Some other current events from the same page as the last entry.

Other developments

Members of al-Sadr's militia, the Mehdi Army, attacked the offices of rival parties Wednesday night in the southern Iraqi city of Basra, an official with the Basra provincial council said Thursday. Using small arms, Mehdi Army gunmen attacked the headquarters of the military wing of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq and the Fadhila party. Guards fired back at the attackers, but no casualties were reported, the official said. Al-Sadr's movement and the more established SCIRI have been rivals for political influence in Iraq's Shiite regions.

The U.N. children's agency said an operation designed to supply clean water to Iraqis needs major financial replenishment. For four years, UNICEF has shipped tankers with clean water into deprived neighborhoods, primarily in Basra and Baghdad. The Baghdad operation -- which reached an average population of 70,000 every day -- stopped after running out of money on March 1. The Basra effort was halted two years ago because of lack of funds. "Iraq is still in an emergency situation, and many families simply have no alternative," UNICEF said in a statement Wednesday requesting more support.

U.S. soldiers and Iraqi security forces began sweeps through two Baghdad neighborhoods Thursday, targeting al Qaeda and illegal militias, a U.S. military statement said. The operations began in the Ghazaliya and Ameriya neighborhoods, with about 1,100 U.S. soldiers working with 500 Iraqi soldiers and police. In separate operations northeast of Karma, coalition forces freed three hostages and detained 13 suspected terrorists, the military said.

A civilian was killed and three others were injured Thursday in fighting between Iraqi soldiers and militants in the central Baghdad neighborhood of Fadhil, police said.

A U.S. soldier and two Marines were killed Wednesday in combat in Iraq, the U.S. military said. With the deaths, 3,229 U.S. military personnel, including seven civilian contractors of the Defense Department, have died in the four-year-old Iraq war.

I felt like it was necessary for me to post some of these, just because I have been rambling about them for a few posts. Here's the long and short. All in all, i don't think this is as bad as it could be, frankly, the suffering going on with the people because of the near-civil-war there is much worse.