McCain Strolls Through Baghdad Market, Accompanied by
100 Soldiers, 3 Blackhawks, 2 Apache Gunships
ThinkProgress.org
Sunday 01 April 2007
Sen. John McCain strolled briefly through an open-air market in Baghdad today
in an effort to prove that Americans are "not getting the full picture"
of what's going on in Iraq.
NBC's Nightly News provided further details about McCain's one-hour guided
tour. He was accompanied by "100 American soldiers, with three Blackhawk
helicopters, and two Apache gunships overhead." Still photographs provided
by the military to NBC News seemed to show McCain wearing a bulletproof vest
during his visit.
McCain recently claimed that there "are neighborhoods in Baghdad where
you and I could walk through those neighborhoods, today." In a press conference
after his Baghdad tour, McCain told a reporter that his visit to the market
today was proof that you could indeed "walk freely" in some areas
of Baghdad.
Bombings Kill 6 US Soldiers in Iraq
By Kim Gamel
The Associated Press
Sunday 01 April 2007
After a heavily guarded trip to a Baghdad market, Sen. John McCain insisted
Sunday that a U.S.-Iraqi security crackdown in the capital was working and said
Americans lacked a "full picture" of the progress. The U.S. military
later reported six soldiers were killed in roadside bombings southwest of Baghdad.
Four soldiers were killed responding to the blast that killed the first two,
the military said. Britain, meanwhile, announced that one of its soldiers had
been shot to death in southern Iraq - its 104th combat casualty since the war
started four years ago.
McCain, a Republican presidential hopeful who was a prisoner of war in Vietnam,
acknowledged a difficult task lies ahead in Iraq, but criticized the media for
not giving Americans enough information about the recent drop in execution-style
sectarian killings, the establishment of security posts throughout the city
and Sunni tribal efforts against al-Qaida in the western Anbar province.
"These and other indicators are reason for cautious, very cautious optimism
about the effects of the new strategy," said McCain, who was leading a
Republican congressional delegation to Iraq that included Sen. Lindsey Graham.
McCain, R-Ariz., was combative during the news conference, refusing to respond
to a question about whether the U.S. had plans to attack Iran. He also replied
testily to a question about remarks he had made in the Unit'd States last week
that it was safe to walk some Baghdad streets.
"Things are better and there are encouraging signs. I've been here ...
many times over the years. Never have I been able to drive from the airport,
never have I been able go out into the city as I was today," he said.
"I'm not saying 'mission accomplished,' 'last throes,' 'dead-enders' or
any of that," he said. "I believe that the signs are encouraging,
but please don't interpret one comment of mine in any way to indicate that this
isn't a long, difficult struggle."
Members of the delegation spoke at a Green Zone news conference after they
rode from Baghdad's airport in armored vehicles under heavy guard to visit the
city's largest market, which was been hit by bombings including a February attack
that killed 137 people. They said the trips were proof that security was improving
in the capital. Prominent visitors normally make the trip from the airport to
the city center by helicopter.
The congressmen, who wore body armor during their hourlong shopping excursion,
said they were impressed with the resilience and warmth of the Iraqi people,
some of whom would not take money for their souvenirs. They were accompanied
by the top U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus.
While the capital has seen a recent dip in violence as extra U.S. and Iraqi
troops have flooded the streets, an Iraqi military spokesman said that militants
fleeing the crackdown have made areas outside the capital "breeding grounds
for violence," spreading deadly bombings and sectarian attacks to areas
once relatively untouched.
The names of the slain U.S. soldiers were not given and the military did not
give an exact location of the attacks, saying only that they occurred southwest
of the capital. The military indicated that the first attack was Saturday before
midnight and the second took place early Sunday.
A Marine serving in Anbar province also died in a "non-combat related
incident," the military separately, raising to at least 3,253 U.S. service
members who have died in Iraq since the war began in March 2003.
Brig. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi, the Iraqi military spokesman, promised that
recent attacks would not derail the neighborhood sweeps that began in Baghdad
on Feb. 14.
More than 600 Iraqis have been killed in sectarian violence since March 25,
most in a series of high-profile suicide bombings. Among them were at least
152 people killed in a suicide truck bombing in Tal Afar - the deadliest single
strike since the war began four years ago. Shiites, including police, went on
a revenge shooting rampage afterward, killing at least 45 Sunni men.
In the latest Iraqi violence, a bomb hit a popular market in Tuz Khormato,
130 miles north of Baghdad on Sunday, killing three people and wounding four.
It was the second attack in the city in as many days. Two Iraqis seeking work
were killed in a car bombing on Saturday.
A suicide car bomber followed in quick succession by a suicide truck bomber
struck an Iraqi army headquarters in the northern city of Mosul, killing at
least two people and wounding 22, including 15 soldiers, police spokesman Brig.
Gen. Abdul-Karim al-Jibouri said.
Two top Sunni officials - lawmaker Omar Abdul-Sattar and Omar al-Jubouri, an
aide to Sunni Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi - escaped an assassination attempt
when a roadside bomb struck their convoy as it passed through one of Baghdad's
most restive neighborhoods - the latest in a series of attacks by suspected
Sunni insurgents against fellow Sunnis who have joined the political process.
A British soldier from the Duke of Lancaster's regiment died after being wounded
by small-arms fire while on patrol in Iraq's second-largest city, Basra, becoming
the 104th British to be killed in combat since the March 2003 invastion, the
Ministry of Defense said.
Prime Minister Tony Blair has announced that Britain will withdraw about 1,600
troops from Iraq over the next few months and hopes to make other cuts to its
7,100-strong contingent by late summer.
Police said Iraqi security f'rces backed by Sunni tribesmen clashed with al-Qaida
fighters near the Syrian border, killing at least 21 members of the terrorist
organization, police said.
Militants at an illegal checkpoint abducted 11 Shiite construction workers
near Khalis, north of Baghdad in volatile Diyala province. Three women in the
group were later freed. Shiite militias, Sunni insurgents and U.S. and Iraqi
forces have been battling for weeks in the province.
Separately, U.S. military spokesman Rear Adm. Mark Fox said two suicide vests
were found unexploded Saturday in the Green Zone, less than a week after a rocket
attack killed two Americans in the vast central Baghdad district where the U.S.
and British embassies and key offices of the Iraqi government are located.
With U.S. voters increasingly impatient with the conduct of the war and the
American death toll rising, Democrats in the House and Senate have pushed through
funding bills with timetables for withdrawing U.S. forces. The measures need
to be reconciled before they are sent to President Bush, who has promised a
veto.
Graham, R.-S.C., said setting a deadline would be a "huge mistake"
and Bush would be right to use his veto because the security plan - to which
Bush has pledged 30,000 extra American troops - was working.
The delegation included Rep. Mike Pence R-Ind., and Rep. Rick Renzi R-Ariz.
Also Sunday, 20 bullet-riddled bodies were found, most in Baghdad, apparent
victims of so-called sectarian death squads that are believed to be run by Shiite
militias. The number was low compared to the average of 50 bodies per day that
were turning up before the security crackdown.
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