Tuesday, January 08, 2008

War has been declared again in Iraq

I'm starting to get the feeling that the truce or pause or lull or whatever it was is over in Iraq. The continuing drumbeat of violence and death is starting to pick up speed and volume again.
Here's today's wrap-up from Juan Cole -- and remember, this is the news he gathered for just one day:
a wave of bombings and kidnappings swept Iraq on Monday, leaving 24 dead, dozens wounded. In the eastern Sunni enclave of Adhamiya in Baghdad . . . Sunni guerrillas attacked the offices of the local Sunni Pious Endowments Board, which overlaps with the leadership of the pro-American Awakening Council. al-Hayat reports in Arabic that one guerrilla detonated a belt bomb, and the other used a car bomb.
...three Awakening Council patrolmen were killed in various attacks in south Baghdad and Bayji. Several angry commanders of Awakening Council fighters called Al-Hayat to complain that the Shiite government of PM Nuri al-Maliki was offering them no support and was leaving them as sitting ducks.
...A bomb hidden in a street vendor's cart killed four people and wounded 16 others in the Karrada district of central Baghdad, police said.
...A bomb stuck on the side of a parked car killed one civilian and wounded four, including two policemen, when it detonated near a police checkpoint on the outskirts of Baghdad's Shi'ite slum of Sadr City, police said.
...Gunmen in five cars kidnapped between eight and 10 neighborhood patrol volunteers in Baghdad's northern Shaab district. Police said the volunteers had been manning a vehicle checkpoint.
...Seven bodies were found around Baghdad, police said. . .
...Two bodies were found in eastern Mosul, one of them handcuffed and blindfolded, police said.
... Gunmen killed a neighborhood patrol volunteer at a checkpoint in Latifiya, 40 km (25 miles) south of Baghdad, police said.'
...Police found five bodies near the main street in Qara Kitta village 100 Kms east Baquba north of Baquba. One of the bodies was the body of the mayor of Qaraqoosh village.
...Gunmen killed a civilian in Buhorz village south of Baquba today morning.
...A police office and a member of Sahwa were injured when a mortar shell hit a combined check point downtown Baquba city today morning.
...Gunmen killed three civilians (a husband and his wife and an Iraqi army soldier) in Abo Saif village, part of al-Reyadh city west of Kirkuk city yesterday night.
...A katyosha rocket hit the area near the building of Iraqia channel downtown Kirkuk city today morning. No casualties were reported.
And American soldiers keep dying, a steady pace of one or two a day, eight already this month. Should be hitting the 4,000 mark in February or early March.
I wonder if the Man Named Petraeus has prepared his three envelopes yet?
And this was posted two days ago on YouTube.
I don't know whether to believe it or not, but it made me feel sick.

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