World-News

Official statistics tell only part of the story of a slide into civil war -- for the rest, just listen to ordinary Iraqis.

https://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/GEO035240.htm


From Information Clearing House

Sectarian break-up of Iraq is now inevitable, admit officials
https://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14165.htm

Iraq's prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, meets Tony Blair in London today as violence in Iraq reaches a new crescendo and senior Iraqi officials say the break up of the country is inevitable.

https://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/072406K.shtml

Christian Science Monitor

07/23/06

A floundering government campaign to crack down on militias and increasing sectarian killings have many Shiites turning to militias for protection, particularly radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's violent Mahdi Army. The US and British military have stepped up raids on its leadership after growing impatient with the new government's failure to arrest the militia's commanders. But Sunday, two suicide car bombs in the capital and one in the troubled northern oil city of Kirkuk killed a total of 60 Iraqis, as new Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki jetted off to Britain and the US for talks with Prime Minister Tony Blair and President George Bush on Iraq's crumbling security situation. Such violence only strengthens the hand of the militias...

https://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0724/p06s01-woiq.html



Sectarian break-up of Iraq is now inevitable, admit officials
The Independent [UK]

07/23/06

The Iraqi Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, meets Tony Blair in London today as violence in Iraq reaches a new crescendo and senior Iraqi officials say the break up of the country is inevitable. A car bomb in a market in the Shia stronghold of Sadr City in Baghdad yesterday killed 34 people and wounded a further 60 and was followed by a second bomb in the same area two hours later that left a further eight dead. Another car bomb outside a court house in Kirkuk killed a further 20 and injured 70 people. 'Iraq as a political project is finished,' a senior government official was quoted as saying, adding: 'The parties have moved to plan B'...

https://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article1193108.ece


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Bombs exploded Sunday in Baghdad and the northern oil center of Kirkuk, killing more than 60 people and dramatically escalating tension as the prime minister left for Washington for talks on reversing the country's slide toward civil war.

https://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/072306A.shtml

Iraq's parliament speaker Mahmud Mashhadani bitterly criticized US forces in Iraq, accusing them of "butchery" and demanded that they pull out of the country.

https://tinyurl.com/s364c


From Information Clearing House

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Iraqi Parliament Speaker: Invasion and Aftermath "Work of Butchers"

The speaker of the Iraqi Parliament criticized the American government's involvement in Iraq on Saturday, likening the invasion and its consequences to "the work of butchers" and demanding that the American authorities disentangle themselves from Iraq's political affairs.

https://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/072406D.shtml

In part one of this Washington Post series Thomas E. Ricks analyzes the the war in Iraq and how early missteps by the Bush administration left troops unprepared for guerrilla warfare.

https://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/072306Y.shtml

Iraqi detainees were routinely subjected to beatings, sleep deprivation, stress positions and other forms of abuse by US interrogators, according to a Human Rights Watch report released on Sunday that offers first-hand accounts from three former soldiers.

https://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/072306Z.shtml

The top US commander for the Middle East said Friday that the escalating sectarian violence in Baghdad had become a greater worry than the insurgency and that plans were being drawn up to move additional forces to the Iraqi capital.

https://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/072206E.shtml

By Associated Press

Four U.S. soldiers accused of murdering suspected insurgents during a raid in Iraq said they were under orders to "kill all military age males," according to sworn statements obtained by The Associated Press.

https://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14126.htm