Rioting and tit-for-tat killings continued in Sudan's capital, Khartoum, on Wednesday, as southerners upset with the death of the rebel leader John Garang clashed with northern Arabs and government security forces struggling to restore order.
The death toll from three days of unrest in Khartoum and its suburbs approached 100, according to local authorities and relief agencies. There were reports of gangs of people, some carrying clubs, knives and guns, marauding through the streets, even well after a government-imposed dusk-to-dawn curfew.
The imam of a mosque outside of Khartoum was killed, the United Nations reported. Northern Muslims, crying "God is great!" in Arabic, were seen setting upon black African southerners.
The ugly scenes represented the worst fears after Vice President Garang's death on Saturday night in a helicopter crash, which the authorities have insisted was an accident caused by foul weather, not an act of sabotage as some southerners claim.
The above is from Marc Lacey's "Riot Toll Mounts in Sudan After Rebel Leader's Death" in this morning's New York Times.
Also worthy of note (and noted by Kendrick) is James Dao's "Iraq Casualties Hit Hard in a Suburb of Cleveland:"
On Monday, five marines from a reserve battalion that has its headquarters here were killed in an ambush in western Iraq. By Wednesday morning, the names of the dead were still trickling out, leaving hundreds of residents in anguish about friends and loved ones. For in Brook Park, almost everyone knows someone in the war.
[. . .]
The dead included marines like Cpl. Jeffrey A. Boskovitch, 25, the oldest of three children in a family who grew up in nearby Parma and was quarterback on the Normandy High School football team there. "We didn't have a chance to tell him to his face that he did a great job," said his uncle, Paul Boskovitch.
And then Wednesday brought more bad news: 14 marines from the same battalion, the Third of the 25th Marines, were killed when an explosive device ripped apart their armored troop carrier in western Iraq. While those marines were attached to a company based in Columbus, military officials said, the fact that they were part of the same battalion hit Brook Park like a follow-up punch.
Lynda e-mails to note that the Bully Boy and team have once again decided it is a "war on terror."
Lynda: Guess the alternative didn't test well in focus groups.
Don't miss Democracy Now! today. Here's what's planned:
Thur, August 4: Ambassador Joseph Wilson on the CIA/Rove scandal.
And if you didn't check it out yet, note this week's BuzzFlash's Wings of Justice Award (the one you want to win) has been announced. Click link to see the honored.
The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.
