Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
San Diego Union-Tribune
May 9, 2008 17 insurgents die in battles in city in past two days
By Selcan Hacaoglu, Associated Press
BAGHDAD – A rocket hit a downtown Baghdad park yesterday, killing two people as U.S. and Iraqi forces battled Shiite militants believed responsible for many such attacks.
The U.S. military said 17 militants had been killed since Wednesday in clashes around Baghdad.
The rocket, which also wounded six people, was the second in three days to land in downtown parks apparently after failing to reach the U.S.-protected Green Zone, which includes the U.S. Embassy and key Iraqi government offices.
On Tuesday, a rocket hit and destroyed some playground equipment in another park.
Meanwhile, a bomb went off on a minibus yesterday in Baghdad's eastern Zayona neighborhood, killing two passengers and injuring five, police said.
U.S. forces have increased air power and armored patrols in an attempt to cripple Shiite militia influence in Sadr City, a slum of 2.5 million people and the Baghdad base for the Mahdi army led by anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
Nine militants were killed in two U.S. missile attacks in the New Baghdad neighborhood early yesterday, the U.S. military said. U.S. soldiers killed one of two militants who were planting a roadside bomb in the northern Baghdad suburb of Kazimiyah, the military said.
Seven other militants were killed in clashes around Baghdad on Wednesday, the U.S. military said.
Fighting with Shiite militants started in late March after the Iraqi government launched a crackdown on militias and armed gangs in the southern city of Basra.
Attacks returned to Basra yesterday as several rockets hit what the U.S. military described as a “contingency operating base,” killing at least two civilian contractors and wounding four soldiers. The statement did not provide the nationalities.
Helicopters and a drone fired back, killing six extremists. It was the first such attack causing casualties in Basra since March 27, the military said.
The U.S. military said it had nearly completed an operation to build a wall along a main street dividing the southern portion of Sadr City from the northern areas, which are farther from the Green Zone. A primary goal is to put the enclave out of range for militia rockets and mortars.
“Within the next two weeks we should be done with the barrier part of the plan,” said Col. Allen Batschelet, the chief of staff for forces in Baghdad.
He said extremists “are not happy because once the wall is in they are cut off.”
Some families could be seen fleeing Sadr City's battle-scarred streets. A Reuters correspondent saw seven minibuses in different parts of the slum moving with rolled up mattresses, blankets and cooking gas tanks tied to their roofs.
Those on the move included many women wearing black robes, traditional clothes of mourning when a family member dies, and two men wailing after their brother was killed in a rocket attack.
Tahseen al-Sheikhli, the government's civilian spokesman for security in Baghdad, accused gunmen of attacking aid convoys.
May 9, 2008 17 insurgents die in battles in city in past two days
By Selcan Hacaoglu, Associated Press
BAGHDAD – A rocket hit a downtown Baghdad park yesterday, killing two people as U.S. and Iraqi forces battled Shiite militants believed responsible for many such attacks.
The U.S. military said 17 militants had been killed since Wednesday in clashes around Baghdad.
The rocket, which also wounded six people, was the second in three days to land in downtown parks apparently after failing to reach the U.S.-protected Green Zone, which includes the U.S. Embassy and key Iraqi government offices.
On Tuesday, a rocket hit and destroyed some playground equipment in another park.
Meanwhile, a bomb went off on a minibus yesterday in Baghdad's eastern Zayona neighborhood, killing two passengers and injuring five, police said.
U.S. forces have increased air power and armored patrols in an attempt to cripple Shiite militia influence in Sadr City, a slum of 2.5 million people and the Baghdad base for the Mahdi army led by anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
Nine militants were killed in two U.S. missile attacks in the New Baghdad neighborhood early yesterday, the U.S. military said. U.S. soldiers killed one of two militants who were planting a roadside bomb in the northern Baghdad suburb of Kazimiyah, the military said.
Seven other militants were killed in clashes around Baghdad on Wednesday, the U.S. military said.
Fighting with Shiite militants started in late March after the Iraqi government launched a crackdown on militias and armed gangs in the southern city of Basra.
Attacks returned to Basra yesterday as several rockets hit what the U.S. military described as a “contingency operating base,” killing at least two civilian contractors and wounding four soldiers. The statement did not provide the nationalities.
Helicopters and a drone fired back, killing six extremists. It was the first such attack causing casualties in Basra since March 27, the military said.
The U.S. military said it had nearly completed an operation to build a wall along a main street dividing the southern portion of Sadr City from the northern areas, which are farther from the Green Zone. A primary goal is to put the enclave out of range for militia rockets and mortars.
“Within the next two weeks we should be done with the barrier part of the plan,” said Col. Allen Batschelet, the chief of staff for forces in Baghdad.
He said extremists “are not happy because once the wall is in they are cut off.”
Some families could be seen fleeing Sadr City's battle-scarred streets. A Reuters correspondent saw seven minibuses in different parts of the slum moving with rolled up mattresses, blankets and cooking gas tanks tied to their roofs.
Those on the move included many women wearing black robes, traditional clothes of mourning when a family member dies, and two men wailing after their brother was killed in a rocket attack.
Tahseen al-Sheikhli, the government's civilian spokesman for security in Baghdad, accused gunmen of attacking aid convoys.