Two Different Stories On Iraq From The New York Times

U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Peter Casola, assigned to the Detachment 3, 732nd Expeditionary Security Forces Squadron, coordinates troop movement during a joint patrol with Iraqi police and Sons of Iraq members for improvised explosive devices in the Doura district of Baghdad, Iraq, on Nov. 22, 2008. DoD photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Todd Frantom, U.S. Navy. (Released)

12 Killed In Iraq Bombing -- New York Times

BAGHDAD — A suicide bomber wearing an explosive vest blew himself up just inside the courtyard of a Shiite mosque in a town south of Baghdad on Friday, killing 12 people and wounding 19, according to witnesses and security officials.

The attack took place in Musayyib, a town about 50 miles south of Baghdad, as about 700 people were attending Friday Prayer and preparing to hold a peaceful march to protest the Iraqi Parliament’s ratification Thursday of a new security agreement with the United States.

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Today Was A Good Day… -- New York Times (Baghdad Bureau)

FRIDAY
I was the only Shiite praying among dozens of Sunnis who attended Friday prayers at Umm al-Qura mosque. It was something I wouldn’t have dared to do a couple of years ago or less; not even in my dreams.

Umm al-Qura (Mother of All Villages, formerly the Mother of All Battles) mosque is in the Adel neighborhood of western Baghdad, a predominately Sunni area once controlled by the Muslim Scholars’ Association, an immoderate organization that was almost under the control of Al Qaeda.

Last year the association was expelled by the Sunni Endowment, headed by Sheik Ahmed Abdel Ghafour al-Sammaraie, which is an organization responsible for Sunni mosques and religious issues. The mosque now belongs to the Sunni Endowment which has good relationships with the Sons of Iraq, the Sunni neighborhood security forces started by the Americans but now controlled by the Iraqi government.

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