What the hell is going on over there?

In a truly bizarre story, Detour triggers killings, we read: Excerpt, emp add)

By The Associated Press   Thursday, January 19, 2006

BAGHDAD -- The horror began after American and Iraqi forces cordoned off part of a highway north of Baghdad following the deadly crash of a U.S. helicopter.

With traffic directed onto narrow, dirt roads, insurgents turned the area into a killing field. They set up makeshift checkpoints, grabbed motorists and slaughtered about 40 over a two-day period, police said.

Local tribal leader Mohammed al-Khazraji said he saw "dozens of corpses" strewn over the ground Wednesday -- victims of the insurgents' culling.

Two pilots died in the crash Monday of the U.S. Army AH-64 Apache helicopter near Mishahda, 25 miles north of Baghdad.

"Hundreds of people were detained by the militants, and many were killed all because of a helicopter crash that killed two Americans," al-Khazraji said.

Thirty people were dragged from their vehicles yesterday and were fatally shot -- execution-style -- in farming areas in Nibaei, a town near Dujail, about 50 miles north of Baghdad, said police Lt. Qahtan al-Hashmawi.

"Most of the victims were Iraqi policemen, soldiers or commandos," he said.

Another 11 men were killed in similar fashion Tuesday and were dumped about a mile from Nibaei, said police Capt. Ali al-Hashmawi.

So, anytime you don't use the major highway, you're at extreme risk. The "safe zones" are looking like beads on a string. The beads being the Green Zones and the string is the main highway. Think about it. If that's the situation, then there isn't any government control over virtually the whole country (or at least the Sunni Triangle).

Just amazing that there can be ongoing freelance checkpoints with murder, and no action taken to stop it.


posted by Quiddity at 1/18/2006 09:51:00 PM