Non-Civil War News: Fighting Between Iraqi Army Units Kills 2

[BurtWorm]

http://www.salon.com/wire/ap/archive.html?wire=D8HIRVOO0.html

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By TAREK EL-TABLAWY Associated Press Writer

May 13,2006 | BAGHDAD, Iraq -- An armed confrontation between two Iraqi army units left one soldier and one civilian dead Friday, raising questions about the U.S.-trained force's ability to maintain control at a time when sectarian and ethnic tensions are running high.

The incident near Duluiyah, about 45 miles north of Baghdad, illustrates the command and control problems facing the new Iraqi army, which the Americans hope can take over security in most of the country by the end of the year. It also shows that divisions within the military mirror those of Iraqi society at large.

The trouble started when a roadside bomb struck an Iraqi army convoy, which police said was made up of Kurdish soldiers. Four soldiers were killed and three were wounded, police said. U.S. military officials put the casualty figure at one dead and 12 wounded.

The wounded were rushed to the civilian Balad Hospital. Police said that as the Kurdish soldiers drove to the hospital, they fired weapons to clear the way, and one Iraqi Shiite civilian was killed.

Shiite soldiers from another Iraqi unit based in Balad rushed to the scene, and the Kurds decided to take their wounded elsewhere, Iraqi police said. Iraqi troops tried to stop them and shots were fired, killing one Shiite soldier, Iraqi police said.

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[Kagemusha]

1. Iraqi army's simply denying the whole thing.

Asking, "well did you actually SEE our units firing on another?" and so on.

How else are they gonna deal with it (if it's true) anyway, really.

[BurtWorm]

2. Civil war? What civil war? We don't see a civil war....

:patriot:

[leftofthedial]

3. if they kill each other at the rate of 2 a day

that is faster than they are being "trained" to "stand up"