Saturday, August 09, 2008
Just another day in Iraq
As various elements continue their struggle for power and control.
The death toll from a blast in a market in the northern Iraqi town of Tal Afar rose to 25 on Saturday, after four of the six dozen people injured died from their wounds, a security official said.And the coalition of the paid was diminshed slightly as Georgia began the withdrawal of their 2000 troops more urgently needed at home.
The official, who was familiar with the police investigation, said the blast was carried out by a lone Sunni Turkoman suicide bomber from Tal Afar, whose identity was established after forensic tests on his remains. The bomber had been released from detention four months ago under an amnesty passed by parliament earlier this year, he added...
In scattered violence Saturday, a bodyguard who works for Youth and Sports minister Jassim Mohammed Ja'afar was gunned down outside his home near the city of Kirkuk, according to a police source who did not want to be named because he is not authorized to disclose the information.
Also in northern Iraq, unidentified gunmen shot dead a 50-year-old woman outside her home in the al-Maamoun district in Mosul, 225 miles northwest of Baghdad.
Meanwhile, Georgia -- the third largest contributor to the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq -- said it's pulling out its 2,000-strong contingent from Iraq to join the fighting in the breakaway province of South Ossetia.
Col. Bondo Maisuradze, commander of the Georgia brigade, told The Associated Press that all his troops would be leaving, but he couldn't say when because transportation arrangements had not been finalized. ''All the Georgian guys will be leaving for the homeland,'' he said.
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