19 Killed, 29 Kidnapped, 3 Corpses Discovered
Good Morning,
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Gunmen kidnapped 29 people in Baghdad on Monday, while Iraq's latest wave of violence killed 19 people, including four Iraqi soldiers in a suicide bombing. The interior minister faced calls for his dismissal because of the worsening security crisis in Baghdad and surrounding towns, mostly blamed on sectarian conflict between Shiites and Sunnis.
Gunmen in military fatigues drove to the main shopping area of Karradah in 15 vehicles and split into two groups, one going into a mobile phone shop and the other into the office next door of the Iraqi-American Chamber of Commerce, said police Lt. Thair Mahmoud.
They kidnapped 15 staff and customers from the shop and 11 from the chamber, he said. All were believed to be Iraqis. No other details were available.
In a second kidnapping, gunmen in commando uniforms, blocked a car carrying a millionaire businessman and his two sons, seizing the three in southeastern Baghdad, said police Lt. Bilal Ali Majeed.
Kidnappings for ransom have become rampant in recent months. Abductions are believed to be a major source of income not only for criminal gangs but also insurgents fighting U.S. and Iraqi forces.
The suicide bomber detonated a pickup truck near an Iraqi observation post outside the northern city of Mosul, killing four soldiers and wounding six, said an army officer who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release such information.
A day earlier, gunmen ordered four policemen and a lawyer out of their car and beheaded them near the northern town of Hawija, 150 miles north of Baghdad, said police Col. Burhan Tayeb.
Several key Iraqi parliament members are pressing to replace Interior Minister Jawad al-Bolani, who is responsible for police and paramilitary commandos, at the forefront of the fight against extremists in the capital.
Al-Bolani, a Shiite, was chosen for the sensitive post after protracted negotiations among the various religious and ethnic parties within the national unity government. The interior and defense posts were filled in June, nearly three weeks after the rest of the Cabinet.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki urged Iraqis to defeat sectarian forces in a speech Monday.
"The power is in our hands ... and we will continue hitting terrorism and ... building Iraq brick by brick on the basis on equality and justice," he said.
Random killings have become an almost daily occurrence.
On Monday, gunmen in a sedan shot and killed two vendors selling cooking gas cylinders in Baghdad's western Yarmouk neighborhood, police said. A few hours earlier, gunmen opened fire on municipal street sweepers in the capital, killing one and injuring two.
An hour earlier, a senior intelligence official was shot dead in his car in Baghdad. Two people were killed in other shootings, and a roadside bomb killed a policeman.
Police also discovered the bullet-riddled bodies of three men in the Baghdad area. Two had their hands and feet tied, and the third was fished out of the Tigris river, his body showing signs of torture.
Have a nice day.
2 Die 7 Injured - Television Reports To Be Censored?
Good Morning,
BAGHDAD, Iraq - A car packed with explosives exploded near the U.S. consulate in Kirkuk, killing two Iraqis and wounding seven others, Iraqi police said Sunday.
No Americans were injured in the explosion late Saturday in eastern Kirkuk, said police Col. Burhan Tayeb.
It was the seventh car bombing this month in Kirkuk, where tensions are rising among Arabs, Kurds and Turkomen for control of the area's vast oil wealth.
In Baghdad, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki warned television stations against broadcasting footage that could undermine the country's stability.
A statement by the prime minister's office cited news reports that "capitalize on the footage of victims of terrorist attacks." He called on media outlets to "respect the dignity of human beings and not to fall in the trap set up by terrorist groups who want to petrify the Iraqi people."
The statement said the government will take legal action against television stations that do not uphold the code of media ethics. The statement did not elaborate, but it fell short of an earlier al-Maliki warning that he will not hesitate to "shut them down if they do not stop inciting sectarianism."
There has been an increase in biased reporting by Shiite and Sunni television stations that focus on the suffering of their communities _ often with little mention of the other.
In August 2004, the government closed the Baghdad news office of Al-Jazeera television, accusing the station of inciting violence. The office is still closed but the station operates in the Kurdish-ruled area of the north.
Earlier this month, in a visit to Kurdistan, al-Maliki refused to answer a question by an Al-Jazeera correspondent and reportedly rebuked Kurdish officials for allowing the network to operate there.
In November 2003, the U.S.-appointed Governing Council banned the Dubai-based Al-Arabiya television station from reporting from Baghdad after it aired an audio tape said to be from Saddam Hussein, who was still at large. The station was allowed to resume its work shortly afterward.
Have a nice day.
18 + Iraqis Killed Today
Good Morning,
At least 18 people were killed Saturday in Iraq, including a Sunni cleric from a tribe opposed to al-Qaida in Iraq, who was slain while shot and killed while driving in Samarra, about 60 miles north of Baghdad, police said.
A parked car packed with explosive exploded in a residential district of Kirkuk, killing four people and injuring another 13, police said. It was the sixth car bombing this month in Kirkuk, where tensions are rising among Arabs, Kurds and Turkomen for control of the area's vast oil wealth.
The western regional commander of the Iraqi Border Protection Force, Brig. Gen. Jawad Hadi al-Selawi, was killed in Karbala, 50 miles south of Baghdad, police said.
Iraq's national soccer coach resigned after receiving a death threat, sports officials said. The country's wresting coach was killed July 13. Two days later, more than 30 sporting officials, including the chairman of Iraq's Olympic Committee, were seized during a meeting in Baghdad.
At least 10 of them have been freed, but dozens are still missing, including National Olympic Committee chairman Ahmed al-Hijiya.
Have a nice day.
What is "True Islam". Please Explain.
Good Morning,
In case you were wondering about the personal liberty/rights of the Iraqi citizens, the new Prime Minister Maliki is supposedly fighting for the rights of individuals there. I am just wondering what will happen when the next Iraqi citizen is discovered with a bible in his closet? It was several months ago, as you will recall, that an Iraqi guy was outted by a relative that he had a bible in his home. He ended up in a holding cell in Iraq qualifiying for the death penalty. Word got out, and Mr. Bush cut a deal to get this guy extracted from Iraq into another country so he would not have to face the death penalty there for practicing his own religion.
Here is what is in the news today:
WASHINGTON - Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki insisted Wednesday that his country is a front line in the war on terrorism and said those behind the rampant violence there are perverting the Islamic faith.
"I know some of you question whether Iraq is part of the war on terror," al-Maliki told a joint meeting of Congress, where some lawmakers have been critical of the new Iraqi leader's position on the current conflict between Israel and Hezbollah militants.
"Let me be very clear," said al-Maliki, speaking through a translator. "This is a battle between true Islam, for which a person's liberty and rights constitute essential cornerstones, and terrorism, which wraps itself in a fake Islamic cloak."Let's see what the
"True Islam" in the future brings. Will people really be able to practice their personal and individual rights?
We'll see.
Have a nice day.
Aprox 100 Iraqi Civilians Killed Every Day
Good afternoon,
Today MSNBC news reported that an average oof 100 Iraqi civilians are being killed every day.
Have a nice afternoon.
60+ Killed In Bombings 223+ Wounded
Good Morning,
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Bombs exploded Sunday in Baghdad and the northern oil center of Kirkuk, killing more than 60 people and dramatically escalating tension as the prime minister left for Washington for talks on reversing the country's slide toward civil war.
The blasts occurred as Iraqi forces and the U.S.-led coalition mounted a major crackdown on the country's most feared Shiite militia, the Mahdi Army, blamed by Sunnis for many of the sectarian kidnappings and killings that threaten to tear the country apart.
The Baghdad bombing occurred Sunday when a suicide driver detonated a minivan in the Mahdi Army stronghold of Sadr City at the entrance to the Jameelah market, which was packed with shoppers and vendors on the first day of the Iraqi workweek.
An Iraqi army statement said 34 people were killed and 73 were wounded. Eight more people were killed and 20 wounded when a second bomb exploded two hours later at a municipal government building in Sadr City, the Iraqi army said.
In Kirkuk, a car bomb detonated at midday near a courthouse in the city market district, killing 20 and wounding more than 150, according to police Brig. Gen. Sarhat Qadir. It was the fourth car bombing this month in Kirkuk, where tensions are rising among Arabs, Kurds and Turkomen for control of the area's vast oil wealth.
A wave of bombings, shootings and sectarian killings has plunged Iraq's new unity government into a deep crisis only two months after Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki took office, pledging to pursue national reconciliation and to pave the way for a U.S. military withdrawal.
Instead, the U.S. military is now planning to bolster its forces in Baghdad to cope with the security crisis.
Al-Maliki and a large delegation left Sunday for Washington, where he will meet President Bush on Tuesday. Security is expected to dominate the talks.
In Sadr City, dazed and angry people milled about the car bombing site, many of them still reeling from the effects of a raid against what the U.S. military described as "death squad" members.
"We could not sleep because of the raid, and today we woke up with the explosion of the car bomb," one man told Associated Press Television without giving his name. "How long is it going to be like this?"
Police searched through the wreckage of the car bomb for more victims and warned bystanders to leave or they would be arrested. An elderly man, his clothes soaked in blood, wept as he called out the name of a missing relative.
It was the second major car bombing in Sadr City this month. A blast July 1 killed 66 people, and set off a new wave of reprisal killings and kidnappings of Sunnis by Shiite extremists seeking revenge.
Key to ending the reprisal attacks is to rein in sectarian militias and death squads that U.S. officials say are a greater threat to Iraq than the Sunni insurgents who have been fighting the coalition since 2003. The Mahdi Army is believed to be the biggest Shiite militia.
Sidenote:
Elsewhere in Baghdad, Saddam Hussein was hospitalized Sunday on the 17th day of a hunger strike, the chief prosecutor in his trial said. Jaafar al-Moussawi said he visited the prison Sunday where Saddam and the seven other co-defendants are held and was told that the ex-president's health "is unstable because of the hunger strike."Have a nice day.
Men Shooting
Good morning.
I have been watching in the comfort of my home, coverage of all the bloodshed in the Middle East. As Israel has pounded the Lebonese people ... oops, I'm sorry, I mean Hezbollah, it occured to me that men are finally in their glory. Pent up fear, anger, testosteronic rage, has once again driven men to point their phallices (embodiment of generative power)to shoot off as hard and long as they can towards one another. Unfortunately, as always, innocent citizens always fall victim to their ejactulatory attacks.
For those keeping score, right now it looks like about 10 Lebonese people have been killed to every one Israeli death.
It is not my goal to report civilian deaths throughout the Middle East. I will concentrate on culling through all the morbid details of the slaughter going on to focus on the Iraqis. This week in Iraq has been incredibly bloody. Baghdad recorded an average of 34 major bombings and shootings for the week ending July 13, the U.S. military said. That was up 40 percent from the previous period last month.
As the men continue to shoot off, I pray for the innocents who are just trying to stay out of the way of their spray.
Have a nice day.
7 Iraqis Gunned Down, 4 More Iraqis Killed, 5 Injured
Good Morning,
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Seven Shiite workers were gunned down Saturday in a religiously mixed area of west Baghdad, and explosions in the capital killed one American solider and shattered a one-day calm after a ban on private vehicles expired.
The United States was moving to bolster U.S. troop strength in Baghdad to cope with escalating violence between Sunnis and Shiites.
The seven Shiites died in a drive-by shooting near Baghdad International Airport, police Lt. Maitham Abdul-Razzaq said. Two other workers were wounded.
Two large explosions struck eastern Baghdad. One killed a U.S. soldier near the Rasheed military camp, the U.S. military said. Another targeted an Iraqi police patrol but killed a civilian.
Two rockets exploded later Saturday in the heavily guarded Green Zone, which includes the U.S. and British embassies. There was no report of casualties.
U.S. and Iraqi troops sealed off part of east Baghdad following the blasts and searched homes and shops looking for weapons.
A ban on private vehicles had kept down violence Friday after one of the most violent weeks in the capital this year. It expired Friday evening, and within hours, heavy bursts of automatic weapons rang out.
Elsewhere in Iraq, three people were killed and five were injured in a bombing and shooting in the market in Baqouba, where U.S. forces killed five civilians _ including two women and a toddler _ the day before. The U.S. troops had taken fire from a building during a raid for suspected terrorists.
The U.S. military expressed regret over the civilian deaths and blamed extremists for putting civilians in danger, saying troops fired only after occupants of the building refused repeated orders to leave.
The deteriorating security situation _ especially in Baghdad _ has alarmed U.S. officials, who had hoped that the new national unity government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki would be able to ease tensions so that the U.S. and its international partners could begin removing troops this year.
But the situation has gotten worse since al-Maliki took office May 20. Security is likely to top the agenda when al-Maliki visits the White House this coming week. Al-Maliki also said Saturday he will urge U.S. officials to work for a cease-fire in Lebanon, saying Israel's "hostile acts" adversely affect the entire Middle East.
In other violence Saturday:
_ An American soldier died Thursday of a non-combat related injury, the U.S. military reported. He was assigned to the 43rd Military Police Brigade.
_ In the northern city of Mosul, gunmen attacked a joint U.S.-Iraqi base with rocket-propelled grenades and mortar fire. A suicide car bombing followed, but nobody was hurt, said police Lt. Col. Abdul-Karim Khalaf.
_ One civilian was killed in the crossfire when masked gunmen attacked Iraqi police in Mosul, and three gunmen died in an a separate firefight with police there, Khalaf said.
_ A curfew was imposed on Samarra after a bodyguard of the city council chairman detonated an explosives belt, injuring the chairman and another security officer.
_ An Iraqi soldier was killed by a bomb at his home in Hillah, south of Baghdad, police said. Six people were wounded by a bomb at the bus station in Musayyib.
Baghdad recorded an average of 34 major bombings and shootings for the week ending July 13, the U.S. military said. That was up 40 percent from the previous period last month.
Have a nice day.
12 Iraqis Killed 17 Wounded , 4 Bodies Found
Good Morning,
In violence Thursday:
_A car bomb exploded at a northern gas station, killing 10 people who gathered around the vehicle after discovering a corpse inside. Seven others were injured in the blast near Beiji, 155 miles north of Baghdad, police Capt. Arkan Ali said.
_A car bomb exploded in the northern city of Kirkuk, killing one person and wounding seven.
_The bodies of four men were found in two areas in eastern Baghdad.
_Gunmen assassinated a former official of Saddam's Baath party in Karbala, 50 miles south of Baghdad.
Iraq's top Shiite cleric urged his followers Thursday to refrain from reprisal violence against Sunnis, his strongest call yet for an end to increasing sectarian bloodshed. The statement by Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani came as U.S. military officials reported a 40 percent increase in the daily average of attacks in the Baghdad area.
U.S. spokesman Maj. Gen. William Caldwell said there has been an average of 34 attacks a day against U.S. and Iraqi forces in the capital over the past five days. The daily average for the period June 14 until July 13 was 24 a day, he said.
"We have not witnessed the reduction in violence one would have hoped for in a perfect world," U.S. spokesman Maj. Gen. William Caldwell said at a news briefing Thursday. "The only way we're going to be successful in Baghdad is to get the weapons off the streets."
Caldwell said militias and death squads have responded to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's call for a crackdown by intensifying attacks to derail Iraq's new unity government.
Last month, al-Maliki announced a security plan for Baghdad, including up to 50,000 police and soldiers on the streets, more checkpoints, and raids in neighborhoods where violence is high. But with surging attacks in the capital _ including the kidnapping of high-ranking Iraqi officials _ leading politicians from Shiite and Sunni parties have declared the plan a failure.
The government said Thursday that al-Maliki had dismissed security officials for failing to respond to a Monday attack south of Baghdad in which at least 51 people were killed. Suspected Sunni gunmen went on a rampage through a market in Mahmoudiya, shooting at shoppers and vendors. Most of the victims were Shiites.
Al-Maliki's office said an undisclosed number of security officials would be replaced and that teams would be sent to examine a water shortage that has led to public discontent.
Shiite politicians complained that local police and soldiers failed to respond to the attack until the gunmen fled.
Have a nice day.
14,000 Iraqis Killed In First 6 Months of 2006
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- More than 14,000 civilians have been killed in Iraq in the first half of this year, an ominous figure reflecting the fact that "killings, kidnappings and torture remain widespread" in the war-torn country, a United Nations report says.
6,000 Iraqi Civilians Killed In May and June 2006
Good afternoon.
The alarming most conservative figures on Iraqi civilian deaths have just been released by the United Nations. Here is their report:
UNITED NATIONS - Nearly 6,000 civilians were slain across Iraq in May and June, a spike in deaths that coincided with rising sectarian attacks across the country, the United Nations said Tuesday.
The report from the U.N. Assistance Mission in Iraq describes a wave of lawlessness and crime, including assassinations, bombings, kidnappings, torture and intimidation.
Hundreds of teachers, judges, religious leaders and doctors have been targeted for death, and thousands of people have fled, the report said. Evidence suggests militants also have begun to target homosexuals, it said.
"While welcoming recent positive steps by the government to promote national reconciliation, the report raises alarm at the growing number of casualties among the civilian population killed or wounded during indiscriminate or targeted attacks by terrorists or insurgents," the U.N. said in a note accompanying the report.
According to the report, 2,669 civilians were killed in May and 3,149 were killed in June. Those numbers combined two counts: from the Ministry of Health, which records deaths reported by hospitals; and the Medico-Legal Institute in Baghdad, which tallies the unidentified bodies it receives.
The report charts a month-by-month increase in the number of civilians killed, from 710 in January to 1,129 in April. In the first six months of the year, it said 14,338 people had been killed.
The report's figures were higher than some other counts, but even the U.N. said many killings go unreported.
According to an Associated Press tally based on its daily reporting, at least 1,511 civilians were killed, in May and June, with at least an additional 289 police and security forces killed.
The AP tally said that from January through June 2006, at least 4,191 civilians were killed. The minimum number of police and security forces casualties in that period was at least 805 killed. The AP figures do not include insurgents.
My blog will continue to cover the highlighted killing and slaying of Iraqi civilians irrespective of the rest of the slaughtering that is going on in the Middle East.
Have a nice day.
53+ Killed, 105 Wounded, 12 Bodies Found
Good Morning,
BAGHDAD, Iraq - A suicide car bomber struck amid a crowd of laborers across from a major Shiite shrine in southern Iraq Tuesday, killing at least 53 people and wounding 105, officials and witnesses said.
In Kufa, 100 miles south of Baghdad, the suicide attacker drove a minivan to a site where Shiite laborers gather to look for employment. He offered work, loaded the minivan with those who accepted and then detonated the vehicle, Najaf Gov. Asaad Abu Kalal told a Shiite television station.
The blast occurred about 7:30 a.m. across the street from Kufa's gold-domed mosque, police Capt. Nafie Mohammed said. The shrine, located in a congested area of the city, marks the place where Imam Ali, cousin and son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad, was mortally wounded.
Senior provincial health official Dr. Muthir al-Ithari said the casualty figure was from reports sent by hospitals in Kufa and nearby Najaf.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite, condemned the attack and promised to track down and punish those who planned it.
Late Monday, police said they found 12 bodies in different parts of town _ possible victims of reprisal killings.
Have a nice day.
26 Killed 22 Injured In Baghdad Cafe Bombing
Good Evening,
BAGHDAD, Iraq - A martyr bomber detonated explosives Sunday inside a cafe packed with Shiites in northern Iraq, killing 26 people and injuring 22, an Iraqi general said. Gunmen seized a top Oil Ministry official, the second major kidnapping in as many days.
The suicide attack occurred about 8:30 p.m. in the outdoor market in Tuz Khormato, a mostly Turkomen city 130 miles north of Baghdad, Maj. Gen. Anwar Mohammed Amin said.
The powerful blast collapsed the ceiling of the one-story cafe, burying many of the victims, witnesses said. Hours afterward, rescuers were still sifting through the debris looking for the dead or injured. Authorities used mosque loudspeakers to appeal for blood donations.
One of Iraq's main ethnic groups, Turkomen follow both the Sunni and Shiite traditions of Islam. Amin said Shiites favored the cafe because it was near a Shiite mosque. But friction exists among Iraq's Turkomen and Kurdish populations, and the motive for the attack was unclear.
In Baghdad, gunmen seized Adel Kazzaz, director of the North Oil Co., shortly after he left the Oil Ministry in eastern Baghdad, ministry spokesman Assem Jihad said. They beat his bodyguards and whisked him away, Jihad said.
The government-owned North Oil Co. runs Iraq's oil fields around the northern city of Kirkuk, and Kazzaz was in the capital for a meeting with ministry officials.
The northern fields have been plagued for years by sabotage attacks on pipelines and other infrastructure. Oil exports were restored last month after a long delay but halted again last week and not expected to resume soon.
The high-profile kidnapping came one day after gunmen abducted the head of Iraq's National Olympic Committee and 30 other people. Six were set free Sunday in eastern Baghdad, left blindfolded and unharmed, Iraq's Sport Journalist Union said.
There was no word on the other hostages, including the Olympic National Committee chairman, Ahmed al-Hijiya.
Also Sunday:
_ Gunmen swooped down on the detention wing of the main hospital in Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, and freed 13 prisoners under treatment there, police said. Four policemen were killed in the assault and three prisoners were later recaptured.
Baqouba is the capital of Diyala province, where Sunni-Shiite tensions run high and where Sunni insurgents are active. No details were given about the prisoners.
_ In Baghdad, a bomb hidden in a trash bag exploded in the Karradah district, killing four people and wounding 21 others, police said. One person was killed and two were wounded when a bomb exploded near a police patrol in north Baghdad.
_ Two people were killed and five were wounded in a gunbattle between police and militants in another north Baghdad neighborhood, police said.
_ A suicide bomber attacked a joint U.S.-Iraqi patrol in the northern city of Mosul, killing three civilians and wounding six others, police said.
_ Gunmen opened fire on a vehicle carrying three guards of the Baghdad mobile telephone company, killing one, according to police.
_ In the northern city of Kirkuk, two barbers were killed in a drive-by shooting, police said. Drive-by shootings killed one person in Mosul and another in Muqdadiyah, northeast of the capital.
Have a nice evening.
7 Killed, 23 Wounded, 6 of the 30 Hostages Released
Good Morning,
In Baghdad, a bomb hidden in a trash bag exploded in a commercial area of the Karradah district, killing four people and wounding 21 others, police said.
One person was killed and two were wounded when a bomb exploded near a police patrol in north Baghdad, police said.
In the northern city of Kirkuk, two barbers were killed in a drive-by shooting, police said. Drive-by shootings killed one person in Mosul and another in Muqdadiyah, northeast of the capital.
Six of more than 30 people seized at an Iraqi Olympic Committee meeting were released in Baghdad on Sunday, while a British soldier was killed during a raid in southern Iraq.
The six hostages were left blindfolded and unharmed in the capital's Baladiyat neighborhood, Iraq's Sport Journalist Union said. There was no word on the other hostages, including the Olympic National Committee chairman, Ahmed al-Hijiya.
A former member of Iraq's Olympic committee, Nashat Mahir al-Salman, 75, was the first abductee dropped in the neighborhood, followed hours later by Baghdad soccer coach Ahmed Subhi and four security guards, the sports union said.
The victims were seized Saturday in a daylight attack in the heart of Baghdad. Gunmen blindfolded and handcuffed participants and bodyguards, hustled them into about a dozen vehicles and sped away. The bodies of two bodyguards were found dumped on a street.
The International Olympic Committee in Geneva condemned "these acts against the sport community" and called for the immediate release of the hostages.
The coach of Iraq's national wrestling team was killed Thursday in Baghdad.
Have a nice day.
23 People Killed, 38 Wounded
Good Afternoon,
In additional violence on Saturday:
_ Two U.S. soldiers were killed in separate bombings in Baghdad, in the Shiite district of Sadr City and in the southern part of the capital, the military said. At least 2,549 members of the U.S. military have died since the start of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
_ A roadside bomb hidden in a box near a supermarket exploded in southern Baghdad, killing six people and wounding 11 others, police said.
_ A suicide car bomber attacked a police patrol in eastern Baghdad, killing two paramilitary commandos and wounding four people, two of them civilians, police said. Another suicide driver attacked a police patrol in northern Baghdad, wounding six people, including two policemen, officials said.
_ At least six people were killed in scattered clashes between Iraqi soldiers and gunmen in the capital. Seven people were injured in a mortar attack near Haifa Street in downtown Baghdad, blocks from the Green Zone that houses the U.S. and British embassies, police said.
_ Small-scale shootings and bombings in Baghdad and the northern cities of Mosul and Kirkuk killed nine people. In Kirkuk, a local leader of the ethnic Turkomen community escaped injury when a roadside bomb exploded near his convoy, wounding 16 people, half of them his bodyguards, police said.
Have a nice day.
Iraqi Olympic Committee Head and 30 Employees Kidnapped
Good Morning,
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Gunmen kidnapped the head of Iraq's Olympic committee and at least 30 employees after storming their offices in Baghdad on Saturday, police said.
The gunmen were riding in three government vehicles and wearing police uniforms when they broke into a cultural center in central Baghdad, police Lt. Thair Mahmoud said.
Mahmoud said Ahmed al-Hijiya, president of the committee, was taken around 1:30 p.m. along with other employees as they attended a conference in the neighborhood of Karradah.
Have a nice day.
About 60 Iraqis Killed In Violent Attacks Today
Good afternoon,
BAGHAD, Iraq - Suicide bombers struck Tuesday across the street from the heavily guarded Green Zone, killing up to 16 people _ the deadliest attack in a wave of bombings and shootings that threatened to shatter confidence in Iraq's new government.
In all, about 60 people died in more than a dozen bombings, shootings and ambushes _ mostly in the Baghdad area, according to police reports. The dead included 10 Shiites slain by gunmen who fired on their bus as it left the capital for a funeral in southern Iraq, police said.
Much of the violence Tuesday appeared sectarian, part of a surge in tit-for-tat killings that began Sunday when Shiite gunmen rampaged through a mostly Sunni area of west Baghdad, killing 41 people, according to police.
Throughout Tuesday, car bombs detonated and mortar shells exploded in Shiite and Sunni neighborhoods across the sprawling capital. Most caused few deaths and injuries but collectively the toll was high, suggesting that U.S. and Iraqi forces are powerless to stop the violence soon.
As night fell, police reported explosions and gunfire in the western Baghdad neighborhood of Amariyah. Bursts of heavy machine-gun fire could be heard intermittently late Tuesday from along the Tigris River that flows through the center of the city.
More than 1,607 Iraqis have been killed and nearly 2,500 wounded since al-Maliki's government took office May 20, according to an Associated Press count
Have a nice day.
15 Killed In Bombings and Shootings, 41 + Wounded
Good Afternoon,
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Car bombs killed eight people in a Shiite slum and gunmen mounted a deadly ambush on a bus in a Sunni area of the capital Monday as Iraq's sectarian violence showed no sign of easing.
The coordinated bombing attack in Baghdad's Sadr City began at midmorning when a car exploded near a repair shop. Minutes later, a suicide bomber blew up his vehicle in a crowd of curiosity-seekers who were milling around the first blast site, witnesses and police said.
In addition to the dead, 41 people were wounded, most of them in the second blast, police said.
Hours later, gunmen attacked a bus in the predominantly Sunni neighborhood of Amariyah in western Baghdad, killing the driver and six passengers, including a woman, police Capt. Jamil Hussein said. The attackers set fire to the bus before fleeing.
The bombings in Sadr City may have been a reprisal for an attack Sunday in west Baghdad's Jihad neighborhood, where Shiite gunmen rampaged through the streets, stopping people, checking identification cards and killing people with clearly Sunni names.
Have a nice day.
4 More US Military Men Charged With Rape-Slayings
Good afternoon,
TIKRIT, Iraq - Four more U.S. soldiers have been charged with rape and murder and a fifth with dereliction of duty in the alleged rape-slaying of a young Iraqi woman and the killings of her relatives in Mahmoudiya, the military said Sunday.
The five were accused Saturday following an investigation into allegations that American soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division raped the teenager and killed her and three relatives at her home south of Baghdad.
Ex-soldier Steven D. Green was arrested last week in North Carolina and has pleaded not guilty to one count of rape and four counts of murder.
The U.S. statement said the five soldiers still on active duty will face an Article 32 investigation, similar to a grand jury hearing in civilian law. The Article 32 proceeding will determine whether there is enough evidence to place them on trial.
One of the soldiers was charged with failing to report the attack but is not believed to have participated in it directly, the statement said. The four facing murder charges could face the death penalty if convicted.
The names of the five were not released, but a U.S. military official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation, said Sunday that the soldiers recently charged are two sergeants, two privates first-class and one specialist.
Have a nice day.
41 People Slaughtered and 17 People Killed In Car Bombing & Misc. Murders
Good Morning,
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Masked Shiite gunmen stopped cars in western Baghdad Sunday and grabbed people off the streets, singling out the Sunni Arabs and killing at least 41 people, police said.
The rampage in the Jihad neighborhood was in apparent retaliation for the Saturday night car bombing of a Shiite mosque that killed two and wounded nine. Sunni leaders expressed outrage over the Sunday attacks, referring to them as a "massacre."
Armed men belonging to the Mahdi army, the Shiite militia loyal to radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, sealed off roads leading to the neighboring area of Shula, fearing reprisals, police said, although al-Sadr aides denied their militiamen were behind the attacks. Clashes also were reported in the area and in eastern Baghdad.
Two parked car bombs later struck the al-Timim Shiite mosque in central Baghdad, killing 17 people and wounding 38, according to police Lt. Mohammed Khayoun.
Police and witnesses said gunmen pulled up in four cars in the dangerous Jihad neighborhood in western Baghdad at about 10 a.m. and began seizing pedestrians and people in vehicles.
An Interior Ministry official, speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons, said Shiite militiamen wearing masks and black uniforms roamed the neighborhood, checking people's identification cards and abducting those with names indicating they were Sunni.
Wissam Mohammad Hussein al-Ani, a 27-year-old Sunni calligrapher, said three gunmen stopped him as he walked toward the bus and asked him to produce his identification. They let him go after he produced a fake ID with a Shiite name but seized two young men standing nearby.
The Shiite owner of a supermarket in the area said he saw heavily armed men pull four people out of a car, blindfold them and force them to stand to the side while they grabbed five others out of a minivan.
"After ten minutes, the gunmen took the nine people to a place few meters away from the market and opened fire on them," Saad Jawad Kadhim al-Azzawi said. "When I heard the gunfire, I closed my supermarket and went home."
Police Lt. Maitham Abdul-Razzaq said 41 bodies were taken to hospitals and police were searching for more victims reportedly left dumped in the streets. He also said U.S. and Iraqi forces had sealed off the area.
Witnesses said the American forces were using loudspeakers to announce a two-day curfew.
Government leaders urged calm, with the prime minister's office saying the situation was under control and President Jalal Talabani calling on Iraqis to cling to national unity and "not be provoked by acts of violence that some want to look sectarian."
Al-Sadr also condemned the killings in a telephone conversation with Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi, who also heads the Sunni Iraqi Islamic Party, his secretary Mohammed Shaker said.
The cleric called for an emergency session of parliament to discuss the sectarian crisis and said he will form an investigative committee to bring those involved to justice, even if they are part of his Mahdi Army militia, al-Hashimi's secretary said.
But Sunnis were irate. Deputy Prime Minister Salam al-Zubaie, a member of the sect, called the attack "a real and ugly massacre," and blamed Iraqi security forces, widely believed to have been infiltrated by Shiite militias, for failing to maintain order.
"There are officers who instead of being in charge should be questioned and referred to judicial authorities," al-Zubaie told Al-Jazeera TV. "Jihad is witnessing a catastrophic crime."
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's office distanced itself from al-Zubaie's comments, issuing a statement saying they "do not represent the government's point of view."
The Shiite-led government has vowed to crack down on Shiite militias and Iraqi troops backed by U.S. jets raided the stronghold of Sadr City on Friday, killing and wounding dozens of people.
An Interior Ministry aide said the situation was brought under control after several hours.
Maj. Gen. Ali Jasim told The Associated Press that by mid-afternoon, the neighborhood was "under the full control" of Interior Ministry commandos.
Alaa Maki, a member of the largest Sunni bloc in parliament, accused Shiite extremists of trying to wipe out the minority, which was dominant under Saddam Hussein but lost power to majority Shiites after his ouster.
"We demand the presidency, the prime minister and the parliament stand against this agenda," he said. "The situation is very serious. If it deteriorates, all of us will be losers."
Some Sunni leaders blamed the Madhdi army.
Sheikh Abdul Samad al-Hadithi, imam of the Fakhri Shanshal Sunni mosque that also was hit by a car bomb Friday, with two people killed, said the militiamen were looking for revenge for the bombing against the Shiite mosque Saturday.
He said they first set up checkpoints and killed nine employees of the Sunni Endowment, the state agency responsible for Sunni mosques and shrines, then went on a rampage, killing more than 50 people according to their IDs.
"They wanted to retaliate against people of the other sect," al-Hadithi said, accusing Interior Ministry forces at the site of standing by while the attacks occurred.
Al-Sadr aide Sheik Abdul-Hadi al-Darraji denied any links, saying the attackers were wearing the black uniforms to provoke sectarian tension.
Clashes also broke out between gunmen and Iraqi police in the eastern Fadhal neighborhood, but the situation was brought under control after several hours, Abdul-Razzaq said.
In other violence, gunmen killed an Iraqi intelligence officer in the Shiite holy city of Karbala, one of several deadly shootings targeting security forces.
The officer was gunned down after his car was intercepted in the center of Karbala, 50 miles south of Baghdad, health official Salim al-Abadi said.
Gunmen also opened fire on a foot patrol in eastern Baghdad, killing a policeman, police said. Another policeman was killed in a drive-by shooting in the northern city of Kirkuk.
Have a nice day.
Multiple Killings, Bodies Found
Good Morning,
Also Saturday, gunmen in two cars stopped a vehicle in Baghdad's Dora neighborhood, forced the two passengers to get out and killed them in front of horrified bystanders, according to police Lt. Maithem Abdel-Razaq.
In the same neighborhood, gunmen opened fire on a Shiite family as it was moving out of the city, wounding five members, police said. Dora has a mixed Sunni-Shiite population and has become one of the most dangerous areas in the capital for sectarian violence.
Elsewhere, gunmen Saturday killed three people working in an ice cream shop in the mostly Shiite Baghdad neighborhood of Nahrawan, police Lt. Fikrat Mohammed said.
Police also reported finding two bodies in separate locations in eastern Baghdad. They were believed the latest victims of sectarian death squads.
Meanwhile, gunmen in two speeding car fired Saturday on a Sunni mosque in west Baghdad's Ghazaliya neighborhood. Mosque guards returned fire and the attackers fled, police Capt. Jamil Hussein said.
The incidents occurred a day after at least 17 others died in a wave of bombings and mortar attacks against mostly Sunni mosques in the Baghdad area and northern Iraq. A Sunni cleric was also kidnapped in the capital, a Sunni official said.
Sectarian violence has forced thousands of Iraqis to move to different neighborhoods or cities where their sect is predominant. The Interior Ministry estimated earlier this month that nearly 4,000 families _ or about 23,670 people _ have been forced to relocate to other neighborhoods in the Baghdad area alone.
On Friday, U.S. Sen. Joseph Biden said the "jury's still out" on whether Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki will clamp down on sectarian militias blamed for much of the spiraling sectarian violence.
Earlier Friday, Iraqi forces backed by U.S. jets and soldiers raided the Shiite militia stronghold of Sadr City in what appeared to be a crackdown on unauthorized armed groups. U.S. officials said 30-40 "enemy fighters" were killed or wounded, but residents claimed up to 11 civilians died.
Have a nice day.
Iraq Demands Justice In US Troop Rape and Murder Case, 7 More Corpses Found
Good Morning,
BAGHDAD, Iraq - The justice minister demanded Tuesday that the U.N. Security Council ensure that a group of U.S. troops are punished in the alleged rape and murder of a young Iraqi and the killing of her family, calling the attack "monstrous and inhuman."
Two female legislators also called for Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to be summoned to parliament to give assurances that justice would be done.
Meanwhile, gunmen in camouflage uniforms kidnapped Deputy Electricity Minister Raed al-Hares, along with 11 of his bodyguards in eastern Baghdad, security officials said.
The gunmen stopped al-Hares' convoy in the Shiite neighborhood of Talbiya, then forced the official and his bodyguards into their vehicles, said police Lt. Ahmed Qassim.
The kidnapping occurred three days after gunmen seized female Sunni legislator Tayseer al-Mashhadani in a Shiite area of east Baghdad. She and seven bodyguards are still missing.
The March 12 attack on the family in Mahmoudiya, south of Baghdad, was among the worst in a series of cases of U.S. troops accused of killing and abusing Iraqi civilians. Iraq's largest newspaper, Azzaman, said in an editorial Tuesday the rape "summarizes what has been going in Iraq for the past years not only by the American occupation army, but also by some Iraqi groups."
Former Pfc. Steven D. Green appeared in federal court in Charlotte, N.C., on Monday to face murder and rape charges. At least four other U.S. soldiers still in Iraq are under investigation, and the military has stressed it is taking the allegations seriously.
"If this act actually happened, it constitutes an ugly and unethical crime, monstrous and inhuman," said Justice Minister Hashim Abdul-Rahman al-Shebli, a Sunni Arab. "The Iraqi judiciary should be informed about this investigation which should be conducted under supervision of international and human organizations. Those involved should face justice."
"The ugliness of this crime demands a swift intervention of the U.N. Security Council to stop these violations of human rights and to condemn them so that they will not happen again," he added.
The two lawmakers, Safiya al-Suhail and Ayda al-Sharif, said condemnation was not enough.
"We demand severe punishment for the five soldiers involved," al-Sharif said. "Denouncements are not enough. If this act has taken place in another country, the world would have turned upside down."
Al-Suhail said al-Maliki should appear before parliament "to make sure investigations are taking place."
Mahmoudiya Mayor Mouayad Fadhil said Iraqi authorities have started their own investigation and that he had asked the hospital where the victims were taken for more details.
Green is accused of raping the woman and killing her and three relatives _ an adult male and female and a girl estimated to be 5 years old. An official familiar with the investigation said he set fire to the rape victim's body in an apparent cover-up attempt.
Iraqi authorities identified the rape victim as Abeer Qassim Hamza. The other victims were her father, Qassim Hamza, her mother, Fikhriya Taha, and her sister, Hadeel Qassim Hamza.
The affidavit estimated the rape victim was about 25. But a doctor at the Mahmoudiya hospital gave her age as 14. He refused to be identified for fear of reprisals.
Mahdi Obeid, a neighbor, said that on March 12, he saw fire coming from the house. He rushed over to find Abeer's body on fire. He extinguished the flames and saw bullet wounds in her head and chest.
"It was a horrible scene," he said. "If I could go back in time, I would have not dared enter the house. I cannot wipe those barbaric scenes from my memory."
An insurgent group, the Mujahedeen Army, distributed an account of the incident on an Islamist Web site. It appeared the report, which generally corresponded with details already made public, was designed to draw attention to the deaths and stir up hostility against the U.S. military.
The Azzaman newspaper expressed skepticism the soldiers would be severely punished.
"The U.S. Army will conduct an investigation and the result at best is already known. One or two U.S. soldiers will receive a 'touristic punishment' and the whole crime will be forgotten as it happened with Abu Ghraib criminals," the newspaper said, referring to the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. guards at a prison in west Baghdad.
Iraqi authorities, meanwhile, imposed an 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. car and pedestrian curfew in Basra to bolster a state of emergency that has failed to curb increasing violence in the southern city. The measure will take effect on Friday, police Col. Karim al-Zeidi said.
A roadside bomb struck a police patrol in eastern Baghdad, killing three policemen and wounding three others, Lt. Bilal Ali said.
Police also found six bodies of construction workers in Baghdad _ four who were shot in the head and left near a Sunni mosque and two others _ a Shiite and a Sunni _ who were left in a different location, Lt. Maitam Abdul-Razzaq said.
A Sunni sheik who was shot by gunmen on Monday in Fallujah died of his wounds and large numbers of clerics and other mourners participated in a funeral procession.
Have a nice day.
Kidnappings: Deputy Electricity Minister, and Sunni Female Legislator
Good morning.
Gunmen in camouflaged uniforms kidnapped Iraq's deputy electricity minister, Raed al-Hares, and 11 of his bodyguards in eastern Baghdad. The kidnapping occurred three days after gunmen seized a Sunni female legislator in east Baghdad; she and seven bodyguards are still missing.
Have a nice day.
