Death From Above
BAGHDAD- Aircraft fired missiles and dropped a bomb in a Shiite stronghold in northeastern Baghdad where Iranian-backed Shiite militias operate openly near the road leading to volatile Diyala province, killing six militants, the U.S. military said Saturday.
The Husseiniyah airstrikes began after American forces came under small-arms fire from a building just before midnight, prompting helicopters to fire missiles at the structure, the military said, adding that three of the gunmen fled into another building.
Aircraft dropped a bomb that destroyed that house, setting off at least seven secondary explosions believed caused by explosives and munitions stored inside, according to the military statement.
Iraqi police inspected the site and reported six militants killed and five wounded, it said.
U.S. and Iraqi forces have stepped up efforts in recent weeks against the violence in Diyala, particularly in the provincial capital, Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad. Sunni and Shiite extremists fled to the area as U.S. and Iraqi forces began an offensive in the capital.
U.S. troops regained control of the western half of the city last month and launched operations into the rest of Baqouba on Tuesday. The Iraqi army statement said 13 insurgents had been killed and 16 detained in the city, which is in western Diyala.
Prime Minister Al-Maliki’s office said the Shiite leader “hoped that the parliament would cancel its summer vacation or limit it to a fortnight to help the government solve the pending issues on top of which was the vacant ministerial posts.”
Al-Maliki discussed the failure to pass many draft laws during a meeting Saturday with U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker and presidential adviser Meghan O’Sullivan, according to his office.
Indicating a tough road ahead regardless of the assembly’s vacation plans, an influential Shiite politician rejected calls for a law that would let former members of Saddam Hussein’s ruling party return to government jobs—one of the so-called benchmarks demanded by Washington.
Ammar al-Hakim—whose ailing father Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim is the leader of the Supreme Islamic Council of Iraq—promised to work peacefully to end the foreign presence in Iraq but said the return of former Baathists to government positions would only deepen rifts.
“The Saddamist Baathists and (Sunni extremists) are responsible in the first place for the suffering of the Iraqi people and for the killings and the genocide and targeting of the holy places,” he said. “We differentiate clearly between the senior and the simple Baathists who emerged in the society and took on roles as other Iraqis. But the Saddamist Baathists cannot have a role or a sensitive position in our country. We cannot allow that.”
AP contributed to this report
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Nice pic. Iraqis arresting dead-enders. Keep it up.
July 21st, 2007 at 10:07 amSecondary explosions! Gotta love those!!!!
July 21st, 2007 at 11:11 amWhen they count bodies after a bomb blast like that, do they count up the legs, arms, torso’s, eyeballs and other assorted glop? 25# of scooped/sponged up schlepp equates to one very dead combatant…
July 21st, 2007 at 1:25 pmJust heard from the MSM on the radio that it was all a mistake and only womem and children were killed. They might as well be wearing hoods and shooting us in the back with real weapons, but they haven’t got the guts to do anything but what the lefties always do, LIE! LIE! and more LIES!!
July 21st, 2007 at 1:41 pmDam, they dropped a bomb on me and then my stash also blew up.
July 21st, 2007 at 2:07 pmRVN68MIKE, I think you’re right. I have the local news on, an ABC station, and they’re reporting it the same way. They’re citing “Iraqi” sources.
July 21st, 2007 at 2:12 pmFox just ran it too. Citing reports from Iraqi “civilians” of something in the range of 18 civs killed and additional 21 wounded, although Iraqi authorities clam what the report above states. Have we not been through this suppossed “civ reporting” before. Sounds like the same broken record when we do something good.
Thank God we have the msm to tell us the truth (extreme sarcasm).
July 21st, 2007 at 3:38 pm