The insurgency strikes back

While it is not yet the burning of the cities -- we await that fulfillment up next, the bombing that killed 60 and wounded 110 others at Mustansiriya University in a Shiite neighborhood of northeastern Baghdad as reported by CNN does indicate the mood of the insurgency following the hanging of two of Saddam Hussein's top aides. One of those hanged, Saddam's half-brother Barzan Hassan, was decapitated by the fall through the trap door, apparently because he had been given too much rope and fell too far for a man of his weight.

In other violence, gunmen riding motorcycles in the Mehdi Army-controlled Bunouk area of eastern Baghdad opened fire on a marketplace and killed 10 civilians. Seven others were wounded. In Sadr City, a car bomb killed four and wounded 10. In central Baghdad, a bomb exploded near a police convoy, while a second bomb exploded when police responded. The two bombs killed 15 people and wounded 70. In Baghdad's Karrada section, a bomb killed two police officers and two civilians, and wounded 10.

Meanwhile, 92 people have been "detained" by authorities in raids on insurgent hideouts in southern Baghdad.