The Surge Has Started

Kurdistan is the one area of Iraq that has been under relative calm, so we bomb them. Report: U.S. airstrike kills 8 Kurds By LAUREN FRAYER, Associated Press Writer BAGHDAD, Iraq - A U.S. airstrike hit a Kurdish position in northern Iraq, killing at least eight Kurdish troops and wounding six, Iraqi officials said Friday. The U.S. military said it was looking into the report. The strike hit just before midnight Thursday in Mosul, according to officials with the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, the party headed by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, a staunch supporter of U.S. efforts in Iraq. Sheik Kabir Goran, deputy in charge of the party's branch in Mosul, said U.S. warplanes hit a guard post that was protecting the PUK branch in eastern Mosul, 225 miles northwest of Baghdad. He said eight Kurdish guards were killed and six were wounded in the strike. Goran identified those killed as peshmerga, members of the Kurdish militia that fought Saddam Hussein's regime for decades. Many peshmerga fighters have been incorporated into the Iraqi military since the U.S.-led invasion. Maj. Gen. Wathiq Mohammed Abdul-Qadir, the commander of the provincial police, confirmed the airstrike and gave the same casualty toll. Goran said U.S. forces went to the post after the airstrike and provided care to the wounded before returning them to the PUK branch. He said the Americans promised to return later Friday to explain what happened. Lt. Col. Christopher Garver, a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad, said the reports were being investigated. Prominent Kurdish lawmaker Mahmoud Othman, who is not a PUK member but has strong ties to the community, expressed anger over the attack. "This is not a good sign for the new security plan that they (U.S. forces) have started by attacking the people who support them," he told The Associated Press. Read More at Yahoo News Three U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq: military Fri Feb 9, 3:02 AM ET BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Three U.S. soldiers died on Thursday of wounds sustained in combat in the western Anbar province, the U.S. military said on Friday. "Three soldiers assigned to Multi-National Force-West were killed Thursday from wounds sustained while conducting combat operations in Al Anbar Province," it said in a statement. The deaths bring to at least 14 the number of U.S. servicemen killed in Iraq in the past three days. Anbar province, a Sunni Arab insurgency stronghold, is the deadliest place for U.S. troops in Iraq. From Yahoo News