Reporter talks about Iraq with Jon Stewart of the Daily Show

Jon Stewart has an interesting but short interview with US News and World Report writer Alex Kingsbury about Iraq. (actual video at bottom)

Some key points:

Security is better in some areas. US troops are now acting like cops- he mentions US troops looking for a Benzine drug lab.

Stewart points out that it must be hard to the police and not speak the language - Kingsbury agrees pointing out how still after 5 years very few US troops speak any Arabic.

Kingsbury also tells of streams of human feces running down the street, and how still after 5 years the people only have one hour of power a day.

Kingsbury talks about the troops feeling about US patriotism not being about what side of the lapel you wear your flag on but believe patriotism is really about staying informed.

Wished this interview had gone longer.

US forces accidentally shoot young girl in Kut

Iraq: Child killed by US fire as clashes continue in Kut

US forces in Iraq American troops "accidentally" shot and killed a child on Wednesday in Iraq's Diyala province, the U.S. army said on Thursday. The Americans said soldiers were operating in an area where roadside bombs had been found recently in Diyala.

The soldiers fired a warning shot into a sand berm after they found a "suspicious woman who appeared to be signalling to someone". According to Reuters, the military said a young girl was found on the other side of the berm suffering from a gunshot wound. Soldiers She died on the way to a military hospital.

Diyala has become one of the deadliest provinces in Iraq for U.S. troops. It is home to about 1.4 million people and is mostly a mix of Sunni and Shiites.

The capital, Baquba, is about 35 miles northeast of Baghdad. And it was near there that the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, was killed by U.S. forces last June.

Description of the area

And former Army Captain Phillip Carter, he was an operations officer for a task force that advised Iraqi police in Baquba from October 2005 to September 2006.

Phillip Carter, to you first. You spent a year there. Describe Diyala province to us. What does it look like? Who are the people who live there?

FORMER CAPT. PHILLIP CARTER, U.S. Army: Judy, we thought of Diyala as Little Iraq. It's a microcosm of the country, which has a mix of Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds in the north and the east.

The geography of the province is diverse. It stretches from the fertile farmlands outside of Baghdad to the deserts along the Iranian border all the way up into mountains in Kurdistan.

And it is a volatile province. It has a little bit of the problems of Baghdad. It touches on the Sunni triangle. And it also has many of the lines of communication leading from Iran into Baghdad, and so it is home to a number of the intrigues that involve Iran and Kurdistan, as well.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Fred Kagan, what would you add to that? How is it different, Diyala, from the rest of Iraq?

FREDERICK KAGAN, American Enterprise Institute: Well, the mix that you have there, I think the captain is absolutely right. It is a Little Iraq. And you have Kurdish infiltration in the north. You have a majority Sunni province. You also have provincial government and security forces that are dominated by Shia, because the Sunnis sat out the local elections. And so you have some tensions there.

And because we have had relatively few forces in Diyala throughout 2006, there's a significant al-Qaida presence in Diyala, which has been causing a lot of problems. And then you've had a flow into Diyala of Sunnis who were displaced in Baghdad over the course of 2006, as well. So it's a very, very rough area, probably one of the toughest in Iraq right now.

WARNING BRUTAL IMAGES :: Day of Carnage in Iraq Bombing after Bombing after Bombing

Death and Destruction as Bush tries to keep financing his failed invasion.

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- An Iraqi army brigade commander was arrested Wednesday night after a string of bombings that killed nearly 200 people around Baghdad, most of them in a single attack at a central marketplace, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's office announced.

Explosion at the Sadriya market

The explosion at the Sadriya market, one of the Iraqi capital's oldest and busiest venues, killed 140 people and wounded about 150, an Iraqi Interior Ministry official told CNN. A statement from al-Maliki's office said the brigade commander was removed because of "the weakness of security measures put in place to protect civilians in Sadriya."

The marketplace attack was the worst of at least six bombings across Baghdad -- a particularly bloody day in a city wracked by sectarian warfare and a U.S.-Iraqi crackdown against insurgents. It was the worst bombing in the Iraqi capital since the 4-year-old war began, topping the February toll of 130 dead in a bombing in the same marketplace. (Watch as death toll climbs after attacks in Iraq Video)



The marketplace is filled with streets and alleyways that crisscross one another. The time of the attack -- about 4 p.m. (8 a.m. ET) -- is generally busy, with vendors selling electronics, produce, clothing and other items.

The arrested officer, whose name was not immediately released, was in command of the 2nd Brigade of the Iraqi army's 2nd Division, and will face an investigative committee looking into the bombings.

In all, bombings around the capital killed 198 people, the Interior Ministry reported.

Also an Iraqi Army checkpoint bombing killed 35

In addition to the Sadriya attack, a suicide car bombing killed 35 people and wounded 55 near an Iraqi Army checkpoint at one of the entrances to Sadr City.

Also in the Iraqi Karrada district bombing killed 11

Another bomb blast in central Baghdad's Karrada district killed 11 people and wounded 13, while bombs targeting police patrols in southern and southwestern Baghdad killed six police officers and two civilians, while wounding 14 people.

Also in the Iraqi Rusafi Square bombing killed 4

Another four civilians were killed when a bomb planted in a minibus detonated in Rusafi Square, a busy intersection in central Baghdad, the Iraqi Interior Ministry reported. Nine people were wounded.

Transfer of Security of Mayasan Province

The attacks occurred the same day British commanders transferred security control over the southern province of Maysan to Iraqi troops, a sign that Iraq is taking another step toward self-reliance. But the Baghdad blasts reflects the stiff challenges posed by what has been a resilient insurgency.


In Washington, Adm. William Fallon, the chief of U.S. forces in the Middle East, told a congressional committee that while he sees optimistic developments in Iraq, "there is hardly a week that goes by, certainly almost a day that doesn't go by without some major event that also causes us to lose ground."

Fallon told the House Armed Services Committee in Washington that the Baghdad security crackdown "is really the Iraqi leadership's major and potentially last opportunity to really take this ball forward."

"It's imperative, from my view, that they act on it," he said.


Not Clear if attacks were linked

It is not clear whether Wednesday's attacks were linked, since many insurgent groups operate across Baghdad at any point in time. But most of the attacks targeted Shiite areas, and the market and checkpoint attacks, happened in areas where the Mehdi Army -- the militia of anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr -- holds sway.

The Sadr City checkpoint bombing occurred at one of the new checkpoints set up for new crackdown in the capital.

Transfer of security in Maysan province

The Sadr City checkpoint bombing occurred at one of the new checkpoints set up in a new crackdown in the capital.

Meanwhile, the U.S. military was on the move against insurgents. Coalition raids in and around the Iraqi cities of Baghdad, Falluja, Taji, and Mosul on Wednesday led to the killing of six insurgents and the detention of more than 40 others, the U.S. military said.

One US Troop also dies from Non-Battle Injury

A Task Force Marine soldier died in Baghdad on Tuesday of "non-battle injuries, the U.S. military said Wednesday.

Farther south in Maysan province, officials boasted that the transfer of security -- in what has been a relatively quiet district -- "demonstrates another step towards a stable and secure Iraq."

But Maysan isn't a sectarian flashpoint. It is a largely rural stretch located in the Shiite heartland in the south bordering Iran.

A statement from U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker, British Ambassador Dominic Asquith, and U.S. Gen. David Petraeus said, "Maysan is the fourth of 18 provinces to be transitioned and this reflects Iraq's continued steps toward a capability to govern and protect itself and its citizens as a sovereign nation."

CNN's Jomana Karadsheh, Arwa Damon, Mohammed Tawfeeq, and Carolina Sanchez contributed to this report.

Iraq War Video: Streets of Baghdad

While Senator John McCain believes that there are parts of Baghdad where an American can take a leisurely stroll, the citizens of Baghdad don't feel safe themselves.

Dahr Jamail brings you a report from the streets of Baghdad, where death squads are terrorizing civilians. Also, this segment on the growing GI resistance movement.