Iraq News (13 Apr)

The Good: The Najaf curfew has been lifted and I saw no reporting of violence from the city following Sadr's brother-in-law being assassinated. Due to the government's incompetence in allowing Iraqis who helped us out to seek asylum in the United States, vets are stepping up to get the job done. Bill Roggio has all the nitty gritty of ongoing operations in Sadr City and Basra...and he doesn't even embed with the enemy like every other "mainstream" media outlet.


The Bad: The past week has been the deadliest all year for US forces, which is the result of the Sadr City operations mentioned above. Friendly fire incidents like when an Air Weapons Team set a Stryker on fire with an errant Hellfire missile doesn't help matters. The nutty Sadr flips out on SECDEF Gates about his comments that Sadr should take part in the political process in Iraq as opposed to violence.


The Ugly: A mosque has been blown up with serious casualties. This wasn't in Iraq, but in Iran. Sounds like the work of the Mujaheedin e-Khalq, a bizarre terrorist group that was once cozy with Saddam. Even though I'm no fan of Iran, I certainly don't think their mosques should get destroyed. I wonder how long it takes Ahmadinejad to blame the U.S. in some twisted sort of logic.

Whodunnit?