BAGHDAD - Iran has been training Iraqi fighters in the assembly of deadly roadside bombs known as EFPs, the U.S. military spokesman said Wednesday.Bombs for terrorist cowards constitute help for Iraq. Anyone who denies that large elements of the media openly support the enemy is a liar on the same scale as Joseph Goebbels.
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EFPs, or explosively formed penetrators, hurl a molten, fist-sized lump of molten copper capable of piercing armored vehicles.
"We know that they are being in fact manufactured and smuggled into this country, and we know that training does go on in Iran for people to learn how to assemble them and how to employ them," Maj. Gen. William Caldwell said at a weekly briefing. "We know that training has gone on as recently as this past month from detainees' debriefs."
In January, U.S. officials said at least 170 U.S. soldiers had been killed by EFPs.
Misleading ambiguity. This means that the claim was made in January but, as APe editors know, it invites the inference that 170 soldiers were killed by the devices in January.
The international Red Cross released a report that found the situation for civilians in Iraq is "ever-worsening," even though security in some places has improved as a result of stepped-up efforts by U.S.-led multinational forces.
Apparently the IRC does not see a reduction in suicide bombings, kidnappings and mass murder as much of an improvement for civilians.
Note the abrupt transition below to a completely different story, as though the recent battle reinforces the IRC's case:
Bodies lay scattered across two central Baghdad neighborhoods after a raging battle left 20 suspected insurgents and four Iraqi soldiers dead, and 16 U.S. soldiers wounded, witnesses and officials said. The fighting Tuesday in Fadhil and Sheik Omar, two Sunni enclaves, was the most intense since a massive push to pacify the capital began two months ago. "Suspected" insurgents again. The APes may as well come right out and say fluffy bunnies and baby ducks.
Iraqi Cabinet ministers allied to radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr meanwhile threatened Wednesday to quit the government to protest the prime minister's lack of support for a timetable for U.S. withdrawal.
Promise? I think his departure should permanent, via JDAM airlines.
| 'Now boarding'? |
A sterling example of journalistic objectivity there. Nope, no bias or editorializing there. The threat comes two months into a U.S. effort to pacify Baghdad in order to give al-Maliki's government room to
Al-Sadr's political committee issued a statement a day after al-Maliki rejected an immediate U.S. troop withdrawal.
"We see no need for a withdrawal timetable. We are working as fast as we can," al-Maliki told reporters during his four-day trip to Japan, where he signed loan agreements for redevelopment projects in Iraq. "To demand the departure of the troops is a democratic right and a right we respect. What governs the departure at the end of the day is how confident we are in the handover process," he said, adding that "achievements on the ground" would dictate how long American troops remain.
Al-Maliki spoke a day after tens of thousands of Iraqis took to the streets of two Shiite holy cities, on al-Sadr's orders, to protest the U.S. presence in their country. The rally marked the fourth anniversary of Baghdad's conquer by American forces.
The doofuses mean "conquest" reminscent of Attila the Hun or Genghis Khan. Not "liberation" "capture" or even "occupation" but "conquest." EFL, more handwringing and loaded language.
Associated Press writers Lauren Frayer and Hamid Ahmed in Baghdad and Alexander G. Higgins in Geneva contributed to this report.
Know the enemy. Edward R. Murrow and Ernie Pyle are spinning in their graves, Goebbels and Streicher rejoice in hell.
