ROBERT Hill has learnt first-hand the new perils involved in visiting strife-torn Baghdad.
Such has been the escalation of violence in the run-up to the January 30 elections that for the first time in four visits, Australia's Defence Minister could not make it to the centre of the Iraqi capital last Friday.
So dangerous has the main highway to and from the airport become, with daily suicide bombings, Senator Hill did not visit the Australian embassy or the Green Zone that comprises the headquarters of the US-led coalition forces in Iraq...
Weekend Attacks Kill at Least 70 in Iraq
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Gunmen ambushed a bus carrying unarmed Iraqis to work at a U.S. ammo dump near Tikrit on Sunday, killing 17 and raising the toll from three days of intensified and bloody insurgent attacks to at least 70 Iraqi dead and dozens wounded...
Red Crescent suspends Falluja work
...and in a city of 300,000 people...where'd they all go?...
Both coalition forces and the IRC agreed to suspend the organization's activities while security operations in northeast Falluja continue, Ramos said.
Only about 100 families are thought to remain in Falluja, as most fled the city before the U.S.-led operation aimed at flushing out insurgents.
Well, you get the idea. The whole situation continues to escalate unimaginably. I can't fathom what it must be like to be there. All the dire think-tank reports (example) from earlier in the year about "worst case scenarios" are coming true.
How in the sam hell is BushCo managing to keep a lid on this thing stateside?
