Sadr City Bloodshed Kills 925 Iraqis

[tekisui]

BAGHDAD (AFP) - Clashes between Shiite militiamen and security forces have killed more than 900 people in Baghdad's Sadr City, an Iraqi official said on Wednesday, as Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki vowed to keep up the offensive.

The latest death toll from the Sadr City fighting that erupted late last month is set to make April the deadliest month this year, denting US and Iraqi government claims of improved security.

"There were 925 martyrs in Sadr City and 2,605 others have been wounded," Tehseen Sheikhly, spokesman for the government's Baghdad security plan, told reporters.

Fierce clashes between US and Iraqi forces and Shiite militiamen, mostly from the Mahdi Army of anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, broke out after Maliki ordered a crackdown on militias in the main southern city of Basra on March 25.

The crackdown triggered an eruption of violence across Shiite areas of Iraq, particularly Sadr City, Baghdad's most populous Shiite district and a bastion of the Mahdi Army.

On Wednesday, fresh clashes left another 13 militants killed, the American military said.

In one firefight, seven militants were killed after US soldiers were targeted by mortar fire in the southern sector of Sadr City, military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Steven Stover told AFP.

It was not immediately clear whether the deaths of 13 militants were included in the overall toll given by Sheikhly.

The clashes have also inflicted a heavy toll on US forces. At least 21 soldiers have been killed in Baghdad in April, a significant number of them in and around Sadr City.

The US military has in April lost at least 47 soldiers across Iraq, making it the deadliest month since last September when 65 troops were killed, according to an AFP tally based on independent website http://icasualties.org/oif/

more at link: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080430/wl_mideast_afp/iraqunrestsadrcity_080430160958

[Botany]

1. Thanx Condi

"I know he's sitting in Iran," Rice said dismissively, when asked about al-Sadr's latest threat to lift a self-imposed cease-fire with government and U.S. forces. "I guess it's all-out war for anybody but him," Rice said. "I guess that's the message; his followers can go too their deaths and he's in Iran."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/04/21/condoleezza-rice-mocks-al_n_97722.html

There was a cease fire until you went over and opened your yap.

[scarletwoman]

4. Condi is a vampire. She leaves nothing but death in her wake.

I'm sure she told that pathetic cringing puppet Maliki that he better get right with jeebus bush, or the Great White Father is going to find someone else who WILL.

sw

[tekisui]

2. Just another "Bring 'em on."

War Criminals pimping more war.

[scarletwoman]

3. This is so damn sickening. So we're in Iraq killing the poorest, most longest oppressed

citizens of that country in order to prop up a thoroughly corrupt kleptocratic government that has done NOTHING for the People of Iraq.

Why the fuck are we dropping bombs on people fighting for political power IN THEIR OWN COUNTRY? (rhetorical question -- it's what we've always done).

Words fail me...

:cry:
sw