"It seems getting the number two guy has done fuck all to help the suitation in Iraq, someone should bring this up to Myers"
Car bombs kill more than 60 in Iraq
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3428471a12,00.htmlThree car bombs tore through busy streets in a mixed Shi'ite and Sunni town north of Baghdad, killing more than 60 people and wounding dozens in the latest apparent sectarian attack to strike Iraq.
Hours earlier, five US troops were killed in one of the deadliest bombings in weeks near Ramadi, a bastion of Sunni Arab insurgency; the US commander in Iraq told senators plans to cut troop numbers next year may be thwarted if things go awry in a constitutional referendum and election in the coming months.
Police sources said two bombs went off about 10 minutes apart in a Shi'ite neighbourhood of Balad, about 90km north of Baghdad, targeting a busy market and a nearby road at dusk, when streets would have been full.
A third bomb went off close by half an hour later in what looked like co-ordinated explosions in Balad, not far from a town where killings of Shi'ites in 1982 under Saddam Hussein are the grounds on which the former president faces trial next month.
Among the wounded in the follow-up blasts was Balad's police chief, one police source said.
Some of those injured were being brought to Baghdad for treatment as Balad's hospitals could not cope.
The attack is the latest by Sunni Arab insurgents to target the long oppressed majority Shi'ite Muslim population.
AdvertisementAdvertisementThis week, five Shi'ite teachers were hauled out of a school in a town south of Baghdad and shot dead by gunmen, while last month more than 100 day labourers were killed by a suicide car bomber in the Shi'ite Kadhamiya district of Baghdad.
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian who heads al Qaeda in Iraq, one of the most feared militant groups, has pledged "all out war" on Iraq's Shi'ites in an apparent effort to provoke sectarian conflict and drive the country further into chaos.
Iraq's foremost Shi'ite cleric, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, has urged his followers not to respond to provocations by Sunni insurgents, but still there has been a wave of tit-for-tat sectarian killings across in the country.
This week, the bodies of 22 men, all believed to be Sunnis, were found blindfolded, bound and shot dead. Their bodies were dumped in a wasteland southeast of the capital. The Sunni community blamed the killings on Shi'ite militias, some of which have close links with parties in the US-backed government.
Thursday's attack came as violence continued against US forces, still struggling to bring security to the country more than 2½ years after they invaded to overthrow Saddam.
Near Ramadi, a rebellious town west of Baghdad, five US soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb blast, the US military said. The deaths raised to at least 1,929 the number of US troops to have died in Iraq since the war.
Over the same period, more than 13,000 have been wounded, many of them seriously maimed. The United States has 149,000 troops in Iraq, while around 20,000 troops from other countries are also serving, nearly half of them from Britain.
Pentagon planners have said they hope to begin withdrawing US troops once Iraqi security forces are strong enough to handle the insurgency by themselves. There are about 190,000 Iraqi security force members, but most are poorly trained.
General George Casey, the top US commander in Iraq, said earlier this year he hoped for a substantial reduction in troops next year, but he backed away from that position on Thursday, telling US senators that if things didn't go well over the coming 2½ months, troops would have to stay.
"The next 75 days are going to be critical" in deciding on such cuts, Casey told the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Iraqis vote on a draft constitution in an October 15 referendum and, if they endorse it, elect a new government on December 15, both crucial dates in the country's political transition. Insurgents have stepped up attacks in the run up to key dates in the past.
"We fully recognise that Iraqi armed forces will not have an independent capability for some time, because they don't have the institutional base to support them," Casey said.
US public support for the war has dropped in opinion polls, which has contributed to falling support for US President George W Bush. Last weekend, an anti-war protest in Washington drew at least 100,000 people.
Casey said the average 20th century counterinsurgency lasted nine years.
"And there is no reason that we should believe that the insurgency in Iraq will take any less time to deal with," Casey said, although he did not say US forces would be there the entire time.
US commanders have warned of a surge in violence in the build up to the October 15 referendum, which could see millions of people stream to the polls.
The constitution, largely drawn up by the Shi'ites and Kurds who dominate the government, is expected to be approved in the referendum despite strong objections from Sunni quarters.
Sunni political and religious leaders have said they plan to encourage their supporters to vote "No" come October 15. If two- thirds of voters in three or more of Iraq's 18 provinces say "No" then the constitution will be defeated.
It is expected to be difficult for Sunnis to achieve the two-thirds threshold in three provinces, and already attention is turning to the December elections, when they hope to do better than they did last January, when many Sunnis boycotted.
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