16 killed in latest challenges to new Iraq peace bid

http://www.afp.com/english/news/stories/060827130953.42vrubni.html

16 killed in latest challenges to new Iraq peace bid
27/08/2006 13h12
US Marines gather at the scene where a suicide car bomber blew himself
©AFP - Marwan Ibrahim

BAGHDAD (AFP) - A string of attacks killed at least 16 people across Iraq in the latest challenge to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's attempts to bring peace to the bitterly divided country.

A bomb killed at least five people and wounded 15 near central Baghdad's Palestine Hotel, a security official said Sunday.

A suicide bomber in a van also targeted the Iraqi state-owned daily Al-Sabah by blowing up the vehicle in the parking lot, killing at least two people and wounding 25, an employee said.

...........
"Two people were killed and 25 others wounded. They all were employees of the newspaper," Karim al-Rubaiya, head of Al-Sabah's technical department, told AFP.

.......They came one day after Maliki secured a pledge from Iraqi tribal leaders to quell the raging sectarian violence..........

(another headline)

http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2006-08-27T104119Z_01_IBO727819_RTRUKOC_0_US-IRAQ-BLAST.xml

Bombs rock Baghdad day after PM's unity call
Sun Aug 27, 2006 6:41am ET171


By Ross Colvin

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A bomb blew apart a minibus in central Baghdad on Sunday, killing nine people, the day after Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki again called on ethnically and religiously divided Iraqis to reconcile to end the bloodshed.

The blast, which sent thick black smoke billowing into the sky, followed a car bomb attack on the offices of Iraq's best-selling newspaper, the government-owned al-Sabah, which killed two employees and damaged the building extensively.

The blasts occurred despite a major security operation by thousands of American and Iraqi troops to bring peace to the capital. Sectarian and insurgent violence claimed the lives of more than 3,000 Iraqis in July alone.

Police said 20 bodies had been found in various districts of Baghdad on Saturday. Some bore signs of torture and most had been killed by gunshots to the head, a typical feature of the communal bloodshed between the Shi'ite and Sunni sects.

Maliki urged tribal leaders who gathered in the capital on Saturday to use their influence to unite Iraqis to end the violence, which has raised fears of all-out civil war.

peace bid? lol!

Full article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/27/AR2006082700228.html

If he keeps saying that, does it think it will come true?

(click click click), there's no place like home."