Yesterday in Iraq

Baghdad

- Around 8 a.m. A mortar shell hit Al Ghadeer neighborhood causing damages with no casualties.

- Around 9 a.m. two mortar shells hit the Green Zone.

- Around 4 p.m. a mortar shell hit the Green Zone.

- Clashes between Iraqi army and Mahdi Army militia in Sadr city, injuring three civilians.

- Police found two dead bodies throughout Baghdad, one in Al Husseiniyah, one in Dora.

Kirkuk

- Police found two dead bodies in northern Kirkuk.

BAGHDAD - The U.S. military announced on Wednesday that five U.S. soldiers had been killed, 3 in separate roadside bomb attacks and 2 from non-combat related injuries. Four of the 5 soldiers died on Wednesday and one on Tuesday.

BAGHDAD - 23 people were killed and 83 injured in the eastern Baghdad slum of Sadr City on Wednesday, Iraqi security sources said.

BAGHDAD - Two unidentified bodies were found in Baghdad on Wednesday, police said.

MOSUL - Two successive car bombs killed three policemen and a civilian and wounded 20 people including three policemen when they targeted a police patrol in central Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, police said. . .

BAGHDAD - The U.S. military killed two armed men northeast of Baghdad, the U.S. military said.

BAGHDAD - Iraqi authorities imposed curfews on Baghdad as well as the cities of Samarra and Tikrit to prevent violence on Wednesday, the fifth anniversary of the fall of the capital to U.S. forces. . .

DHULUIYA - A mortar shell landed on a house in Dhuluiya, 70 km (45 miles) north of Baghdad overnight, killing a woman and wounding her four sons, police said.

DIYALA - The U.S. military said it destroyed a facility used to make explosive devices in Diyala province, north of Baghdad. . .

NEAR KIRKUK - Gunmen killed a civilian in Tal al-Hadeed village near Kirkuk, 250 km north of Baghdad, police said.

NEAR KIRKUK - Gunmen killed a policeman and a civilian in Tuz Khurmato, south of Kirkuk, police said. . .

KIRKUK - Two roadside bombs exploded on Tuesday in the town of Tuz, 70 km (40 miles) south of Kirkuk, wounding 17 Iraqis, the U.S. military said. . .

KIRKUK - Iraqi police found a body hand-cuffed and riddled with bullets east of the northern city of Kirkuk on Tuesday.

So let's summarize. Bombs going off. Mortar shells falling. Dead bodies being found all over the place. Yeppers, left-wingers sure are lying about Iraq when they say things are bad there. But Johnny McInsane insists that Iraq is approaching normalcy... why, just any minute Iraqis will bust out with those flower petals, yessiree!

- Badtux the Snarky Penguin
All reports by Reuters or McClatchy.