This diary is in response to CNN's National Disgrace.
I cannot tell you how distressed it makes me to hear complaints about deaths going unreported that exclude the majority of those killed in this war, innocent Iraqis. below the fold leads you to links about deaths that have been occurring over the last few hours, the last couple days.
Today, according to VOI (Voices of Iraq, as mainstream iraq news as you are going to find in Iraq)....
Baghdad, Apr 29, (VOI) - The death toll from the U.S. shelling on Sadr City in the past 6 hours reached 24 dead and 60 wounded, a medical source said on Tuesday.
"The U.S. shelling in sectors 10 and 11 in Sadr City from 11:00 am until 6:00 pm on Tuesday left 24 dead and 60 wounded, most of them women and children," the source, who asked for anonymity, told Aswat al-Iraq – Voices of Iraq – (VOI).
Sadr City, a stronghold of Sadr's Mahdi Army militias, has been witnessing armed clashes since Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki announced last month the commencement of a security operation codenamed Saulat al-Forsan (Knights' Assault) in the port city of Basra, Iraq's second largest province and an oil-hub, 590 km south of Baghdad, which he said targeted "outlaws."
Hundreds of Sadr supporters were killed or wounded in intense fighting, which still continues.
I would just like to point out it isn't only american deaths CNN is not mentioning!
according to the MAINSTREAM Iraqi Blog Healing Iraq, today..(WARNING LINK INCLUDES GRUESOME VIDEO)
A massacre that you will not see on CNN, perpetrated by the US-backed "Iraqi security forces" or, more accurately, Badr/SIIC/ Da'wa gangs in uniform and out of uniform (many of the armed gangs in the video are dressed in civilian clothes). The scene is reminiscent of images from the south during the 1991 uprising against Saddam's regime, proving that not much has really changed except the roles have been switched again, with American blessings. This took place in Suq al-Shiyukh, south east of Nasiriya, where residents said Iraqi special forces detained 58 suspected Sadrists, executed them and set them on fire after raiding the Sadrists' headquarters in town. The soldiers are heard spitting out obscenities at the wounded detainees and even at dead bodies. Others are seen dragging another injured detainee, kicking him violently and cursing him before throwing him on a pile of dead bodies. We hear shooting in the background as other detainees are dragged to join the pile. Those are the "security forces" that our American friends want us to trust and to condemn attacks targeting them. The talk of the town is that the Iraqi division commander's brother, a SIIC member, was killed a few days ago by suspected Mahdi Army militiamen, and that this was his revenge. The force surrounded the town and raided the local Sadr Bureau. Another episode in Iraq's bloody civil war and settling of accounts between warring militias.
according to the Arab press via badger @ missinglinks
A member of the Iraqi Accord Front (biggest Sunni bloc in parliament) Ahmed Radhi, who was in Sadr City on Sunday as part of the multi-party sit-in, repeated yesterday the call to implement the group's demands for an end to the crisis, and he said: "The majority of those who are being killed are civilians, and not armed persons."
And another Sunni deputy, Mustafa al-Heeti, from the Iraqi Dialogue Front, said at a press conference with other members of that group: "I urge an end to the military operations, an adoption of the language of dialogue, and an prompt meeting of the council (government executive committee, the so-called three plus one) in order to end the military operations."
Both statements are reported by Aswat al Iraq.
Rather than any easing, there was a dramatic escalation in military operations in Sadr City, where US forces intervened in one case with Abrams tanks, killing 22, and in another case with airstrikes killing 16. (See this summary in AlHayat, among many other accounts). *
this is PRIOR to the updated VOI report. while you are there i urge you to read some other posts to get an understanding of what the mainstream Arab press is saying in places like Saudi Arabia, London , Beirut, Damascas.
The Middle East also has a MSM.
Scenes From An Iraki Childhood April 28th 2008
There is a reason the green zone is getting assaulted. While looking for 'criminal elements', there have been nightly air raids over the last few weeks into walled Gaza like compounds (built by our contractors) in Sadr City, which holds upwards of 2.5 million people, mostly innocent people.
sorry, sorry for my extremely frustrated post. i have just completely had it that MAINSTREAM MEDIA IS IGNORING ALL THESE DEATHS. and there are more people dying, thousands more, than American Soldiers. For every American soldier who dies, many more innocent Iraqis die, often from tactics that entail 'collateral damage'.
THEIR LIVES MATTER, to me anyway.
The good news is CNN doesn't have to close it's doors because of threats from the government, yet...
Journalists' Syndicate in Basra suspends activities to protest assault on president
Basra, Apr 29, (VOI)- The administrative body of the Journalists' Syndicate in Basra decided on Tuesday to close its doors and suspend its activities as of Wednesday until further notice, protesting Iraqi security’s aggression against its president and one of its members, an official source said.
update
cnn:925 deaths in sadr city.....
CNN video. maliki says militias using citizens as 'human shields'. however i would like to ask where these people are supposed to go, they live in these neighborhoods we have invaded and air bombing is not the way to avoid civilian casualties.