Death Toll At 35 After Ambush Of Iraqi Forces

Team Infidel

Forum Spin Doctor
Arizona Daily Star (Tucson)
September 26, 2008
By Associated Press
BAGHDAD — Iraqi police on Thursday raised the death toll in an ambush against Iraqi forces raiding a Sunni village northeast of Baghdad to 35, most of them commandos sent to the area as part of a U.S.-backed military crackdown.
The attackers in the suspected insurgent stronghold of Othmaniyah in the volatile Diyala province apparently had been tipped off about Wednesday's raid and were waiting for the Iraqi forces to arrive, officials said.
The U.S. military had said those killed included 14 national policemen and eight members of a Sunni group allied with the Americans to fight al-Qaida in Iraq. The military later referred questions about updates to Iraqi officials.
The rural territory around Diyala's provincial capital of Baqouba has been one of the hardest areas to control despite numerous U.S.-Iraqi military operations aimed at routing insurgents from their havens there.
The national police unit that was struck had been sent to the region over the summer as part of the latest offensive.
The brazen attack occurred the same day the Iraqi parliament approved a law paving the way for the first provincial elections in four years.
The breakthrough came after lawmakers decided to postpone a decision on how to resolve a power-sharing dispute over the oil-rich city of Kirkuk, which has stoked ethnic tensions in northern Iraq.
U.S. commanders have warned that failure by the central government to make progress in promoting unity among Iraq's divided ethnic and religious parties was threatening recent security gains.
Separately, Iraq's Health Ministry reported Thursday that a total of 327 cholera cases had been confirmed in central and southern Iraq since an outbreak last month. The death toll from the outbreak stood at five, it said.
Cholera is a gastrointestinal disease that can be spread by a lack of clean drinking water.
The problem has been worsened by the poor state of Iraq's infrastructure after years of neglect and war.
The United Nations stressed Thursday that the current outbreak appeared less severe than one last year.
 
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