Wave of Attacks in Iraq Leaves at Least 68 Dead

[bemildred]

Source: NYT

BAGHDAD — Insurgents across Iraq launched their most significant and wide-ranging attacks in months on Monday, killing 68 people and wounding over 300, in the most violent day in Iraq this year.

The violence touched nearly every region of the country, except for Kurdistan, and appeared to be aimed at security forces in both Sunni and Shiite areas.

In all, there were 37 attacks, more than double the daily average this year, nearing the level of violence at the height of the sectarian conflict here in 2006 and 2007. The attacks included 11 car bombs, 19 improvised explosive devices and 2 suicide bombers.

Coming a little less than two weeks after the Iraqi government said it would negotiate with the United States about keeping some of its 48,000 troops here after the end of the year, the violence raised significant questions about the capabilities of the Iraqi security forces.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/16/world/middleeast/16iraq.html

[Marrah_G]

1. "In all, there were 37 attacks, more than double the daily average this year,"

Csn you even imagine...... that is a daily average of apx 18 attacks a day.

[maxsolomon]

2. What is there left to say?

The horror continues at a steady simmer. It will not stop if we stay or if we go. Ameircans no longer understand who is attacking for what reason, and worse, hardly anyone can be bothered to care. The civil war everyone foresaw in 2003 is still coming.

GWBush is the worst thing that has happened to America in my lifetime.

[Hubert Flottz]

3. So tell me now...

How much better off is Iraq NOW, than it was in 2002?

[Solly Mack]

4. K&R

[Pacifist Patriot]

5. I guess it's a good thing we went in there and gave them a stable democracy, isn't it?

[No Elephants]

6. Isn't it lucky that, as I type, we're trying to get Iraq to invite us to stay?

[bemildred]

7. Luck has nothing to do with it. nt

[bemildred]

8. Gunmen kill four members of government-backed Iraqi militia

Gunmen dressed in Iraqi army uniforms have killed four members of the government-backed Sunni Sahwa militia after dragging them from a mosque near Baghdad after Monday night prayers, security sources said.

The killings followed bombings across the country in which at least 68 people died in apparently co-ordinated attacks. The authorities blamed Sunni Islamist al-Qaida affiliates intent on a show of force before the withdrawal of US troops by the end of year.

"Individuals from the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI), wearing army uniforms, entered al-Tawab mosque and called names of people from a list. They took worshippers and shot them," Qasim al-Hamdani, a former Sahwa militia member, said.

An interior ministry source said the gunmen left a note near the bodies in which they claimed to belong to the ISI.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/aug/16/gunmen-kill-four-members-iraqi-militia