"Bomb Kills Dozens at Iraqi Funeral"
".... A fierce dust storm that blanketed much of Iraq provided cover in Baghdad for intensified rocket attacks into the fortified Green Zone.... Fierce fighting continued Thursday in the Sadr City neighborhood of Baghdad....
In Baghdad, the dust storm that aided the suicide bomber covered the city with a murky gray cloud and grounded military helicopters and commercial airplanes. It also may have made it more difficult for military aircraft to detect areas from which rockets were being fired.
Maj. Dan Shaltanis, director of operations for the 28th Operational Weather Squadron at Shaw Air Force Base in South Carolina, said that the dust storm was the worst in Iraq in at least a year and that it covered as much as two-thirds of the country.
In the continuing battles in Sadr City, fighting between American and Iraqi forces and gunmen erupted near Mudhafer Square, one of the central entrances to the neighborhood. Pedestrians were kept out and pushed back to a nearby neighborhood by the Iraqi and American troops. When pedestrians were allowed back in, some held up white flags as they walked down the main street."
Anyone die, Times, or...
Ohhhhh (with exhaled sigh)!!!
Update:
"Iraqi Troops Face Off With Sadr Followers""BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi troops clashed with Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's militia on Friday in what was described as some of the heaviest fighting in Baghdad for weeks.
Amid blinding dust storms, Sadr's Mehdi Army fighters attacked Iraqi army positions in east Baghdad's Sadr City slum, but U.S. forces said Iraqi troops stood their ground.
An Iraqi security source described the fighting as among the heaviest since confrontation erupted there in late March. The source said seven people had died in combat lasting four to five hours. A nearby market was in flames.
Ali Bustan, head of the health directorate for east Baghdad, said 132 wounded were brought to Sadr City's two hospitals by nightfall...."
