Reuters has a regular feature that runs each day on the security incidents in Iraq. Most of them, except the for large car bombs or other large scale attacks usually are not reported in the Western press anywhere else that I know of. Here’s the list of items for this Friday:
BAGHDAD – Gunmen kidnapped police commando Colonel Muayyad al-Mashhadani in front of his home in eastern Baghdad, police said.
BAIJI – The bodies of two Iraqi soldiers who were killed by gunmen on Friday were found in Baiji, 180 km (110 miles) north of Baghdad, said a source at a U.S.-Iraqi military coordination centre.
MAHMOUDIYA – Four members of a Shi’ite family, including a child, were killed and the mother was critically wounded when gunmen shot them in their house in Mahmoudiya, south of Baghdad, police said.
KHALIS – Five worshippers were killed and 17 wounded by a bomb planted near a Sunni mosque in the town of Khalis, 60 km (40 miles) northeast of Baghdad, police said.
BAGHDAD – Police found five bodies, shot, blindfolded and with their hands bound, on the edge of the Shi’ite district of Sadr City, police said.
BAGHDAD – Gunmen killed four bakery workers in a mostly Sunni district of Baghdad and planted an explosive booby-trap that killed a policeman responding to the attack, police said.
BAGHDAD – Three policemen were killed and one wounded when gunmen opened fire on their patrol in western Baghdad, police said.
BAGHDAD – Police found seven bodies with their hands bound and shot in the head in northern Baghdad. A police source said the bodies were dumped on a street in al-Binouk district.
TAL AFAR – Six children were wounded when a mortar bomb landed in the town of Tal Afar, west of Mosul, police said.
And this was a slow day by Iraqi standards. It’s often far, far worse.
Of all of these incidents, the most telling one is the mortar attack in Tal Afar. You remember Tal Afar, don’t you. That’s the town President Bush bragged about in his recent speeches blaming the media for not telling us about all the good news in Iraq. Tal Afar was his “success story.” The place where the Sheriff (in the form of the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment) had cleaned up Dodge and made it safe for all the regular peace-loving folks and their kids to live safely and securely once more.
So much for good news, eh?
