![]() ![]() The escalation did “happen” – it accompanied the run-up to the elections, continued while they were in process, and still lingers. The “something” seems to be the increase in violence in Iraq. Ray Odierno said two weeks prior to the elections, “if something happens” the US has a “plan B” which involves seriously slowing or even entirely stopping the pullout. As commander of the US forces in Iraq Gen. What is the connection between the blasts and the timetable of the phased US withdrawal from Iraq? The plan is to downsize the current US force in the country numbering 96,000 servicemen to 50,000 by August, 2010, and then to pull them out by the end of 2011. On April 23, Baghdad was shattered by at least 7 blasts targeting the Rahmaniya marketplace, mosques, and residential housing. In April 2004 he initiated a revolt against the coalition forces occupying Iraq. Hussein, stated that he and his followers would not directly or indirectly submit to the occupation. Immediately upon the seizure of Baghdad in 2003, al-Sadr, whose family was persecuted under S. ![]() He organized thousands of his supporters into a political movement, which includes a military wing known as the Jaysh al-Mahdi or Mahdi Armi). (Sadr is one of the most influential religious and political figures in the country. Each Friday hundreds of his followers gather in an open square there for noon prayers, and they accounted for many of the victims. On the day of the Muslim traditional Friday prayer, when imams praise the Almighty and ask prophet Muhammad for blessing, the deadliest three bombings exploded in rapid succession near the headquarters of the political movement led by the Shiite cleric (Moktada al-Sadr) in Sadr City, the impoverished Shiite neighborhood in Baghdad that bears his family’s name. Blasts took over 70 lives in Baghdad on April 23, and, as predicted by the US military, under the circumstances the withdrawal of the US forces from Iraq is likely to be suspended if not altogether abolished. The ballots cast during the March 7 parliamentary elections still have not been completely counted, and the tide of terror of some obscure origin in the country is raising as we watch. The death toll in Iraq is surging after more than 7 years of international occupation. ![]()
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