Police Strike in Fallujah
Tal Afar Success Questioned

Alzaman/Reuters report that the police in Fallujah went on strike. They are protesting excesses committed by the largely Shiite Iraqi army troops installed in Sunni Fallujah by the Americans.

A military spokesman in Baghdad maintained that any excesses were isolated incidents.

It seems that even after the US emptied and destroyed the city, the problems are not resolved. Now even the police hand picked by the US are on strike because of sectarianism. Meanwhile, some violence is back, too.

Meanwhile, an intreped Reuters reporter actually visited Tal Afar, the northern Turkmen city that the US emptied and assaulted last August. Bush has been pointing to it as a success story. But Reuters finds that locals feel insecure, even the Shiites among them, and wouldn't exactly call the whole thing a success.

Money quote: " 'I say that Bush is 100 percent a liar because the city of Tal Afar has become a ghost town rather than the example Bush spoke about,' said Ali Ibrahim, a Shi'ite Turkmen laborer. "