Roads out of Baghdad become no-go zones

[leftchick]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=2326&e=19&u=/csm/operil


BAGHDAD - Mohammed Ghazi Umron has a front-row seat for the perils of Iraq (news - web sites)'s roads: the cab of his truck. And while this Shiite in his 30s enthusiastically voted in Iraq's January election, from where he sits the country is as dangerous as ever.


The road north through Baquba? "Pretty dangerous,'' he says. Due south through Mahmudiyah? "It's bad, but I haven't heard of any drivers being killed there in a few weeks." How about west through Abu Ghraib and on to Fallujah? "Very, very dangerous. We try not to go past Abu Ghraib."


The volley of mortar fire that dropped a few hundred yards short of where the opening session of Iraq's new parliament was held Wednesday rattled the ceremonial gathering and was a reminder that the city remains under siege.


Nearly two years since President Bush (news - web sites) declared an end to major combat operations in Iraq, Baghdad is still one of the most dangerous cities in the world. It is ringed in peril. Travel in any direction a few miles outside city limits and the risks intensify. The ferocity and growth of these no-go zones underscores the need for additional Iraqi security forces in and around Baghdad as the US begins to reduce its manpower here.

[UpInArms]

1. look at all that "progress"!

/sarcasm

[inchhigh]

2. You have given the news article ........

You have given the news article Roads out of Baghdad become no-go zones a rating of 5.
Its current average rating is 2.63 with 242 vote(s).

[UpInArms]

3. Welcome to DU inchhigh!

:hi:

[leesa]

4. Funny how the GOP works to suppress reality at every turn, isn't it?

They will work hard to keep this stuff out of the public eye.

[jmcgowanjm]

5. You know, it's gotta be tough to see all those nite time

explosions around Baghdad, and not know
what the hell is going on.

Balad city to name main street after martyred Mafkarat al-Islam writer.

(For earlier stories about and by the Martyr Khalid ‘Abd
al-
Jabbar, see Iraqi Resistance Report, Wednesday, 16
March 2005, “Abu Rim, correspondent for Mafkarat al-
Islam, joins the ranks of the martyrs as Americans gun
him down for filming US helicopters ablaze.” And
Iraqi Resistance Report, Tuesday, 15 March 2005,
“Heavy fighting lights up Tuesday night near Balad,” and
the continuation of that report headlined, “Resistance
shoots down two US helicopters in Battle of Balad, as city
pours out to fight the American
invaders. .”)

Helicopter blown up, 15 Americans killed in complex
Resistance attack in Balad.

An Iraqi Resistance bomb exploded by a US military
column destroying one Humvee and killing four US troops in
the al-Ishaqi area of the Balad district, Mafkarat al-
Islam reported. After that attack, US forces called in
helicopters that landed at the scene of the attack to evacuate
the dead. Witnesses reported that a Resistance
martyrdom fighter driving an explosives-laden car raced
at speeds approaching 200km per hour into one of
the helicopters and blew up.

The powerful explosion totally destroyed the helicopter and
killed 11 more American troops who were evacuating the
bodies or were just gathered around the area. Thus the
total number of Americans killed in the complex attack was
15. Later, a captain in the puppet so-called “Iraqi national
guard” reported that the number of dead had risen to
16.

[RaleighNCDUer]

6. American media has reported none of this

so obviously, it didn't happen.

Everything's fine.

Nothing to see here. Keep moving.

[jmcgowanjm]

7. More MSM nonstories-the wounded arrive in the United States only at night.

And the military is hard-pressed to explain why.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/030805J.shtml

 From Andrews, some of the most seriously wounded are
driven to Walter Reed or Bethesda Naval Medical Center
in buses, ambulances or unmarked black vans. Photos of
the arrivals at the hospitals are
prohibited.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/030805J.shtml