Iraq — Errant mortar shells slammed into houses and a funeral tent Wednesday, leaving three children among the dead during clashes in a Shiite militia stronghold under siege by American and Iraqi forces on the fifth anniversary of the U.S. capture of the capital.
The fighting came as the U.S. military announced the deaths of five more soldiers. That raised the number of American troop deaths to 17 since Sunday.
Many Iraqis said hopes that followed the U.S.-led ouster of Saddam Hussein have been quashed.
"On this day five years ago we were dreaming of a bright future, but now we know that our dream has turned into a long nightmare," said Khalid Ibrahim, a 45-year-old teacher from the mainly Sunni area of Azamiyah.
In many ways, Baghdad resembles more of a war zone than it did on April 9, 2003, when American troops stormed into the capital and pulled down a bronze statue of Saddam with the help of dozens of Iraqis.
The city of some 6 million people has largely been carved up along sectarian lines, a patchwork of neighborhoods surrounded by 10-foot-high concrete walls and dotted with checkpoints.
Comments
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just_another_bozo_on_this_bus (anonymous) says…
Wow, how did this bit of realism slip into the news reporting?
Stain (anonymous) says…
The number of comments here is disappointing. What if the press finally wakes up and begins to do its job, and nobody cares?
beadew (anonymous) says…
What if the community were to finally wake up and get out on the street and start protesting this obscene war? What if the LJ World were to start reporting on the few Lawrence residents who do protest every Saturday at noon in front of the Douglas County Courthouse? What if the LJW actually sent a reporter to interview people who protest at the recruitment center and actually reported what they had to say? What if the LJW added the expertise they apply to getting those gorgeous color photos at sports events, to photographing, recording and reporting on events like the one the Oread Friends sponsored Saturday in the train park, with over 250 beautiful and moving commemorative banners for people, US and Iraquis, killed in the Iraq war? Instead they printed a photo of the one and only banner commemorating animals killed in the war, apparently with the intent of making the whole event look stupid and misdirected. We need a real NEWSpaper that reports something besides childish games and Chamber of Commerce boosterism. Where are the photos to show what is really happening in these so-called "clashes" in place where actual human beings, not just militants, are under siege by our people and our weapons? Articles like this are far too scarce in our "newspaper of record."