Systematic evidence of violence stlil slim, drips and drabs

TRYING TO FIGURE OUT WHAT IS GOING ON

The lack of systematic information from Iraq is something that this blog was started to point out.

Here's a lesson in the perils of reading the headlines and making conclusions about the violence levels.

AP: Maj. Gen. James Simmons, a deputy corps commander, told reporters that the number of roadside bombs either found or exploded nationwide had fallen from 3,239 in March to 1,560 last month. The October figure was the lowest since September 2005, he added. -Thursday, November 15, 2007

But, these ripped from the headlines, suggest a huge amount of the violence attributable to bombs of one kind or another

• Xinhua: A roadside bomb went off near a town in Salahudin province north of Baghdad on Thursday, wounding five Iraqi soldiers, a provincial police source said. -Thursday, November 15, 2007
• Reuters: U.S. helicopters killed two men planting a roadside bomb south of Baghdad on Friday, the U.S. military said. -Sunday, November 18, 2007
• Reuters: One person was killed and seven were wounded when a roadside bomb exploded near a small bus in Baladiyat district in eastern Baghdad, police said. -Monday, November 19, 2007
• Reuters: A roadside bomb wounded two people on Palestine Street in northeastern Baghdad, police said. -Monday, November 19, 2007
• Reuters: A roadside bomb wounded two people in the Talbiya district of eastern Baghdad, police said. -Thursday, November 22, 2007
• Reuters: A roadside bomb targeting an army patrol wounded two soldiers in central Baghdad, police said. -Thursday, November 22, 2007
• Reuters: A roadside bomb targeting a police patrol wounded three people, including one policeman, in central Baghdad...A roadside bomb targeting a police commando patrol wounded two policemen in the Diyala Bridge district of southern Baghdad, police said. -Thursday, November 22, 2007
• Reuters: A roadside bomb killed one policeman and wounded another in the city of Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, police said. -Thursday, November 22, 2007
• CNN: A roadside bomb killed three Iraqi children and injured seven as they gathered around American troops handing out toys on Sunday, police and government officials told CNN. Three U.S.soldiers were also killed in the explosion in Baquba... -Sunday, November 18, 2007
• AP: Violence continued Friday, with one civilian killed by a roadside bomb outside a motorcycle shop in central Baghdad, police said. Four others were wounded by the blast and transferred to a nearby hospital, they said. -Friday, November 16, 2007
• AFP: A roadside bomb attack targetting a US patrol near Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone killed two Iraqi civilians and wounded three on Wednesday, security officials said. -Wednesday, November 14, 2007
• A roadside bomb wounded two people in Kesra neighbourhood in northern Baghdad, police said. -Sunday, November 18, 2007
• A roadside bomb wounded two people in Ameen district of southeastern Baghdad, police said. -Sunday, November 18, 2007
• A roadside bomb hit a police commandos patrol near al-Tayaran Square in central Baghdad on Saturday, wounding two policemen, police said. -Sunday, November 18, 2007
• Reuters: A truck bomb exploded near the house of a tribal leader, killing one person and wounding three others in Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, police said. The leader, a member of a local tribal council overseeing neighbourhood... -Wednesday, November 21, 2007
• Reuters: A parked car bomb wounded five people, including two children, when it exploded near the house of a policeman in the oil refinery city of Baiji, 180 km (110 miles) north of Baghdad, police said. -Monday, November 19, 2007
• Reuters: A parked car bomb near the Atta Allah mosque killed two worshippers and wounded two others in Jurf Al Sakhar, 85 km (50 miles) south of Baghdad, police said. -Friday, November 23, 2007
• LATimes: A car bomb targeting an undersecretary in the Ministry of Finance exploded just after 5 p.m., killing 10 bystanders and injuring 21 people at Hurriya Square in the Karada district of central Baghdad -Sunday, November 18, 2007
• AP: Farther south in Tikrit, a bomb exploded inside a police station, killing one policeman and wounding two others, according to police and doctors at a nearby hospital. -Sunday, November 18, 2007
• AP: Explosives hidden in a parked car went off around 11am near an Iraqi police patrol in Mosul, killing three civilian bystanders and wounding at least 16 people, according to police Brig Mohammed al-Wagga. Five of those wounded were policemen... -Sunday, November 18, 2007