13 Killed as Fighting Rages in Baghdad

[Hissyspit]

Source: AFP

13 killed as fighting rages in Baghdad
1 hour, 3 minutes ago

BAGHDAD (AFP) - US and Iraqi forces killed 13 people in firefights and airstrikes overnight in eastern Baghdad where security forces have been battling Shiite militiamen for a week, the military said on Saturday.

Among those killed, a US military statement said, were two snipers, two "criminals" firing rocket-propelled grenades, groups firing machine guns and automatic weapons and three men placing roadside bombs.

The US and Iraqi forces hit back with small arms fire, a Hellfire missile launched from an aerial drone and shells blasted from a M1A2 Abrams tank.

American and Iraqi forces have since Sunday been battling militiamen in Sadr City, bastion of the Mahdi Army fighters of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, and other Shiite areas of eastern Baghdad, killing around 90 people. Tensions have been further inflamed by the killing on Friday in broad daylight after weeky prayers in the shrine city of Najaf of a senior aide to Sadr, Riyad al-Nuri.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080411/us_nm/guantanamo_hearings_dc

[Tunkamerica]

1. please don't clog up the board with actual news n/t

:sarcasm:

[Hissyspit]

2. Ha

I almost didn't make it to LBN. I took a detour through GD-P. Your boots get caked in it pretty deep.

[democrank]

3. K & R for real news.

~PEACE~

[Botany]

4. 5 years after we "took control" of Baghdad?

And yet bush & company keeps talking about success
and progress .. :puke:

[annabanana]

5. Any incentive the Mahdi Army had for standing down is gone.

I don't see things getting any better soon.

[maddezmom]

6. Keep off bomb-strewn streets of Sadr City, says Iraq

BAGHDAD (AFP) - Iraqi authorities ordered residents off the streets of Baghdad's Shiite militia bastion Sadr City on Saturday, warning they are littered with bombs, after a night of fighting that killed 13 people.

The order came soon after the authorities partially lifted a vehicle ban that had been imposed two weeks ago amid fierce clashes in Sadr City between the Mahdi Army militia of Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and US and Iraqi forces.

"Groups of people have planted roadside bombs on the majority of the roads of Sadr City," Baghdad military command said in a statement.

"For the protection of our citizens and media personnel, we are warning people to stay off the streets until they have been cleared by the security forces," it said.

more:http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080412/wl_mideast_afp/iraq_080412104306

[pattmarty]

7. We're winning, we're winning!!!!!!!!!!!