VIOLENCE RIPS IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN. MEDIA CONTINUES A NEWS BLACKOUT

It is criminal how the mainstream media in the United States has decided the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are not worth covering anymore.

The media can find time and space for endless repetitive reports on the race for POTUS and the contremps of Britney Spears, Paris Hilton or some other Hollywood celebrity, but day in and day out the media has spiked all stories coming out of Iraq and Afghanistan.

The media are much like most of the citizens of the United States who don't have a vested interest in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan because very few members of the media have a loved one serving in the military.

The United States has 160,000 troops in Iraq and 30,000 troops in Afghanistan with an additional 3,000 deploying to Afghanistan next month, but even those numbers don't jar the conscience of the media who totally ignore what you will read below that happened in Baghdad today plus other provinces and in Afghanistan.

Shame on the mainstream media in the United States. They have let our troops down in both war zones.

Bill Corcoran, host and owner of this blog.

War News for Wednesday, January 16, 2008

http://warnewstoday.blogspot.com/

Baghdad:#1: About 10 a.m., two mortar rounds slammed into Palestine Street in east Baghdad. Three pedestrians were wounded, police said. The target was unclear, but the neighborhood is dominated by Shiites.

#2: a roadside bomb exploded at 8 a.m. in the commercial Bab al-Muadham district of Baghdad, killing two civilians and wounding four. The blast appeared to target a passing police car but instead hit a civilian car, a police officer said.'A bomb planted near a bus station went off in the early hours on Wednesday in Bab al-Muazim in central Baghdad, killing three people and injuring seven,' a security official told the news agency.

#3: another roadside bomb went off southeast of Baghdad at an intersection where U.S. and Iraqi troops often pass, police said. The attack killed one civilian and wounded four others.In southern Baghdad, two bombs went off at the same time in Zafaranyah, leaving one person dead and four injured, the official said.

#4: several mortar rounds struck the building of a deserted super market, which houses a base of U.S. and Iraqi troops, in Baghdad's northeastern neighborhood of Shaab, he said. The source could not tell whether the troops sustained any casualty, as the Iraqi police forces are prevented from approaching the area.

#5: Around 7,30, gunmen driving a car threw a grenade nearby Sardar car lot near the high way in Nahdha neighborhood east Baghdad. No casualties were reported.

#6: Two civilians were killed and ten others were injured in an IED explosion in Waziriyah neighborhood east Baghdad around 8,00 amDiyala Prv:

ELSEWHERE IN IRAQ VIOLENCE CONTINUED

#1: a civilian was killed and two were injured when US troops randomly shot at Iraqis in the centre of Diyala province, sources told dpa. Khan Bani Saad:#1: A woman wearing a vest lined with explosives blew herself up near a popular market and Shiite mosque in turbulent Diyala province Wednesday, killing eight civilians - the latest in a growing number of female suicide attacks. Seven people were wounded in the bombing in Khan Bani Saad, a town nine miles south of Baqouba, Diyala's provincial capital, police said.Nahrawan:#1: Two roadside bombs killed two people and wounded five near the town of Nahrawan, 30 km (20 miles) southeast of Baghdad, police said.Basra:#1: the same source said that a force from the Criminal Identification Bureau defused a bomb planted behind al-Tahrir hospital in al-Maaqel region in northern Basra.Baiji:#1: A power cut forced the closure of Iraq's largest oil refinery for up to two days on Wednesday, officials at the plant said, a day after a fire led to the shutdown of another major refinery in southern Iraq. "The refinery in Baiji stopped work at 9 a.m. (0600 GMT) when the main Baiji electricity plant stopped supplying the refinery with power," said an engineer.Power was restored four hours later, but an official in Baiji refinery's media office said it would take up to two days for the plant to come back online.Dour:#1: A car bomb seriously wounded the head of the Iraqi-U.S. Joint Coordination Centre in Dour, a town near Tikrit 170 km (105 miles) north of Baghdad, the centre said. Two of his guards were also wounded.Sulaiman Pek:#1: The mayor of the small town of Sulaiman Pek, 160 km (100 miles) north of Baghdad, was seriously wounded in an attack by a suicide bomber driving a small truck, police said. Three of his bodyguards were also wounded.Tuz Khurmato:#1: Gunmen kidnapped a policeman and killed a university student in an overnight attack on a house in a village near Tuz Khurmato, 180 km (110 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.Kirkuk:#1: A policeman was injured in an IED explosion that targeted a police patrol on Baghdad Kirkuk Street south of Kirkuk city today morning.Mosul:#1: police said a suicide bomber blew up his car in an attack against a U.S. convoy in the al-Maliya district east of the city of Mosul. The U.S. military said it was investigating the report.Five civilians were wounded in a suicide attack that targeted a U.S. patrol in eastern Mosul, the head of Ninewa police operations room said on Wednesday.#2: Clashes between gunmen and the Iraqi army wounded five civilians in Mosul, police said.Afghanistan:#1: Hundreds of militants have overrun a paramilitary fort in north-west Pakistan, killing or kidnapping many troops, the military says. At least eight soldiers died in the raid and 15 escaped, the army says. The whereabouts of another 25 are unknown. Some reports put the death toll higher. "About 200 militants charged the fort from four sides," army spokesman Maj Gen Athar Abbas said. "They broke through the fort's wall with rockets." Officials said troops at the fort came under rocket and automatic weapons attack from militants on Tuesday night.Soldiers returned fire and the battle went on until early on Wednesday morning. People in the Sararogha area told the BBC Urdu service the exchange of fire went on for four hours.

#2: An American contractor killed in an attack on a hotel in Afghanistan knew the assignment was risky but took it anyway, a family friend said Tuesday. Thor Hesla, 45, of Atlanta, worked for BearingPoint Management & Technology Consultants, which had a contract with the U.S. Agency for International Development to help war-ravaged Afghanistan rebuild, a company spokesman said.