"MORE than 3½ years after President George W Bush launched an invasion of Iraq, which his supporters proclaimed as a “cakewalk”, American troops were yesterday engulfed in a wave of sectarian bloodletting that threatens to destroy the Iraqi government and may jeopardise a crisis summit this week with Nouri al-Maliki, the prime minister.
"US forces were reduced to near-impotent bystanders as the violence ignited by Thursday’s car bomb attacks on Shi’ite targets in Baghdad spawned a spiral of revenge.
"After a series of attacks on Sunni mosques on Friday, insurgents in Diyala province were reported yesterday to have stormed two Shi’ite houses and murdered 21 men in front of their relatives. A suicide car bomber yesterday attacked a joint US-Iraqi checkpoint near Fallujah, killing three civilians and one American soldier.
"US and Iraqi troops also killed 22 insurgents and an Iraqi civilian, and destroyed a factory being used to make roadside bombs, during raids north of Baghdad yesterday.
"The violence closed Baghdad airport and forced the cancellation of a planned trip to Iran by Jalal Talabani, the Iraqi president, who was hoping to enlist the help of the Shi’ite regime in Tehran in quelling the sectarian strife.
Found on Angry Arab Newservice
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