My OperaMahdi Army under assault; sectarian deaths mount elsewhere
Tuesday, April 10, 2007 5:18:47 AM
U.S. jets bombard Shiite militia
BAGHDAD – U.S. warplanes blasted a militia team firing rocket-propelled grenades Saturday, an Iraqi military official said, the second day of heavy fighting in a major offensive to drive Shiite Mahdi Army militiamen out of Diwaniyah, a farm-belt city south of Baghdad.
North of the capital, in the increasingly dangerous Diyala provincial capital of Baqouba, police reported finding 21 more bodies dumped in the streets, victims of sectarian warfare.
All were shot execution-style, and many had been tortured. At least 62 bodies have been found in or near Baqouba since Tuesday.
At least 64 people were killed or found dead across Iraq on Saturday in the eighth week of the U.S.-Iraqi security crackdown on the capital and surrounding cities and towns.
Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, meanwhile, said government officials from Iraq's neighbors, the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and representatives of the Group of Eight industrialized nations will meet in Egypt early next month.
The session – originally set for Istanbul, Turkey – is a follow-up to the international conference held in Baghdad last month, during which envoys from Iran and the U.S. spoke directly for the first time in years.
The Egyptian meeting will be at the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheik on May 3-4, Mr. Zebari said.
The security committee chief in Karbala province, south of Baghdad, said authorities found the bodies of six shepherds from a group of 22 who were abducted Wednesday, along with their livestock, by suspected al-Qaeda fighters.
"We have confirmed the 22 shepherds were killed by al-Qaeda. We found six of their bodies today, and we will continue searching the desert tomorrow," said Ghalib al-Daami.
He would not reveal how he knew all 22 were dead.
Maj. Gen. Oothman Farhood al-Ghanemi, commander of the Iraqi army's 8th Division, said the U.S.-Iraqi operation to retake Diwaniyah took shape after a three-month crescendo of violence in which at least 58 people were killed or kidnapped.
In violence leading up to the offensive, many women reportedly were killed after the hard-line fundamentalist militiamen accused them of violating their strict interpretation of Islamic morality.
Read more news here : U.S. jets bombard Shiite militia
BAGHDAD – U.S. warplanes blasted a militia team firing rocket-propelled grenades Saturday, an Iraqi military official said, the second day of heavy fighting in a major offensive to drive Shiite Mahdi Army militiamen out of Diwaniyah, a farm-belt city south of Baghdad.
North of the capital, in the increasingly dangerous Diyala provincial capital of Baqouba, police reported finding 21 more bodies dumped in the streets, victims of sectarian warfare.
All were shot execution-style, and many had been tortured. At least 62 bodies have been found in or near Baqouba since Tuesday.
At least 64 people were killed or found dead across Iraq on Saturday in the eighth week of the U.S.-Iraqi security crackdown on the capital and surrounding cities and towns.
Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, meanwhile, said government officials from Iraq's neighbors, the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and representatives of the Group of Eight industrialized nations will meet in Egypt early next month.
The session – originally set for Istanbul, Turkey – is a follow-up to the international conference held in Baghdad last month, during which envoys from Iran and the U.S. spoke directly for the first time in years.
The Egyptian meeting will be at the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheik on May 3-4, Mr. Zebari said.
The security committee chief in Karbala province, south of Baghdad, said authorities found the bodies of six shepherds from a group of 22 who were abducted Wednesday, along with their livestock, by suspected al-Qaeda fighters.
"We have confirmed the 22 shepherds were killed by al-Qaeda. We found six of their bodies today, and we will continue searching the desert tomorrow," said Ghalib al-Daami.
He would not reveal how he knew all 22 were dead.
Maj. Gen. Oothman Farhood al-Ghanemi, commander of the Iraqi army's 8th Division, said the U.S.-Iraqi operation to retake Diwaniyah took shape after a three-month crescendo of violence in which at least 58 people were killed or kidnapped.
In violence leading up to the offensive, many women reportedly were killed after the hard-line fundamentalist militiamen accused them of violating their strict interpretation of Islamic morality.
Read more news here : U.S. jets bombard Shiite militia
