The Common Ills: Nouri's Iraq: Civilians killed by the military, university stormed, and more

In Iraq today, the big news was what happened on a campus. AFP reports, "Jihadists took students and staff hostage at Anbar University in the Iraqi city of Ramadi on Saturday, while fighting between security forces and militants in a northern city killed 59 people." Xinhua adds, "Earlier in the day, dozens of gunmen stormed campus of Anbar University, which located in the western edge of the provincial capital city of Ramadi, while hundreds of students and teachers were trapped in the school buildings, the source said." AP offers, "Several hours later, gunmen left the university under unclear circumstances. Students then boarded buses provided by the local government to flee the school, though gunfire erupted as security forces attacked retreating militants, police said."

Ramadi is, of course, in Anbar Province which Nouri has been attacking since December 30th. He claimed it would be an operation which lasted only a couple of weeks. That was six months ago. Ramadi and Falluja are the two most populated cities in the largely Sunni province. Kareem Fahim (New York Times) reports:

Officials said that some of the students at Anbar University were briefly held hostage by militants and then released. But two professors who were at the university said that the gunmen they encountered had in fact encouraged civilians to leave the grounds.

The assault was the latest blow to government forces after three days of fierce attacks by Sunni militants stretching across the country.

BBC News offers a video report by Youssef Taha who observes, "It's an operation that would attract a lot of media attention, but it's a major embarrassment for the prime minister."

Nouri's a War Criminal.

They don't shame easily.

Since the start of the year, he's committed War Crimes by bombing the residential neighborhoods of Falluja. He's killed and wounded tons of civilians -- this includes children. Today?

NINA reports 7 civilians were killed (including "children") and seventeen more were left injured (also including "children").

Apparently feeling Nouri should up the daily death toll, the White House is providing him with F-16s.

And Nouri's expanded it to Mosul. NINA reports that he's begun bombing Mosul neighborhoods today.

Mosul is in Nineveh Province -- so now he's targeting both Anbar and Nineveh. What do they have in common? Unlike the Shi'ite Nouri al-Maliki, the people in those two provinces are predominantly Sunni.

And Barack's handing Nouri F-16s so he can complete the ethnic cleansing all the sooner.

In other violence, Al Arabiya News notes, "A wave of car bombs exploded across Baghdad on Saturday, killing more than 60 people." Belfast Telegraph notes the bombings "largely focused on Shiite neighborhoods." National Iraqi News Agency reports Baghdad Operations Command announced they killed 9 suspects, a Mosul battle left 9 police members dead with a tenth injured, and an al-Ratba battle left 1 police member dead and two Iraqi soldiers injured. Also on this topic, Mohammed Tawfeeq (CNN) has a report (video and text) on violence in Mosul on Friday.

The following community sites -- plus Chocolate City, Dissident Voice, Susan's On the Edge, Ms. magazine's blog, Antiwar.com, Pacifica Evening News, Guardian, House Veterans Affairs Committee and Z on TV -- updated: