US, Iraqi forces kill over 100 "insurgents" in Ramadi:

U.S. and Iraqi forces killed more than 100 "insurgents" last week in the town of Ramadi in the rebel heartland of Anbar province, the U.S. military said on Tuesday.
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article12911.htm

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Gunshot Victims Fill Morgue:

An official at Yarmouk hospital in Baghdad said its morgue was full after receiving 65 corpses over the past three days of people who mostly died from gunshot wounds. Some others were beheaded. The victims included three schoolteachers who were gunned down in the capital.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L0231011.htm

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U.S. Soldier Killed as Official Urges Iraqis to Renounce Violence:

15 Bodies Found:
http://tinyurl.com/hypn8

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7 US soldiers killed in Iraq:

The Department of Defense announced today and yesterday the death of 7 US soldiers in Iraq
http://tinyurl.com/eo64q

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Four Killed By Bombs In Baghdad:

Police in Baghdad recovered four bullet-riddled bodies, while two more were found between ousted president Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit and the northern oil centre of Kirkuk.
http://tinyurl.com/jqvn7

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Suicide bomber attacks Iraqi governor, 3 dead:

A local government official said there was no word on the fate of governor Maamoun Sami Rasheed after the attack in the centre of the city
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/MAC247802.htm

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U.S. Contractor Kills Ambulance Crewman:

U.S. private security contractors shot dead an Iraqi ambulance crewman as the ambulance approached a site in northern Baghdad where the contractors' armoured vehicle had been hit by a roadside bomb, a U.S. military spokesman said.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L0231011.htm

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Tape shows Iraqis allegedly abusing body :

An Arab television station aired videotape Monday of what it said was Iraqi men kicking and stepping on the corpse of a prime minister under Saddam Hussein linked to the suppression of Shiites following the 1991 Gulf War
http://tinyurl.com/r5gl5

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Billions wasted in Iraq, says US audit :

A US congressional inspection team set up to monitor reconstruction in Iraq today publishes a scathing report of failures by contractors, mainly from the US, to carry out projects worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,1765048,00.html

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Senator Russ Feingold Calls For Redeployment of U.S.

Troops from Iraq: We simply cannot continue to avoid asking the tough questions about Iraq. We should not be appropriating billions of dollars for Iraq without debating – and demanding -- a strategy to complete our military mission there.
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article12917.htm

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Most young Americans can't find Iraq on map - study:

Fewer than 4 in 10 Americans aged 18-24 in a survey could place Iraq on an unlabeled map of the Middle East, a study conducted for National Geographic found. Only about one-quarter of respondents could find Iran and Israel on the same map.
http://tinyurl.com/pt3f2

- Corruption Still Major Problem In Iraq Finds IG
http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Corruption...q_Finds_IG.html

Washington (UPI) May 03, 2006 - Corruption of government officials remains a major problem in Iraq, according to a series of reports from the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction. SIGIR has identified major challenges for the U.S. and Iraqi governments to tackle in the coming year as the reconstruction effort is handed off to Baghdad.

51 killed in continuing violence:

A suicide bomber blew himself up while standing in a line of recruits outside Fallujah's police headquarters, killing 15 people and wounding 30, said police 1st Lt. Omar Ahmed. Thirteen of the dead were recruits and two were policemen
http://tinyurl.com/hycdv

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Dozens of bodies surface as Iraq parliament meets:

Iraqi police have found 36 bullet-riddled bodies of men shot dead in apparent sectarian killings as lawmakers convened the first working session of parliament since it was elected in December.
http://tinyurl.com/zy6ls

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US mercenary kills Baghdad ambulance crewman:

Asked about the incident, an Iraqi Interior Ministry official said: "The Americans killed the ambulance driver. They just killed him and left. They did not stop to check."
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/MAC231727.htm

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US softens tactics in Iraq:

American commanders are ordering marines and soldiers manning checkpoints or travelling in convoys to be less trigger-happy
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,1766292,00.html

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In case you missed it:

4 Minute Video: No Bravery:

A nation blind to their disgrace
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article11799.htm

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Dahr Jamail: "Reason for Their Death Is Known":

Know what it is like when scores of your fellow citizens are being killed every single day while the world proceeds unheedingly on? Try it out: be an Iraqi for a day, into your fourth year of being occupied, humiliated, tortured and killed, doing all you can just to survive.
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article12940.htm

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Iraqi, 15, 'drowned after soldiers forced him into canal' :

The soldiers watched as Ahmed Jabar Karheem, 15, who was unable to swim, began to struggle when he was ordered into the Shatt al-Basra canal in May 2003. After the boy disappeared below the surface, the soldiers drove away. His body was recovered two days later.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/military/story/0....html?gusrc=rss

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UK uses Freedom of Information laws to avoid releasing casualty figures :

A series of FOI requests has revealed that the Ministry of Defence was wrong to say there was no way of knowing how many soldiers have been injured in Iraq.
http://tinyurl.com/k9wyc

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In the chaos of Iraq, one project is on target:

THE question puzzles and enrages a city: how is it that the Americans cannot keep the electricity running in Baghdad for more than a couple of hours a day, yet still manage to build themselves the biggest embassy on Earth?
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2162249,00.html

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A Must Watch 3 Minute Video:

Lives In The Balance (Exclusive Video): From Jackson Browne
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11924.htm

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Chalmers Johnson: Exporting the American Model:

Peddling Markets and Democracy
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article12938.htm

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Iraq, Afghanistan on 'failed states' index :

Despite large-scale U.S. support, Iraq and Afghanistan rank among the world's 10 most vulnerable states, according to a private survey being released Tuesday.
http://tinyurl.com/kgs82

Sadr Loyalists Push for More Cabinet Posts
--------------------

Demands by lawmakers tied to the radical Shiite cleric are typical of a process that some Iraqis say puts political wants above public needs.

By Borzou Daragahi
Times Staff Writer

May 3 2006

BAGHDAD Loyalists of radical Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada Sadr have demanded control of a greater share of Iraq's public-service ministries, in what many worry is a trend toward a government more concerned with satisfying demands for political patronage than serving Iraqis.

The complete article can be viewed at:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/wo...l=la-home-world

Suicide Bomber Attacks Iraqi Governor
--------------------

The official's condition is unknown, but at least three others die in the assault on his convoy.

By Borzou Daragahi
Times Staff Writer

May 3 2006

BAGHDAD A suicide car bomber rammed into a convoy of U.S. and Iraqi vehicles accompanying the governor of volatile Al Anbar province through the city of Ramadi on Tuesday, leaving at least three dead, police and hospital officials in the provincial capital said.

The complete article can be viewed at:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/wo...headlines-world

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story...60-2703,00.html
Baghdad anger at Bush's undiplomatic palace
Daniel McGrory, Baghdad
04may06

THE question puzzles and enrages a city: how is it that the Americans cannot keep the electricity running in Baghdad for more than a couple of hours a day, yet still manage to build the biggest embassy on earth?

Irritation grows as residents deprived of airconditioning and running water three years after the US-led invasion watch the massive US embassy they call "George W's palace" rising from the banks of the Tigris.
In the pavement cafes, people moan that the structure is bigger than anything Saddam Hussein built. They are not impressed by the architects' claims that it will be visible from space and cover an area larger than Vatican City. They are more interested in knowing whether the US State Department paid for the prime real estate or simply took it.

While families suffer electricity cuts, queue all day to fuel their cars and wait for water pipes to be connected, the US mission, due to open in June next year, will have its own power and water plants to cater for a population the size of a small town.

The design of the compound is supposed to be a secret, but you cannot hide the concrete contours of the 21 buildings that are taking shape.

Looming over the skyline, the embassy has the distinction of being the only big US building project in Iraq that is on time and within budget. In a week when Washington revealed a startling list of missed deadlines and overspending on building projects, Congress was told the bill for the embassy was $US592million ($772million).

The heavily guarded 42ha site - which will have a 3m-thick perimeter wall - has hundreds of workers swarming on scaffolding. Locals are bitter that the Kuwaiti contractor has employed only foreign staff.

Diplomats, after roughing it in Saddam's abandoned palaces, should have every comfort in their new home. The plans are rumoured to include the biggest swimming pool in Iraq, a gymnasium, a cinema, restaurants offering delicacies from US food chains, tennis courts and a swish American Club for functions.

A State Department official said the size reflected the "massive amount of work still facing the US and our commitment to see it through".

The Times
© The Australian

- IEDs Still Plague US Troops
http://www.spacewar.com/reports/IEDs_Still..._US_Troops.html

Washington (UPI) May 04, 2006 - The main thrust of the Iraq insurgency is not currently aimed at U.S. forces, but it shows no signs of diminishing either. In the 20 days from April 13 to May 2, 47 U.S. soldiers were killed or died in Iraq at an average rate of 2.35 per day, according to official figures issued by the U.S. Department of Defense.

Nine killed in Iraq court attack BBC News
At least nine people have been killed and 46 injured in a suicide bomb attack outside a courthouse in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, police say. The bomber exploded his device near a convoy of police vehicles on a main road in the mainly-Shia Sadr City area. Meanwhile, Iraqi sources say at least five civilians died in a US raid on a house in the city of Ramadi, although the US military has not confirmed this. Ramadi was the scene of clashes between US troops and rebels last month.

Crowded target
Hospital and police officials are quoted as saying the civilian deaths happened when US aircraft bombed a house in the Aziziyah area of the city, about 115km (70 miles) west of Baghdad. The US military confirmed an operation had taken place, but did not give any other information. The area of Thursday's attack in Baghdad was crowded with people submitting petitions to the court and others drafting documents for petitioners. Medics said two women and a child were among the dead. The violence, which has claimed dozens of lives in recent days, comes as Iraqi politicians try to form a government of national unity. Prime Minister-designate Nouri Maliki has until 21 May to install his cabinet, but wrangling over ministerial portfolios has held up the process. Elections were held five months ago and delays in forming a government have fuelled the mainly Sunni Muslim insurgency, amid growing sectarian violence between Sunnis and their Shia Muslim compatriots.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml...05/ixworld.html

Baghdad morgue struggles to cope with flow of bodies
Oliver Poole

http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0505/p04s01-usfp.html

US seeks options for Iraq, finds few answers

IN THE CHAOS OF IRAQ, ONE PROJECT IS ON TARGET: A GIANT US EMBASSY - DANIEL MCGRORY (TIMES, LONDON, MAY 3): The question puzzles and enrages a city: how is it that the Americans cannot keep the electricity running in Baghdad for more than a couple of hours a day, yet still manage to build themselves the biggest embassy on Earth?
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,7374-2162249,00.html
SEE ALSO
http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0708-11.htm

THE CAPTORS BECOME THE CAPTIVES - MAUREEN DOWD (NEW YORK TIMES, MAY 3): The country the administration precipitously grabbed and overconfidently took over, Iraq, has ended up trapping, draining, flummoxing and alarming the administration, which is more and more desperate to hand it off and escape.
http://select.nytimes.com/2006/05/03/opinion/03dowd.html
PAID SUBSCRIPTION

IRAQ, WHOSE MODEL: BERNARD LEWIS AND GRAND DESIGN IN THE MIDDLE EAST - MICHAEL YOUNG (REASON): When even the most vociferous critics of American involvement in Iraq are mapping out colossal pie-cutting arrangements for the country on their weblogs -- arrangements that would require vital, multi-layered American cooperation -- then somewhere in there a statement is being made that U.S. power is essential for Iraqi harmony.
http://www.reason.com/links/links050406.shtml

CANDID ANALYSIS OF THE WAR - EDITORIAL (WASHINGTON TIMES, MAY 5): U.S. forces can and will ultimately be successful in creating in Iraq "a viable federal state under the rule of law which does not: enslave its own people, threaten its neighbors, or produce weapons of mass destruction" (retired General retired Gen. Barry McCaffrey).
http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20060504-090511-8644r.htm

IS THERE A CLASH OF CIVILIZATIONS? FRED KAPLAN (SLATE, MAY 4): The United States had an obligation not to hand the Iraqi people over to the mercies of some new dictator, but to give them a chance to enjoy the rights we believe to be universal.
http://www.slate.com/id/2140932/entry/2141122/

ANOTHER WAY FOR IRAQ - DAVID S. BRODER (WASHINGTON POST, MAY 4): Senator Joseph Biden's view is to give the Sunnis a territory of their own, in the center, and guarantee them a share -- say 20 percent -- of the national oil revenue, and they will consider themselves well rewarded. At a time when most people see nothing but hopeless discord in Iraq, it is healthy to have someone offering alternatives that could produce progress.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...6050302201.html

US SEEKS OPTIONS FOR IRAQ, FINDS FEW ANSWERS: SENATOR BIDEN'S 'THIRD WAY' - DIVIDE IRAQ IN ORDER TO SAVE IT - GETS LITTLE SUPPORT FROM EXPERTS - HOWARD LAFRANCHI (CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, MAY 4)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0505/p04s01-usfp.html

IRAQ: GET OUT NOW - WILLIAM E. ODOM (LOS ANGELES TIMES, MAY 4): Following a withdrawal, all the countries bordering Iraq would likely respond favorably to an offer to help stabilize the situation. The most important of these would be Iran.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commen...omment-opinions

STRIKING THE RIGHT BALANCE IN IRAQ - LAWRENCE KORB AND BRIAN KATULIS (BOSTON GLOBE, MAY 4): While we are sympathetic with the aims of those recommending immediate withdrawal, we believe that too hasty a withdrawal increases chances of permanently destabilizing Iraq and the region.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial...alance_in_iraq/

WIFFLE BALL COVERAGE OF BUSH: CBS'S HARD-HITTING SPECIAL GOT BENCHED - ROBERT SCHEER (LOS ANGELES ALTERNATIVE, APRIL 28): By exposing the Bush administration?s utter disregard for the truth concerning Saddam Hussein?s weapons of mass destruction, the CBS special should have been made available to the public before the November 2004 election.
http://www.laalternative.com/index.php/200...verage-of-bush/

3 U.S. Soldiers Killed in Iraq Bombing Yahoo! News
A roadside bomb killed three American soldiers south of Baghdad on Friday as U.S. and Iraqi forces swept through a city to the north where three insurgents had been killed the day before after firing on U.S troops. The three Americans died in the attack shortly before noon in Babil province, the U.S. military said, giving few other details. However, Iraqi police said the blast targeted a military convoy near Mahaweel, 35 miles south of Baghdad. In Samarra, 60 miles north of the capital, American and Iraqi forces imposed a daytime curfew and searched neighborhoods looking for insurgents a day after three militants were killed after they opened fire on U.S. soldiers, police said. Samarra was the scene of the Feb. 22 explosion at a Shiite shrine that enflamed sectarian tensions. It triggered reprisal attacks on Sunnis, forced tens of thousands of Iraqis to flee their homes and pushed the country to the brink of civil war. American officials are hoping the new national unity government of Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds will eventually reduce sectarian tensions and lure disaffected Sunni Arabs away from the insurgency so U.S. and other foreign troops can begin to go home. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has until late this month to complete his Cabinet, the final stage in organizing the new government. Haitham al-Husseini, a Shiite spokesman, said the Cabinet would be announced Tuesday. The statement was made after a meeting among al-Maliki, President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, and two top Shiite leaders. No Sunni Arabs politicians attended, and it was unclear whether the Sunnis had accepted the Tuesday date. In a joint interview Friday with Al-Arabiya television, Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, a Kurd, and Sunni Arab lawmaker Saleh al-Mutlaq clashed over whether the Kurds should retain the Foreign Ministry post. Zebari, who has headed the ministry since 2003, said the Kurds deserved the ministry "due to our long struggle" against Saddam Hussein's regime. Al-Mutlaq described the talk of an impending Cabinet announcement "as a sword over our neck" and complained about the system of allocating top posts along religious or ethnic lines. Six people, five of them Sunnis, were killed Friday when gunmen in three cars shot up and firebombed two small groceries in the capital's Yarmouk district, police said. A community leader was slain by gunmen near Khalis 50 miles north of Baghdad, police said. An Iraqi police major was assassinated in a drive-by shooting in Diwaniyah, 80 miles south of Baghdad, police said. And a Shiite cleric, Hussein Ahmed al-Mousawi, was shot and killed near his home in Baghdad's Dora district, according to police Capt. Jamil Hussein. The bodies of eight Iraqis who apparently were kidnapped and killed also were found Friday, five in Baghdad and three on the outskirts of the city, police said. Such sectarian killings by Shiite and Sunni "death squads" have become common in Iraq, especially in the capital. The attack on the Americans raised to at least 2,414 the number of U.S. military members who have died since the Iraq war started in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. Elsewhere, gunmen kidnapped seven employees of the state-run company that operates oil fields in northern Iraq, police said. The workers were traveling by minibus to the refinery in Beiji when they were stopped by gunmen about 25 miles southwest of Kirkuk. Security problems in the Kirkuk area, including attacks on pipelines, have hindered Iraq's ability to exploit the vast potential of the northern oil fields. Nearly all of Iraq's oil exports — averaging less than 2 million barrels a day — have come from the southern fields around Basra.
By SINAN SALAHEDDIN, Associated Press Writer

Four feared dead in Iraq helicopter crash UTV
An Iraqi policeman at the scene claimed the craft had been shot down and that the bodies of the four-man crew were seen in the wreckage. There were violent clashes between British troops and local Shiite militia after hundreds of Iraqis were seen waving their arms and grinning in apparent jubilation. Click here to find out more! Stones were hurled at troops, petrol bombs thrown at a Warrior tank and two Iraqis are thought to have been killed, including a child. Iraqi Police Captain Mushtaq Khazim said the helicopter crashed into a two-storey house in the centre of Basra. He said he believed the aircraft had been hit by a missile or a rocket, and that the crew had not survived. Amid the chaos, Mr Kazim said a child was one of two Iraqis killed. The British Ministry of Defence confirmed that there were a number of casualties, but did not give a figure. An MoD spokesman said: "We can confirm that a British military helicopter has come down over Basra, part of the Multinational Division British-controlled South East. "British troops are on the scene assisting and Iraqi emergency services are present. "The site has been secured, and there are confirmed casualties at the scene. It is too early to give further details and circumstances are being investigated." Footage from state-run al-Iraqiya TV showed orange flames reaching 20ft high from the crash scene and large plumes of black smoke curling into the sky. British troops who rushed in to assist met a hail of stones from the jeering crowd and had to fire warning shots into the air. There were cries of "we are all soldiers of al-Sayed", a reference to the radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Further footage showed the Warrior tank being stoned and hit by home-made petrol bombs, which caught alight, but the British soldiers inside escaped unhurt. Defence analyst and helicopter pilot Paul Beaver said all three of the helicopters used by British forces in Iraq - the Lynx, Merlin and the Sea King - carried a crew of three or four and could transport between six and 24 troops. He said the increase in roadside bombs over the last six months had led to increasing use of helicopters to transport troops. However, the large numbers of operations had left crews more vulnerable to attacks. Safety devices fitted to helicopters protected them from surface-to-air missiles but not from rocket-propelled grenades. Mr Beaver said: "Crews will try to avoid known problem areas but they do need to fly low and they are therefore vulnerable." He said the Mahdi Army, insurgents loyal to al-Sadr, was known to have weapons capable of bringing down a helicopter. "They are well-armed, well-disciplined and well-paid," he added. "They are paid more than the Iraqi army and they have access to weapons coming from across the border." But security expert Colonel Mike Dewar insisted that the morale of the soldiers in Iraq would remain unchanged by today`s events. "It won`t change a thing if the helicopter was hit by a rocket propelled grenade. It is a daily risk and sadly, one day, one will hit," he told Sky News. "If it was a missile supplied from Iran and fired at a helicopter flying high then that is significant and that will affect the way in which helicopters are operating. "That is the crucial question." He went on: "It won`t affect the morale at all; there is a misunderstanding about who soldiers are, how we behave and what we think. "Whilst we feel for the families - that goes without saying - how does it affect the morale of the soldiers? Not one jot. "This is a minor occurrence in the greater canvas of what is going on." Today`s incident is not the first British military aircraft to have crashed in Iraq. A British Hercules plane was shot down in January last year, killing all 10 servicemen on board. The aircraft crashed after it was hit by ground fire which caused an explosion in the right wing fuel tank. It was the biggest single loss of British life in Iraq since the invasion began in 2003. In a report out this week, the RAF board of inquiry into the crash found that the lack of a fuel tank safety device - known as an "inerting system" - had been among the "contributing factors".
Four soldiers killed in British helicopter crash in Basra Xinhua
Four feared dead in helicopter crash Times Online
Reuters - Houston Chronicle - WBOC TV 16 - ABC Online - all 348 related »

Fatal Basra crash sparks unrest BBC News
British soldiers have clashed with Iraqis after a number of UK servicemen died in a helicopter crash in the southern city of Basra. Iraqi police claimed five local people were shot dead in the unrest, although they did not know who fired the shots. The city has been placed under a night-time curfew to defuse tensions. Earlier Basra police said the aircraft crashed into a house after being hit by a rocket, but British ministers said the cause of the crash was unclear. Defence Secretary Des Browne offered his sympathies to the families of the servicemen who died. BBC correspondents in Iraq say the events have opened a new chapter for British forces in the area - and it will be increasingly difficult for them to control Basra's streets. According to police in the city, two children were among those killed and a further 19 people were wounded during the disturbances after the helicopter came down. Gen John Cooper, commander of the British forces in Iraq, said troops did not fire directly into the crowds but fired live rounds at targets threatening them. Major Sebastian Muntz, in Basra, could not confirm claims that people had died in the disturbances. He said the curfew, in force from 2000 to 0600 local time, was doing its job and the situation near the crash site was calm. Mr Browne, who has only been in the job since Friday, said he was "deeply saddened" by news of the crash, but warned against speculation over what had caused the incident. "The situation on the ground is still developing and facts are still coming in. We must be careful to allow those investigating the incident to do their job." In other developments:

• A suicide bomber wearing an Iraqi army uniform entered an Iraqi army base in Tikrit and detonated an explosives belt, killing three army officers
• Two Iraqi policemen were injured by a roadside bomb in the northern city of Mosul
• In Baghdad, two children were killed and a woman injured when a mortar landed on their house in the north of the city

Crowds of Iraqis cheered and celebrated near the site of the helicopter crash as the wreckage burned. The BBC's Andrew North said it was a sign of a "dramatic change in attitude" towards the British presence in southern Iraq. As the troops moved in to secure the area, they came under a hail of stones and several armoured vehicles were set alight by petrol bombs. Exchanges of gunfire took place but it was not clear where from, and it is thought the troops may have been the target of mortar shells that came down among the crowds of Iraqis. Maj Muntz said although the scenes in the city had been "horrible", the general situation had been improving recently. But our correspondents said Saturday's events made it clear that the number of people who wanted the British out was rising. If confirmed, it would be the first time a British military helicopter had been shot down in the area. The Liberal Democrats described it as an "appalling incident" and called for a "clear exit strategy" for British forces from the area. The MoD said it was not the right time to be discussing strategy, saying their efforts were concentrated on dealing with the situation on the ground. More than 100 British service personnel have been killed in Iraq in total. A hotline has been set up for families seeking information: 08457 800 900.

Iran: Consequences Of War:

This briefing paper provides a comprehensive analysis of the likely nature of US or Israeli military action that would be intended to disable Iran’s nuclear capabilities. It outlines both the immediate consequences in terms of loss of human life, facilities and infrastructure, and also the likely Iranian responses, which would be extensive
http://www.iranbodycount.org/

Car bombs kill 30 in Iraq Yahoo! News
Car bombs killed 30 people in Iraq on Sunday and wounded more than 70 in one of the bloodiest spasms of violence of recent weeks as political leaders closed in on a deal to form a national unity government. The southern city of Basra was largely calm as British military engineers examined the wreck of a helicopter whose apparent shooting-down was followed by clashes between troops and youths chanting triumphal Shi'ite militia slogans. At least 21 people were killed and 52 wounded when a suicide bomber detonated a car on a crowded street in the Shi'ite holy city of Kerbala, south of Baghdad, police and doctors said. The effect was devastating. Around the same time, two cars exploded in the capital. A suicide car bomber hit an Iraqi army patrol in the rebellious, mainly Sunni northern district of Aadhamiya, killing eight people and wounding 15. Soldiers and civilians were among the casualties. Iraqi and U.S. forces had conducted a sweep for Sunni guerrillas in Aadhamiya on Saturday, the U.S. military said. A second car bomb exploded at a busy intersection close to the offices of a government-funded newspaper in northern Baghdad, killing one civilian and wounding five. In Kerbala, the police chief told a news conference only two people had died in the bombing. But police and hospital officials who declined to be named stood by their casualty figures and said rescue work was continuing four hours later. The blast decimated crowds going about their business at the start of the working week, close to a partially built Shi'ite mosque and 500 meters (yards) from the main bus station. A dozen other vehicles burned out as a result of the explosion.

SECTARIAN VIOLENCE
Interior Ministry sources said 42 bodies had been found in the last 24 hours in the capital alone, including eight dumped near Kindi hospital in central Baghdad. The figure is in line with levels of violence seen since sectarian bloodshed spiked up after the bombing of a Shi'ite shrine on February 22. Sunni leaders blame pro-government Shi'ite militias and the Shi'ite-dominated police for some of the sectarian killing. Militia leaders speak of a need to respond to three years of violence by insurgents from the once-dominant Sunni minority. Sectarian bloodshed has prompted warnings Iraq is sliding toward civil war, and added urgency to efforts by political leaders to form a unity government that can reverse the trend. Nuri al-Maliki, the Shi'ite Islamist nominated as prime minister two weeks ago after months of stalemate following December's election, says he expects to name a cabinet shortly. Representatives of the majority Shi'ites, Kurds, Sunnis and others were meeting again on Sunday. On Saturday, the Shi'ite vice president said he expected a deal "in the next few days." Many party leaders were in the Kurdish capital Arbil on Sunday, for the inauguration of a new regional government there.

ZARQAWI
The U.S. military said last week that Sunni Islamist hardliners around al Qaeda figurehead Abu Musab al-Zarqawi were stepping up car bombings and other violence around Baghdad, aimed at derailing the efforts to forge a consensus government. Zarqawi has in the past declared war on Shi'ites, who were oppressed under Saddam Hussein. Attacks in Kerbala and other Shi'ite centers, including a bombing that killed 50 in Kerbala in January, have been characterized by some Iraqi leaders as attempts to provoke Shi'ite militias into all-out warfare. Iraq's southern second city, Basra, was calmer on Sunday after a curfew and with a heavy security presence after violence greeted the apparent shooting-down of a British military helicopter on Saturday. Youths chanting slogans in favor of the Mehdi Army militia of anti-occupation Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr had thrown rocks and petrol bombs at British troops cordoning off the site. A local health service official said five Iraqis had been killed and 42 wounded in the clashes. Some casualties were caused by mortar fire, witnesses said. Troops fired plastic bullets and, they said, also some live rounds. British officials said they were still investigating the crash. Defense Secretary Des Browne said up to five Britons died in the crash of the Lynx helicopter, which carries a crew of two or three and up to 10 passengers. Iraqi police said it had been shot down but there was no British confirmation of this. Browne played down the unrest, blaming it on a militant minority, and said plans for British troops to leave Iraq would depend on other factors. Iraqi President Jalal Talabani wrote to British Prime Minister
Tony Blair, describing the deaths of those on the helicopter as a "vile crime."
By Alastair Macdonald

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0%2C%...62249%2C00.html
The Times May 03, 2006

Building work at the 104-acre complex, known locally as 'George W's palace', is supposed to be secret, but it is impossible to disguise the cranes dominating the Baghdad skyline

In the chaos of Iraq, one project is on target: a giant US embassy
From Daniel McGrory in Baghdad

THE question puzzles and enrages a city: how is it that the Americans cannot keep the electricity running in Baghdad for more than a couple of hours a day, yet still manage to build themselves the biggest embassy on Earth?

Irritation grows as residents deprived of air-conditioning and running water three years after the US-led invasion watch the massive US Embassy they call “George W’s palace” rising from the banks of the Tigris.

In the pavement cafés, people moan that the structure is bigger than anything Saddam Hussein built. They are not impressed by the architects’ claims that the diplomatic outpost will be visible from space and cover an area that is larger than the Vatican city and big enough to accommodate four Millennium Domes. They are more interested in knowing whether the US State Department paid for the prime real estate or simply took it.

While families in the capital suffer electricity cuts, queue all day to fuel their cars and wait for water pipes to be connected, the US mission due to open in June next year will have its own power and water plants to cater for a population the size of a small town.

Officially, the design of the compound is supposed to be a secret, but you cannot hide the giant construction cranes and the concrete contours of the 21 buildings that are taking shape. Looming over the skyline, the embassy has the distinction of being the only big US building project in Iraq that is on time and within budget.

In a week when Washington revealed a startling list of missed deadlines and overspending on building projects, Congress was told that the bill for the embassy was $592 million (£312 million).

The heavily guarded 42-hectare (104-acre) site — which will have a 15ft thick perimeter wall — has hundreds of workers swarming on scaffolding. Local residents are bitter that the Kuwaiti contractor has employed only foreign staff and is busing them in from a temporary camp nearby.

After roughing it in Saddam’s abandoned palaces, diplomats should have every comfort in their new home. There will be impressive residences for the Ambassador and his deputy, six apartments for senior officials, and two huge office blocks for 8,000 staff to work in. There will be what is rumoured to be the biggest swimming pool in Iraq, a state-of-the-art gymnasium, a cinema, restaurants offering delicacies from favourite US food chains, tennis courts and a swish American Club for evening functions.

The security measures being installed are described as extraordinary. US officials are preparing for the day when the so-called green zone, the fortified and sealed-off compound where international diplomats and Iraq’s leaders live and work, is reopened to the rest of the city’s residents, and American diplomats can retreat to their own secure area.

Iraqi politicians opposed to the US presence protest that the scale of the project suggests that America retains long-term ambitions here. The International Crisis Group, a think-tank, said the embassy’s size “is seen by Iraqis as an indication of who actually exercises power in their country”.

A State Department official said that the size reflected the “massive amount of work still facing the US and our commitment to see it through”.

BEHIND SCHEDULE

A US Inspector General’s report into reconstruction found that although $22 billion had been spent, water, sewage and electricity, infrastructure still operated at prewar levels

Despite “significant progress” in recent months, less than half the water and electricity projects have been completed

Only six of the 150 planned health centres have been completed

US officials spent $70 million on medical equipment for health clinics that are unlikely ever to be built. More than 75 per cent of the funds for the 150 planned clinics have been allocated

Task Force Shield, the $147 million programme to train Iraqi security units to protect key oil and electrical sites failed to meet its goals. A fraud investigation is under way

Oil production was 2.18 million barrels per day in the last week of March. Before the war it was 2.6 million

Series of Attacks Kills More Than 90 in Iraq:

Car bomb killed more than 30 Iraqis as Iraqi Interior Ministry sources said 51 bodies had been found since Saturday in the capital.
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article12959.htm

===
Five servicemen die as anti-occupation forces in Iraq bring down UK helicopter:

Five British servicemen died yesterday when an Army helicopter crashed in southern Iraq apparently after being hit by an insurgent missile.
http://tinyurl.com/lu3os

===
British soldiers die as helicopter is shot down.

Then Basra erupts in bloody gun battles
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,1769503,00.html

===
Iraq's Shiites Now Chafe at American Presence:

A visitor need not go far or search hard to hear and see the anti-American venom that bubbles through this ancient shrine city, which once welcomed U.S. forces as liberators.
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article12961.htm

===
Part of me died when I saw this cruel killing:

EVEN by the stupefying standards of Iraq’s unspeakable violence, the murder of Atwar Bahjat, one of the country’s top television journalists, was an act of exceptional cruelty.
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article12969.htm

- Problems For The Anti-War Coalition
http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Problems_F..._Coalition.html

Washington (UPI) May 08, 2006 - One of the more amusing aspects of the debacle in Iraq has been the performance of the anti-war Left. Far from "mobilizing the masses for peace," it has had about as much impact as a slingshot on a Kaiser-class dreadnought.

- Iraq, Afghan Wars Cost 439 Billion So Far
http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Iraq_Afgha...ion_So_Far.html

Car Bombs Kill 16, 26 Found Dead in Iraq Ask News
Car bombs killed at least 16 people and injured dozens Sunday in Baghdad and a Shiite holy city, casting doubt on U.S. hopes that formation of a new government alone would provide a quick end to the country's violence. At least 26 others were killed or found dead Sunday, including a U.S. Marine mortally wounded in the insurgent bastion of Anbar province in western Iraq, police and the U.S. military said. Some of the victims appeared to have been abducted and killed by sectarian "death squads" that target members of rival religious communities. The dead included three brothers whose charred bodies were found before dawn in Baghdad's Dora district, a mixed Sunni-Shiite area and one of the city's most violent. The deadliest single attack occurred at midmorning when a suicide driver detonated his vehicle near an Iraqi army patrol leaving its base in the Sunni Arab neighborhood of Azamiyah, killing 10 people and injuring 15, most of them Iraqi soldiers, police Lt. Col. Falah al-Mohammedawi said. A half-hour earlier, a car bomb exploded near the Baghdad offices of the state-run al-Sabah newspaper, killing an employee, police Lt. Ahmed Mohammed Ali said. Officials believed the target was a police patrol that passed by shortly before the blast. In Karbala, a Shiite holy city 60 miles south of Baghdad, a suicide car bomber exploded his vehicle near the main provincial government building, killing five people and wounding 19, police spokesman Rahman Mishawi said. The bomber was unable to reach the government building because of concrete barricades and a police cordon and instead set off his explosives about 300 yards away, police said. Elsewhere, three policemen were killed in a roadside bombing in the northern city of Mosul, police said. Two bodies with gunshot wounds were found in the center of Mosul late Sunday, police said. In Baghdad, police and unknown gunmen battled for nearly an hour Sunday in the capital's Saydiyah district. Three policemen were wounded and three gunmen were arrested, police said. One man was killed and another injured in an explosion Sunday evening at a bombmaking factory in the basement of a Sunni mosque in central Baghdad, the U.S. military said. A bomb exploded in a restaurant late Sunday in Muqdadiyah, 60 miles northeast of Baghdad, injuring dozens, provincial police said. American troops also fired on a disused train station south of Ramadi, described in a U.S. statement as "a known hub of insurgent activity." U.S. officials have long contended that violence would subside if Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds believed they had a stake in a new unity government representing all the nation's religious and ethnic communities. The framework of Iraq's new unity government was put in place last month with the selection of a president, vice presidents, prime minister and parliament speaker. Incoming Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite, hopes to present his Cabinet to parliament by Wednesday. However, a top Shiite official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the deliberations, said al-Maliki would probably not meet that target because of differences among the parties over who will run the ministries of interior and defense. Those posts control the police and army, and U.S. and British officials have insisted that the new ministers have no ties to militias believed responsible for kidnappings and killings of civilians. Sectarian violence has forced about 14,700 Iraqi families - or about 88,000 people - to flee their homes, a senior Iraqi official said Sunday. The official, Suhaila Abed Jaafar, doubted they could return without "concerted military action" to restore order in their communities. "The solution is in the hands of the interior and defense ministries," Jaafar, the minister responsible for caring for displaced Iraqis, said. In London, the British Defense Ministry said "up to five" British personnel had been killed in Saturday's helicopter crash in Basra. British officials have not confirmed Iraqi police and witness reports that the Lynx helicopter was shot down. Basra, Iraq's second-largest city, was calm Sunday after a day of violence when about 250 Iraqis cheered wildly, hurled stones and fired gunshots at British troops who had rushed to the crash scene. Five Iraqis, including a child, were killed in the melee, and several British troops were slightly injured. In a bid to ease tension, Basra Gov. Mohammed al-Waeli agreed Sunday to resume cooperation with British authorities, which he broke off four months ago after British troops cracked down on policemen with links to Shiite militias. Britain's new defense secretary, Des Browne, told Sky News that the unrest in Basra does not mean the security situation has deteriorated there, saying the number of rioters was small in a city of about 1.5 million. In other developments Sunday:

• Gunmen killed a man headed to work at a wholesale market in southwestern Baghdad.
• A police sergeant was shot dead as he left home in Baghdad's mainly Shiite neighborhood of Kamaliya.
• Bodies of 11 men were found in various parts of the capital, including eight in a garbage container in eastern Baghdad.
• Gunmen killed a cigarette vendor and two policemen in separate shootings in west Baghdad.

- Kurdistan's parliament formally unified the Kurdish region's two long-standing administrations, a step expected to consolidate and strengthen the Kurds' push for power.
By ROBERT H. REID

BAGHDAD - Bombs, mortar rounds and shootings Sunday killed at
least 18 Iraqis as politicians took a day off from
government-formation talks to inaugurate the Kurds' new regional
administration in Irbil. By Borzou Daragahi and James Rainey.
http://email.latimes.com/cgi-bin1/DM/y/e2W...Io30G2B0HV2T0Ew

IRAQ: THE CRADLE OF THE WRITTEN WORD: UR MAY HAVE BEEN THE WORLD'S FIRST CITY AND THE LOCATION THE FIRST LIBRARIES - NICHOLAS A. BASBANES (CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, MAY 8)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0508/p09s01-coop.html

TARGETED KILLINGS SURGE IN BAGHDAD: NEARLY 4,000 CIVILIAN DEATHS, MANY OF THEM SUNNI ARABS SLAIN EXECUTION-STYLE, WERE RECORDED IN THE FIRST THREE MONTHS OF THE YEAR - LOUISE ROUG (LOS ANGELES TIMES, MAY 7)
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/wo...-home-headlines

IRAQI POLICE 'KILLED 14-YEAR-OLD BOY FOR BEING HOMOSEXUAL' - JEROME TAYLOR (INDEPENDENT, MAY 5)
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle...ticle362151.ece

"WE ALL JUST WANT TO LEAVE": IN IRAQ, THOUSANDS OF PALESTINIAN REFUGEES FACE DISCRIMINATION AND VIOLENCE -- AND THEY HAVE NOWHERE TO GO - DAVID ENDERS (MOTHER JONES, MAY 4)
http://www.motherjones.com/news/update/200...n_refugees.html

IRAQ'S SHIITES NOW CHAFE AT AMERICAN PRESENCE: PERCEIVED U.S. MISSTEPS, A TORRENT OF ANGRY PROPAGANDA AND THE SECT'S NEW POLITICAL SWAY HAVE FUSED TO TURN WELCOMERS INTO FOES - BORZOU DARAGAHI (LOS TIMES, MAY 6)
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/wo...-home-headlines

ME THINKS THEY DOTH PROTEST ... NOT AT ALL BAG NEWS NOTES (MAY 5): Last Sunday, an incident took place at Camp Habbaniya in Iraq -- the base where the U.S. is training new Iraqi soldiers -- suggesting that ethnic and religious tensions may now be undermining the creation of a national fighting force.
http://bagnewsnotes.typepad.com/bagnews/20...oblem_goin.html

WINNING'S EVERYTHING - HENRY ALLEN (WASHINGTON POST, MAY 6): If we lose the war in Iraq, we'll be humiliated, we'll be the schoolyard hotshot who picked a fight and then got whipped.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...6050501475.html

A CLEAR MESSAGE ON IRAQ - JOAN VENNOCHI, (BOSTON GLOBE MAY 7): A small delegation of women journalists and media professionals from Morocco that visited Boston think the war with Iraq weakens America and strengthens a mutual enemy -- Muslim fundamentalists.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial...essage_on_iraq/

BAGHDAD DIARIES: ONE WOMAN'S TWO-YEAR ADVENTURE IN IRAQ'S GREEN ZONE - NICK SCHOU (OC WEEKLY, MAY 4): Padberg, a Republican political consultant from Laguna Niguel until two years ago, dropped everything to help Iraqi businesswomen.
http://ocweekly.com/news/news/baghdad-diaries/25057/

IRAQ'S INSURGENCY: A SHADOWY FOE THOMAS E. RICKS (WASHINGTON POST, MAY 7, 2006): Ahmed S. Hashim's Insurgency and Counter-Insurgency in Iraq argues that the U.S. mission there is failing and is likely doomed.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...6050401619.html

Iraqi leaders set to finalise cabinet as rebels kill 13 Yahoo! News
Thirteen people were killed in rebel attacks as Iraqi leaders were holding last-minute talks to form a new government in the hope it will help curb raging sectarian bloodshed. Five people died in a car bomb attack in Baghdad's central Zawr Park and another five were killed in a mortar attack in central Baghdad's Al-Tehran square, an interior ministry official said. Three Iraqis were shot dead in separate rebel attacks. Against a backdrop of violence, representatives of the country's parliamentary blocs met President Jalal Talabani to finalise the line-up of the first permanent government of the post-Saddam Hussein era, almost five months after a landmark election. Although the details of Monday's political meeting were not known immediately, a source close to the negotiations said that prime minister designate Nuri al-Maliki was expected to announce the new cabinet soon. Following his nomination, Maliki had said he would form the cabinet by May 10 and had pledged to appoint independent candidates to head the country's important security posts. The leaders of the dominant Shiite United Iraqi Alliance were in a meeting Monday to name its candidate for the crucial interior ministry, the source said. The Shiite leaders were considering independent Shiite MP Qassem Daoud to head the interior ministry or retaining the controversial incumbent Bayan Jabr Solagh, the source said. Daoud has close links with former prime minister Iyad Allawi. Sunni Arab politicians have strongly criticised Solagh and accused his ministry's Shiite-led forces of operating death squads that indulged in extra-judicial killings of Sunni Arabs. The United States sees a national unity government as the only way to curb the violence that has raged since the toppling of Saddam in 2003 and pave the way for the eventual withdrawal of its 132,000 troops. Since the February bombing of a revered Shiite shrine in the northern town of Samarra, Iraq has been roiled by Shiite-Sunni tit-for-tat sectarian killings that has left hundreds dead. Bodies of brutally murdered men have been found scattered across Iraq in sectarian-related violence, while 35,000 civilians have died in violence related to Iraq's Sunni-led insurgency since the end of the US-led 2003 invasion, according to some estimates. On Monday, police recovered nine bodies, six in Baghdad, of men who had been tortured and killed in sectarian violence. Three bodies were found in the town of Al-Mahawil, south of Baghdad. The dead men were police commandos who were kidnapped a few days back from the town, police said. On Sunday police had announced the discovery of 45 bullet-riddled bodies of men across Iraq. The US military said Monday it had killed wanted "terrorist" Ali Wali, a member of the mainly Kurdish Ansar al-Islam militant group, in a Baghdad raid. The military said Ali Wali, whose full name was believed to be Abbas bin Farnas bin Qafqas, a known chemical expert, was killed during a raid in Baghdad's upscale Mansour district on Saturday at 1 pm (0900 GMT). The US military also announced the deaths of two US soldiers in Iraq. One soldier was killed on Monday when his vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb during a patrol southeast of Baghdad. The other soldier was killed Sunday in the northern town of Tal Afar when US forces were "assisting Iraqi security forces clear a building from which several rebels were firing at civilians and US-Iraqi forces," the military said. One more soldier was wounded in the clash. The latest fatalities brought the US military death toll in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion to 2,418, according to an AFP count based on Pentagon figures. Meanwhile, a team of British experts was due in Iraq to probe the cause of a helicopter crash Saturday that left five soldiers dead, including the first British servicewoman killed in action in Iraq. The chopper was reportedly shot down by an insurgent rocket in the southern city of Basra. The crash sparked bloody clashes on Saturday with at least five Iraqis killed and dozens wounded when British troops sent to recover the dead from the helicopter encountered an angry mob. On Monday Muntz said the situation was relatively calm, although some "troops received indirect fire in the city. But that is normal."

32 Killed In Continuing Violence:

The bodies of six people bearing signs of torture and with gun wounds to their heads were found in different areas in Baghdad, a Ministry of Interior source said.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L08546532.htm

===
Bombs Kill 7 Iraqis and U.S. Soldier:

Bombs killed a U.S. soldier and seven Iraqis on Monday as politicians haggled over key posts in the new Cabinet, officials said. Another American died the day before in northern Iraq, according to a U.S. statement.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/stor...5807704,00.html

===
At Baghdad morgue, a daily influx of bodies:

Scores of people make grim trip to morgue each day to look for loved ones kidnapped or killed in sectarian violence.
http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=16403

===
Slated for killing: More than 450 Iraqi intellectuals fear for their lives:

A militia group with immense power in Iraq has issued names of 461 intellectuals which it says it has ordered its armed men to assassinate.
http://www.azzaman.com/english/index.asp?f...08\178.htm

===
'No one knows what we are going through' :

Women in Iraq are living a nightmare that is hidden from the west. Now one has turned film-maker to give us a window on to what they endure. She tells Natasha Walter what she saw
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,1769815,00.html

===
My Meeting With Rumsfeld:

A graphic reminder for those wishing to spread some truth around that we have our work cut out for us. We have to find imaginative ways to use truth as a lever to pry open closed minds.
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/05/0...th_rumsfeld.php

- Impact Of A Quick Pullout From Iraq
http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Impact_Of_..._From_Iraq.html

Washington (UPI) May 09, 2006 - The war in Iraq has become increasingly unpopular in America. Many are now calling for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from there. What, though, would happen if American forces left Iraq suddenly? To address this question, I ran a role playing game in my War on Terrorism class at George Mason University.

- Pentagon Halts Deployment Of 3,500 Troops To Iraq
http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Pentagon_H...ps_To_Iraq.html

- Many Cooks Spoiling Iraq's Broth
http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Many_Cooks...raqs_Broth.html

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/iraq_government...HE0BHNlYwN0bWE-

Iraq PM hopes to form government in day or two
By Mariam Karouny

Iraqi Prime Minister-designate Nuri al-Maliki said on Tuesday he expected to be able to form a national unity government within the next couple of days, ending five months of stalemate since a December election.

"Maybe today or tomorrow, we will complete the formation of the government," the Shi'ite Islamist told a news conference.

"We have achieved much and there is little left to do."

"We have done 90 percent," he said. "But I want to give more time to the leaders to finish what is left."

Among posts still undecided was the oil ministry. The sensitive ministries of interior and defense would go to figures free of associations with militias, he said, indicating the present interior minister, a Shi'ite, is almost certain to go.

Though seen as a Shi'ite hawk when named last month, Maliki insisted he was ready to reach out to Sunni rebels who laid down their arms and joined the U.S.-backed political process.

He has nearly another two weeks under a constitutional deadline to present a cabinet to parliament but negotiators have been voicing confidence that agreement among the main Shi'ite, Kurdish and Sunni factions was not far off.

Parliament is due to meet next on Wednesday.

After months of political deadlock following the election, the United States has exerted heavy pressure on Maliki's dominant Shi'ite Alliance to form a government of national unity. Washington says this is vital to staunch mounting sectarian bloodshed and avert civil war.

Control of the defense and interior ministries has been a key issue in forming the government against a background of sectarian violence among rival militias and rebel groups.

INDEPENDENTS

"The heads of the parliamentary groups have agreed that the heads of these two ministries should be independent and not belong to any party that runs a militia," Maliki said.

This would suggest that Interior Minister Bayan Jabor is likely to go. A member of the SCIRI Shi'ite Islamist party which controls the armed Badr movement, Jabor has been accused of condoning police death squads. Though he denies it, the U.S. ambassador has made clear Washington wants him out of his job.

Maliki said the Shi'ite Alliance, which has fought hard to keep control of the Interior Ministry, hoped to nominate its candidate for the post later in the day. Though nominated by the bloc, the candidate would apparently be seen as an independent.

Defense Minister Saadoun Dulaimi, a Sunni independent, is more low-key but negotiators have said he too is unlikely to keep his post.

Maliki said posts still under discussion included the oil, trade and transport ministries, all important to the task of reviving oil-rich Iraq's crippled economy.

Maliki was nominated last month by his Alliance after his interim predecessor, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, mounted a long rearguard action to keep his job despite Sunni, Kurdish and U.S. opposition. An aide to Jaafari and a staunch defender of Shi'ite interests, he has said he will bring in all sectarian groups.

"If there are those who took up arms against the political process but did not shed Iraqi blood, I will welcome talks with them to disarm them and bring them into the political process for the sake of the nation," he said in answer to a question.

Guerrillas who have fought U.S. occupying forces are viewed differently by Iraqis from bombers who have targeted civilians.

(Additional reporting by Aseel Kami, Mussab Al-Khairalla, Alastair Macdonald, Omar al-Ibadi, Waleed Ibrahim and Ibon Villelabeitia)

'NO ONE KNOWS WHAT WE ARE GOING THROUGH': WOMEN IN IRAQ ARE LIVING A NIGHTMARE THAT IS HIDDEN FROM THE WEST - NATASHA WALTER (GUARDIAN, MAY 8)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,1769776,00.html

SHIITE SONGS OF GRIEF RETURN TO IRAQ - ASSOCIATED PRESS (ABC, MAY 8): A Shiite musical tradition banned under Saddam Hussein has made a comeback. The songs are about the pain and suffering that Shiite Arabs feel they've suffered for centuries.
http://www.kesq.com/Global/story.asp?S=4870157&nav=9qrx

US STALLS ON IRAQI PEACE OFFER - GARETH PORTER (ASIA TIMES, MAY 9): The United States has backed away from high-level peace negotiations with Sunni insurgent groups after meeting with them regularly over several weeks in January and February, according to an insurgent leader.
http://atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HE09Ak01.html

DESTROYING IRAQ TO SAVE IT - ROBERT DREYFUSS (TOMPAINE.COM, MAY 8): 100,000 troops -- fighting a resistance movement without access to high-tech war-fighting tools, heavy weapons or armor -- can last a long time in a stalemate, and might even be able to impose, eventually, a peace of the dead in Iraq. President George W. Bush calls that victory, but to the rest of the world it looks like the return of 19th-century colonialism.
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/05/0..._to_save_it.php

THREE IRAQS WOULD BE ONE BIG PROBLEM - ANTHONY H. CORDESMAN (NEW YORK TIMES, MAY 9): Fracturing the country would not serve either Iraqi or United States interests, and would make life for average Iraqis even worse.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/09/opinion/09cordesman.html

HE PROBLEM WITH U.S. PROMOTING IRAQ'S SPLIT - TRUDY RUBIN (BALTIMORE SUN, MAY 9): Nothing could be worse for the United States than to be viewed in the region as the imperial agent that dismembered Iraq.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/o...-oped-headlines

WHO'S CRAZY NOW? - PAUL KRUGMAN (NEW YORK TIMES, MAY 9): It would be an abuse of the English language to call the claim that the administration misled us into war a conspiracy theory.
http://select.nytimes.com/2006/05/08/opini...fPaul%20Krugman
PAID SUBSCRIPTION

HBO PLANNING COMEDY SET IN ... BAGHDAD: IRAQ-BASED DRAMATIC FILM ALSO IN WORKS - JAMES HIBBERD (TVWEEK.COM, MAY 8: Several cable networks have contemplated dramatic projects set against the war in Iraq, but only HBO is daring enough to consider a comedy.
http://www.tvweek.com/article.cms?articleId=29806
VIA
http://www.wonkette.com/politics/iraq/iraq...hark-172323.php

FAILURE IN IRAQ - JOE CIRINCIONE (HUFFINGTON POST, YAHOO! NEWS, MAY 5): The administration is strategically exhausted. Its only solution to the problem of Iran is to repeat the Iraq playbook.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/huffpost/20060505/cm_huffpost/020453

Though Iraqi troops are 'very badly equipped' and new government is still forming, conditions may allow US to start to leave.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0509/dailyUpdate.html

Iraq PM says unity government close Yahoo! News
Iraq's prime minister-designate said on Tuesday he was close to forming a government that would end five months of stalemate marked by a lurch to civil war. But senior negotiators said there was much hard bargaining left before Nuri al-Maliki could present to parliament the sort of national unity coalition he and Iraq's U.S. backers hope can drag the nation back from the brink of sectarian conflict. A suicide car bomber killed 17 people and wounded 35 at a market in the northern city of Tal Afar, recently held up by President George W. Bush as an example of progress being made in freeing Iraq from violence by al Qaeda and other guerrillas. It was one of the worst attacks of recent weeks and came after the U.S. military published what it said was new evidence of despondency among Sunni rebels, in the form of a purported captured al Qaeda document detailing their setbacks in Baghdad. Maliki, a Shi'ite Islamist whose nomination ended months of factional deadlock, has another two weeks to name a cabinet but told a news conference he might do it "today or tomorrow." "We have achieved much and there is little left to do," he told a news conference where he impressed observers with a lucid style that wasted few words. "We have done 90 percent." The apparent breakthrough, following heavy pressure from the United States, comes after rival Shi'ite, Kurdish and Sunni groups agreed to fill the sensitive ministries of interior and defense with figures free of ties with militias, Maliki said. Sunni leaders -- and, less vocally, the United States -- are demanding the removal of the present interior minister, accused of condoning Shi'ite death squads in the police. But there was still no agreement on who should take his place, officials said. Among other posts still undecided, Maliki said, were oil, trade and transport -- key to rebuilding the crippled economy.

LITMUS TEST
A senior negotiator said an agreement on the few ministries left could be more complicated than Maliki appeared to suggest, however: "We have too many names for the jobs left, but each candidate is facing objection from one of the other blocs." Another highlighted a contest for the oil ministry between technocratic and secular former minister Thamir Ghadhban and Hussain al-Shahristani, a leading Shi'ite Islamist politician. He called the fate of the ministry, the battered controller of the world's third biggest oil reserves and provider of almost all of Iraq's national income, a litmus test for Maliki's will to favor technical competence over sectarian arithmetic: "It'll be a test of Maliki's commitment," the official said. Though seen as a Shi'ite hawk when named last month, Maliki insisted he was ready to reach out to Sunni rebels who laid down their arms and joined the U.S.-backed political process. Seen as open, energetic and decisive, Maliki has admirers among the Kurds and Sunnis who blocked the appointment of his ally and predecessor Ibrahim al-Jaafari. He sought to hang on to his job after an undistinguished year as interim premier. While the politicians wrangled after December's election, Iraq pitched toward sectarian civil war in the bloodshed and refugee movements that followed the destruction of a major Shi'ite shrine in Samarra in late February.

U.S. HOPES
The United States hopes the formation of a broad-based government will help quell a Sunni Arab insurgency and allow it to begin withdrawing its 133,000 troops in Iraq. At least 2,420 American soldiers have been killed in the Iraq war. One was killed by a roadside bomb in Baghdad on Monday. "The formation of a government of national unity will set the stage for efforts to diminish violence," the U.S. ambassador to Baghdad, Zalmay Khalilzad, said at a conference in neighboring Jordan intended to drum up investment in Iraq. "Iraq is strategically heading in the right direction now." But in fresh violence, police on Tuesday retrieved from the Tigris river south of Baghdad 11 bodies, nine of which were beheaded, including a 10-year-old boy. It said all of them were bound and had been killed four or five days ago. Seven of the victims wore Iraqi security forces uniforms. The motives behind the killings were not clear but sectarian bloodshed has forced tens of thousands to flee their homes. Among Maliki's early tasks once a government is formed may be holding a much postponed national reconciliation conference. A spokesman for Iraq's president said there were tentative arrangements being made for a gathering in Baghdad next month. An earlier version in November, hosted by the Arab League in Cairo, was followed by December's election in which Sunni leaders, including some rebel groups, encouraged their community to take part in large numbers for the first time.
By Mariam Karouny

21 Killed In Continuing Violence:

Twelve bodies bearing signs of torture and gunshot wounds were found in various areas of Baghdad, police said.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IBO935484.htm

===
Iraq suicide bombing kills 17:

Police say at least 17 people are dead after a suicide truck bomber hit an Iraqi market in Tal Afar.
http://www.tampabays10.com/news/national/a...x?storyid=30736

===
Eleven bodies found in Tigris near Baghdad:

The bodies of 11 Iraqis, including the headless corpse of a 10-year-old boy, were found dumped in the Tigris river south of Baghdad on Tuesday, police sources said.
http://tinyurl.com/jv6ld

===
Iraqi judge shot dead in western Baghdad :

An Iraqi judge was shot dead on Tuesday by unidentified gunmen on a main road in western Baghdad, an Interior Ministry source said.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2006-05/...ent_4527338.htm

===
Key Obstacle in Forming Iraq Govt Resolve:

Iraq's prime minister-designate said Tuesday the main stumbling blocks to forming a new Cabinet have been overcome and he expects to present his team to parliament for approval by the end of the week.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060509/ap_on_...aq_060509094906

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Afghanistan, Iraq Near Top Of Infant Mortality Table :

A new study says Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq are among the countries with the highest death rates for newborns in the world.
http://tinyurl.com/kysx9

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IRAQ: UN report cites vast under-nutrition among children:

One in three Iraqi children is malnourished and underweight, according to a report released by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article12981.htm

Iraqi President Says Killing Must Stop
By THOMAS WAGNER, Associated Press Writer

President Jalal Talabani said Wednesday that nearly 1,100 people were killed in Baghdad alone last month and urged Iraq's feuding factions to unite against surging crime and terrorism.

But attacks continued across Iraq.

Near Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, gunmen opened fire on a bus carrying Iraqi civilians to work, then planted a bomb aboard the vehicle that exploded when rescue workers arrived. In all, 11 Iraqis were killed and six wounded.

Elsewhere, 13 Iraqis were killed in other attacks, including four off-duty policemen in Ramadi, officials said Wednesday.

Casualties from a suicide truck bombing in the northern city of Tal Afar on Tuesday night rose to 22 dead and 134 wounded. The U.S. military flew some of the wounded to other cities when the local hospital was overwhelmed.

Talabani, a Kurd, said in a statement that the 1,091 bodies found in the Baghdad area in April were the tip of the iceberg.

"We feel shock, dismay and anger over the daily reports of the discovery of unidentified corpses and those of others killed" around the capital, he said.

"If we add this to the number of corpses that are not discovered, or to similar crimes in other provinces, then the total number ... reflects that we are confronting a situation no less dangerous that the results of terrorist acts" such as car bombings and other attacks.

Scores of unidentified bodies turn up around the capital on a daily basis, many bound, tortured and shot execution style in what officials say is an unwavering tide of reprisal sectarian killings.

At least 3,525 Iraqis have been killed in war-related violence this year. These numbers include civilians, government officials, and police and security officials, and are considered only a minimum based on Associated Press reporting.

Sunni Arabs, who form the minority in the country but were once the power brokers under Saddam Hussein, say they are being targeted by so-called Shiite death squads operating either from within the Shiite-led Interior Ministry, or with the ministry's tacit approval.

Shiites say thousands of their community have had to flee their homes to escape threats by Sunni extremists.

Leadership of the Interior Ministry — a key to securing the country against the steadily escalating wave of violence — has been a main stumbling block in the formation of the new national unity government.

Prime Minister-designate Nouri al-Maliki has said the interior and defense portfolios will be filled by independents unaffiliated with individual parties or militias.

But many lawmakers say that the next interior minister will likely be a Shiite, and several have floated the name of the current minister, Bayan Jabr, a member of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq.

Saying that behind every unidentified corpse is "an orphan, a starving father or a grieving wife," Talabani warned that these daily abductions and murders are stoking a "climate of suspicion among the sons of the nation."

He said terrorists are capitalizing on the weakness of government institutions and stressed that the formation of the new government will help create a climate in which such attacks can be halted. But Talabani also called on all factions "to issue a fatwa (religious edict) condemning these crimes, irrespective of who perpetrated them."

Wednesday's worst attack occurred about 9 a.m. near Baqouba.

Suspected insurgents stopped a bus carrying employees of the state-run Diyala Electronics Co., which makes products such as televisions. After ordering women off the bus, insurgents shot and killed the men inside, said company spokesman Adnan Hamad. When the gunmen left, another company bus stopped and rushed to rescue the wounded. When rescuers opened the door, a bomb the insurgents had planted there exploded, he said.

The final death toll was 11 killed and six wounded, said Hamad.

In Baghdad, suspected insurgents riding in two BMWs assassinated a Defense Ministry press office employee as he drove to work at about 8:15 a.m., police said.

One of the BMWs stopped to block the car of Mohammed Musab Talal al-Amari, a Shiite, said police Capt. Jamil Hussein. Three men got out of the other BMW and opened fire in the residential neighborhood of Bayaa, killing al-Amari and wounding an Iraqi pedestrian, Hussein said.

The Defense Ministry controls Iraq's military.

In two other shootings in Baghdad, suspected insurgents killed a Shiite taxi driver and a Shiite who once belonged to Iraq's disbanded Baath party, police said. A similar attack killed a civilian driver about 80 miles south of the capital, said police.

In other violence reported by police:

_The bodies of two Iraqis who had been handcuffed and shot were found in eastern Baghdad.

_Gunmen in two cars killed two traffic policemen in western Baghdad.

_In Mosul, 225 miles northwest of Baghdad, two roadside bombs targeting two American convoys, missed their targets but killed one civilian and wounded three.

_An ambush by insurgents killed four off-duty policemen in Ramadi on Tuesday, apparently as they were leaving work. Ramadi, 70 miles west of Baghdad, is located in Anbar province, where many Sunni-led insurgent groups are based.

Also Wednesday, American and Iraqi forces were searching for five people who escaped from a U.S. detention center in northern Iraq, the U.S. command.

The detainees escaped early Tuesday from the Fort Suse Theater facility near Sulaimaniyah, 160 miles northeast of Baghdad, said U.S. Spc. Stacy Sanning, a spokesman for the U.S. command in Baghdad.

U.S. Col. David Gray, commander of the 1st Brigade of the 101st Airborne Division, said three of the escapees were Arabs and a fourth was an Iraqi Kurd. The nationality of the fifth was not immediately known.

The suicide attack in Tal Afar, 260 miles northwest of Baghdad, occurred at 8:30 p.m. Tuesday as shoppers hurried to complete purchases before closing, police said. Lt. Col. Ali Rasheed of the Interior Ministry said the main target of the bombing may have been a police station within the market area.

"We were manning a checkpoint when a truck full of flour sacks passed us and ignored our orders to stop, so I shot at the truck and seconds later it exploded, throwing me to the ground," policeman Arakan Youssif said in an interview Wednesday.

The director of the city hospital, Saleh Qado, said 22 people were killed and 70 wounded, but the U.S. command said 134 Iraqis were injured, at least 24 of them critically. As casualties mounted at the local hospital, many of the wounded were driven to nearby coalition medical facilities or flown to ones in the cities of Mosul and Tikrit, the military said.



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1,091 killed in Baghdad in April:

At least 1,091 people were killed in Baghdad alone last month in ongoing sectarian violence, President Jalal Talabani said in a statement.
http://tinyurl.com/pjq7d

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At leat 39 killed in continuing violence:

Gunmen killed 11 people while they were heading to their work at an electrical equipment factory near Baquba, 65 km (40 miles) northeast of Baghdad
http://today.reuters.com/News/CrisesArticl...oryId=L10336380

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Beheaded corpses among Iraqi dead :

12 mutilated bodies were discovered, security officials said
http://tinyurl.com/ln7hm

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Have 200,000 AK47s Fallen Into The Hands Of Iraqi "Terrorists"? Fears over U.S. arms shipment:

SOME 200,000 guns the US sent to Iraqi security forces may have been smuggled to terrorists, it was feared yesterday.
http://tinyurl.com/oges8

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Alarmed by Raids, Neighbors Stand Guard in Iraq:

As evidence mounts that Shiite police commandos are carrying out secret killings, Sunni Arab neighborhoods across Baghdad have begun forming citizen groups to keep the paramilitary forces out of their areas entirely.
http://tinyurl.com/ojyth

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Ghali Hassan: Reshuffling the cards in Iraq:

Contrary to the myth played and promoted by the Western so-called “Left” and “Right” and the corprorate media that the “US failed [in Iraq] because of poor planning” and “incompetence,” the U.S. planned the war and the occupation (military and economic) of Iraq months before the illegal invasion took place. The U.S. failed in Iraq for the following reasons
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article12995.htm

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Who Will Perish if Iraq War Continues:

The Human Cost of War exhibit highlighting lives that will be lost if Congress does not take action to end the war in Iraq.
http://www.commondreams.org/news2006/0510-03.htm