Wednesday, March 23, 2005
The NYT: maybe they should read blogs?
The "New York Times" reports on an encouraging incident in Baghdad (hat tip: Instapundit):
Item 1 - 3 February 2005: "Inhabitants of an Iraqi village killed five insurgents who attacked them for taking part in the country’s historic election... The insurgents launched the raid after earlier warning the inhabitants of Al-Mudhiryah, south of Baghdad, against taking part in Sunday’s vote... Another eight insurgents and three villagers from the same tribe were wounded in the clashes late Wednesday, said the police official. Eight cars belonging to the attackers were set ablaze."
Item 2 - 9 March 2005: "In the violent city of Ramadi, a center of Sunni insurgent activity 60 miles west of Baghdad, the bodies of seven men were found lined up in an unfinished house on the western outskirts of town... Unlike the corpses elsewhere, which were mostly Iraqi police and soldiers, the bodies in Ramadi apparently were foreigners, fighters working for Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who has claimed responsibility for suicide bombings, kidnappings and assassinations. Each of the seven had been shot in the head or torso. The bodies were secretly buried in a local cemetery... 'My cousins are the ones who killed them,' said Jabbar Khalaf Marawi, 42, a former army officer and Communist Party member in Ramadi. Marawi said the slayings were carried out by members of his Dulaimi clan in retaliation for the Oct. 2 killing of a clan leader, Lt. Col. Sulaiman Ahmed Dulaimi, the Iraqi National Guard commander for Ramadi and Fallujah, by al-Zarqawi's group."
That's just after a five minute search. Maybe the "New York Times" should start reading "Good news from Iraq" where I have been reporting on these and similar developments for quite some time now.
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"Ordinary Iraqis rarely strike back at the insurgents who terrorize their country. But just before noon today, a carpenter named Dhia saw a troop of masked gunmen with grenades coming towards his shop and decided he had had enough.So far so good, but then the "NYT" makes this point:
"As the gunmen emerged from their cars, Dhia and his young relatives shouldered their own AK-47's and opened fire, police and witnesses said. In the fierce gun battle that followed, three of the insurgents were killed, and the rest fled just after the police arrived. Two of Dhia's young nephews and a bystander were injured, the police said."
"It was the first time that private citizens are known to have retaliated successfully against insurgents. There have been anecdotal reports of residents shooting at attackers after a bombing or assassination. But the gun battle today erupted in full view of half a dozen witnesses, including a Justice Ministry official who lives nearby."Wrong.
Item 1 - 3 February 2005: "Inhabitants of an Iraqi village killed five insurgents who attacked them for taking part in the country’s historic election... The insurgents launched the raid after earlier warning the inhabitants of Al-Mudhiryah, south of Baghdad, against taking part in Sunday’s vote... Another eight insurgents and three villagers from the same tribe were wounded in the clashes late Wednesday, said the police official. Eight cars belonging to the attackers were set ablaze."
Item 2 - 9 March 2005: "In the violent city of Ramadi, a center of Sunni insurgent activity 60 miles west of Baghdad, the bodies of seven men were found lined up in an unfinished house on the western outskirts of town... Unlike the corpses elsewhere, which were mostly Iraqi police and soldiers, the bodies in Ramadi apparently were foreigners, fighters working for Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who has claimed responsibility for suicide bombings, kidnappings and assassinations. Each of the seven had been shot in the head or torso. The bodies were secretly buried in a local cemetery... 'My cousins are the ones who killed them,' said Jabbar Khalaf Marawi, 42, a former army officer and Communist Party member in Ramadi. Marawi said the slayings were carried out by members of his Dulaimi clan in retaliation for the Oct. 2 killing of a clan leader, Lt. Col. Sulaiman Ahmed Dulaimi, the Iraqi National Guard commander for Ramadi and Fallujah, by al-Zarqawi's group."
That's just after a five minute search. Maybe the "New York Times" should start reading "Good news from Iraq" where I have been reporting on these and similar developments for quite some time now.
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