Eight U.S. soldiers died in separate attacks here and in the eastern province of Diyala on Monday, the deadliest day for U.S. troops in more than two months.
U.S. officials announced overnight that three U.S. soldiers were killed and another wounded when an improvised bomb exploded near their patrol in Diyala. An interpreter was also killed. No other details were provided.
In Baghdad, a suicide bomber killed five U.S. troops as they mingled casually with Iraqis in a shopping district. The U.S. soldiers had parked their Humvees and stepped out into the warm sun and swirl of people on the main thoroughfare of what was once Baghdad's most elegant neighborhood.
The customers strolling past the open businesses in Mansour -- the Babit gift shop, the Al Jadurchi computer compound -- created the pleasantly mundane scene that American soldiers have tried so hard to cultivate in a capital battered by war.
About 3 p.m. Monday, that vision dissolved again into violence. A man wearing a vest laden with explosives blew himself up amid the U.S. patrol, killing five soldiers and wounding three others in the deadliest day for Americans in Baghdad in six months.
The above is from Joshua Partlow's "Eight U.S. Soldiers Die in Iraq Attacks" (Washington Post) which I'm noting for all the little crybaby, whiny visitors who've e-mailed the public account since the snapshot went up yesterday. It was eight deaths. I don't care that the New York Times front pages five. It was eight and that's what you should see on the front page of your paper today. The link to Nancy A. Youssef and Hannah Allam's story at McClatchy now takes you to an updated version by Hannah Allam and Yasseen Taha but the update still is headlined "8 U.S. troops, 14 Iraqis die in wave of insurgent bombings." In PDF format, you can check out these M-NF announcements via ICCC: "Three Coalition Force Soldiers and an interpreter were killed by an improvised explosive device attack in eastern Diyala province, March 10. Another Soldier was wounded and transported to a Coalition medical facility for treatment." and "Four Multi-National Division - Baghdad soldiers were killed and one later died of wounds when a suicide bomber detonated among them while they patrolled in central Baghdad today. Three U.S. soldiers and an Iraqi interpreter were injured..." It was eight and the fact the you heard five on the network newscasts goes to the fact that military command was in damage control. The New York Times tomorrow will not front page a correction or an update. Five got into the news cycle not eight and eight was always the true number. 3983 is now the number of US service members who have died in Iraq since the start of the illegal war -- 17 away from the 4,000 mark.
From Alexander Zavis (Los Angeles Times):
Five U.S. soldiers and an Iraqi civilian were killed Monday in a suicide bombing while chatting with shopkeepers in central Baghdad, part of an uptick in high-profile attacks that has rattled the capital after months of diminished violence.
Early today, the U.S. military announced that three more soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb Monday in Diyala province.
Warren P. Strobel offers "Exhaustive review finds no link between Saddam and al Qaida" (McClatchy Newspapers):
An exhaustive review of more than 600,000 Iraqi documents that were captured after the 2003 U.S. invasion has found no evidence that Saddam Hussein's regime had any operational links with Osama bin Laden's al Qaida terrorist network.
The Pentagon-sponsored study, scheduled for release later this week, did confirm that Saddam's regime provided some support to other terrorist groups, particularly in the Middle East, U.S. officials told McClatchy. However, his security services were directed primarily against Iraqi exiles, Shiite Muslims, Kurds and others he considered enemies of his regime.
The new study of the Iraqi regime's archives found no documents indicating a "direct operational link" between Hussein's Iraq and al Qaida before the invasion, according to a U.S. official familiar with the report.
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