More than 50 Killed in Iraq

[Hissyspit]

Source: Associated Press

More than 50 killed in Iraq
By KIM GAMEL, Associated Press Writer
Sun Feb 10, 7:03 PM ET

BAGHDAD - Car bombs and gunmen struck new U.S. allies, police and civilians Sunday in northern Iraq, killing as many as 53 people. The spate of attacks came even as the American military released a captured diary and another document they say show al-Qaida in Iraq cracking under a Sunni revolt against its brutal tactics.

The violence coincided with a visit by Defense Secretary Robert Gates to Baghdad, where he warned that hard choices face Iraq's political leaders on how to stabilize the country despite promising new signs of progress toward reconciliation. The deadliest bombing on Sunday was near Balad, 50 miles north of Baghdad, against a checkpoint manned jointly by Iraqi police and members of an awakening group.

Iraqi police said a suicide truck bomber targeted a checkpoint manned by U.S.-allied fighters and Iraqi police at the entrance of a bridge in the district of Yathrib on the outskirts of Balad. Security forces opened fire on the driver, but he managed to detonate his payload, devastating a nearby car market and other stores.

Police in the joint coordination center of the surrounding Salahuddin province and hospital officials said 34 people were killed and 37 others were wounded. Capt. Kadim Hamid said many residents in the predominantly Sunni area had removed victims directly from the site because they feared going to the hospital in Balad's mostly Shiite center.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080211/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq

[Botany]

1. never happened .... the surge worked

It was on the cover of Time.

"What do we do now that the surge worked?"

[Connie_Corleone]

2. Looks like the surge is working.

[LynnTheDem]

3. The more civilians killed, the more bush's "success"

Less people to get in the way of his war-profiteering.

[Swagman]

4. yehh..we freed them from Saddam !!

they found those shredding machines yet ??

[aquart]

5. I said it was liebensraum from the start.

[xchrom]

6. wait -- do we have the surge -- or do the insurgents have the surge?

with so many dead -- it's hard to keep track.

[xchrom]

7. wait -- do we have the surge -- or do the insurgents have the surge?

with so many dead -- it's hard to keep track.