Just another day in the life and death of Iraq LXII

By Michael J.W. Stickings

There was a tremendously awful incident in Iraq yesterday, along with other lethal violence around the country:

A deadly truck bombing in a busy market in northern Iraq has killed 105 people and injured 240, police say.

The morning blast destroyed the market in the small town of Amirli, south of Kirkuk, killing many people instantly and trapping dozens among the rubble.

It was the deadliest single attack in Iraq since April, correspondents say.

It came as 29 people were killed in separate violence, including 22 people who died overnight in Diyala province when a suicide bomber hit a cafe.

On all that, and so much else, day after day, on top of this: "The number of unidentified bodies found in Baghdad has increased despite the launch of a security drive in the capital in February, Iraqi police say. They say that 540 corpses -- many of them tortured or mutilated -- were discovered in the city in June."

And so it continues...

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See also WaPo:

The violence came as the U.S. military reported Saturday that eight American soldiers had been killed over the past two days, all in combat or by roadside bombs in Baghdad and the western province of Anbar. The fatalities underscored the mounting death toll during the five-month security offensive, reinforced by thousands of U.S. troops, that is meant to help Iraq meet political and security goals set by the Bush administration.

The surge, that is, which isn't working.