Gunmen kill 21 northeast of Baghdad

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

By YAHYA BARZANJI, Associated Press Writer 32 minutes ago

SULAIMANIYAH, Iraq - Gunmen killed 21 people — many of them high school students — after dragging them off buses northeast of Baghdad, officials said. Four Sunni Arabs were spared and the dead were all Shiites or Kurds.

He said the gunmen dragged 26 people from the buses, separated four Sunni Arabs from the group, and shot the rest.

According to the joint operations center in Baqouba, the incident apparently took place in Ain Laila. The town is between Qara Tappah and Baqouba, the capital of Diyala province — which in recent weeks has been transformed into a sectarian powder keg.

http://www.leadingthecharge.com/stories/news-00192127.html

Jesus, things are falling apart over there.

[saltpoint]

1. Don Rumsfeld's plan for Middle East operations isn't looking all that

persuasive these days, is it.

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

2. Violence flares in Iraq, no deal yet on security jobs

By Fredrik Dahl and Michael Georgy

BAGHDAD, Iraq (Reuters) - Violence raged across Iraq on Sunday amid signs its leaders remained deadlocked on naming new interior and defense ministers critical to restoring stability in the strife-torn country.

In one of the worst incidents, gunmen dragged 24 civilians out of their cars at a makeshift checkpoint in a town north of Baghdad and shot them "execution style," police said.

The victims included students, children and elderly men, said a senior police official in Diyala province, scene of frequent attacks by insurgents waging a campaign of bombings and shootings to topple the U.S.-backed, Shi'ite-led government.

In Iraq's south, a Sunni religious group accused security forces in the Shi'ite-run city of Basra of killing 12 unarmed worshippers in a mosque early on Sunday, but police said they had returned fire and shot dead nine "terrorists."

http://ca.today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2006-06-04T105557Z_01_L02782849_RTRIDST_0_NEWS-IRAQ-COL.XML

[Judi Lynn]

3. More on this incident: Gunmen Kill 21 Commuters Near Baghdad

Gunmen Kill 21 Commuters Near Baghdad
Gunmen Kill 21, Including High School Students, After Dragging Them Off Buses Near Baghdad

By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA

BAGHDAD, Iraq Jun 4, 2006 (AP)— Gunmen dragged passengers off a buses northeast of Baghdad and killed 21 people, including a dozen high school students. The attackers spared four Sunni Arabs in one the worst sectarian atrocities in recent weeks.

Serwan Shokir, the mayor of Qara Tappah, said one other person was wounded in the early morning attack. He said there were 26 people on three mini headed from his town to Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad. The 12 slain students were apparently headed for Baqouba to take exams.

Of the dead, 19 were Shiite Turkomen and two were Kurds.

The four Sunni who survived were being question at Qara Tappah police station, Shokir said.

The attack occurred on the outskirts of Diyala province, a mixed region that in recent weeks has been transformed into a sectarian powder keg, with attacks against Sunni Arab and Shiite Shrines.
(snip/...)

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=2037836&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

8. God, it gets worse every day.

[brokensymmetry]

4. I really must object.

You're not saying anything about the good news
in Iraq. I have no doubt that somewhere, a
school was painted. What about that, huh?

:sarcasm: Way more sarcasm than typed words can convey.

I just finished reading a couple blogs by soldiers over
there. We have got to get out of there.

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

5. Reuters: Students "executed" as Iraq violence rages on

By Fredrik Dahl and Michael Georgy

BAGHDAD, Iraq (Reuters) - Gunmen in Iraq dragged 24 people, mostly students, from vehicles and shot them dead, police said, as violence raged across the country on Sunday.

Iraqi leaders appeared deadlocked on naming new interior and defense ministers seen as critical to restoring stability in a country bloodied by relentless insurgent and sectarian killings.

Police said gunmen manning a makeshift checkpoint near Udhaim stopped vehicles approaching the small town 120 km (80 miles) north of Baghdad and killed passengers.

"(They) dragged them one by one from their cars and executed them," said a police official.

The victims included students on their way to write end of term exams, children and elderly men, said another senior police official in Diyala province, scene of frequent attacks by insurgents waging a campaign of bombings and shootings to topple the U.S.-backed, Shi'ite-led government.

more: http://ca.today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2006-06-04T130401Z_01_L02782849_RTRIDST_0_NEWS-IRAQ-COL.XML

[whistle]

6. Sounds like John Negroponte's Salvadorian terror plan...

...is coming full circle

<snip>
The Salvador option
Pentagon plans death squad terror in Iraq
By Bill Van Auken
13 January 2005


According to the Newsweek article, the plans being considered call for the use of US Special Forces, both directly and as “advisers” to such elements as the Kurdish Peshmerga and Shiite militiamen in forming the death squads.

To the extent that Washington is successful in recruiting such indigenous forces to carry out its dirty work, the effect will be to unleash a full-scale civil war between Iraq’s divergent ethno-religious populations.

In all likelihood, however, the bulk of the killing will be left to US troops. The Newsweek report states that under contemplation are Green Beret-led cross-border raids into Syria aimed at assassinating or “snatching” Iraqi exiles opposed to the US occupation. The magazine states that those abducted would be “sent to secret facilities for interrogation,” meaning that the methods of torture exposed at Abu Ghraib and elsewhere will spread.

The thinking underlying the proposal for a “Salvador option” is that the effective utilization of assassination and terror by the Iraqi resistance against those collaborating with the US occupation can only be countered by even greater terror by Washington and its stooges against those who oppose it.

<more> http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/jan2005/salv-j13.shtml

[dailykoff]

9. Exactly.

Enter the right-wing death squads. This is disgusting.

[Ripley]

7. Are they tattooed?

How do they know the exact ethnicity of all of those people?