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23 Iraqis killed in renewed bloodshed
I'm starting to come to the conclusion that they can't be civilized because they're Arabs. I keep telling myself that's not the case, and they keep trying to prove me wrong.
Twenty-three Iraqis were killed and scores more wounded in a slew of attacks across the country on Monday, including a suicide bombing claimed the lives of a dozen people on a Baghdad mini-bus.
Killing large numbers of civilians enhances that Arab dignity and honor to no end...
The fresh bloodshed comes as the ethnic and religious factions debate whether to form a government of ‘national unity’ following December general elections that gave the Shiites a majority in the 275-seat parliament.
"Governments of national unity" are invariably weak and ineffective. Better to have one party in charge and a loyal opposition to keep them honest.
In the day’s bloodiest attack, a suicide bomber killed 12 people Monday on a mini-bus in a Shiite neighborhood in northern Baghdad, an interior ministry official said. Rescue teams were combing the blackened vehicle to extract charred human remains. At least eight wounded were rushed to the hospital, he added. The attacker struck in Kadhamiyah, which has been regularly targeted by Sunni Muslim extremists intent on fanning sectarian strife among Iraq’s religious groups.
So form a government of national unity with them instead of hunting them down and killing them like dogs. I'll come to the conclusion we're winning the war when every case like this is solved and the results publicized.
The bombing came as US ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad warned Monday that ethnic and religious conflict was “the fundamental problem” in Iraq.
Thank you for that statement of the obvious.
The US diplomat vowed not to fund any security forces run with a sectarian bias amid allegations that Shiite death squads have infiltrated the Iraqi police.
What they're doing is actually needed, but they're not being discrete about it. And it also, needed or not, sets a horrible precedent — witness Algeria. The police force has to present the aspect of absolute impartiality, regardless of what it's forced to do behind the scenes. It would be far better to put together a nameless organization, doe what needs done, then fold it when the crisis is past.
In other violence Monday, five Iraqis were killed when their truck convoy carrying building materials came under rocket and automatic weapons fire north of Baghdad, police in the northern city of Tikrit said. A group of 15 cars struck the convoy, which was delivering supplies to a US military base, at 6:30 am at Nabai, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) north of the Iraqi capital, police said. Five of the drivers in the nine-truck convoy were killed, while three others were wounded, and six of their heavyweight vehicles were destroyed, they said.
Seems like somebody should be able to track down a convoy of 15 cars and do terrible things to the drivers and passengers...
A bomb attack targeted the Abu Ali restaurant in the centre of the northern city of Mosul, killing five people, including one policeman and wounding 21, some 14 of whom were policemen, medical and security sources said. Police said that one man who had been seen eating his breakfast placed a bag underneath the counter before walking out. A civilian driving in his car was killed early Monday in Balad, north of Baghdad, by armed men. At least 19 day labourers waiting to be hired for work were wounded by a bomb explosion Monday morning in central Baghdad, an interior ministry official said. “I was thrown back and everything was flying around me,” said Ammar Jabbar Karim, 28, who was wounded in the arm and both his legs. Day labourers have repeatedly been targeted by bombers, especially those from poor Shiite neighbourhoods or those working for US-led coalition forces.

Meanwhile, three US soldiers were wounded Monday morning when a roadside bomb hit their Humvee military vehicle in southern Iraq, the US military said. The attack occurred at around 08:45 am, some 20 kilometres south of the holy city of Karbala, the military said. Insurgent attacks are often blamed on militants from Iraq’s Sunni minority, powerful under deposed president Saddam Hussein, but who have lost out politically to the Shiites in postwar Iraq.

Two Macedonians kidnapped near the southern Iraqi port of Basra last week were freed Monday, a British official said. The two men, employed by ECOLOG, a contracting company, working with British forces in Basra, were abducted Thursday while traveling from the city’s airport to the company’s offices.
Posted by: Fred 2006-02-21
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=143303