2nd Sunni Mosque Destroyed

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

2nd Sunni Mosque Destroyed
Two Sunni Mosque Attacked In Two Days;
Likely Retaliation For Destruction Of Shiite Shrine

BASRA, Iraq, June 16, 2007

(AP) Another Sunni mosque was leveled by an explosion Saturday
in Basra, residents said, in the second retaliatory attack for the
downing of Shiite minarets in as many days.

Iraqi police did not immediately respond to the bombing of the
al-Ashrah al-Mubashra mosque, witnesses said, raising fears that
the city's Shiite-dominated security forces were unwilling to stop
sectarian attacks on Sunni landmarks.

-snip-

In Iraq's western Anbar province, the remains of 13 members of
an Iraqi tae kwon do team kidnapped last year were found near
the main highway leading to Jordan, police and hospital officials
said. The team had been driving to a training camp there in May
2006, when their convoy was interrupted.

-snip-

Bombers loaded into pickup trucks pulled up to the al-Ashrah
al-Mubashra mosque in Basra's al-Hakimiya district at dawn,
residents in nearby houses said. Minutes after they left, a huge
explosion tore through the building, leveling it completely.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/06/16/world/main2938644.shtml

[Eugene]

1. Bodies of Iraq tae kwondo squad found in desert

Source: Reuters

Bodies of Iraq tae kwondo squad found in desert
16 Jun 2007 09:04:16 GMT
Source: Reuters

By Wissam Mohammed

BAGHDAD, June 16 (Reuters) - The decomposed bodies of at
least 13 martial arts experts have been found more than a
year after they were kidnapped in an al Qaeda stronghold
west of Baghdad, local officials and family members said
on Saturday.

The bodies were found on Thursday in a ditch in the desert
about 100 km (60 miles) west of Ramadi in Anbar province,
one of Iraq's most violent areas and where al Qaeda and
Sunni Arab insurgents are battling U.S. and Iraqi forces.

All appeared to have been shot, hospital officials said.
Weeping relatives gathered at the hospital in the Baghdad
Shi'ite slum of Sadr city to identify the bodies.

"The bodies were very badly decomposed. Just the bones
and clothes remained," Qasim al-Mudalal, the director of
Baghdad's Imam Ali Hospital, told Reuters.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/COL631463.htm

[Eugene]

2. Iraq's Sistani urges end to attacks on Sunni mosques

Source: Reuters

Iraq's Sistani urges end to attacks on Sunni mosques
16 Jun 2007 10:46:06 GMT
Source: Reuters

BAGHDAD, June 16 (Reuters) - Iraq's top Shi'ite cleric
Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani on Saturday condemned
attacks on Sunni mosques in the southern city of Basra
and called for a halt to such violence.

The attacks have been apparent reprisals against Sunnis
after militants blew up the minarets of a revered Shi'ite
mosque in Samarra on Wednesday.

"He heavily condemns the attacks against the mosques of
Talha ben Obaida Alla and al-Eshra al Mubashera in Basra,"
Sistani's spokesman, Hamed al-Khafaf, told Reuters. "He
calls on believers to prevent, as much as they can, such
attacks from taking place on mosques and shrines."


Link: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/KAR936653.htm

[annabanana]

3. I fear Sistani is a busted valise...

A big part of his constituency has moved on to richer soil. (to mix metaphors)

[Eugene]

4. US Launches New Offensive in Iraq

Source: Associated Press

US Launches New Offensive in Iraq
U.S. Military Announces New Offensive Against
al-Qaida in Iraq

By LOLITA C. BALDOR Associated Press Writer
BAGHDAD Jun 16, 2007 (AP)

The U.S. military, which just days ago completed its latest
troop buildup in Iraq, has launched a large offensive operation
in several al-Qaida strongholds around Baghdad, the top U.S.
commander said Saturday.

Gen. David Petraeus said the operation began in the last 24
hours, and will put forces into key areas surrounding Baghdad
that, according to intelligence, al-Qaida is using to base
some of it car bomb operations.

Petraeus, who met with Defense Secretary Robert Gates at a
morning breakfast, also said that while he doesn't have all the
American troops he might want, he knows he's got all he's
going to get.

-snip-

Petraeus provided few details of the new offensive, but said
he believes it will help the military make some progress in
Iraq, where the war is in its fifth year and U.S. casualties
have surpassed 3,500. Gates and his military leaders are
under intense pressure from Congress and the American public
to begin to show real progress in Iraq so that troop
withdrawals can start.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=3285629

---

Source: Reuters

FACTBOX-Security developments in Iraq, June 16
16 Jun 2007 11:34:41 GMT
Source: Reuters

June 16 (Reuters) - Following are security developments in Iraq
at 1100 GMT on Saturday:

BAGHDAD - U.S. and Iraqi forces killed four suspected insurgents
and detained 20 others during operations in Falluja, Mosul and
Baghdad, the U.S military said.

BAGHDAD - The U.S. military said U.S. and Iraqi soldiers killed
one suspected insurgent, wounded another and detained 10
during operations in Baghdad's Shi'ite neighbourhood of Sadr
City. Iraqi police said six civilians were killed and 25 wounded in
gunbattles between the Shi'ite Mehdi Army militia and U.S forces
in Sadr City.

FALLUJA - Two bullet-riddled bodies were found in Falluja, 50 km
(32 miles) west of Baghdad, police said.


Link: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L16308100.htm

[Eugene]

5. Two key Iraqi militants detained in Baghdad -U.S.

Source: Reuters

Two key Iraqi militants detained in Baghdad -U.S.
16 Jun 2007 13:09:48 GMT
Source: Reuters

BAGHDAD, June 16 (Reuters) - U.S. and Iraqi forces captured
two top militants overnight including one from a gang that
may have been involved in the abduction of five Britons in
Baghdad in May, the U.S. military commander in Iraq said on
Saturday.

General David Petraeus named the two militants as Al Hilfi
and Abu Tiba. He said Hilfi was the leader of a secret cell
of "extremist elements" within the Mehdi Army militia of
anti-American Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

He told a news conference with visiting U.S. Defense
Secretary Robert Gates that Abu Tiba was a member of the
Ajur al Dulaimi gang, which "may be associated with some of
the British citizens who were kidnapped recently".

The Britons -- a computer expert and his four bodyguards
-- were snatched late last month from inside a Finance
Ministry building by dozens of gunmen wearing police
uniforms.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L16339334.htm

[acmavm]

6. Well Eugene, I must say that you present quite the picture of what a

failure the 'surge' has been, and what a joke Petraeus is when he tells us what amazing progress is happening in that poor country (although I can never figure out what anyone is talking about when they use the word progress in regard to the situation in Iraq).

[gauguin57]

7. Mission Accomplished.

er ... maybe not ...

This debacle gets sicker and sicker.