USAF Bombs Baghdad Neighborhood

[Leigh Meyers <the.buffalo.in.the.midst@xxxxxxxxx>]

Big ordinance, not 'targeted missle strikes'.

Blackout... Absolutely nothing on GoogleNews::
http://news.google.com/news?rls=com.microsoft%3A*&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&startIndex=%7BstartIndex%3F%7D&startPage=1&um=1&tab=wn&q=bombing+Baghdad&btnG=Search

...except one story, AFP courtesy South African media, courtesy of Juan
Cole, who calls it a "War Crime" by the US military, something one
doesn't hear 'liberals' say about US military operations very often:

[...]
Late Saturday, the US Air Force launched a series of bombing raids on
southeast Baghdad. This is absolutely shameful, that the US is bombing
from the air a civilian city that it militarily occupies. You can't
possibly do that without killing innocent civilians, as at Ramadi the
other day.

It is a war crime. US citizens should protest and write their
congressional representatives. It is also the worst possible
counter-insurgency tactic anyone could ever have imagined. You bomb
people, they hate you. The bombing appears to have knocked out what
little electricity some parts of Baghdad were still getting.
[...]

US bombing 'terror targets'
24/02/2007 22:38  - (SA)
Baghdad - US forces launched air strikes in southeast Baghdad on
Saturday, Iraqi officials said, as a series of massive explosions rocked
the war-torn city.

"American aircraft are bombarding terrorist targets that have been
chosen by US and Iraqi forces, as part of our Baghdad security plan,"
said Brigadier-General Qasim al-Mussawi, spokesperson for the operation.

There was no immediate comment from the US, but AFP reporters in
downtown Baghdad heard the rumble of more than three dozen powerful
blasts in rapid succession at around 22:00pm (19:00 GMT).

Shortly after the first blasts, electricity was cut in part of central
Baghdad, but it was not clear if these events were linked.

A senior Iraqi interior ministry official told AFP that the air strikes
were aimed at insurgent strongholds in Bo'aitha, a sparsely populated
neighbourhood on the west bank of the Tigris, south of the city centre.

While lying within the city limits, Bo'aitha is a district of farms and
smallholdings, whose scattered villages are known to house the hideouts
of Sunni insurgent gangs linked to al-Qaeda.

Iraqi officials said that the bombardment would run hand-in-hand with
sweeps on the ground by US and Iraqi ground forces.

AFP
http://www.news24.com/News24/World/Iraq/0,,2-10-1460_2074616,00.html