A REAL NEWS HEADLINE

In marked contrast to FAUX News, McClatchy's headline doesn't contradict the story and as a bonus, lets us know something about what our ambassador thinks and about the internecine conflict in the South.

Senators offer bleak assessment of Iraq after governor killed
By Chris Collins McClatchy Newspapers
Posted on Mon, August 20, 2007

BAGHDAD — A roadside bomb on Monday killed the governor of Iraq's Muthanna province, making him the second governor in as many weeks to become a casualty of violence between rival Shiite Muslim militias in southern Iraq.

In a joint statement, Sens. Carl Levin, D-Mich., the committee's chairman, and John Warner, R-Va., the committee's senior Republican, said that while a surge of U.S. troops had tamped down violence in some parts of Baghdad, there was no sign of political reconciliation between Iraq's Sunni and Shiite rivals and "we are not optimistic about the prospects." They said U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker shared their views.

Gov. Mohammed Ali al Hassani was killed at about 8 a.m. while traveling from his hometown, Rumaitha, to his office in Simawa, police said. Two other people traveling with him also were killed, and three of his guards were injured.

Another provincial governor in southern Iraq, Khalil Jalil Hamza of the Diwaniyah province, was killed Aug. 11, also by a roadside bomb.

Both Hamza and Hassani were affiliated with the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, a Shiite political group. The council has a militant wing known as the Badr Organization. The Badr militia is locked in combat in the south with the Mahdi Army, head by Shiite cleric Muqtada al Sadr.