XPost: ba.politics, dc.media, soc.penpals   
   XPost: alt.burningman   
   From: redneck@democrats.info   
      
   Apparently Barack Obama lost the Iraq war that Bill Clinton   
   started.   
      
   (Reuters) - A wave of car bombs exploded across Baghdad on   
   Saturday, killing more than 60 people, and militants stormed a   
   university campus in western Iraq, security and medical sources   
   said.   
      
   In total, there were a dozen blasts in mainly Shi'ite districts   
   of the capital, the deadliest of which occurred in Bayaa, where   
   a car bomb left 23 people dead, many of them young men playing   
   billiards.   
      
   "I was about to close my shop when I heard a huge explosion on   
   the main commercial street," said Kareem Abdulla, whose legs   
   were still shaking from the shock. "I saw many cars set ablaze   
   as well as shops".   
      
   Other bombs went off near a cinema, a popular juice shop and a   
   Shi'ite mosque.   
      
   No group immediately claimed responsibility for any of the   
   bombings, but the Shi'ite community is a frequent target for   
   Sunni Islamist insurgents who have been regaining ground and   
   momentum in Iraq over the past year.   
      
   Since Thursday alone, militants have seized parts of Ramadi and   
   Falluja, the two main cities in the mainly Sunni Anbar province.   
   On Saturday, they took control of the campus of Anbar University   
   in Ramadi.   
      
   A member of the security and defense committee in parliament   
   said the insurgency could not be quelled by force alone because   
   the root cause was political. Critics of Iraq's Shi'ite-led   
   government say its treatment of the once-dominant Sunni minority   
   is the main driver of the insurgency.   
      
   "SECURITY WILL GET WORSE"   
      
   "The Iraqi government now relies on using force to solve things,   
   that is why security will get worse," said Shwan Mohammed Taha,   
   predicting that violence could spread to other Sunni-dominated   
   provinces such as Diyala.   
      
   "This is not only deterioration, it is a failure to manage the   
   security file."   
      
   Parts of Ramadi have been held by anti-government tribesmen and   
   insurgents since the start of the year. Overnight, gunmen fought   
   their way past guards into the university, planting bombs behind   
   them.   
      
   The militants eventually allowed students and teaching staff to   
   leave, but remained in control of the campus late on Saturday,   
   exchanging fire with security forces.   
      
   A professor trapped inside the physics department told Reuters   
   some staff who live outside Ramadi had been spending the night   
   at the university because it was the exam period.   
      
   "We heard intense gunfire at about 4 a.m. We thought it was the   
   security forces coming to protect us but were surprised to see   
   they were gunmen," he told Reuters by telephone. "They forced us   
   to go inside the rooms, and now we cannot leave."   
      
   Sources in Ramadi hospital said they had received the bodies of   
   a student and a policeman.   
      
   The identity of the assailants was not clear. Ramadi and Falluja   
   were overrun at the start of the year by tribal and Sunni   
   insurgents, including the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant   
   (ISIL).   
      
   SUPPLY LINES   
      
   Security forces have regained control of central Ramadi, but the   
   suburbs and outlying areas have swung back and forth between   
   them and the militants. Falluja, around 50 km (30 miles) away,   
   is still in insurgent hands.   
      
   One of the guards at the university said he believed the   
   militants' real aim was to seize an area called Humaira behind   
   the campus, which would allow them to set up supply lines   
   between Ramadi and Falluja.   
      
   "I think the militants will withdraw as their target was not the   
   university. They came to stay in Humaira, and we know how   
   important it is for them," he said. "They want to be connected   
   with their gunmen in Falluja".   
      
   Almost 480,000 people have been forced to leave their homes in   
   Anbar over the past six months, according to the United Nations -   
    Iraq's largest displacement since the sectarian bloodletting   
   that climaxed in 2006-07.   
      
   Violence is still well below those levels, but last year was   
   Iraq's deadliest since security began to improve in 2008. Nearly   
   800 people were killed across the country in May alone - the   
   highest monthly toll this year so far.   
      
   On Thursday, militants moved into the city of Samarra in the   
   adjacent province of Salahuddin and briefly occupied a   
   university there as well as two mosques, raising ISIL's black   
   banner until airstrikes forced them to retreat. [ID:nL6N0OM4EL]   
      
   The following day, insurgents fought Iraqi security forces in   
   the northern city of Mosul. [ID:nL6N0ON4W6]   
      
   The head of Mosul morgue said the bodies of 59 civilians and 11   
   people had been brought in since Friday. Another source at the   
   morgue said there were still corpses on the streets that could   
   not be recovered because some districts of the city remained   
   under militant control.   
      
   (Additional reporting by Raheem Salman in Baghdad and Ziad al-   
   Sinjary in Mosul; Writing by Isabel Coles; Editing by Kevin   
   Liffey)   
      
   http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/06/08/us-iraq-security-   
   idUSKBN0EI0FK20140608   
      
       
      
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    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)