Meanwhile, back in the real world

Thursday, April 28

(AP) - In new attacks Thursday, insurgents fired at least six mortar rounds toward a U.S. military base Musayyib, 40 miles south of Baghdad, but hit a nearby bus station instead, killing four Iraqis and wounding 21, U.S. and Iraqi officials said. The attack took place during the city's busy morning commute. ...

A suicide car bomb also exploded near an Iraqi army checkpoint, wounding four Iraqi soldiers, three U.S. soldiers and seven Iraqi civilians, the U.S. military said. The attack occurred outside Tikrit, 80 miles north of Baghdad....

Friday, April 29

(BBC) - At least 29 people have been killed and more than 100 injured in a wave of car bomb attacks targeting Iraqi security forces in and around Baghdad.

The apparently co-ordinated blasts come just a day after Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari unveiled his new cabinet. ...

The attacks - on the Muslim day of worship - are the latest in an increased spate of insurgent violence in recent weeks.

Saturday, April 30

(AP) - Insurgents launched fresh attacks in Baghdad and northern Iraq on Saturday, killing at least 11 Iraqis and wounding more than 40 in a second day of violence aimed at shaking the country's newly formed government.

Sunday, May 1

(AP) - Insurgents began a third straight day of attacks in Iraq on Sunday, including ambushes, car bombs and a drive-by shooting, killing nine Iraqis and wounding 21, police said.

That raised the death toll from the latest wave of insurgent attacks that began on Friday to at least 74. ...

The strikes have been increasingly well coordinated, and that was the case in an ambush Sunday on a small road near Diala Bridge in eastern Baghdad, said police Lt. Col. Sabah Hamid al-Firtosi. ...

At least five car bombs rocked Baghdad on Saturday, U.S. military spokesman Greg Kaufman said. Six more exploded in the northern city of Mosul, which also has seen frequent attacks.

Monday, May 2

(PBS) - Three car bombs exploded in Baghdad on Monday, killing at least eight people in the latest surge in violence since a new Iraqi government was named last week. ...

Since Thursday, when the Iraqi National Assembly approved a partial Cabinet after three months of internal negotiating, at least 130 people, including 11 Americans and one British soldier, have been killed in a slew of bombings, ambushes and other attacks....

The worst toll in the recent attacks occurred Sunday when a suicide bomber detonated an ambulance loaded with explosives at a funeral for a Kurdish Democratic Party official. Twenty-five people were killed and more than 50 wounded in Tel Afar, 90 miles east of the Syrian border.

Mission Nothing Accomplished.