On Apr 8, 10:55?am, "David Eduardo" wrote:
Sid9 wrote:
April 8, 2007
Explosion Kills Up to 17 in Town South of Baghdad
By REUTERS
Filed at 6:27 a.m. ET

MAHMUDIYA, Iraq (Reuters) - A car bomb killed up to 17 people and wounded
two dozen in a town south of Baghdad on Sunday, the latest in a spate of
attacks outside the Iraqi capital since a new security plan there took
effect.

The mayor of Mahmudiya, Muaid al-Amiri, said the car bomb targeted
industrial workshops and had killed 17 people and completely demolished a
three-story building. Many smaller shops had been leveled and a number of
cars destroyed.

North of Baghdad, four U.S. soldiers were killed in an explosion near their
vehicle on Saturday, the military said.

It said the blast took place in Diyala province, another area where violence
has spiked since the start of the security crackdown in Baghdad.

An official at Mahmudiya General Hospital, Yehya Najm, said the death toll
in the bombing was 15, with 30 wounded. Several bodies were still buried in
the rubble, he said.

``Three of us and a young boy were sitting in a store selling spare parts
for cars when there was a huge explosion. Debris from the roof fell on me,''
said one wounded man, who gave his name as Sadeq, lying on a hospital bed.

The explosion in the town, 30 km (20 miles) south of Baghdad left a crater
about 1.5 meters deep.

The government said last week it was extending the nearly two-month-old
U.S.-Iraqi security offensive in Baghdad to other cities in its drive to
halt the slide into sectarian civil war.

Days later, Iraqi and U.S. forces launched an operation to restore
government authority in the southern city of Diwaniya, where Shi'ite
militias are a powerful and feared presence, particularly Shi'ite cleric
Moqtada al-Sadr's Mehdi Army, which the Pentagon says is the greatest threat
to peace in Iraq.

Fighting had abated in the city, 180 km (110 miles) south of Baghdad, on
Sunday, residents said. ``The situation has started to ease and clashes have
stopped,'' one Iraqi army captain said.

The operation, codenamed ``Black Eagle,'' began on Friday and Iraqi security
officials said it was still under way.

Some people ventured out to get food and fuel after a two-day-old curfew
appeared to have been lifted.

Diwaniya has been the scene of fierce battles between U.S. and Iraqi forces
and militiamen in past months.

FLIGHT BARRED

In a possible diplomatic embarrassment for Iraq, Iran refused to allow a
plane carrying Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on a trip to Asia to cross its
airspace overnight, a senior adviser to the Iraqi leader said on Sunday.

``Suddenly the Iranian aviation authorities ordered the pilot to go back,''
said Sadiq al-Rikabi, accompanying Maliki on the trip to Japan and South
Korea.

``We were obliged to fly to Dubai where we stayed for more than three hours
to file a new (flight) plan,'' he said by telephone from Bangkok.

Rikabi said the reasons for Iran's actions were unclear.

Asked about the report, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali
Hosseini told a weekly news conference in Tehran: ''Permission for Maliki's
flight is a normal issue. All flights need permission.'' He gave no further
details.

Iraq's U.S.-backed government has often had to tread a delicate path in
trying to maintain good relations with both Iran, its neighbor to the east,
and the United States.

There's nothing misbegotten about this war. The only thing that's
misbegotten is your cowardice.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

David, did you ever **** that amputee that you were talking about ?