Word: baghdad
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Despite a recent spate of bombings in Baghdad, Iraqi and U.S. officials continue to stress that the city is safer now than it has been in years. But what does safe mean in a country torn by more than half a decade of violence? A look at available data on killings in Baghdad and other world metropolises reveals some surprises...
...According to Iraq Body Count's figures, about 9,000 Iraqi civilians died violently in 2008, a precipitous drop from 2007 when 24,457 died. Baghdad remained by far the most violent place in Iraq, accounting for 32% of all violent deaths. But the capital was becoming relatively safer when compared to other parts of the country. In 2006 and 2007, for instance, Baghdad had been the scene of just over half of all deaths in Iraq. (See pictures of U.S. troops in Iraq...
Three previous trials have established this much: on March 12, 2006, a small group of junior soldiers slipped away unnoticed from a lightly defended traffic checkpoint just outside the insurgent-infested town of Yusufiyah, 20 miles south of Baghdad. Nursing a hatred of Iraqis stemming from heavy losses their unit had suffered, and fueled by several bottles of Iraqi whisky, they embarked upon a premeditated crime of gruesome barbarity. Donning black long-underwear outfits as disguises, even though it was the middle of the day, they traveled a few hundred meters to an isolated farmhouse where they gang-raped Abeer...
...near term, the Mahdi Army does not look poised to reassert itself in Baghdad or elsewhere in Iraq, despite what looks to be a rise in sectarian attacks directed against Shi'ites. But the political and security dynamics dampening a Mahdi Army comeback today could change drastically in the coming months as U.S. forces fade from the streets of major cities across Iraq as part of a U.S.-Iraqi agreement calling for American troops to be off the streets of urban areas by June. U.S. military officials have warned that sectarian violence is likely to rise as the drawdown goes...
...addition to increased security in Baghdad, the political environment has changed in ways that may make a resurgent Mahdi Army less welcome than before to average Iraqis. During the worst of the sectarian violence, much of the Sunni community held a completely rejectionist stance toward the Iraqi government and U.S. forces. In the minds of many Iraqis and militiamen and their passive supporters, that left virtually all Sunni communities complicit in insurgent violence and therefore fair game for bloody reprisal attacks like the bombings Thursday and Friday. But today, many key Sunni factions work with the government and U.S. forces...