U.S. reports violence decline in Iraq

[The_Professor]

U.S. reports violence decline in Iraq BAGHDAD (AP) ? Extremists fired an explosive barrage Saturday into Baghdad's heavily protected Green Zone, targeting the heart of America's diplomatic and military mission in Iraq.
The U.S. military said there were no injuries or damage from the early morning volley, which could be heard all around downtown Baghdad. The earth-jarring detonations, nearly 10 of them, even shook buildings across the Tigris River from capital's fortified core ? which house the U.S. embassy, military facilities and the Iraqi government.

The attack came shortly before Brig. Gen. Mike Milano, a top U.S. military official tasked with restoring security to Baghdad, said that nearly 80% of the capital's districts were now considered free of organized extremist activity.

The strikes were the most recent involving what Maj. Brad Leighton, a U.S. military spokesman, described as indirect fire ? the military's term for a rocket or mortar attack.

Similar volleys in the past week, including one against an Iraqi housing complex at Baghdad International Airport and its adjoining U.S. military base, killed "31 men, women and children," Milano said. He blamed the attacks on "al-Qaeda and Iranian-backed special groups."

Special groups is a term usually reserved for Shiite extremist groups that have broken away from radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army. Many are thought to be backed and trained by predominantly Shiite Iran.

In an upbeat assessment, Milano said a year-long operation by the U.S. military and Iraqi security forces to bring safety to the capital had improved the situation.

According to Milano, when the operation began only 20% of Baghdad's 479 districts ? known as mahallas ? were relatively free of organized violence.

"Today 78% of the mahallas are considered free of organized extremist activities," said Milano, who is the deputy commanding general of the U.S. Army's 4th Infantry Division.

He added that since June 2007 there had been a 75% decrease in attacks in Baghdad, a 90% decrease in civilian casualties, and an 85% decrease in murders.

"All these indicate to me an improved security situation," he said.

Baghdad, however, remains far from safe and the Iraqi military indefinitely banned all hand-pushed and horse-drawn carts from the streets on Baghdad. The decision came after a bomb hidden under a horse-drawn cart exploded in downtown Baghdad on Friday Feb. 22, killing three civilians.

The operation launched last February peaked in June 2007 with the deployment of thousands of extra troops to Baghdad and other parts of Iraq.

It was also bolstered by two other key elements. One was a decision by al-Sadr to declare a six-month cease-fire last August, and a plan funded by the American military to recruit and pay Sunni tribesmen and neighborhood groups to fight al-Qaeda in Iraq. The groups are often referred to as "Awakening Councils."

The U.S. military has reported a 60% overall drop in violence around Iraq since last June.

Milano said a decision Friday by al-Sadr to extend the cease-fire six more months was "welcome news."

But Milano added that "al-Qaeda in Iraq is still our number one enemy."

In the latest clashes with the group, Iraqi security forces reported killing 11 alleged al-Qaeda in Iraq members during operations just north of Baghdad on Friday and Saturday.

The first operation took place Saturday near the city of Tikrit, the hometown of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, and killed eight members of al-Qaeda. Among those killed was a man identified as Abu Talha al-Arabi, a regional leader, the police said.

Police said two others were killed late Friday near the town of Samarra as they planted a roadside bomb, while an al-Qaeda area leader was killed Saturday near Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad.

According to Iraqi police, a suicide bomber killed the leader of one Awakening Council in Saqlawiyah, a town in Anbar province 45 miles west of Baghdad, and his bodyguard. Fallujah police identified him as Sheik Ibrahim Mutayri al-Mohamaday.

Separately, the head of the Iraqi Journalists Union was shot and wounded Saturday. Shihab al-Timimi was attacked by unidentified gunmen as he was being driven to an art gallery in Waziriya, near central Baghdad, police and union officials said. He had just left the nearby union headquarters.

AP Television News footage showed him with what appeared to be a gunshot wound to the chest and bandaged shoulders and arms. Al-Timimi, who is in his mid-70s, was elected president of the union in 2004. There was no immediate explanation for the attack.

Find this article at:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2008-02-23-saturday_N.htm 

[Xavier_Onassis]

Can we see the "Light at the end of the tunnel" yet, daddy?

Iraq is a rerun of Vietnam. Not a good rerun, either.

[The_Professor]

We'll seee... the jury is still out.

[hnumpah]

Every time I see a headline like that - U.S. reports violence decline in Iraq - I just wait a couple of hours, and then, whammo, there it goes...

Suicide bomber kills 40 in Iraq: police
By Habib al-Zubaidi
Sun Feb 24, 3:14 PM ET
 
HILLA, Iraq (Reuters) - A suicide bomber detonated a vest packed with metal ball bearings in a refreshment tent full of Iraqi pilgrims heading to a Shi'ite festival on Sunday, killing 40 people and wounding 60, police said.
 
Women and children were among the victims in the bombing in the town of Iskandariya, 40 km (25 miles) south of Baghdad.

The attack was one of the deadliest in Iraq this year and happened despite a major tightening of security for the annual Arbain festival in the southern holy city of Kerbala. It is one of Shi'ite Islam's holiest events.

Most of the casualties were hit by the ball bearings, said a doctor at a hospital in the city of Hilla, where many of the wounded were taken. A wounded woman there said the attack happened in a tent where pilgrims were offered refreshments.

"When we reached the area people invited us into a tent to take some rest and have some food. When we entered, there was a huge ball of fire and we saw people lying on the ground," said Um A'amr, who was being treated for multiple wounds.

Police and the U.S. military said the bomber struck hours after militants killed three pilgrims and wounded 36 others in an attack in southern Baghdad.

Captain Muthanna al-Mamouri, spokesman for police in Hilla, 100 km (60 miles) south of the capital, said 40 people were killed and 60 wounded in the Iskandariya attack.

Colonel Tom James, a U.S. brigade commander in the area, said Iraqi forces would strengthen security at rest areas for pilgrims, but added it was "very difficult" to protect everyone. He said about 40 people had been killed in Iskandariya.

"This is a despicable terrorist attack on these innocent people," James told Reuters, adding that ball bearings had been found at the scene of the attack.

The U.S. military said in a statement the attack took place on a two-lane highway near a residential area through which more than 40,000 pilgrims had passed earlier in the day.

Millions of Shi'ite pilgrims are expected in Kerbala for the Arbain festival this week, which commemorates the end of the 40 -day mourning period following Ashura, a religious ritual that marks the death of Prophet Mohammad's grandson in 680.

Tens of thousands of Iraqi soldiers and police have been deployed for Arbain after suspected Sunni Arab insurgents killed 149 pilgrims on their way to Kerbala for the event last year, one of the worst spasms of violence since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.

The pilgrims are particularly vulnerable because many prefer to walk to Kerbala, 110 km (70 miles) south of Baghdad. They believe the effort will bring them greater spiritual reward.

VEHICLE BAN

In the Baghdad attack, the pilgrims were hit by a roadside bomb and then fired on by gunmen on a road used by pilgrims walking to Kerbala, police said.

The U.S. military gave a different account, saying gunmen had lobbed hand grenades at the pilgrims in Baghdad, killing one and wounding 17.

It said U.S. and Iraqi forces would increase patrols and checkpoints, restricting vehicle access through key routes to Kerbala from southern Baghdad.

Kerbala's police chief, Major-General Raad Shakir, told Reuters last week that 40,000 police and soldiers had been deployed and Iraqi tanks were being used to protect the city for the first time.

All public transport, including bicycles, has been banned within a 25 km (15.5 mile) radius of the city and 600 female security staff have been assigned to search women, police said.

Militants have used horses and carts, bicycles and motorcycles in bomb attacks in the past. There has also been a spate of suicide bombings carried out by women in recent months.

In previous years, militants have killed scores of pilgrims in suicide bombings and other attacks. Sunni Islamist al Qaeda views Shi'ites, a majority in Iraq but a minority in the Muslim world, as heretics.

(Additional reporting by Michael Holden in Baghdad and Sami al-Jumaili in Kerbala; Writing by Mohammed Abbas; Editing by Robert Woodward)

Hmmmmmmm... Maybe they oughta quit writing headlines about how well things are going, if they're just gonna lead to more attacks...