Well folks, these are the fruits of freedom on the march in Iraq:
The Iraqi government declared a state of emergency and imposed a curfew Friday after insurgents set up roadblocks in central Baghdad and opened fire on U.S. and Iraqi troops outside the heavily fortified Green Zone.
Now, even the “Green Zone” isn’t all too safe in Iraq. What ever will our elected leaders do when they make their quick “in and out” trips to the safe hotels in Baghdad to declare that all is just peachy?
The amount of violence over the past day is just staggering, with almost 40 people dead and dozens more injured in multiple attacks. Sounds like the “last throes” to me.
Bombings and shootings occurred in and around Baghdad on all sides, as well as in Sadr City, and even in the Green Zone as shit met the fan once again. According to reports:
A car bomb ripped through a market and nearby gas station in the increasingly violent southern city of Basra, killing at least five people and wounding 18, including two policemen, police said.
A bomb also struck a Sunni mosque in Hibhib, northeast of Baghdad, killing 10 worshippers and wounding 15 in the town where Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was slain this month, police said.
At least 19 other deaths were reported in Baghdad.
Throughout the morning, Iraqi and U.S. military forces clashed with attackers armed with rocket-propelled grenades, hand grenades and rifles in busy Haifa Street, which runs into the Green Zone, site of the U.S. and British embassies and the Iraqi government.
Four Iraqi soldiers and three policemen were wounded in the fighting, police Lt. Maitham Abdul Razzaq said.
Two more bombs. A few dozen injured. A few dozen dead. Roadblocks set up by “insurgents” right outside the Green Zone who open fired on US and Iraqi troops. Bombs in mosques. Bombs in marketplaces. Nineteen dead in “other incidents”. Fighting south of Baghdad. Northeast of Baghdad. In Basra. In Sadr City. Two more marines killed in separate incidents over the past two days.
A curfew imposed by the Iraqi prime minister’s office. House to house searches. A ban on carrying weapons. And all this was on the heels of the major “crackdown” of just 10 days ago, where thousands of troops flooded the streets in an attempt to quell the out of control violence.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki ordered everyone off the streets of the capital. U.S. and Iraqi forces also fought gunmen in the volatile Dora neighborhood in south Baghdad.
—snip—
Al-Maliki has been trying to rein in unrelenting insurgent and sectarian violence. He launched a massive security operation in Baghdad 10 days ago, deploying tens of thousands of troops who flooded the city, snarling traffic with hundreds of checkpoints.
Police said they found the bodies of five men who apparently were victims of a mass kidnapping from a factory on Wednesday. The bodies, which showed signs of torture and had their hands and legs bound, were floating in a canal in northern Baghdad, police Lt. Maitham Abdul-Razzaq said.
Two of our brave soldiers kidnapped and tortured this past week. Five more people kidnapped, tortured and found floating in a canal. All hell breaking loose in the one area that is supposed to be “safe”. Lockdowns in the area that, despite being so heavily fortified, is being attacked with hand and rocket powered grenades and rifles. Cover ups of Iraqi officers killing the US troops who were training them.
But it is just a few “dead-enders”. We have nothing to worry about. It will all work itself out. Just move along – nothing to see here. Freedom is on the march. And we are safer.
Plus, there are more important matters to discuss and focus on – like flag burning, gay marriage and repealing the estate tax. Oh, and I hear that Britney Spears is giving her idiot husband one more chance.
Better go check that out instead……