Another benefit to the west after the Mossad bombing of the Yazidi.
There is no reporting on the ongoing violence in country.
It's all Yazidi aftermath. CUI BONO, reader?
And why are my War Dailies censoring the "news?"
"Iraqi leaders form new power bloc after 3 days of crisis talks; Lack of Sunnis raises questions on legitimacy" by Steven R. Hurst/Associated Press August 17, 2007
BAGHDAD -- Teams in northern Iraq tallied the grim figures from the deadliest wave of suicide attacks of the war and -- in a rare moment of joy since Tuesday's devastation -- pulled four children alive from the rubble.
Saad Muhanad, a municipal council member in the Qahtaniya region, where four bomb-laden trucks turned clay and stone homes into tombs for hundreds belonging to a small religious group:
"We didn't hear them calling out for help until moments before a bulldozer would have killed them as it cleared the rubble."
Interior Ministry spokesman Brigadier General Abdul-Karim Khalaf said yesterday that at least 400 were dead, apparently all members of the ancient Yazidi sect that mixes elements of Islam, Christianity, and other faiths. Some authorities outside the central government had said at least 500 people died and have not revised that figure downward.
The four young survivors were related, Muhanad said, but he did not know if they were siblings. No other details about the children were known. The freed youngsters began running through the streets begging for food and water.
Muhanad: "In a while, some of their families came and took them away."
The mayor of the region pleaded for help, saying an even larger tragedy loomed if the shattered communities did not get food, water, and medicine soon.
Abdul-Rahim al-Shimari, mayor of the Baaj district, which includes the Kurdish-speaking Yazidi villages:
"People are in shock. Hospitals here are running out of medicine. The pharmacies are empty. We need food, medicine, and water otherwise there will be an even greater catastrophe."
Qassim Khalaf, a 40-year-old government worker, who was crying while he spoke by telephone from Qahtaniya, sobbed:
"We call upon the United Nations to protect the Yazidis because the Iraqi government is in hibernation. Right now, I can see some bodies still partially buried under the rubble. Hundreds of local volunteers are still working in the rescue operations. Eighty percent of the village was destroyed or damaged."
"While Kurds Count Bodies, Iraqi Leaders Try to Bridge Their Divide" by DAMIEN CAVE
BAGHDAD, Aug. 16 — Emergency workers continued Thursday to pull bodies from the rubble of a quadruple truck bombing in two villages near the Syrian border. Security officials near Qahtaniya, where the explosions killed at least 250 people Tuesday night, said plans were being made for the Iraqi government to pay 2 million Iraqi dinars, about $1,600, to the family of each person killed in the blasts.
Kurdish troops arrived on Thursday to help secure the area. The death toll remained uncertain.
Dakhil Qassim, the mayor of the nearby town of Sinjar, told reporters that as many as 500 people could be dead. Brig. Gen. Khorsheed Saleem al-Dosaki, commander of the Iraqi Army division in the area, said 250 was a more reasonable estimate."
[The New York Times SUCKS!!!]
