250 Insurgents Meet Allah

The Iraqi government says that 250 insurgents have been killed in a battle in Najaf:

BAGHDAD, Iraq - U.S.-backed Iraqi troops on Sunday attacked insurgents allegedly plotting to kill pilgrims at a major Shiite Muslim religious festival, and Iraqi officials estimated some 250 militants died in the daylong battle near Najaf. A U.S. helicopter crashed during the fight, killing two American soldiers.

That's eighteen thousand perpetual virgins, or white raisins, depending on which translation you prefer.

Even stranger than the AP reporting an apparent successful battle in Iraq is the United Nations actually condemning insurgent terrorism:

Mortar shells, meanwhile, hit the courtyard of a girls' school in a mostly Sunni Arab neighborhood of Baghdad, killing five pupils and wounding 20. U.N. officials deplored the attack, calling the apparent targeting of children "an unforgivable crime."

Then again, with the UN, "an unforgivable crime" may just mean that they haven't figured a way to turn a profit from it.