Military leaders foresee Iraq exit in 2016
U.S. war commanders think some level of American forces will be needed in Iraq until 2016 and those forces will receive continued support from the vast majority of Iraqis.
washintontimes.com
Car bomb kills 59 near Shia shrine
A car bomb exploded today among a crowd of labourers near a major Shia shrine in southern Iraq, killing up to 59 people and sparking clashes between protesters and police, officials and witnesses said.
The slaughter continues
*FALLUJA – A U.S. soldier was killed in combat in Anbar province in western Iraq, the military said in a statement.
MAHMUDIYA – Gunmen stormed a crowded market in the town of Mahmudiya, 30 km (20 miles) south of Baghdad, amid mortar or grenade explosions, the U.S. military, police and the mayor said. A local hospital put the death toll at 56, with another 67 wounded. But the Ministry of Defence had a different account, saying two car bombs had exploded, killing 42 people.
TUZ KHURMATU – Police said 25 people were killed and 18 wounded in Sunday night’s explosion in a popular cafe in the town of Tuz Khurmatu, 170 km (106 miles) from Baghdad, in which a suicide bomber blew himself up.
DIWANIYA – Two U.S. soldiers were wounded when a roadside bomb exploded near their convoy in Diwaniya, 180 km (112 miles) south of Baghdad, the U.S. military said.
BAGHDAD – A U.S. soldier died from wounds after coming under fire in western Baghdad, the U.S. military said.
HADITHA – Gunmen killed Laith al-Rawi, local leader of the Iraqi Islamic Party, one of the main Sunni parties, in Haditha, 240 km (150 miles) northwest of Baghdad, on Sunday, the Islamic Party said.
Corruption Cited in Iraq’s Oil Industry
U.S. Comptroller General David M. Walker told Congress last week that “massive corruption” and “a lot of theft going on” in Iraq’s government-controlled oil industry is hampering the country’s ability to govern itself.
“It took me about, you know, a second and a half to realize that, obviously, there was massive corruption going on, because the numbers just didn’t add up,” Walker said, referring to a trip he took to Iraq this year in which he was shown figures on oil production and revenue.
Iraq’s divided parliament stands united over Israel
BAGHDAD, July 16 (Reuters) – Shi’ite, Sunni and Kurdish lawmakers in Iraq’s U.S.-backed parliament often fail to see eye to eye, but on Sunday they stood united in their condemnation of Israel’s military offensive against Lebanon.
Shi’ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has been pleading with fellow Iraqis to put aside deep sectarian and ethnic divisions of the kind that plunged Lebanon into civil war 30 years ago.
His pleas have gone largely unheeded, but Israel’s five-day-old assault on Lebanon that has killed well over 120 people, all but four of them civilians, has evoked strong feelings of solidarity among Iraqis, bridging the sectarian divide, with hostility toward Israel and the United States.