Speaking of How Goshed Darn Well Iraq is Going These Days

From the BBC:

A suicide bomber has killed at least 23 people in a restaurant near the Green Zone in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad.

At least six of those killed were policemen. The blast - claimed by the group of Iraq's most wanted rebel Abu Musab al-Zarqawi - injured 36 people.

The bomber walked into the restaurant and set off his charge as people were having lunch, police said.

More than 1,000 people - mostly Iraqis - have been killed since the new government was formed in April.

The attack came despite an operation by about 1,000 US and Iraqi troops north-west of Baghdad aimed at improving security in the Iraqi capital.

And across Iraq:

• insurgents kept up their raids on security forces.
  in north-western Baghdad, three die when a car bomb targets a police convoy near a mosque
• gunmen kill two police officers as they head to work in western Baghdad
• a suicide car bomber kills at least three Iraqi soldiers and wounds nine others in the northern town of Tikrit
• a civilian dies and at least eight other people are injured in a mortar attack in the northern town of Mosul.