(At least) 13 dead in Baghdad attacks

BAGHDAD (CNN) -- Mortar fire and bombs killed at least 13 people in scattered attacks on Wednesday across Baghdad, police in the capital told CNN.

Four mortar rounds slammed into a residential area in northern Baghdad's Rashdiya district, killing five people and wounding 15 others.

A car bomb exploded on a commercial street near Alwiya hospital in Nidhal street in eastern Baghdad. Four people were killed and 10 others were wounded.

Two people were killed and seven others were wounded when a car bomb exploded near to an outdoor market in the southwestern neighborhood of Bayaa.

more:http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/02/14/wednesday/index.html

FACTBOX-Security developments in Iraq, Feb 14
14 Feb 2007 14:15:30 GMT

Feb 14 (Reuters) - Following are security developments in Iraq as of 1330 GMT on Wednesday:

RAMADI - A suicide car bomber killed at least five people and wounded 20 others when he blew up his vehicle at the entrance of a police station in the western Iraqi city of Ramadi, police sources said.

BAGHDAD - A car bomb near a hospital killed four people and wounded 10 others in the mainly Christian Camp Sara district of Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD - A roadside bomb targeting a police patrol killed a man and wounded three others in the al-Sulaikh district of northern Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD - A car bomb killed two people and wounded seven others in a market in the southern Bayaa district of Baghdad, police said.

more: http://mobile.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L14513110.htm

The "surge" is on, Baghdad is partially locked down,
and still the killing continues. :(

:eyes:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
RELEASE No. 20070214-12
Feb. 14, 2007

Task Force Lightning Soldier dies in non-combat related incident
Multi-National Division – North PAO

TIKRIT, Iraq – A Task Force Lightning Soldier died Tuesday in a non-combated related incident, which is currently under investigation.

The name of the deceased is being withheld pending notification of next of kin and release by the Department of Defense.

http://www.mnf-iraq.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=9916&Itemid=21

Were they genocidal maniacs out to kill civilians of the "wrong" sect or religion by attacking a residential area, a commercial street near a hospital, and an outdoor market? Or were they "patriotic resistance" fighters who mistook these civilian targets for American troops, perhaps due to bad intelligence? (Of course, the "resistance" may attack civilians intentionally and just view these deaths as their own form of "collateral damage" required to create chaos and pressure on the US to withdraw.)

If they are genocidal maniacs, we had better make arrangements for some security force when we leave or the aftermath might look like Rwanda after the UN left. (At least, in that case, the UN was not morally responsible for creating the conditions that led to the genocide.)

If they are "patriotic resistance", though a bit on the ruthless side, fighters perhaps things will improve after we leave. (Let's just hope they haven't learned that random violence against civilians can work in non-occupation situations as well, e.g. Pakistan, Algeria, Lebanon.)