Forever and forever, readers:
"Attacker Bombs Pro-U.S. Sunnis in Iraq" by SOLOMON MOORE
BAGHDAD — A suicide bomber in turbulent Diyala Province detonated an explosive vest on Wednesday at a checkpoint operated by armed Sunni Arab tribesmen who have turned against Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia and pledged support to the United States military.
The bomber emerged from behind a fruit stand near the checkpoint in downtown Baquba, leapt onto the hood of a BMW and detonated the explosives, killing Abu Sadjat, a local tribal chief who had just left a meeting with American military officials. The Iraqi police said the blast killed at least six Iraqis and wounded 22 others.
American military officials in Diyala discounted earlier reports that the bomber was a woman, and said they counted only four Iraqis killed and six wounded.
Awakening Council members, often lightly armed and poorly trained, say Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia is not their only adversary in Diyala. Iraqi security forces remain distrustful of the former insurgents, and last week staged a raid with American forces against one of their headquarters in the town of Buhruz. The Iraqi police said the tribesmen killed a Shiite hostage during the raid and fired at the officers. United States helicopters returned fire and killed at least 10 council members.
Kudhair Tamimi, an Iraqi police brigadier, acknowledged that many Sunni tribesmen had sacrificed their lives fighting the insurgents in Diyala, but said he still doubted their loyalty and questioned the wisdom of allowing them to serve in the Iraqi security forces:
“Al Qaeda is dangerous, but the infiltration of Al Qaeda supporters into the Iraqi security forces would be even more dangerous than Al Qaeda itself.”
They are ALREADY THERE!
See:
"Al-CIA-Duh"
"Al-CIA-Duhs" Catch-and-Release Program
Salvador Option
Special Police Commandos
Prop 201 tutorial
FRU
Abu Talib, an Awakening Council leader in southern Baquba, the capital of Diyala, said that continued insurgent attacks and lukewarm support from the Iraqi security forces were alienating his followers and could potentially push them back into the insurgency:
“We have had many martyrs, but nobody cares about them. There is no recruitment of the Awakening Councils into the Iraqi security forces, and this will destroy the security situation in Baquba, because we now protect most of the neighborhoods.”
Abu Talib said his followers remained the enemy of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, which he said had recently killed four of his leaders in Baquba, but complained that government forces continued to attack and detain his members:
“The Awakening Councils are the first line of defense for the Iraqi security forces. If this line is destroyed, the security forces will face Al Qaeda alone.”
Sheik Ahmed Abu Risha, leader of one of the largest Awakening Councils in Anbar Province, said in a telephone interview that the Iraqi government was moving too slowly on its promise to integrate his followers into the army and the police:
“Before, the Sunnis did not join the Iraqi security forces because of a fatwa against doing so. Now we are trying to join, and the government says no.”
Diyala has emerged as an important test for the Awakening Council movement. Unlike Anbar, where Shiites are few and Sunni Arab Awakening Councils have been able to take on increasingly important security functions, Diyala is a mixed province that has been the scene of some of the nation’s bloodiest sectarian battles. Sunni Arabs in Diyala, once home to tens of thousands of army officers under Saddam Hussein, have long complained that Shiites unfairly dominate the provincial security agencies and the local government.
Total casualties on Wednesday were relatively light, but what appeared to be an uptick in violence throughout the country during the past several days underscored the fragility of a lull in violence in Iraq in recent weeks.
Oooooooh, am I ever tired of the lies of the MSM, readers!
You know, the ones who sold us the pile of shit known as "surge success."
You know, the same ones who lied us into this damn abomination!
In Muqdadiya, a town north of Baquba, gunmen killed six people and wounded three others, according to the Iraqi police.
Three suspected insurgents were killed and one was wounded Wednesday by American military aircraft in the Diyala town of Jalawla, the military said.
In Salahuddin Province, Iraqi security forces killed 15 suspected insurgents in clashes Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, according to the Iraqi police. Two civilians and one police officer were killed in the fighting.
In the southern city of Kut, the Iraqi police said gunmen killed two brothers, one a police officer, the other a soldier, in their home. And in Baghdad, Yarmouk Hospital said six family members, including five children, were shot to death in their minivan."
Yeah, Iraq is great now.
"Latest in wave of Iraq suicide bombs kills 10"
BAQUBA, Iraq (Reuters) - A suicide bomber killed 10 people in Iraq on Wednesday, Iraqi authorities said, the latest in a wave of suicide attacks that has seen a major strike nearly every day of the past week.
Iraqi Army Major-General Abdul-Karim al-Rubaie, chief of security operations for the volatile Diyala province, said the bomber blew themselves up with an explosive vest at a checkpoint in the provincial capital Baquba north of Baghdad.
The U.S. military said the bomber jumped onto the hood of a car driven by a member of a volunteer neighborhood patrol, killing the driver and three others.
The Iraqi authorities said the bomber was a woman, while the U.S. military said the perpetrator was male. Strikes by female suicide bombers are comparatively rare but there have been several in recent weeks in Diyala.
The attack came a day after a bomber detonated his explosive vest in a tent crowded with mourners at a Baghdad funeral. Police raised the death toll from that strike to 34 on Wednesday, making it the worst in the capital in six months.
Wednesday's bomb struck near crowded shops and stalls. A Reuters photographer at the scene said he saw pools of blood, burnt hair and severed body parts. He later counted five dead bodies and 16 wounded at a hospital. Police told him other casualties, including 28 wounded, were taken elsewhere.
Victim Amal Akram, a health clinic employee, told Reuters television from a hospital bed:
"I had just left my office. And then the explosion happened. I don't know what happened or how. The blast was very severe."
Despite the drop in overall violence, U.S. military figures released over the weekend show suicide bombings increased over the past two months after a low in October."
