7 Dead in Latifiyah
Iraqi National Guards headed south to Latifiyah to combat militants there in the wake of the attempted assassination near there of Ahmad Chalabi. They killed 7 and suffered nine wounded themselves, they say. Chalabi’s militia went down to try to recover the bodies of his body guards, four of whom are missing, but came under attack and could not get to the burned-out vehicle where they thought two of the bodies might be.
It is astonishing that Chalabi’s militia is still operating in Iraq. It was flown to Iraq by the Pentagon soon after Saddam fell, but has been ordered to disband. Chalabi himself has been indicted for counterfeiting and fraud. But he attended the national assembly meeting on Wednesday and is ordering his militia around the country, which in turn is engaging in firefights.
In other news, guerrillas bombed a northern pipeline again, cutting off oil exports in the north. Some twenty were killed in US warplane attacks on Fallujah. Ibrahim Jaafari, a Shiite politician in Iraq, objected to US air strikes at Fallujah.