Iraq Update

One step forward (kind of):

Iraqi police, for the first time attempting to play a significant role in maintaining security in post-invasion Iraq, fought pitched battles with insurgents in the streets of Baghdad. It seems unlikely that the offensive will have the desired effect of driving the insurgents from the capital city.

And three steps backwards:

US forces mistakenly raided the home of Mohsen Abdul-Hamid, the head of Iraq's largest Sunni Arab political party, detaining him briefly. Abdul-Hamid was arrested with his three sons and four body guards. It's unclear how the US military made this mistake. How's that Iraqi sovereignty working out?

According to Sabrina Tavernise in the New York Times, in the last year about 10% of Baghdad's doctors, facing threats of kidnapping murder, to say nothing of the the difficulties of practicing medecine in a country without a reliable power supply, have left or been driven from work.

On a broader note, Jeffrey Fleishman reports in the LA Times that fear of the threat of civil war is growing throughout Iraq.