New term alert* There are now terrorist facilitators in Iraq according the US Military. I can only assume that these are individuals who through their active listening to the Dixie Chicks, and studying of the Founding Father’s precepts are enabling others in the country to continue to do what the hell they’ve been doing for the last 1500 years..
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) — Amid a massive security operation to secure Baghdad, car bombs Sunday struck in two Shiite neighborhoods targeting civilians and police, Iraqi officials said.
At least 57 people were reported killed, most of them civilians killed in a twin car bomb attack.
The two car bombs detonated in quick succession near marketplaces and bus stops in the southeastern district of Baghdad known as al-Jadida, or “New Baghdad,” killing 56 people and wounding at least 128 others, Baghdad police said.
The attack happened around 3 p.m. local time (7 a.m. ET) along the main commercial street that runs through the mostly Shiite district.
About an hour later, one policeman was killed and 10 people were wounded when a driver blew himself up and his car near an Iraqi National Police checkpoint in Sadr City, an Interior Ministry official said.
Sadr City is a stronghold of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
The attacks come as Iraqi forces, supported by U.S. troops, continue their effort to secure Baghdad from insurgent attacks.
Some 112,000 coalition and Iraqi security forces are devoted to the Baghdad security crackdown, dubbed “Fardh Al-Qanoon,” or “Enforcing the Law.”
In the past couple of days, Iraqi and U.S. troops have started creating pedestrian-only zones around Baghdad’s marketplaces, which are vulnerable to attacks from car bombers targeting civilians, a U.S. Army commander said Friday.
“We’ll therefore be denying these car bombs the ability to direct themselves as precision weapons where people are the most vulnerable,” said Maj. Gen. Joseph F. Fil Jr., commanding general of Multi-National Division Baghdad and the 1st Cavalry Division.
“We also do believe they are watching us carefully” to determine their next moves, Fil said.
U.S. reports four terror suspects killed
Meanwhile, U.S.-led coalition forces killed four suspected terrorist facilitators and arrested four suspected terrorists during a raid Sunday in southwestern Iraq, the U.S. military announced.
The military said as troops were searching the building, they found three pistols and two AK-47s, along with eight women and 23 children.
Why the children and women were present was not explained in the military’s statement, but “ground forces confirmed none … were injured during the operation,” it said.
In eastern Mosul on Saturday, the U.S. military said the Ninewa special weapons and tactics team, backed by coalition advisers, arrested a man thought to be linked to terrorist group al Qaeda in Iraq.
The suspect had reportedly attempted to launch several attacks on Iraqi security and coalition forces in the area.
The U.S. military announced Sunday that two U.S. Multi-National Division-Baghdad soldiers were killed Saturday in separate attacks in Iraq.
One soldier was killed when insurgents opened fire on a foot patrol of Multi-National Division-Baghdad soldiers operating just north of Baghdad, the military said.
The other died when insurgents threw a grenade at the unit’s vehicle during combat operations in Baquba, about 30 miles north of Baghdad.
With the deaths, 3,134 U.S. military personnel have died in the Iraq war, including seven civilian contractors of the Defense Department.
Rice visits Baghdad
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made an unannounced visit to Baghdad on Saturday to assess the security crackdown there.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and Rice discussed security and reconstruction in the war-ravaged nation. She also met with U.S. and other Iraqi officials, an embassy spokesman said.
Rice then traveled on to Jerusalem for a series of meetings with leaders from the region. (Full story)
Rice said she had been told the Iraqis are “doing the job alongside their coalition counterparts and they are off to a good start.” (Watch Rice praise the Iraqi prime minister’s leadership 
)
She said that the security plan, which primarily targets militant factions in Baghdad, is “just beginning to unfold” and will grow over time.
Critics have questioned whether an al-Maliki-backed government crackdown on insurgents can be successful when the prime minister has received substantial support from al-Sadr and his Mehdi Army.
Asked if the new security initiatives would merely push insurgents underground until troops left, Rice said she would not be disappointed if “militias decide to stand down and stop killing innocent Iraqis.”
How Iraqis use that “breathing space” is what’s important, she added.
Speaking Saturday to U.S. mission personnel in Baghdad, Rice made reference to the domestic debate over the war.
Rice said Americans appreciate their fellow citizens’ efforts in Iraq regardless of what they think of Bush administration policies there.
“I know that a lot’s going on in Washington and that you’re hearing it,” she said. “A lot’s going on because we are a great democracy, and people have their views and they’re going to express them.”
“People know what you’re doing and it’s appreciated across the board. I don’t care what people think of the policies; it’s appreciated across the board.”
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