More than 200 dead as battle rages in Baghdad ( Sadr City...)

Times Online (UK) ^ | April 13, 2008 | Marie Colvin and Ali Rifat

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

THE toll from fierce fighting in Baghdad’s Sadr City has risen to at least 200 dead and more than 1,000 injured, according to doctors in the besieged suburb.

US and Iraqi troops killed at least 13 gunmen in heavy fighting there yesterday against the Mahdi Army loyal to the radical Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

The reports from Sadr City hospitals suggest far higher casualty figures than previously reported, although they cannot be independently verified. Dr Qassem Mudalal, the director of the Imam Ali hospital, said: “There are 230 killed, I can confirm, in the hospitals of Sadr City. I’ve been living in the hospital for two weeks.

“I can’t leave because of the siege and it’s too dangerous to be on the streets because of snipers and bombs.”

He said most had died from shrapnel wounds. Other doctors claimed only a minority of the dead appeared to be militants.

The Iraqi government yesterday briefly lifted a blockade of the suburb, and allowed about 20 lorries loaded with food, blankets and medical supplies to enter the area.

An American convoy was struck by at least 10 roadside bombs while moving in to support Iraqi soldiers setting up a checkpoint in the west of the city, the US military reported.

There was no sign of a cessation of hostilities between al-Sadr and Nouri al-Maliki, the Iraqi prime minister. “Children, women and old men have been injured and killed and there are no ambulances,” said Um Ali, a housewife, by telephone from her home in Sadr City. “The hospitals have no first-aid supplies and there are so few doctors.”

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Looks good.

[1COUNTER-MORTER-68]

TANKS,,,LOL,,,No wait,,,That’s Arty...;0)

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

This is a Sunday report,,,need a big number to sell the papers.

[353FMG]

They’re not going to kill Mookie. They’re going to ask for a meeting with him, kiss his a$$, and hope that he will see his wicked ways and relent. Same old, same old.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

See #16,

[353FMG]

“Any American dead or injured? I really don’t give a f*** about how many ragheads die over there.”

You must be a nice guy, you’re just like me.

[Bahbah]

Let the propaganda begin.

I hope the Iraqi government sticks to its guns. If they do, it will be a great victory.

[1COUNTER-MORTER-68]

LOL,,,Maybe fell in the Tex-Mex by now...;0)

[Bahbah]

This whole article sounds like propaganda

Bingo!

[montag813]

Why isn’t Sadr himself among the dead? I hear he is hiding out in a mosque. Blow it up!

[txhurl]

Which mosque? In which country?

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

I hear he is over there in Qoom...in Iran,....working on getting educated...

[txhurl]

Didn’t Mookie legitimately surface today? To denounce Gates as a terrorist?

I was wondering if maybe he wasn’t at that mosque in Shiraz.

[SampleMan]

We need to wipe Mukie and his followers from the face of the Earth. Its long overdue.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

There is this:

Sadr Lashes Out at 'Terrorist' Gates

But it is vague as to where...he made the statement...came from Najaf...but likely just a propaganda statement.

[Marine_Uncle]

Well at least my blabbing the past two years about cordoning off Sadr City is finally coming around. No one leaves, no one enters, except for medical aid and food at the discretion of the Iraqi/US forces. As larger numbers of Sunni and Shia are accepted into the police and military ranks, and given equal treatment, the militias will become less desirable.
It would appear that the Maliki government cannot now step back from their commitment to disband the militias. If it is a bloody period, so be it. Iraq needs it to be done.
I might add, Maliki needs a Baghdad Bob at this point to start preaching sense to the Iraqi citizenry. Talk sense like all Iraqi banding together to finally rid their country of AQI and associated radical Islamic groups that have proven over the past few years to be the ones that bring death to all Iraqi if they do not submit. A fair playing field must be stressed over a period of time followed up with money and help by the central government to continue rebuilding the country's infrastructure. And a well spoken Baghdad Bob could help such a movement.
And dare I say and am willing to be corrected if off base, Iraq has a potential to become not only a world producer of oil, but can also become a major refinery center, exporting may oil fractions, gasoline as well as a major source of petrochemicals, as well as with the blessing of the two large and less river systems that provide the fertile mid and south with good farming land, a major agricultural center where they can export to neighboring countries. And perhaps a major mineral producer.
Some time back I had ventured thoughts regarding the potential for Iraq to enter the light industrial lane. There is no reason why they cannot set up factory centers with modern environmental process to make their own tools, light manufacturing along many lines, the list is very long as to what they could use with oil subsidies to build a industrial state and train and employ their peoples to actually go to work each day, see they have worth, and not go around shooting each other in the ass based on ancient ideas that have no place in the modern world.
The Arab world almost exclusively has been held in a tight grip of doing nothing. They don't know how to do things in many disciplines simply because they have not had to work for them selves. The Socialist Marxist states that have been set up breed lazy do nothings that only have idle time to piss and moan how much the Jews have ruined them etc..
Put the clowns to work on constructive things. Let them feel the worth of making things work, improving on those things sorely needing improving in their country.
Only a strong minded government that can start to preach in this direction will truly pull them out of their long nightmare.
They simply have to many things that could go good for them if they where to play their cards right. They need leadership with vision as well as the balls to start to get fire side chats started. A government cannot live within a vacuum.

[james500]

“That’s “Petraeus”. And “Eastwood”.”

Based on his summary of High Plains Drifter, I don’t think he’s even seen it.

[txhurl]

Enter Blackberrys and I-Phones and western fashion.

It’ll happen real soon. Just google images of any Iraqi city, and they’re modernizing as soon as their cash flow allows them.

It must be gnashing hell to be an Iranian, looking over the border at what your culture has ridiculed as backward Mesopotamian idiots now enjoying the economic, political and cultural freedoms that Iranians are denied.

Iran, you’re next - if you want to be.

[Grizzled Bear]

Allegra,

Please check in!

GB

[devane617]

I thought things were much better. WTH is going on over there? Is the entire country fighting our troops?