Al-Qaida kills 23 in coordinated attacks, plants flag in Baghdad

An AP report by Bushra Juhi today recounts various attacks by al-Qaida in Iraq against domestic security forces, resulting in 23 deaths.

In the worst attack of the day, 16 Iraqi security forces were killed in Baghdad's Sunni neighborhood of Azamiyah by al-Qaida militants, who then planted their flag close to the blood-soaked site.

Earlier, a suicide bomber killed four Iraqi soldiers and wounded 10 at an army base north of Baghdad. In Fallujah, 40 miles west of the capital, roadside bombs killed two soldiers and wounded 8 others. One policeman was killed in Mosul by a bomb attached to a police vehicle.

The attacks follow the statement earlier this week by the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen that security in Iraq has made "stunning" progress in the last three years.

The United States is planning to pull out all its combat troops by September 1, 2010, leaving a contingency of 50,000 support troops on the ground. All American troops are scheduled to withdraw from Iraq by the end of 2011.

Top US chief says Iraq security a 'stunning' achievement

Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters Tuesday during a flight to Baghdad that the planned drawdown of US troops in Iraq was on track due to the "stunning" progress in security over the past three years.

The United States currently has about 77,500 soldiers in Iraq but all combat troops are due out by September 1, leaving a training and advisory force of 50,000. All remaining troops are scheduled to leave by December 2011, according to an agreement reached in the previous adminstration.

If the withdrawal occurs as scheduled, with no burning of the cities precipitating that withdrawal, then we can know with certainty that the events of the invasion, capture and occupation of Iraq by US-led coalition forces is not the fulfillment of Jeremiah's 2,600 year-old prophecy of doom on Babylon.

The chief's comments come the day after a suicide bomber blew himself up in Baghdad, killing six, and two car bombs targeting Shiite pilgrims killed 25 people in Karbala, according to the Associated Press.

Iraq 'Green Zone' attack kills 3

From Wall Street Journal WORLD online

By BEN LANDO
BAGHDAD—Rockets fired into the heavily fortified International Zone in central Baghdad killed three people and injured 15, including two hurt Americans, all of whom worked for a private security company contracted to the U.S. government, the American Embassy said Thursday.

In a statement, the Embassy expressed its condolences for the two Ugandans and one Peruvian killed in the attack. The nationalities of the other 13 injured aren't known.

The Embassy would not give any additional details, including location of the incident. No diplomats were involved, an official said.

"All the dead and injured worked for a U.S. government security contractor which protects U.S. government facilities in Iraq," the Embassy statement said.

While insurgents frequently target the International Zone, better known as the "Green Zone," fatalities have become relatively uncommon. Mortar and rocket attacks have reduced as violence generally across the country has improved.

The area is a collection of embassies, government ministries and other offices, businesses and homes, encircled by concrete blast walls. Entry is allowed only through fortified checkpoints.

It was formerly the headquarters of U.S. occupation and diplomatic operations here, including the Coalition Provisional Authority, which ran the country in the immediate aftermath of the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

Jeremiah the hebrew prophet writes, "Thus says the LORD of hosts, 'The broad wall of Babylon will be completely razed, and her high gates will be set on fire; so the peoples will toil for nothing, and the nations become exhausted (because of the) fire,'" (Jer 51:58).

Will the blast walls surrounding the Green Zone be completely torn down at the time of the burning of the cities of Iraq? Will the burning cause the U.S. to abandon Iraq, and withdraw all 50,000 support personnel in an admission of failure at reconstruction?

If that happens, the next two judgments on Babylon pronounced 2,600 years ago by Jeremiah will have happened here in our time.

Suicide bomber strikes Shia pilgrims in Baghdad

Aljazeera reported today that a suicide bomber has struck a crowd of Shia pilgrims en route to a shrine, killing at least 30 people and wounding 75 others in Iraq's capital, Baghdad.

Tens of thousands of Shia worshippers streamed into the Iraqi capital earlier in the day amid heavy security for the pilgrimage, a day after six people were killed in violence. 200,000 Iraqi police and soldiers had been assigned to protect the pilgrims as they headed to the shrine.

The hebrew prophet Jeremiah prophesied that the cities of Babylon would be set on fire, and that the nations would become exhausted and abandon the nation because of the fire.

What will light the fires? Bombings, political upheaval, sectarian clashes? We wait and watch.