Attacks Surge in Iraq Despite Curfew

[tocqueville]

By ALEXANDRA ZAVIS, Associated Press Writer
7 minutes ago

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A car bomb exploded in a Shiite holy city and 13 members of one Shiite family were gunned down northeast of the capital Saturday in a surge of attacks that killed at least 30 people despite heightened security aimed at curbing sectarian violence following the bombing of a revered Shiite shrine.

At least one more Sunni mosque was attacked in Baghdad on Saturday after two rockets were fired at a Shiite mosque in Tuz Khormato, north of the capital, the previous night. Shooting also broke out near the home of a prominent Sunni cleric as the funeral procession for an Al-Arabiya TV correspondent slain in sectarian violence was passing by. Police believed the procession was the target.

The violence occurred despite an extraordinary daytime curfew in Baghdad and three surrounding provinces. Stretched security forces could not be everywhere to contain attacks that have killed more than 150 people since Wednesday's shrine bombing and pushed Iraq to the brink of civil war.

Political and religious leaders were anxious to contain the violence unleashed by extremists on both sides, which have frozen efforts to form a new government that Washington considers essential if it is to reduce U.S. troop levels this year.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060225/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq

Iraq government warns of "endless civil war" By Michael Georgy and Lin Noueihed
1 hour, 15 minutes ago

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq's defense minister warned on Saturday of a "civil war" that "will never end" and said he was ready to put tanks on the streets as sectarian violence flared despite a second day of curfew in Baghdad.

Extending a traffic ban in the capital to Monday after battles around Sunni mosques and a car bomb in a holy Shi'ite city, leaders scrambled to break a round of reprisals sparked by a suspected al Qaeda bombing of a Shi'ite shrine on Wednesday.

The gravest crisis since the U.S. invasion in 2003 threatens Washington's hopes of withdrawing its 136,000 troops from Iraq.

"If there is a civil war in this country it will never end," Defense Minister Saadoun al-Dulaimi, a minority Sunni Muslim in the Shi'ite-led interim government, told a news conference.

"We are ready to fill the streets with armored vehicles

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=578&u=/nm/20060225/ts_nm/iraq_dc_63

[bluemarkers]

1. why it is a love fest

Remember kiddies, It's Opposite Decade in the USA.


Death and destruction have been hawked to the masses as freedom for too long now, but I wonder how many continue to believe it? I hope the hypnotic trace that many seem under is wearing off.

What is happening is so awful - how heartless is it to try and make it sound like a good thing?

The Golden Mosque was 4 times as old as our country. Christians used to be able to worship freely in Iraq, but not anymore. How that is Freedom? How is killing whole families Freedom? :crazy: