| Page 3 of 3 < |
Iraq Tells U.S. to Quit Checkpoints
U.S. troops coil barbed wire used as a cordon around Baghdad's Karrada neighborhood, where an American soldier was abducted Oct. 23.
(By Hadi Mizban -- Associated Press)
TOOLBOX
   Resize
COMMENT
 Discussion Policy
 CLOSE
Comments that include profanity or personal attacks or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site. Additionally, entries that are unsigned or contain "signatures" by someone other than the actual author will be removed. Finally, we will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or privacy policies or any other policies governing this site. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions. You are fully responsible for the content that you post.
Who's Blogging  |
A senior member of the Shiite governing alliance, Jalal al-Din al-Saghir, said it was inexplicable that such a large-scale operation had been undertaken for one man "at a time when no such measures are being taken when hundreds of Iraqis are being killed all over Baghdad."
In Najaf, a Shiite city in the south where Sadr makes his base, a Sadr official said Maliki's order had corrected "a mistake of the occupation."
"Our own opinion is that Iraqi sovereignty is still not complete and is lacking until the occupying forces leave the country," said the official, Sahib al-Amiri, who runs a charitable institute for veterans and families of the Mahdi Army.
"At the same time, we consider this a step forward for the government," Amiri said.
Meanwhile Tuesday, a car bomb exploded just outside Sadr City, killing four people, the Interior Ministry said. A day earlier, a bombing inside the Shiite neighborhood killed at least 33 people.
Elsewhere in Baghdad, a suicide car bomber struck a Shiite wedding party, killing 11 people.
October ended with the death toll for U.S. service members at 103 -- including 98 killed in action, the third-highest monthly combat total of the war. And in Washington, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said he was inclined to approve proposals by the Iraqi government and the top U.S. commander in Baghdad to increase the size of the Iraqi security forces. He did not say how big an increase had been proposed.
Special correspondents Naseer Mehdawi, Naseer Nouri and Saad al-Izzi in Baghdad and Saad Sarhan in Najaf contributed to this report.
