Iraq

(DailyStar) Six Sunni insurgent groups announced that they've banded together to form a "political council" to push the US out of Iraq. (Islamic Army in Iraq and Ansar al Sunna are the most noteworthy.)

(AP) The US military is offering bonuses up to $150,000 to get some special forces guys to re-up. (Another cost of contractors.)

(ChicagoTribune) "The U.S. Army met its recruiting goals for the last year but enlisted thousands of new soldiers with criminal records and fewer who have earned high school diplomas, according to figures released Wednesday."

(WaPo) The first US soldiers on scene at the Blackwater shootings in Nisoor square said the contractors appeared to have fired at fleeing vehicles, and that "It had every indication of an excessive shooting."

(Reuters) U.N. wants security guards in Iraq to face law.

And,

In northern Iraq, a bomb planted among toys in a cart left near a children's playground in the religiously mixed city of Tuz Khormato north of Baghdad, killing one civilian and wounding 17, including five children, police Col. Abbas Mohammed said.

The U.S. military operation near the man-made Lake Tharthar, about 50 miles northwest of the capital, inflicted one of the heaviest civilian death tolls in the offensive against the terror network in recent months.

Nineteen insurgents and 15 civilians, including nine children, died in the raid, the military said.

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