Reuters reports that the American units sent to shore up the Iraqi government forces have found that the Iraqis are able to defend the capital but will have difficulty recapturing lost territory.
This is ominous because the geography could lead to a siege, with Sunni forces holding a cordon not far from Shia held Baghdad. in fact Major General Negm Abdullah Ali, commander of the army’s sixth division, responsible for defending part of Baghdad, was killed just 16 km (10 miles) northwest of the capital.
A few hours later, four policemen and three civilians were killed when a suicide bomber drove a minivan packed with explosives into a checkpoint in the mainly Shi’ite Kadhimiya district of northern Baghdad.