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06/24/2004:

"Violence Sweeps Iraq"

In the American press it is harder to recognize the fact that the whole country is going up, since they report all of these 'incidents' seperately.

69 dead as violence sweeps Iraq the guardian
Thursday June 24, 2004

Insurgents today launched a wave of apparently coordinated car bomb and grenade attacks in several Iraqi cities, killing at least 69 people and injuring 270 more.
It was one of the worst days of violence since the US president, George Bush, declared the end of major combat in May 2003. Attacks targeting Iraqi police and US troops began at dawn in the Sunni-dominated cities of Baquba and Ramad and in the northern city of Mosul, where at least four bombs killed dozens of people.

There was also fierce fighting between US troops and militants in Falluja. Later, a car bomb exploded at a checkpoint in Baghdad, killing four Iraqi national guardsmen.

The US military said most of the fighting had calmed by noon (0900 BST), although fighting continued in Baquba. Three US troops were killed in the violence, the army said.


Security a shambles ahead of handover
With one week to go, 30,000 police officers face the sack amid serious shortages of staff and equipment
Rory McCarthy and Jonathan Steele in Baghdad the guardian
Thursday June 24, 2004

Up to 30,000 Iraqi police officers are to be sacked for being incompetent and unreliable and given a $60m payoff before the US hands over to an Iraqi government, senior British military sources said yesterday.

Many officers either deserted to the insurgents or simply stayed at home during the recent uprisings in Falluja and across the south.

Fourteen months after the war and just a week before the Iraqis take power on June 30, the sources revealed serious shortfalls of properly trained police and soldiers and vital equipment