Iraq

The Washington Post on their front page finds a way to blame Saddam Hussein for Maliki's failing government. The main source is Ahmed Chalabi. (You can't spell unbelievable without "lie.")

(Reuters) Four U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq

(AP) "Much of the Iraqi capital was without running water Thursday and had been for at least 24 hours..... Residents and city officials said large sections in the west of the capital had been virtually dry for six days....."

(AP) The US is stepping up air attacks around Baghdad. "The problem with driving around is it takes too long and you've got to get around IEDs," he said, using the military acronym for roadside bombs. "I've gone as deep into Arab Jubour as I can. Now I want to keep them on the run."

(Stripes) "Iraqi troops supported by an American battalion have begun “clearing operations” in Samarra, isolating the city by sealing a berm that rings the east side of the city."

(CSM) Death tolls often in dispute: Disparities between official and eyewitness tallies lead some Iraqis to charge the government with downplaying attacks.

Iraqiya television and most Western media outlets reported that 25 were killed and 100 wounded in the July 26 attack, of which virtually no images were shown.

But less than a week later, the names of 92 dead and 127 wounded were posted on a list taped to a shuttered storefront. It was compiled by municipal and civil defense crews that led the rescue efforts.

(Not that the heavily enforced government order forbidding the photographing of attack sites was to hide the truth....)

(WaPo) Iraq's feeble oil production may be overstated.

And, (AP) Iraq's soccer team returns home, without several stars who fear for their lives, for acelebration in the Green Zone that almost all Iraqis will be unable to attend.