"Making Perfunctory Preparations for Combat in Anti-American Cleric’s Stronghold"
".... In other areas there was heavy fighting with American and Iraqi forces, which continued into Thursday night....
While Sadr City residents complain of a government and American “siege” of the district, much of the neighborhood was calm. Food and vegetables were still available at roadside stalls, although shortages have pushed such necessities out of the reach of some.
Look at the way they wrote that.
As if the Sadr City residents are being unreasonable and complaining.
I'm so tired of the bias...
Qusay, a merchant on the edge of the district selling cucumbers, eggplant, potatoes, tomatoes and onions from the back of a blue pickup truck, said he had raised his prices by 25 percent. “The traffic jams cause problems, but food is still available,” he said. “I went to Jamila market today at 7 a.m. and managed to get what I needed. There was shooting there yesterday, but today it was all right.”
That's the market that burned earlier this week:
"The huge Jamila wholesale market in Sadr City was in flames Monday afternoon after an apparently errant mortar strike."
Like many in the city, Qusay, 30, complained of American or government “snipers” creating hazards for men, women and children in the dangerous front-line areas of town, although he could offer no evidence of who was shooting, and at whom.
I don't think the New York Times should be in the business of questioning other peoples' evidence!!
WHERE are the WMDS? The mobile labs?
The terrorist ties?
As for snipers, take a look: Asymmetrical Warfare Group
In one part of Sadr City, residents on Thursday pointed to a shattered motorbike, electricity generator and roof balustrade. All were destroyed three days earlier in a helicopter missile strike that killed the two young men on the scooter and an elderly man sitting in the road, they said.
And who do you think popped that off?
But beyond the wreckage, a hole in the road and walls pockmarked by shrapnel, there was, again, no evidence to determine whether the damage had been caused by American aerial fire, errant Mahdi Army mortar shells or some other cause.
You are SHAMELESS, New York Times!
“Sadr City is now under attack from the air, from snipers and from the joint American and Iraqi forces,” said Sheik Salman Lafraiji, who runs the Sadrist office in east Baghdad. “They are trying to enter the city, so they are starting by raiding the outer areas. They have tried to get in from many entrances, in the north and south. The Sadr followers and the Mahdi Army and all the people of Sadr City from all sects are defending themselves and their city.”
Yeah, well, at least some of us in America know that, and I want the world to know we know!
.... The American military in Baghdad said it killed 13 people suspected of being “criminals” around the capital on Wednesday, including four killed in an airstrike after they attacked soldiers erecting concrete barriers in northeast Baghdad, the district around Sadr City, and one who opened fire from a rooftop at a joint Iraqi and American checkpoint nearby."
Sigh!
"Suspected criminals," huh?
ERECTING CONCRETE BARRIERS?!
All you need do, readers, is go to my Iraq labels and start scrolling.
The overwhelming and evil nature of this hellish occupation is all in there. Readers, truly, the war crimes and transgressions are almost endless!
END the FRIKKIN' OCCUPATION NOW!!!!!!!
Oh, and the Boston Globe (owned by the New York Times -- for now) is no better.
Last three paragraphs:
"In Sadr City yesterday, a US helicopter fired a Hellfire missile through the ground floor of a two-story building, killing at least three people and wounding six, Iraqi police said.
The military said the missile was targeting a potential rocket site and it reported no casualties.
A US drone later fired a Hellfire missile at a car speeding away from a rocket-launching site, causing an unknown number of casualties, the US military said."Ummm, about that MISSILE STRIKE:
"U.S. strikes kill 10 in Iraq, Bush to halt troop cuts"
".... U.S. air strikes killed 10 people in a Baghdad slum where dozens of people died in clashes this week.
Iraqi police said on Thursday that U.S. air strikes killed 10 people in Sadr City....
Iraqi police said two separate U.S. air strikes on Thursday killed six people and wounded 10 in Sadr City. Lt. Col. Steven Stover, a U.S. military spokesman, confirmed two strikes on a suspected rocket site from a drone plane but said he was unaware of any deaths.
Late on Wednesday, a U.S. helicopter fired two missiles at gunmen in the slum who attacked a joint U.S.-Iraqi security station, killing four, Stover said. Iraqi police and hospital officials said two of the four dead were young boys...."
