from a mourning ceremony.

The area is a base for the Mehdi Army militia led by Maliki's fellow Shi'ite leader Moqtada al-Sadr.

Though the violence was limited, it was a dramatic demonstration of the popular passions Maliki and his national unity government are trying to calm following Thursday's multiple car bombs in Sadr City -- the worst since the U.S. invasion -- and later revenge attacks.

On Sunday, a car bomb killed at least 6 people and wounded more than 20 in a market just south of Baghdad, police said.

On the third full day of a curfew on the capital, mortar bombs crashed down in various parts of Baghdad and residents reported isolated and mostly unexplained clashes.

The government has said traffic can circulate again from Monday morning but, after a series of high-level meetings, it again appealed for calm.

[Earthdweller]

"I keep reading that Al-Maliki needs Sadr's folks in parliament to stay on as prime minister. This is supposedly why Al-Maliki is reluctant to really come down hard on Sadr."

I have no knowledge of military strategy but isn't it possible to move our troops to the far north and the far south rather than pull out completely and let Maliki and Sadr work out the central area on their own over a period of time? If Sadr and Maliki together are so "powerful"...why can't Sadr stop the violence?

[Steel Wolf]

Starting from now, it would greatly inflame the Shia population. It is up to the Iraqis to deal with him, and if they are smart, then they would let fatso leave the government and form another.

Well, after al-Sadr loyalists take over the government, we won't have to worry about inflaming the Shia anymore. Hinging your strategy on "if they are smart" is up there with "if I win the lottery, I can pay my bills".

[debg]

Can't wait to see you screaming when gas prices are sky high. That's what will happen if your plan takes effect giving the oil fields over to the terrorists.

Keeping Iraqi oil in check is a positive outcome.

[RightWhale]

"It's all your fault!"

Somebody could hand out mirrors and make sure they keep them clean and polished for a long time to come.

[debg]

Corrected post:

Can't wait to see you screaming when gas prices are sky high. That's what will happen if your plan takes effect giving the oil fields over to the terrorists.

Keeping Iraqi oil in check is a positive outcome.
Giving freedom to 25 million Iraqis is a positive outcome.

[Allegra]

Iraq's FUBAR, it's time to go. Our guys are dying for nothing now - except political correctness. And that's bullshit.

No. What the media is feeding you folks back home is bullshit.

But shame on any of you who swallow it and regurgitate it.

You're helping the media's/Democrats'/terrorists' cause when you do that, by the way.

None of us here want to cut and run. So why don't you armchair generals find another cause and let us get this done. OK?

[supremedoctrine]

Reuter's headlines are getting as provocatively misleading as NewsMax's---
unless that is the poster's headline. Big difference between a motorcade getting stoned, and one of the people inside it, especially considering the rich and colorful history of "stoning" in the Arab/Muslim world.

[txrangerette]

***No I'm not Kerry.***

Take it up with the vast majority of the troops over there and with heroes like our Allegra. To them, and to me, you might just as well be John Kerry. It really makes no difference to THEM over there, and I'm with them. Think about it. A rose by any other name...still does what a rose does. And the end result of people like you is angering, mystifying, saddening and disgusting the heroes there, who are not stupid and don't need or want the likes of any of you pronouncing "the way it is" a la Walter Cronkite and Vietnam. Coming from the Left or from the Right, it makes not one whiff of difference to THEM. If you were thoughtful and rational, you would see that. You wouldn't ask us to buy the crap that because it comes from YOU, from YOUR kind of mindset, it's called for and acceptable. They don't care who you are or what your freakin' angle is. You make them SICK.

[Allegra]

HIGH FIVE! :-)

[RobbyS]

These local goals tend to lead to broader ones. Ever wonder what motivates the suicide bombers? Suicide bombing began in Israel, but the technique was taken up by Al Kayda, whose goals were quite different, and much more global. Furthermore, it is like any other weapon. If it is sanctioned by success, it will be used. Every method used by the Germans in 1914 was used by us eventually. The exception was poison gas, but only because it was ineffective--then. The Germans were then lead by men as rational and calculating as the English, and like Hitler later on, they aimed at world domination. The difference was that Hitler also had other, totally irrational
motives and goals. We need to consider the possibility that Iran is indeed more like Nazi Germany than Wilhemine Germany, that their goals are equally ambitious. After all, does it mean nothing that the President of Iran sounds very much like the leader of Al Kayda?

[ThreePuttinDude]

God loves ya' Allegra

and so do we......

[RobbyS]

War may not be a lottery, but it is a gamble. If Sdr does take over the government, then our options are fewer, and sometimes fewer is better, especially if he does it by force.

[Earthdweller]

"After all, does it mean nothing that the President of Iran sounds very much like the leader of Al Kayda?"

So many potential rulers of the ME and so little time. Too bad all their talking points are the same.

[txrangerette]

Thanks. How do you stand it here? To fight a Counterinsurgency War is bad and hard enough, but to be stabbed in the back by your own kind (supposedly) back home? And to take THEM on too? TEN High Fives back atcha, Allegra.

[RobbyS]

The American public does not hear these voices. They hear only the carefull chosen words of the translators, the western press and politicians.

[Steel Wolf]

I'm sorry, but your post is nonsense, start to finish. Local goals don't lead to global ones. Suicide attacks began a long time before Israel. I don't understand your point about poison gas, except you seem to imply that if it had worked better we would use is. Your arguement is a half step from implying we should start using suicide bombings ourselves, since we used every method our enemies used before. As far as Iran, I'm totally confused as to your point, except that the gravity of Godwin's law has apparently drawn everything in like a Nazi black hole.

Can we call a do-over, and let you try again?

[TexKat]

Smoke rises after mortar attacks in Baghdad November 26, 2006. REUTERS/Mahmoud Raouf Mahmoud (IRAQ)

Smoke rises from the site of an explosion east of Baghdad. Rival neighborhoods lobbed mortar shells at each other in Baghdad with some hitting near a US base as the Iraqi prime minister appealed for calm in the increasingly violent country.(AFP/Joseph Eid)

PM urges calm as Baghdad prepares to lift curfew

by Paul Schemm

Sun Nov 26, 9:53 AM ET

BAGHDAD (AFP) - Explosions have echoed around the Iraqi capital with fearful civilians keeping off the streets on the third day of a curfew imposed to rein in bloodletting that has killed hundreds.

Although no casualties were reported from the rival neighborhoods' tossing of mortar shells, the blasts underlined the pervasive insecurity in Baghdad, which is expected to lift its curfew Monday, as the killing continued elsewhere Sunday.

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Sunday once again appealed to the nation's leaders and citizens to maintain calm and avoid further bloodshed after more than 300 people had been killed over the past three days.

Maliki blamed political leaders for the "worsening" situation.

"It is deteriorating because of politicians. Those who can stop the bloodshed are worsening" the situation, Maliki told reporters along with Sunni Vice President Tareq al-Hashimi and Kurdish President Jalal Talabani in a show of unity.

"If they can agree between themselves that there is no one winner or one loser in this battle, they can rescue Iraq," he said. "Terrorist actions are a reflection of the political situation."

Maliki also said new measures would be taken to combat the surging bloodshed but did not offer details. "We are about to form a front to tackle those people who are against the will of the Iraqi people," he said.

Hashimi also vowed to support Maliki's beleaguered government which is currently battling the worst crisis since the fall of Saddam Hussein, with both Sunni and Shiite partners threatening to pull out.

"We have committed earlier to be an honest partner in prime minister Maliki's government and this partnership is still on despite the facts that many things were not implemented the way we want," Hashimi told reporters.

In the mixed Sunni-Shiite village of Haswa just south of the capital, a car bomb ripped through a popular market killing eight people and wounding 28 others, security officials said.

The agricultural belt south of the capital, inhabited by Shiite villagers and Sunni tribes, has become notorious for sectarian battles that have engulfed Baghdad and the areas surrounding it.

The authorities have said the curfew imposed on Thursday after the deadliest bomb attacks in Iraq since the US-led invasion of 2003 would not be lifted before Monday morning.

But Bassim Ridha, advisor to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, said that limited movement for government and military vehicles would be permitted from Sunday.

Baghdad's Shiite militias have reacted to the Sadr City bombings on Thursday which alone claimed at least 202 lives, by launching mortar attacks on Sunni neighbourhoods and even torching a Sunni mosque on Friday.

US and Iraqi forces carried out massive sweeps across war-torn Iraq, reporting they had killed or detained dozens of rebels, while a number of Sunni tribes in the western province of Al-Anbar fought Al-Qaeda militants.

The US military said that Al-Qaeda-linked insurgents attacked a tribe allied to the Iraqi government and US forces in Al-Anbar, prompting US air and artillery strikes.

The insurgents attacked the Abu Soda tribe in Sofiya, near the provincial capital of Ramadi, with mortars and small arms, burning homes, in apparent revenge for their support of the government.

Some 25 Al-Anbar tribes formed an alliance, the "Anbar Awakening", in September and pledged to fight Al-Qaeda in the insurgency-plagued province by forming their own paramilitary units and sending recruits to the local police.

"Al-Qaeda has decided to attack the tribes due to their support," said Sheikh Abdel Sittar Baziya, head of the Abu Risha tribe and a founder of the movement.

Following reports of the attack, US forces hit the Al-Qaeda attackers with artillery fire and air strikes.

According to Sheikh Jassim of the Abu Soda tribe, 15 members of his tribe and 45 insurgents were killed. The US military could not confirm the figures.

Al-Anbar has long seen the fiercest resistance to the US occupation of Iraq and the insurgency there has claimed the lion's share of US casualties in the past three-and-a-half years.

Even on Sunday the military said a marine and soldier were killed in Iraq, raising its total losses in military personnel in Iraq to 2,873, according to an AFP count based on Pentagon figures.

US forces also killed four insurgents and detained 11, including one disguised as a woman nursing a baby, in a raid near the restive city of Baquba, said the military.

In northern Iraq on Sunday, gunmen shot dead a woman working for Iraqiya television network in Mosul, the third media worker murdered in the city this month, police said.

[unspun]

We should keep pulling for completion. Let the leftist defeatists call for desertion.

[Allegra]

Thanks. How do you stand it here? To fight a Counterinsurgency War is bad and hard enough, but to be stabbed in the back by your own kind (supposedly) back home? And to take THEM on too?

Well, I ignore them for the most part these days, but every now and then, I decide to try pounding some sense into some of those skulls. I figure if just one out of ten or twenty of these trolls listens and reconsiders, I've made a small contribution.

[CottShop]

"Calls for calm" Yes crowds, calm down- You can't hit the PM with stones if you keep moving all around http://sacredscoop.com