While browsing the news headlines this morning, I came across a number of under-reported stories from Iraq, including an alarming suicide rate among U.S. soldiers, yesterday’s news that a civilian cargo plane was hit by a shoulder-fired missile (amazingly the plane was able to land and no one was injured) — even more surprising is that there have been eight reported instances of missiles fired at civilian planes in Iraq, and today’s news that two U.S. soldiers were dragged from their vehicle and their throats slit (though there seem to be some discrepancies in the story; Update: later stories are providing more details. It sounds like the soldiers were shot, their vehicle crashed, and a group of Iraqi teens swarmed the car, dragged the soldiers from their vehicle and pummeled them. It’s reminiscent of Somalia and not a pretty picture. Second Update: Or not. Yet another report denies the pummeling and slashing stories.).

It’s amazing the stuff that goes on that we don’t hear much about. The eight attempts on civilian airplanes is crazy, especially considering some want to open Baghdad airport to passenger flights. Imagine the chaos that would ensue if there was even one attempt on a commercial plane in the U.S.