More than 50 killed in Iraq in gunbattles, car bombing

War In Iraq
Aug 28, 2006
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- At least 40 people -- including 23 Iraqi soldiers -- were killed Monday in ongoing clashes between Shiite militia gunmen and Iraqi soldiers in Diwaniya, about 85 miles (160 kilometers) south of Baghdad, an Iraqi army official said.
The fighting, which began late Sunday, left 32 others wounded.
The clashes erupted after Iraqi soldiers began searching various parts of the Shiite city .
Also Monday, at least 11 people were killed and 63 others wounded when a suicide car bomb detonated at an Iraqi police checkpoint near the Interior Ministry Monday morning, Baghdad emergency police said.
Attacks on American troops around the Iraqi capital Sunday left seven soldiers dead, the U.S. command in Baghdad reported.
{photo: Iraqis look at a car damaged by a roadside bomb in Baghdad.}

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Former US president slaps down 'subservient' Blair
LONDON (AFP) - Former US president Jimmy Carter lashed out at British Prime Minister
Tony Blair for being "so compliant and subservient" to the Bush administration in Washington.
"I have been surprised and extremely disappointed with Tony Blair's behaviour," Carter told the Sunday Telegraph newspaper as he promoted his new book "Faith and Freedom."
"I think that, more than any other person in the world, the prime minister could have had a moderating influence on Washington, and he has not," said the 81-year-old former head of state
Photo above: Former US president Jimmy Carter, seen here in July 2006,