NEW YORK TIMES REPORTS: SUICIDE BOMBERS KILL 30 IN 2 ATTACK IN IRAQ

BRIT HUME, FOX NEWS Washington Bureau chief and host of "Special Report," earlier this week ran a story about how calm the city of Mosul, Iraq had become.

Today, two suicide bombings took place in MOSUL killing at least 30 people and wounding nearly 80.

The Bush administration and again FOX NEWS also reported on how ANBAR Province in Iraq was going to be handed over to the Iraqi Security forces, but on Thursday another suicide bombing took place in ANBAR where initial reports indicate 12 people were killed and another 27 wounded.

It should be clear to anyone looking for the truth about the IRAQ WAR, the last place you would want to go for information is FOX NEWS.

COMMENTARY BY BILL CORCORAN, EDITOR OF CORKSPHERE

Suicide Bombers Kill at Least 30 in 2 Iraq Attacks

By ALISSA J. RUBIN
THE NEW YORK TIMES
http://tinyurl.com/4zdzhm

BAGHDAD — Two suicide bomb blasts struck at pro-American Iraqi targets just west of Baghdad and in the northern city of Mosul on Thursday, killing at least 30 people and wounding nearly 80.

The bombings extended a pattern of multiple-casualty attacks in recent days that are clearly intended to kill local Iraqi leaders, in particular the Awakening Councils of Sunni tribal chieftains who have collaborated with American forces against Sunni insurgents.

The more significant of the two attacks on Thursday took place in the town of Garma in Anbar Province, where the Awakening Councils have achieved notable progress over the past few years in battling Sunni insurgents.

The American pacification of Anbar — once considered Iraq’s most dangerous province at the height of the Iraq war a few years ago — has been so successful that American forces there are preparing to hand control of the province back to the Iraqi government.l

The Garma attack was clearly aimed at participants at a weekly meeting of the leaders of the local Awakening Council, the Iraq police said. Initial reports from the police were that the bomb killed 12 people and wounded 27.

The other bombing, in Mosul, targeted the provincial governor and killed 18 and wounded 61, according to local security forces. The governor was unhurt.

Fifty people were at the Garma meeting which was attended by tribal sheiks, local dignitaries and members of the Awakening council in the area, who had been working with the Americans in fighting Al Qaeda in Iraq, the homegrown extremist Sunni group which has support from outside the country, according to American intelligence.

The group was meeting in a tent when the bomb exploded at about 10 a.m. There were conflicting reports from people who were there about whether it was detonated by a man wearing a suicide belt or was an improvised explosive device.

“As usual we entered the tent at 9 a.m.,” said Hilal Abdullah Ali, a senior sheik from the Albu Alwan tribe. “At around 10:30 there was a big explosion. I heard the person sitting next to me say ‘he exploded himself on us.’ ”

The Garma bomb came on the eve of a ceremonial American handover of security responsibility for Anbar to the Iraqis. The anticipated handover had been announced a few days earlier.

The bombing in Mosul, which killed 18 people and wounded 61, occurred in a busy central area of the city, and was the second large bombing in the city in the past two days. One on Tuesday evening killed two people and wounded 73.

The clear target of the Mosul attacker was the provincial governor, Duraid Kashmola, who toured the site of the blast later.

Over the past week there has been a stream of attacks against local leaders both in small neighborhoods such as Abu Dshir on the southern edge of Baghdad and Madaen, which lies just southeast of the city, as well as an attack Tuesday on the Sadr City neighborhood council, which killed six Iraqis and four Americans and their Iraqi—Italian translator.