Out of 14 pounds of newspaper. This is the only story about the war or any other world problems. A true sign of just how pathetic the news has become. You can't even call it news anymore, just a waste of tree's.

http://www.star-telegram.com/279/story/140092.html

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram

Posted on Sun, Jun. 17,

Baghdad remains unsafe

By KIM GAMEL
The Associated Press

Defense Secretary Robert Gates visits a joint security station Saturday in Baghdad. Iraqi police, soldiers and U.S. troops all operate from the station. BAGHDAD -- Security forces in Baghdad have full control in only 40 percent of the city five months into the pacification campaign, a top American general said Saturday as U.S. troops began an offensive against two al Qaeda strongholds on the capital's southern outskirts.

Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno, the commander of U.S. ground forces, said American troops launched the offensive in Baghdad's Arab Jabour and Salman Pac neighborhoods Friday night. It was the first time in three years that U.S. soldiers entered those areas, where al Qaeda militants build car bombs and launch Katyusha rockets at American bases and Shiite Muslim neighborhoods.

Odierno said there was a long way to go in retaking the city from Shiite Muslim militias, Sunni Arab insurgents and al Qaeda terrorists. He said only about "40 percent is really very safe on a routine basis" -- with about 30 percent lacking control and the remaining 30 percent suffering "a high level of violence."

He discussed the new offensive and the security situation in an interview as he visited an American outpost near the main market in the capital's southern Dora district, a major Sunni Arab stronghold.

"There's about 30 percent of the city that needs work, like here in Dora and the surrounding areas," Odierno said. "Those are the areas that we consider to be the hot spots, which usually have a Sunni-Shiite fault line, and also areas where al Qaeda has decided to make a stand."

At a noon briefing, Odierno told company and unit commanders to stick to the mission.

"Sometimes I know it's hard for you all to see it," he said. "But I do see us moving forward."

With Baghdad and Basra -- the country's second-largest city -- under curfew, violent deaths were down dramatically Saturday. Only three people were reported to have been killed or found dead in sectarian violence.

That did not include the discovery of 13 bodies of a tae kwon do team kidnapped last year in western Iraq while driving to a training camp in neighboring Jordan. The bodies were found 65 miles west of Ramadi, police said.

In Baghdad, aides to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki told The Associated Press that talks Saturday between Defense Secretary Robert Gates and the Iraqi leader were difficult.

Two top advisers to the prime minister said al-Maliki, a Shiite, objected vigorously to the new U.S. policy of arming and training Sunni militants in the fight against al Qaeda.

A third said Gates told al-Maliki that political and legislative action sought by the U.S., including a new law to share oil revenues among all Iraqis, must be complete by September when the defense secretary has to report to Congress on progress in Iraq.

This report includes material from McClatchy Newspapers.

U.S. military deaths

As of Saturday, at least 3,522 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. The figure includes seven Defense Department civilians.

Source: The Associated Press