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Amid cleanup horror, 4 young survivors

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published August 17, 2007

BAGHDAD - The bulldozer moved about the ruins. Then someone heard what few expected amid the horror: four small survivors calling out from ruins of buildings that had become tombs for hundreds of others.

"We didn't hear them calling out for help until moments before a bulldozer would have killed them as it cleared the rubble," said Saad Muhanad, a municipal council member in the Qahtaniya region of northern Iraq. The freed youngsters began running through the streets begging for food and water.

The discovery of the children - hungry and thirsty but apparently unharmed after two days trapped beneath a toppled building - was a rare uplifting scene Thursday as teams tallied up the grim figures from the deadliest wave of suicide attacks of the war.

An Interior Ministry spokesman, Brig. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf, said at least 400 were dead.

The mayor of the region pleaded for help, saying an even larger tragedy loomed. "People are in shock. Hospitals here are running out of medicine. The pharmacies are empty. We need food, medicine and water - otherwise there will be an even greater catastrophe," said Abdul-Rahim al-Shimari.

Qassim Khalaf, a 40-year-old government worker, was crying while he spoke by telephone from Qahtaniya.

"We call upon the United Nations to protect (us) because the Iraqi government is in hibernation."

Developments

New alliance

In Baghdad, political leaders emerged from three days of crisis talks with a new alliance that seeks to save the crumbling U.S.-backed government. But the reshaped power bloc included no Sunnis and immediately raised questions about its legitimacy as a unifying force. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki hailed the political agreement as a first step toward unblocking the paralysis that has gripped his Shiite-dominated government since it first took power in May 2006. The new Shiite-Kurdish coalition will retain a majority in Parliament - 181 of the 275 seats - and apparently have a clear path to pass legislation demanded by the Bush administration.

Poll results

In a sign that some people may sense a military turnabout in Iraq, a CNN-Opinion Research Corp. poll found that people were about evenly split when asked if the military is making progress in ending violence there. The survey found that 49 percent of the respondents said the military was not making progress, while 47 percent said it was. By 69 percent to 26 percent, most of those questioned said the Iraqi government is not making similar progress. By 53 percent to 43 percent, most said they do not trust the top U.S. commander in Iraq to report what is truly happening there when he reports to Bush next month. The survey, taken Aug. 6-8, involved telephone interviews with 1,029 adults. It had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Troop level

The number of U.S. troops in Iraq could jump to 171,000 this fall - a record high for the war - as military leaders expect stepped-up insurgent attacks timed to a progress report from U.S. commanders in Baghdad. Army Lt. Gen. Carter Ham, director for operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Thursday the planned rotations of five brigades moving out of Iraq and their replacements coming in will create the temporary increase in U.S. forces. Once the transitions are complete, Ham said the troop level will drop back down to about 162,000, which is where it is today.

Marine charged

A former Marine sergeant has been charged with voluntary manslaughter in the killings of two captured Iraqi insurgents in Fallujah in 2004, his lawyer said Thursday. The Navy has been investigating claims that Camp Pendleton Marines killed between five and 10 unarmed suspected Iraqi insurgents who had been captured during a fierce battle in Fallujah in November 2004. Jose Nazario was squad leader. Because he is no longer in the military, his case is being handled in federal court.

Also Thursday

Violence: In Baghdad, a car bomb struck a parking garage, killing at least nine people and wounding 17, police said. Nineteen unidentified bodies were found in Baghdad by Iraqi police Thursday.

U.S. deaths: The military said two soldiers died Wednesday in fighting north of Baghdad and one soldier died Thursday in Baghdad of noncombat causes.

[Last modified August 16, 2007, 22:46:46]