Attacks kill at least 69 across Iraq Police, government buildings targeted; 3 U.S. troops among dead The Associated Press Updated: 9:30 a.m. ET June 24, 2004BAQOUBA, Iraq - Insurgents launched attacks Thursday against police and government buildings, less than a week before the handover of sovereignty. At least 69 people, including three American soldiers, were killed and more than 270 were injured, Iraqi and U.S. officials said. In Baghdad, the Health Ministry said at least 66 people were killed and 268 injured nationwide. However, the figures did not include U.S. dead and injured. The heaviest clashes were reported in Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, where two American soldiers were among the dead. Attackers also targeted police stations in Ramadi, Mahaweel, and the northern city of Mosul, where car bombs rocked the Iraqi Police Academy, a police station and the al-Jumhuri hospital. A fourth bombing attack on another police station occurred about an hour later, followed by a firefight in which Iraqi police lost control of the Sheikh Fatih station. American forces moved in to regain control of the station -- firing back at insurgents using a nearby mosque as a base. At least one U.S. soldier was killed and eight people, including three U.S. soldiers and five Iraqi police, were injured, the U.S. military said in Mosul. At least 50 people died in the bombings there, hospital officials said. In other attacks, four Iraqi soldiers were killed in an explosion near a checkpoint manned by Iraqi and American soldiers in the southern Baghdad district of Dora. Three U.S. soldiers tended to what appeared to be a wounded American soldier on the road. The soldier's helmet lay nearby. Black smoke and flames shot up from a burning pickup truck. It was not immediately clear what caused the blast. U.S. officials projected calm after the attacks. "Coalition forces feel confident with the situation," said Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, coalition deputy operations chief. Al-Zarqawi involved? Iraq’s prime minister said he believed a group linked to Jordanian-born militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was behind the Mosul attacks. But Iyad Allawi didn't believe the wave of attacks was coordinated, saying he felt the Ramadi and Baqouba attacks were probably the work of Saddam Hussein loyalists. But a statement quoted Thursday by a Saudi Web site claimed responsibility for the Baqouba attacks in the name of al-Zarqawi, and said the insurgents belong to his Tawhid and Jihad movement. He called residents to "comply with the instructions of resistance." The statement appealed to residents to remain their homes "because these days are going to witness campaigns and attacks against the occupation troops and those who stand beside them." On Tuesday, an audiotape attributed to al-Zarqawi threatened to assassinate Allawi. In Baquoba, U.S. aircraft dropped three 500-pound bombs against an insurgent position near the city soccer stadium, said Maj. Neal O'Brien, a U.S. 1st Infantry Division spokesman. Insurgents roamed the city with rocket launchers and automatic weapons and occupied two police stations. Insurgents earlier destroyed the home of the police chief of the Diyala province where Baqouba is located, O'Brien said. At the main hospital in Baqouba, doctors received injured people continuously and the corridors were spattered with blood. Civilian cars sped close carrying people with gunshot and shrapnel wounds. One man in the emergency ward vented his anger, screaming "May God destroy America and all those who cooperate with it!" Blasts shake Fallujah Explosions and shelling also shook Fallujah, 40 miles west of Baghdad. Armed men ran through the streets, witnesses said. Residents said U.S. forces were shelling from positions outside the city, and helicopters were in the skies, but the U.S. military could not immediately be reached for comment. One Marine helicopter made an emergency landing, but no one was wounded. U.S. forces manning a checkpoint opened fire on local government convoy that included Fallujah's mayor and police chief that was trying to meet the Americans to discuss the violence, an Iraqi police lieutenant, speaking on condition of anonymity. The convoy turned back, and no injuries were reported. Police and insurgents cooperating? A motorist who drove through Fallujah Thursday morning said Iraqi police and insurgents were cooperating, chatting amicably along the streets, and seemed to be working together. U.S. forces launched two airstrikes on Fallujah in recent days against what they said were safehouses al-Zarqawi, whose group claimed responsibility for the beheading of American hostage Nicholas Berg and Kim Sun-il, a South Korean whose decapitated body was found Tuesday. U.S. Marines besieged Fallujah for three weeks in April after four American civilian contractors working for the Blackwater USA security company were ambushed and killed, their bodies mutilated and hung from a Euphrates river bridge. The city has been relatively calm since Marines announced a deal to end the siege that created the Fallujah Brigade, commanded by officers from Saddam Hussein's army. Though the Fallujah Brigade patrols the city, hard-line clerics and fighters who held off the Marines are still control the town. Ramadi attacks In other attacks on security forces, insurgents wearing black and using masks fired rocket-propelled grenades to attack two police stations in the insurgent stronghold of Ramadi 60 miles west of Baghdad, police said. "We were inside the al-Qataneh police station and suddenly a very heavy explosion happened," said 1st Lt. Ahmed Sami. "We discovered later on that the station was attacked from all around." He said the station was destroyed in the initial blast. Seven people were killed and 13 were wounded, hospital officials said. Another group attacked the Farook police station in Ramadi, also with rocket propelled grenades, Sami said. In a third assault, insurgents attacked a Ramadi government building, destroying several police cars. And in Mahaweel, 40 miles from Baghdad, gunmen stormed the police station and killed an undetermined number of policemen. The gunmen blew up the police station before leaving, witnesses said. © 2004 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. The second we leave, this country is f*cked.0 Edit: oops, forgot to link this. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5225026/
Link to the Onion Coalition: Vast Majority Of Iraqis Still Alive BAGHDAD—As the Coalition Provisional Authority prepares to hand power over to an Iraqi-led interim government on June 30, CPA administrator L. Paul Bremer publicly touted the success of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Bremer speaks before a large crowd of still-living Iraqi children. Above: Bremer speaks before a large crowd of still-living Iraqi children. "As the Coalition's rule draws to a close, the numbers show that we have an awful lot to be proud of," Bremer said Tuesday. "As anyone who's taken a minute and actually looked at the figures can tell you, the vast majority of Iraqis are still alive—as many as 99 percent. While 10,000 or so Iraqi civilians have been killed, pretty much everyone is not dead." According to U.S. Department of Defense statistics, of the approximately 24 million Iraqis who were not killed, nearly all are not in a military prison. Bremer said "a good number" of those Iraqis who are in jail have been charged with a crime, and most of them have enjoyed a prison stay free of guard-dog attacks, low-watt electrocutions, and sexual humiliation. U.S. Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt explained the coalition's accomplishments in geographical terms. "There are vast sections of the country where one can go outside unarmed during the daylight hours," Kimmitt said, speaking from a heavily guarded base outside of Baghdad. "Even in cities where fighting has occurred, many neighborhoods have not been torn apart by gunfire. And, throughout the country, more towns than I could name off the top of my head have never been touched by a bomb at all." Kimmitt said the bulk of the nation's public buildings are still standing. "Throughout the nation, four out of five mosques have not been obliterated," Kimmitt said. "That's way, way, way more than half. Also, 80 percent of the nation's treasures and artifacts have not been destroyed by artillery or stolen in the widespread looting. If we were in school, that'd be a B-minus." ... (continued) ...
You know what's funny, that Onion article is exaclty what basso, Faos, Drudge, Hannitty, Dracula, Mr. Burns, and other conservatives keep accusing the media of not putting out.
What's especially dark, if you read the entire long "parody" article is that they use a couple of actual quotes from government officials. Sad.
It's worse? No worries, also courtesy of the Onion, don't forget we're going spend a few hundred billion to go to Mars.
So now, not only is criticizing the president hating America, but criticizing conservative propaganda style journalists, and gossip mongers is also hating America? Or was that a joke?
Yes...This is not anything till the terrorists get their hands on WMD, like they always wanted, like Saddam would have given in his own pursuit...like Gore (the Devil) is unfit to do any speaking without coming across as sourgrapes attention crybaby...SCREAM! SPIT! SHAKE!...Quick check Gore's diaper...He is full of it!
What ever information you have that our nation's intel community didn't that would suggest Saddam would have given WMD to terrorist, then please get it to them immediately. Your musings on what SAddam would have done differ from those of our intel leaders. Come on man, they need you.
Common sense and checkmarks... let's see. 1. invaded another country without warning... 2. used WMD on his own people... 3. Gave money in support of terroristic deeds (suicide bombings)... Of course the same intel people of the past didn't/couldn't see 9/11 happening...You are right, they do need me to point these facts out...It would have been inevitable, and unavoidable that a madman would have, and could have lended developed mass destructive weapons based on at minimum, 3 facticious checkmarks which raise concern with him as a realized threat...
