5 US Troops Killed;
25 Dead, 70 Wounded in Violence;
Turkey Bombs Iraq
DPA estimates that civil war violence killed 25 in Iraq on Wednesday and wounded 70. The dead included 5 US troops.
On Tuesday evening, 3 US troops were killed when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb in northwestern Baghdad (a Sunni Arab area). Another was killed on Wednesday by an RPG attack in Mosul, which left 3 other US troops wounded. Later on Wednesday a fifth US soldier was killed within 24 hours; he appears to have been killed by a roadside bomb somewhere south of Baghdad, but the exact circumstances of his death were not announced.
Turkish jets struck at suspected bases of the Kurdish Workers Party terror organization in northern Iraq on Wednesday. The Turks are also considering a land invasion of northern Iraq in a bid to root out PKK terrorists that have been attacking Turks and retreating to Iraq where they benefit from an American security umbrella.
A suicide bomber detonated his payload in a market in Muqdadiyah, Diyala Province east of Baghdad on Wednesday, killing 10 and wounding 15.
In Mosul, gunmen sprayed police at a checkpoint with machine gun fire, killing four and injuring another 4.
On Tuesday evening, 15 police were killed and 27 wounded when some of them were trying to defuse bombs in eastern Baghdad.
There is some question whether Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr will renew the six-month freeze on the activities of his Mahdi Army paramilitary The Sadrists feel taken advantage of, in the sense that many of their commanders have been arrested by Iraqi police or by the Badr Corps. I suspect Muqtada fears that should he continue the freeze, the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq and its Badr Corps paramilitary will use it to freeze out the Sadrists in the south from political office in the Oct. 1 provincial elections.
So to review, 5 US troops were killed within 24 hours; there was a market bombing in Diyala and a drive by shooting in Mosul; Turkey bombarded Iraq; and now the Mahdi Army may get reactivated.
Earth to McCain: Everything is not in fact hunky dory in Iraq.
Labels: Iraq
posted by Juan Cole @ 2/21/2008 12:35:00 AM
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5 Comments:
Thanks for your highly empirical approach to the situation in Iraq! The simple facts do tell a story significantly different from the more theoretical narrative the so-called mainstream media and power structure keeps repeating.
There is some question whether Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr will renew the six-month freeze on the activities of his Mahdi Army paramilitary The Sadrists feel taken advantage of, in the sense that many of their commanders have been arrested by Iraqi police or by the Badr Corps. I suspect Muqtada fears that should c <<<< was this sentence cut off ?? is there missing text ??
One wishes it weren't so, but it is.
The conflict in the North between Turkey and the PKK is the most troubling development. It seems unavoidable that the US will have to compel (and join) Kurdish forces in attacking the PKK. The Turks cannot dislodge and defeat the PKK using special ops teams and air attacks. It will take a substantial ground force. The Iraqis (particularly the Kurds) will not allow Turkey to mount that degree of force in Iraq. The Kurds, frankly, either can't or won't do it on their own. So the US is facing a second (or is it third or fourth?) front in Iraq.
One wishes it weren't so . . .
just another day in Bush's empire...
My brother and sisters in arms have fallen for a sham of a cause.
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