The Interior Ministry in Baghdad identified the gunman as a local official and said he emerged from the building with the Americans, pulled a Kalashnikov assault rifle from the trunk of his car and sprayed them with bullets. The man's colleagues sought cover as the Americans returned fire and killed him, according to the ministry, which oversees the police.
But witnesses said the assailant was a former council member who joined the Sunni Muslim insurgency after he was ousted from his job in sectarian fighting in 2006.
Richard A. Oppel Jr. covers it for the New York Times here. James Glanz files "Government Study Criticizes Bush Administration’s Measures of Progress in Iraq:"
Beyond the declines in overall violence in Iraq, several crucial measures the Bush administration uses to demonstrate economic, political and security progress are either incorrect or far more mixed than the administration has acknowledged, according to a report released Monday by the Government Accountability Office.
Over all, the report says, the American plan for a stable Iraq lacks a strategic framework that meshes with the administration’s goals, is falling out of touch with the realities on the ground and contains serious flaws in its operational guidelines.
Hannah Allam's "Blast kills 4 Americans, 6 Iraqis in Sadr City building" (McClatchy Newspapers) notes today's deaths.
In the United States, Ralph Nader is running for president. Susan picked this Nader video for today's highlight:
More videos from the Nader-Gonzalez campaign can be found here.
The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.
iraq
alexandra zavis
the los angeles times
james glanz
the new york times
mcclatchy newspapers
