http://news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=1271722006
Tuesday, 29th August 2006
Killings surge as Browne says Iraq's security is improving
ELENA BECATOROS IN BAGHDAD
A SURGE in bloodshed left at least 50 people dead in a suicide
car-bombing and clashes between Shiite militia and Iraqi security
forces yesterday.
In a brutal contradiction of claims that violence was decreasing,
street fighting in the town of Diwaniya represented some of the
bloodiest clashes yet among rival factions in Shiite southern Iraq.
The deaths mounted as Des Browne, the Defence Secretary, on a visit to
Baghdad yesterday, hailed "significant" security improvements in Iraq.
A suicide car-bomb attack on the interior ministry in Baghdad killed
at least 16 as Mr Browne met Nouri al-Maliki, the Iraqi prime
minister, to discuss the hand-over of control.
A US general also claimed that violence in Baghdad had fallen by
almost half since July, when US-led forces launched an operation to
pacify the capital.
However, Major-General William Caldwell acknowledged a surge in
problems since the weekend.
Yesterday's deaths followed a day of bombings and shootings on Sunday,
when more than 60 died across the country, from Kirkuk in the north to
the capital Baghdad, and down to Basra in the south.
At least 50 gunmen and 20 Iraqi soldiers have been killed since Sunday
in Diwaniya, 80 miles south of Baghdad.
Officials said that fighting started when gunmen attacked police
stations.
Army troops were sent in as reinforcements and eventually took control
yesterday.
Iraqi army, police and hospital sources said that the clashes were
between militiamen loyal to Muqtada al-Sadr, the radical Shiite
cleric, and Iraqi troops.
About 70 people were also wounded in the fighting.
The Iraqi government has found it difficult to rein in Sadr, whose
movement holds 30 of the 275 seats in parliament and five cabinet
posts.
Sadr mounted two major uprisings against the US-led coalition in 2004
when US authorities closed his newspaper and pushed an Iraqi judge
into issuing an arrest warrant against him.
But American forces have also been wary of confronting his al-Mahdi
army because of Sadr's clout over the government and his large
following among Shiites, who are in a majority in Iraq.
Some 10,000 Iraqis have been killed in the last four months alone in
unrelenting attacks by Sunni and Shiite extremists on each other's
communities, as well as bombings and shootings by Sunni Arab
insurgents.
In one of the deadliest weekends for the US military in recent months,
American officials said eight US soldiers were killed on Saturday and
Sunday in and around Baghdad, seven of them by roadside bombs and one
by gunfire.
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It's that damn media again. Can't seem to stick to the "good" news.
Harry
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