Dozens of Bodies Found in Tigris River
By ALEXANDRA ZAVIS, Associated Press Writer
52 minutes ago

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraq's interim president announced Wednesday the recovery of more than 50 bodies from the Tigris River, saying the grisly discovery was proof of claims that dozens were abducted from an area south of the capital despite a fruitless search by Iraqi forces.

Northwest of Baghdad, witnesses said 19 bullet-riddled bodies were found slumped against a bloodstained wall in a soccer stadium in Haditha.

The discoveries came as insurgents unleashed a string of attacks that killed at least nine Iraqis and wounded 21. They included four suicide car bombs - one of which targeted interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's convoy - and a roadside explosion in the capital, police said. Allawi escaped unharmed, they said.

Another blast sent smoke billowing over Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone, home to the Iraqi government and foreign embassies. It was not clear what caused that explosion.

The country's most feared terror group, al-Qaida in Iraq, claimed responsibility for two of the Baghdad attacks in a series of statements posted on a militant Web site. It was not possible to verify the claim.

Interim President Jalal Talabani did not say when or where the 50 bodies were pulled from the river, but he said all had been identified as hostages.

"Terrorists committed crimes there. It is not true to say there were no hostages. There were. They were killed, and they threw the bodies into the Tigris," Talabani told reporters. "We have the full names of those who were killed and those criminals who committed these crimes."

Shiite leaders and government officials claimed last week that Sunni militants had abducted as many as 100 Shiites from the Madain area, 14 miles southeast of Baghdad. But when Iraqi forces moved into the town of 1,000 families, they found no captives, and residents said they had seen no evidence anyone had been seized.

Madain is at the tip of a Sunni militant stronghold known as the "Triangle of Death," where there have been numerous retaliatory kidnappings. Police and health officials said victims are sometimes killed and dumped in the river.

As summer approaches and temperatures start to rise, bodies have been floating to the surface, said Dr. Falah al-Permani of the Swera district health department. He said some 50 bodies have been recovered over the past three weeks. But it was not clear whether they were the bodies referred to by Talabani.

In Haditha, 140 miles northwest of Baghdad, taxi drivers Rauf Salih and Ousama Halim said they heard gunshots and rushed to the stadium. There they found 19 bloodied bodies lined up against a wall, the two men and an Iraqi reporter said. All appeared to have been gunned down.

Residents said they believed the victims - all men in civilian clothes - were soldiers abducted by insurgents as they headed home for a holiday marking the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad.

The reporter did not see any military identification documents on the bodies, and it was not possible to verify the claim. In October, insurgents ambushed and killed about 50 unarmed Iraqi soldiers as they headed home from a U.S. military training camp northeast of Baghdad.

The U.S. military said it could not confirm killings at the stadium. The only report American forces had received from Haditha by late Wednesday was that insurgents ransacked a television and radio station in the area, the military said.

The Iraqi military also had no immediate information.

Insurgent violence has surged in the past week, especially in the capital, where Shiite and Kurdish leaders met Wednesday to try to negotiate a Cabinet that will also include members of the Sunni minority. Talabani, a former Kurdish rebel leader, said officials hope to announce the new government Thursday.

Sunnis make up 15 to 20 percent of Iraq's 26 million people, but dominated under former leader Saddam Hussein. Sunnis are believed to form the backbone of the insurgency that developed after U.S.-led forces ousted Saddam two years ago.

Three suicide car bombs exploded in Baghdad on Wednesday morning. The first detonated near a U.S. convoy in western Baghdad, setting an oil tanker on fire, said police Maj. Moussa Abdulkarim. Two Iraqis were killed and five wounded, hospital official Hussam Abdulrazaq said.

The two other car bombs exploded in southern Baghdad. One missed a police convoy but hit a civilian car, killing two Iraqis and wounding four, said police Capt. Falah al-Muhamadwai. The other exploded in a parking lot near a police station, wounding four civilians, police Lt. Hassan Falah said.

Three more heavy explosions rocked the capital after dark, including a suicide car bomb that detonated near a police checkpoint as Allawi's convoy drove home, police Capt. Talib Thamer said. One policeman was killed and two were wounded, he said. Bursts of gunfire were heard after the explosion.

Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Terrible story. I was hoping that the elections and the formation of a multi-sect government would put a stop to this kind of stuff, but there are some that won't give up until they get exactly what they want.

Abu Musab al Zarqawi promissed that the war in Iraq would continue after the elections.

They found more bodies at a soccer stadium.

Y'know, everyone wants the US to step in and help in Darfur (which I don't oppose, mind you), but we're fucking all over Iraq, and we aren't doing much to prevent the Iraqis from being mowed down by each other.

Maybe the U.N. should go beyond its current diplomatic mission of assisting in the development of a transitional government and assume responsibility and control of a peacekeeping mission since the current plan is not working.

Commercial Helicopter Shot Down in Iraq, 9 Dead

By Luke Baker

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Guerrillas shot down a Bulgarian commercial helicopter in Iraq on Thursday, killing all nine people on board in what was believed to be the first downing of a civilian aircraft in the country.

The Russian-built Mi-8 helicopter was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade as it flew across a deserted area north of Baghdad, Bulgarian officials and the U.S. military said.

The attack came amid a surge in violence across the country which threatens to overshadow attempts by Iraq's new leaders to form a government nearly three months after elections.

"An Mi-8 helicopter owned by the Bulgarian company Heli Air, and with a Bulgarian crew, was shot down," Bulgaria's Defense Ministry said in a statement, citing information from its military, which is part of the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq.

Officials in Sofia said the three crew members who died in the attack were Bulgarian.

The helicopter was flying near the town of Tarmiya, about 40 km (25 miles) north of Baghdad, when it was struck, U.S. military officials said, adding all on board were civilians.

Paul Greenaway, a manager in Baghdad for SkyLink Air and Logistic Support, a U.S.-based company that had contracted the helicopter, said the passengers were of mixed nationalities.

The twin-engined Mi-8, which has both commercial and military uses, has been in operation for more than 30 years and can carry up to 24 passengers.

Television footage received by Reuters showed a mangled and still-burning wreckage. The bulk of the aircraft was destroyed, but rotor blades and what appeared to be two engines were visible. Two charred bodies could be seen near the site.

Insurgents frequently fire on U.S. aircraft in Iraq and have brought down several helicopters before. A U.S. Chinook transporter was shot down west of Baghdad in November 2003, killing at least 16 U.S. troops and wounding more than 20.

Ten British troops died on Jan. 30 when a C-130 Hercules transport plane came down north of Baghdad. The cause remains unclear but officials have said it may have been shot down.

Thursday's attack raised the number of Bulgarians to have died in Iraq to 14 -- eight soldiers and six civilians.

The only civilian aircraft believed to have been struck was a DHL transport plane hit by a rocket as it departed Baghdad airport in November 2003. It managed to turn and land safely.

POLITICAL DISPUTE

Thursday's attack came amid a rebound in guerrilla activity in the past two weeks, with more than 20 car bombings in Baghdad and an increase in ambushes, shootings and assassinations.

The violence threatens to eclipse efforts by elected leaders to form a government, amid growing tensions between Iraq's majority Shi'ite and once-dominant Sunni Muslim communities.

Hopes that a government would be announced on Thursday were dashed late on Wednesday when last-minute disagreements emerged between Shi'ites, who won the Jan. 30 election, and other factions, including interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's.

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and Hussain al-Shahristani, a senior member of the main Shi'ite alliance, said they did not think a deal would be sealed on Thursday, as previously hoped.

"I think the government will not be announced today ... We want to see the Sunni Arabs represented as well ... Negotiations also continue over the allocation of some posts," Talabani told Turkey's CNN Turk television in an interview.

Disputes surfaced when Allawi rejected an offer to join the cabinet, sources involved in the negotiations said.

"The talks were going well, but the Shi'ites offered Allawi just two ministries, not the four that he wants, and he rejected the offer," one source said, referring to ministries offered to Allawi's political grouping.

SECTARIAN TENSION

The constant delays have heightened sectarian tensions, and also seem to have added fuel to the insurgency, which had appeared to taper in the wake of January's successful elections.

Shortly after the talks, Allawi narrowly escaped an assassination attempt. Al Qaeda in Iraq, a militant group led by Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement on the Internet. The group has claimed responsibility for a series of bombings over the last month.

On Thursday, a roadside bomb hit a convoy carrying foreign security contractors on the road to Baghdad's airport, killing two people. Three foreign contractors -- an American, an Australian and a Canadian -- were killed on the same stretch of road on Wednesday, their employer confirmed on Thursday. And two U.S. soldiers were killed in the same vicinity the day before.

The inability to secure the airport road, an essential link for military and civilian supplies, has come to symbolize the difficulty U.S. forces face in tackling the insurgency.

(Additional reporting by Ian Simpson, Lutfi Abu-Oun and Michael Georgy in Baghdad, Gareth Jones in Ankara and Michael Winfrey in Sofia)
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Jeez man, this, the assassination attempt on Allawi yesterday....I hope this stuff isn't going to keep escalating.

"No, it's nice. We painted it!!"