Don't they have anything better to do...

than to make door-to-door arrests in Sadr City, while this is going on?

The US Army arrested 16 so-called terrorist suspected of arms trafficking with Iran in Sadr City. Of course,they did nothing to break up the gunfight between Shia and Sunni in the Saida quarter of the capital. Not to mention the "Emir of Mossul" and his hit list. He rubbed out a 45 year old Voice of Iraq reporter Sahar Hussein al-Haydari.

What about some news on Kurdistan-Turkey? (Via L'Orient-Le Jour).
Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that no military action against Kurdistan would be envisoned without a vote by Parliament. However, Kurdistan President Massoud Barzani has rejected Ankara's conditions concerning PKK separatists. On Wednesday, (confirmed) 600 Turkish commandos, supported by regular Army units and originating from the Turkish town of Cukurca, penetrated 3 kilometers into Kurdistan as another 200 regular troops occupied a hilltop in the Iraqi Kurd region of Sizeri. Moreover, the Turks have announced temporary security zones in the frontier provinces of Sirnak, Siirt and Hakkari through 9 September. Denials notwithstanding.

Pistol-Packin' Professors
All professors at Karbala University are getting sidearms, bodyguards, and round-the-clock sentries around their home.

Suicide Bombings?
In Rabiaa near the Syrian border, a suicide bomber killed 9 and wounded 22, including 5 British expats.

In Sadr City, 3 were killed in a carbombing.

In Abu Ghraib, two suicide bombers drove their payload into an Iraqi Army checkpoint (Iraq "Army" meaning Peshmerga or the occasional Shi'a).

Don't listen to the rhetoric, they will deal
Ignore Tony Blair's swaggering, "We don't deal with the terrorists". Remember those British nationals kidnapped from one of the downtown Baghdad ministries in huge, spectacular operation? Well, someone must have gone to Oxbridge (Postman Patel, are you there?) or has connections to the elite. The British Ambassador to Baghdad, Dominic Asquith, is ready for whatever it takes to release them (provided they were not unlucky enough to have been in Rabiaa).

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