Today the US military announced: "Three Multi-National Division - Baghdad Soldiers were killed and 11 others wounded when an improvised explosive device detonated near their patrol during combat operations in an eastern section of the Iraqi capital August 2. Four of the injured were treated for minor injuries and were returned to duty." This brings the August total to 5 US service members killed in Iraq and the total since the start of the illegal war to 3665.
On some of yesterday's violence, Martha highlights this from Megan Greenwell's "Suicide Bomber Kills 13 at Iraqi Police Post" (Washington Post):
On Thursday night, police said, mortar shells hit the Baghdad offices of the Iraqi Accordance Front, the country's largest Sunni political group. The attack came a day after the group announced it would withdraw five of its six ministers from the government in protest against Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's policies. In a public statement Thursday, Maliki formally asked the Accordance Front to reconsider its decision.
Meanwhile, police in the northern city of Kirkuk announced that they had found a young boy crying next to the corpses of his five adult brothers. The five were apparently killed in sectarian violence after they and the boy were abducted Wednesday as they drove south out of the city, police said.
News that a child had apparently been present during the killings created nationwide outrage. Newscasters on Arabic-language television stations spoke at length about the incident, and several prominent politicians and religious leaders condemned the kidnappers.
Reuters notes, on the death of the brothers, "Reuters pictures showed an uncle of one of the men, turbaned and wearing white traditional Arab robes, weeping and curled up next to a wooden coffin, the body of his nephew wrapped in a thick patterned blanket.
A cousin of the men said four of them, all day labourers, had gone to help their brother paint the local hospital in al-Rashaad district, about 40 km southwest of Kirkuk." The kidnapping took place as they were headed home and the murders after the family was unable to pay a ransom.
Greenwell also notes that the US military's announcements brought to 80 the announced deaths of US service members for July (since filing, the count has risen to 81). Don't search the New York Times too hard for the same information unless you have time to waste this morning. Reuters notes: "The July death toll, initially put at 74, was welcomed by U.S. commanders as a possible sign that the military build-up was bearing fruit. But by Friday the toll had climbed to 81 on the icasualties.org Web site, on a par with February and March. Including corpses in the count, yesterday McClatchy Newspapers and Reuters combined reported at least 67 deaths in Iraq.
In the Times, you will find the footless and dateline free Paul von Zielbauer's "Marine Is Guilty of Unpremeditated Murder of an Iraqi Man" in which PvZ improves on many of his mainstream peers by actually naming the dead: Hashim Ibrahim Awad. In the Times of Los Angeles, Faye Fiore looks at what happens when the military knocks on a family's door to deliver bad news and focuses on Joane Sutton, wife of the late Greg Sutton.
Olive highlights Edmund Tadros' report in the Sydney Morning Herald which reports 5 Australian soldiers were injured on Thursday and, unlike other reports, does not mention a roadside bomb but states the event is under investigation.
In the United States, the Los Angeles Times reports a record $1 million settlement by the District of Columbia due to the police round ups of demonstrators against the illegal war in 2002.
And Paul Majendie (Reuters) reports on a study in the UK that has found British soldiers were more likely to suffer from PTSD if they were deployed for over "13 months or more in a three-year period."
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megan greenwell
the washington post
los angeles times
the new york times
