Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said on Monday his country will not slide into civil war, but acknowledged that mounting sectarian violence is now killing 100 civilians a day.
In ominous remarks, a senior member of Sadr's faction in parliament said on Sunday the government was shielding Sunni militants and warned of more violence.
Many terrorists have infiltrated this government," Bahaa al-Araji said. http://www.washingtonpost.com/....
Bombs exploded Sunday in Baghdad and the northern oil center of Kirkuk, killing more than 60 people, police said, and dramatically escalating tension as the prime minister left for Washington for talks on reversing the country's slide
toward civil war.
The blasts occurred as Iraqi forces and the U.S.-led coalition mounted a major crackdown on the country's most feared Shiite militia, the Mahdi Army, blamed by Sunnis for many of the sectarian kidnappings and killings which threaten to tear the country apart.
An Iraqi army statement said 34 people were killed and 73 were wounded. Eight more people were killed and 20 wounded when a second bomb exploded two hours later at a municipal government building in Sadr City, the Iraqi army said.
In Kirkuk, a car bomb detonated at midday near a courthouse in the city market district, killing 20 and wounding more than 150, according to police Brig. Gen. Sarhat Qadir. It was the fourth car bombing this month in Kirkuk, where tensions are rising among Arabs, Kurds and Turkomen for control of the area's vast oil wealth.
The wave of bombings, shootings and sectarian killings has plunged Iraq's new unity government into a deep crisis only two months after Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki took office, pledging to pursue national reconciliation and to pave the way for a U.S. military withdrawal.
Instead, the U.S. military is planning to bolster its forces in Baghdad to cope with the security crisis.
Al-Maliki and a large delegation left Sunday for Washington, where he will meet President George W. Bush on Tuesday. Security is expected to dominate the talks.
Key to ending the reprisal attacks is to rein in sectarian militias and death squads that U.S. officials now say are a greater threat to Iraq than the Sunni insurgents who have been fighting the coalition since 2003. The Mahdi Army is believed to be the biggest Shiite militia.
Al-Maliki spoke following the first meeting of a government committee formed to reconcile Iraq's disparate sectarian and political groups, but differences emerged immediately between top Shiite and Sunni officials over the issue of amnesty for insurgents.
http://www.foxnews.com/....
The two suicide car-bombs in Baghdad killed at least 42 people in the teeming Sadr City neighborhood, a Mahdi Army stronghold. The attacks followed a joint US and Iraqi raid overnight on a Sadr office in the area that ended with 15 Sadr supporters dead and two hostages freed, the US said in a statement.
Some residents blamed the US raid for the market attack, charging that it forced Mahdi Army members to abandon some of their impromptu checkpoints in the area that are meant to keep out attackers.
When the Americans come through and break up the checkpoints, that's when we get hit by suicide bombs, like today," says Ahmed Awadh, a Sadr City resident who works in the Ministry of Trade.
I support the Mahdi Army because they know us here, and we know them. Their checkpoints protect us," he says. "They know all the families, and who has business here. It's clear the Americans don't want to provide us with security. They've had three years.'
Immediately following the market blast, Mahdi Army militiamen poured out of the neighborhood's warren of alleys, shutting down dozens of streets and setting up checkpoints, trying to protect against follow-up attacks.
The police and Army don't protect us. When the Americans were here yesterday, they were shooting at our people here, not the criminals,'' says Mohammed al-Askhar, a Mahdi Army member who insisted on using only his nom-de-guerre, which means "Mohammed the Blondie."
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's "government has shown it's powerless. The residents of Sadr City will protect themselves. Everyone here is behind us. We will only disarm when the violence is over," he says.
One US general says that he considers Sadr's militia, with its thousands of poorly trained irregulars and its growing reputation for sectarian killings, to be one of the country's gravest security threats.one US general says that he considers Sadr's militia, with its thousands of poorly trained irregulars and its growing reputation for sectarian killings, to be one of the country's gravest security threats.
They're organized and they're spreading,'' he says. http://www.csmonitor.com/....
This Iraqi breakdown needs no outside help. It is self perpetuating and will not stop. My concern is that Saudi Arabia who looks at itself as the protector of Sunni's will intervene and Iran will help the Shiites as seems to be happening
What should wake you up is that Iraq's PM Maliki said that a loss of the Iraq war would be a loss of the country of Iraq.
I hate to be the one to tell him but Iraq is already lost. It is in civil war and that cannot be stopped now. It is now in proccess.As I have said many times, it will and is spreading throughout the entire middle east. You can thank Bush and his new world order!
http://www.dailykos.com/....
James Joiner
Gardner, Ma
www.anaveragepatriot.com
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3 comments:
Let Iraq Have Its Civil War
It's become evident within the last year that Iraqis are now more interested in killing each other than in killing American troops. This was bound to happen since religious differences always result in the bloodiest consequences. Yes, Americans have a different religion, but the Shia-Sunni sectarian warfare is about religious schism, inherently much more volatile and fanatic.
Do we just cut and run then, leaving Iraq for the benefit of some other country due to our effort? No. Let's consolidate the few gains we've made and hunker down to see how the Shia-Sunni civil war plays out.
Move our troops and our Iraqi Green Zone government into friendly Kurdish territory. We can move back in if Iran or anyone else tries to intervene. Keep the Syrian border sealed. Reinforce the British troops in Basra so that the oil fields and the Gulf are protected.
The Sunnis, though a minority, will get plenty of help from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Jordan. Iran will supply the Shiites. Our troops and puppet government will be out of harm's way.
Our troops will no longer have responsibility to control a territorial area too big for the force we have there. Yet we will still have a deterrent capability in the area.
No matter when we leave, a sectarian civil war will occur at some point. Why lose anymore American soldiers in trying to put off the inevitable?
This conflict looks less like Vietnam and more like the British Mandate in Palestine everyday. What did the British do? They left.
Hi Marshall
I know I responded to your statement but I don't know where? Anyway, nothing will prevent failure in Iraq or in the entire middle east before it turns into WW3. You might like todays post explaining why things are happening the way they are. Feel free to pas on a doctrine of fact/Bush Uncoverede. I think you will agree with it all!
I tried to find a positive article on John Kerry's recent speech but could not. I settled for this because even though it was very derogatory it was better than the rest I found. He correctly pointed out that the Iraq Breakdown, the democratic debacle in Lebanon, the Democracy in Palestine counter to our interests, The breakdown of the middle east, would not have happened if he were President but failed to point out or understand, why!
Visiting Detroit to stump for the campaign of Governor Jennifer Granholm, he used the opportunity to take a swipe at President George W. Bush's handling of the crisis. Senator Kerry echoed even some of Bush's conservative critics who say that the president's focus on Iraq has led him to failure in handling the conflict between Israel and terrorism.
( they still don't get it! It isn't that he was focused on Iraq and failed to act on the rest of the middle east! he has wanted from the beginning a new middle east order and he is getting it!).
Kerry: The president has been so absent on diplomacy when it comes to issues affecting the Middle East. ( no he has not! He is directly responsible for everything that is happening and despite what he says, he is happy the way the middle east breakdown or new world order as he calls it, is going.)
We're going to have a lot of ground to make up because of it", said Senator Kerry, adding that President Bush "has failed" in addressing other islamo-fascist organizations such as al-Qaida and the Taliban. ( I have to say, he is right there!
Over the weekend, President Bush also came under fire from William F. Buckley - founder of the "National Review" magazine. Buckley, who is sometimes referred to as the "godfather" or "patron saint" of US conservatives.
He criticized President Bush saying that he has been "engulfed" in the problems of Iraq to the exclusion of other issues, in a televised interview with CBS news. In response to the reporter's questions, Buckley said that any legacy President Bush would leave to his successor is "indecipherable." ( I am happy to hear Buckley come out against Bush but he doesn't get it either!)
http://www.speroforum.com/...
Here are the facts as expressed by Bush, Israel, and recently reaserted by Condi while in the middle east. I do not understand how Kerry and all Democratic Politicians fail to remember and remind people of the truth as to what Bushco is doing!
Bush right from the start has said he is straightening out the middle east as God told him to do. He later denied it but the Palestinian PM and his assistant testified to this. He said from the beginning that he wanted a new middle east order. He has done his best to achieve this, ignoring events when it serves his purpose while influencing others. There are no shortages of examples!
The middle east is breaking down not because Bush has failed but rather because he has succeeded!
I have tried to wake up Senator Kerry, Congress, the Media, everyone, as to what is happening and why! It is all spelled out in a Doctrine of Fact/Bush Uncovered. I wrote it 3 years ago but is more telling today than ever! http://www.anaveragepatriot.com please look at it! everything Bush has done here, in the middle east, and around the world, would make instant sense if they would read it, but Nooooo! Please feel free to email a copy to whoever!
I do not believe a one of them remember Bush's own words or have seen the facts! Iraq will be lost, the entire middle east will break down, followed closely with WW3. All thanks to Bush's self professed desire for a new world order!
James Joiner
Gardner, Ma
www.anaveragepatriot.com
I agree with Marshall Darts.
I was in Iraq for 12 months. Most of the people want us there.
It is not the US that is causing the problem. It is a small handful of the people that don't know how to handle (or don't want) freedom.
Despite your personal hatred of President Bush (I don't think he's doing a very good job in many areas), it does no good to give short shrift to the process of liberty that the Iraqi people need and so many of them want.
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