Good Evening,
On the final day of an exceedingly bloody year, Saddam Hussein was also buried in the town where he was born.
There was a relative lull in the bombings and assassinations that have threatened to rip Iraq apart along sectarian seams. Police reported finding 12 bodies dumped in Baghdad Sunday as well as 12 other violent deaths nationwide, both relatively low numbers by recent standards.
Happy New Year.
At Least 68 Killed In Iraq
Good Afternoon,
The day after Saddam's hanging, killings continue as usual:
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Bombings killed at least 68 people in Iraq on Saturday, including one planted on a minibus that exploded in a fish market in a mostly Shiite town south of Baghdad.
The attacks came hours after Saddam Hussein was hanged in Baghdad for ordering the killings of 148 Shiites in the city of Dujail in 1982. Despite concerns about a spike in unrest, Saturday's violence was not unusually high and there was no indication it was related to the execution.
The bombing at the fish market in Kufa, a Shiite town about 100 miles south of the Iraqi capital, killed 31 people and wounded 58, said Issa Mohammed, director of the morgue in the neighboring town of Najaf. The man blamed for parking the vehicle was cornered and killed by a mob as he walked away from the explosion, police and witnesses said.
Shoppers had crowded into the market to buy supplies for the four-day Eid al-Adha festival, the most important holiday of the Islamic calendar for Shiites.
Television footage showed hundreds of men in traditional Arab headdresses swarming around the minibus' charred frame, toppled on its side in the street. Ambulances and fire trucks pulled up to the site, and a coffin was loaded on top of a car.
In northwest Baghdad, two parked cars exploded one after another, killing 37 civilians and wounding 76 in a mixed neighborhood of the Iraqi capital, police said.
Have a nice day.
Thank You Riverbend
This is a copy of Riverbend's latest posting. The news we get here is sterile, so I highly recommend that you check in with her website (See the link on the right of my homepage). Understanding the Iraqi perspective provides so much more clarity than the news clips could ever hope to convey. Thank you Riverbend, for your excellent writing, and please keep posting as much as possible, as your insights are extremely valuable. Take care.
FROM "Baghdad Burning 12/29/06"... written by Riverbend:
End of Another Year...
You know your country is in trouble when:
The UN has to open a special branch just to keep track of the chaos and bloodshed, UNAMI.
Abovementioned branch cannot be run from your country.
The politicians who worked to put your country in this sorry state can no longer be found inside of, or anywhere near, its borders.
The only thing the US and Iran can agree about is the deteriorating state of your nation.
An 8-year war and 13-year blockade are looking like the country's 'Golden Years'.
Your country is purportedly 'selling' 2 million barrels of oil a day, but you are standing in line for 4 hours for black market gasoline for the generator.
For every 5 hours of no electricity, you get one hour of public electricity and then the government announces it's going to cut back on providing that hour.
Politicians who supported the war spend tv time debating whether it is 'sectarian bloodshed' or 'civil war'.
People consider themselves lucky if they can actually identify the corpse of the relative that's been missing for two weeks.
A day in the life of the average Iraqi has been reduced to identifying corpses, avoiding car bombs and attempting to keep track of which family members have been detained, which ones have been exiled and which ones have been abducted.
2006 has been, decidedly, the worst year yet. No- really. The magnitude of this war and occupation is only now hitting the country full force. It's like having a big piece of hard, dry earth you are determined to break apart. You drive in the first stake in the form of an infrastructure damaged with missiles and the newest in arms technology, the first cracks begin to form. Several smaller stakes come in the form of politicians like Chalabi, Al Hakim, Talbani, Pachachi, Allawi and Maliki. The cracks slowly begin to multiply and stretch across the once solid piece of earth, reaching out towards its edges like so many skeletal hands. And you apply pressure. You surround it from all sides and push and pull. Slowly, but surely, it begins coming apart- a chip here, a chunk there.
That is Iraq right now. The Americans have done a fine job of working to break it apart. This last year has nearly everyone convinced that that was the plan right from the start. There were too many blunders for them to actually have been, simply, blunders. The 'mistakes' were too catastrophic. The people the Bush administration chose to support and promote were openly and publicly terrible- from the conman and embezzler Chalabi, to the terrorist Jaffari, to the militia man Maliki. The decisions, like disbanding the Iraqi army, abolishing the original constitution, and allowing militias to take over Iraqi security were too damaging to be anything but intentional.
The question now is, but why? I really have been asking myself that these last few days. What does America possibly gain by damaging Iraq to this extent? I'm certain only raving idiots still believe this war and occupation were about WMD or an actual fear of Saddam.
Al Qaeda? That's laughable. Bush has effectively created more terrorists in Iraq these last 4 years than Osama could have created in 10 different terrorist camps in the distant hills of Afghanistan. Our children now play games of 'sniper' and 'jihadi', pretending that one hit an American soldier between the eyes and this one overturned a Humvee.
This last year especially has been a turning point. Nearly every Iraqi has lost so much. So much. There's no way to describe the loss we've experienced with this war and occupation. There are no words to relay the feelings that come with the knowledge that daily almost 40 corpses are found in different states of decay and mutilation. There is no compensation for the dense, black cloud of fear that hangs over the head of every Iraqi. Fear of things so out of ones hands, it borders on the ridiculous- like whether your name is 'too Sunni' or 'too Shia'. Fear of the larger things- like the Americans in the tank, the police patrolling your area in black bandanas and green banners, and the Iraqi soldiers wearing black masks at the checkpoint.
Again, I can't help but ask myself why this was all done? What was the point of breaking Iraq so that it was beyond repair? Iran seems to be the only gainer. Their presence in Iraq is so well-established, publicly criticizing a cleric or ayatollah verges on suicide. Has the situation gone so beyond America that it is now irretrievable? Or was this a part of the plan all along? My head aches just posing the questions.
What has me most puzzled right now is: why add fuel to the fire? Sunnis and moderate Shia are being chased out of the larger cities in the south and the capital. Baghdad is being torn apart with Shia leaving Sunni areas and Sunnis leaving Shia areas- some under threat and some in fear of attacks. People are being openly shot at check points or in drive by killings… Many colleges have stopped classes. Thousands of Iraqis no longer send their children to school- it's just not safe.
Why make things worse by insisting on Saddam's execution now? Who gains if they hang Saddam? Iran, naturally, but who else? There is a real fear that this execution will be the final blow that will shatter Iraq. Some Sunni and Shia tribes have threatened to arm their members against the Americans if Saddam is executed. Iraqis in general are watching closely to see what happens next, and quietly preparing for the worst.
This is because now, Saddam no longer represents himself or his regime. Through the constant insistence of American war propaganda, Saddam is now representative of all Sunni Arabs (never mind most of his government were Shia). The Americans, through their speeches and news articles and Iraqi Puppets, have made it very clear that they consider him to personify Sunni Arab resistance to the occupation. Basically, with this execution, what the Americans are saying is "Look- Sunni Arabs- this is your man, we all know this. We're hanging him- he symbolizes you." And make no mistake about it, this trial and verdict and execution are 100% American. Some of the actors were Iraqi enough, but the production, direction and montage was pure Hollywood (though low-budget, if you ask me).
That is, of course, why Talbani doesn't want to sign his death penalty- not because the mob man suddenly grew a conscience, but because he doesn't want to be the one who does the hanging- he won't be able to travel far away enough if he does that.
Maliki's government couldn't contain their glee. They announced the ratification of the execution order before the actual court did. A few nights ago, some American news program interviewed Maliki's bureau chief, Basim Al-Hassani who was speaking in accented American English about the upcoming execution like it was a carnival he'd be attending. He sat, looking sleazy and not a little bit ridiculous, his dialogue interspersed with 'gonna', 'gotta' and 'wanna'... Which happens, I suppose, when the only people you mix with are American soldiers.
My only conclusion is that the Americans want to withdraw from Iraq, but would like to leave behind a full-fledged civil war because it wouldn't look good if they withdraw and things actually begin to improve, would it?
Here we come to the end of 2006 and I am sad. Not simply sad for the state of the country, but for the state of our humanity, as Iraqis. We've all lost some of the compassion and civility that I felt made us special four years ago. I take myself as an example. Nearly four years ago, I cringed every time I heard about the death of an American soldier. They were occupiers, but they were humans also and the knowledge that they were being killed in my country gave me sleepless nights. Never mind they crossed oceans to attack the country, I actually felt for them.
Had I not chronicled those feelings of agitation in this very blog, I wouldn't believe them now. Today, they simply represent numbers. 3000 Americans dead over nearly four years? Really? That's the number of dead Iraqis in less than a month. The Americans had families? Too bad. So do we. So do the corpses in the streets and the ones waiting for identification in the morgue.
Is the American soldier that died today in Anbar more important than a cousin I have who was shot last month on the night of his engagement to a woman he's wanted to marry for the last six years? I don't think so.
Just because Americans die in smaller numbers, it doesn't make them more significant, does it?
18+ Iraqis Killed 10 + Wounded
Good Morning,
As we approach the near eve of Saddams hanging, murder continues in Iraq. Here are some of today's highlights:
In the latest violence, a suicide bomber killed nine people near a Shiite mosque north of Baghdad on Friday, police said. A round of mortar shells also slammed into al-Maidan square in central Baghdad, wounding ten people and damaging shops and buildings in the area, police said.
Gunmen killed two employees of an oil company and another civilian in Mosul, 250 miles northwest of Baghdad. Two civilians and a policeman were fatally shot in separate attacks in Musayyib, about 40 miles south of the capital, police said.
U.S. troops, meanwhile, killed six people and destroyed a weapons cache in separate raids in Baghdad and northwest of the Iraqi capital, the U.S. military said.
One of the raids targeted two buildings in the village of Thar Thar, where U.S. troops found 16 pounds of homemade explosives, two large bombs, a rocket-propelled grenade, suicide vests and multiple batteries, the military said.
Iraqi forces backed by U.S. troops also captured 13 suspects and confiscated weapons in a raid on a mosque southeast of Baghdad, the U.S. military said Friday.
Have a nice day.
30 Iraqis Killed, 42 Bodies Found
Good Evening,
At least 30 Iraqis died Thursday in bombings and shootings, including a suicide bombing in a crowd of people waiting to buy kerosene near a stadium in Baghdad that killed 10, according to police. Police also said 42 bodies of tortured men were found dumped in the Iraqi capital Thursday.
Have a nice day.
12 Killed, 51 Bodies Found
Good evening,
Violence struck Baghdad again Wednesday, with a car bomb killing eight civilians and wounding 10 near an Iraqi army checkpoint. Four more civilians died in a mortar attack in a Shiite neighborhood, and police found the bodies of 51 apparent victims of sectarian killings.
Have a nice evening.
Bombers Kill 54 Iraqi's As Bush Grieves Members Of US Armed Forces Killed
Good Morning,
BAGHDAD, Iraq - At least 54 Iraqis died Tuesday in bombings, officials said, including a coordinated strike that killed 25 in western Baghdad. Separately, the U.S. military announced the deaths of seven American soldiers, raising the death toll significantly in one of the bloodiest months for the military this year.
The three coordinated car bombs in western Baghdad injured at least 55 people, a doctor at Yarmouk hospital, where the victims were taken, said on condition of anonymity because of safety concerns. The attacks occurred in a mixed Sunni and Shiite neighborhood.
In other attacks, a car bomb exploded near a Sunni mosque in northern Baghdad at the beginning of the evening rush hour, killing 17 people and wounding 35, a doctor at Al-Nuaman hospital said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
A bomb also exploded in a central Baghdad market, killing four people and wounding 15, police said. Two roadside bombs targeted an Iraqi police patrol in an eastern neighborhood of the capital, killing four policemen and injuring 12 people.
In Kirkuk, 180 miles north of the Iraqi capital, a roadside bomb killed three civilians _ including an 8-year-old girl _ and wounded six other people, police said.
The U.S. military, meanwhile, announced the deaths of seven more American soldiers, pushing the U.S. military death toll for the month to 90. With five days remaining in the month, December is already the second deadliest month for the U.S. military this year, behind the 105 soldiers killed in October.
In Washington, White House Deputy Press Secretary Scott Stanzel said Tuesday that President Bush grieves for each member of the armed forces who has died.
Have a nice day.
Car Bomber Kills 9, Injures 11 By Open Air Market, Mini Bus Bomber Kills 3 Injurs 19
Good Morning,
BAGHDAD, Iraq - British troops killed seven gunmen in a raid on a renegade police unit in southern Iraq on Monday, and a car bomb that exploded next to an open-air market in Baghdad killed nine civilians and wounded 11.
The car bombing hit an area of a mostly Shiite district in the capital's east that often attracts crowds of shoppers as well as laborers looking for work. In another part of eastern Baghdad, a suicide bomber exploded in a minibus, killing three people and injuring 19, police said.
Earlier, a suicide bomber killed three policemen at checkpoint at a university entrance in Ramadi, capital of Anbar province, a stronghold of the Sunni-dominated insurgency. The deaths came a day after Iraq's interior minister said attacks targeting police had killed some 12,000 officers since the 2003 fall of Saddam Hussein.
Have a nice Christmas day.
Christmas In Iraq - A Nearly Secret Celebration
Good Morning,
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Umm Salam draws her curtains across her windows, then settles into an armchair in a living room festooned with colored lights and a portrait of Jesus on the cross. Her Christmas tree glitters in the corner.
One of Iraq's estimated 800,000 Christians, the 56-year-old widow celebrates the holiday quietly with her children and grandchildren, as violence sweeps the country.
"It is very risky to go the church in our neighborhood, so we will have a party at home and some of our relatives will come to celebrate," she said. "They'll have to stay the night at our home due to the security situation and the curfew."
The evening service at the local church was canceled for security reasons.
The spirit of Christmas is still alive in Iraq, but it's tucked away behind the closed doors of Christian families, who represent about three percent of Iraq's 26 million people.
Most of the fighting in Iraq involves Sunni and Shiite Muslims, but Christians have also become targets. Church bombings and other sectarian attacks spiked amid a wave of anti-Christian anger over comments by Pope Benedict XVI in September that seemed to link the prophet Muhammad's teachings to violence.
In October, a priest in the northern city of Mosul was kidnapped by a group demanding that he retract the pope's statements. He was eventually found beheaded.
According to the United Nations, more than a million Iraqis have fled since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, with about 3,000 people now leaving daily. About 40 percent of those leaving are Christian, the U.N. says.
Umm Salam, who goes by her tribal name meaning "mother of Salam" out of fear she will be targeted if she reveals her Christian name, said Sunday she has no choice but to keep her religion a secret.
"We cannot show our happiness (about Christmas) to neighbors. But every single Iraqi has his own wounds, and life must go on," she said. "Happiness is for the children when they will awake tomorrow and find their gifts near the tree."
It wasn't always like this. Umm Salam's daughter, Um Mawj, recalls more peaceful times, when Christmas celebrations went on for days.
"We use to go to the clubs, and all the relatives and friends were there. Those years are unforgettable, but they have faded," the 38-year-old said.
Her brother used to own a liquor store in Baghdad, but converted it into a grocery store when other alcohol vendors were attacked by Islamic militiamen. He sells Christmas trees, Santa dolls and colored lights at this time of year, but business is not as good as it used to be, Wisam Wadie said.
"Violence has kidnapped our happiness and joy on this great occasion, and planted fears in our hearts," he said.
Have a nice day.
Mr. Bush, Enlist Your Daughters To The Front Line
Merry Christmas Eve.
Mr. Bush has asked the American public to spend spend spend this holiday season, and enjoy the holiday. His Mom, Barbara, along with her husband, the former President Bush, said, be sure to drop our change in the Salvation Army's pots outside the retail stores to help the needy. I'm honestly really torn as to where I think the billions of dollars that American tax payers should go. First and foremost, I think most Americans would like to have the money stay in this country to help the poor and special needs people in this country, rather than have it poured into Iraq. I believe the last figure I heard was that we spend about 5 million a week in Iraq (Roughly). Since the US broke Iraq, I feel that the US should pay for its deeds. You broke it, you fix it.
The US President is beginning to plan a military "Surge", to add between 10,000 - 30,000 troops. As the blood of the American military nears 3,000 troop deaths, it is a mere drop in the bucket compared to what Iraqi's have suffered (Some estimate up to 600,000 deaths). The only way I will support the surge is if MR. BUSH enlists his daughters to the front line. If not, Americans need to get the hell out of there now.
The US presence is just going to increase the violence rather than quell it. The American dictator is on a power trip.
In the meantime, as we enjoy our turkey or ham dinners, death and destruction continues in Iraq. Here are today's highlights:
In Muqdadiyah _ about 55 miles northeast of the capital _ a suicide bomber killed at least seven policemen and wounded 30 at a police station. Insurgents then launched six mortar rounds.
Shortly after the suicide bombing, two roadside bombs exploded next to one another in Khanaqin, about 90 miles northeast of Baghdad, close to the Iranian border, police said. The coordinated attacks wounded 18 civilians, some seriously.
Have a nice evening.
8 US Marines Charged with Killing 24 Iraqi Civilians
Good Evening,
CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. - Eight Marines were charged Thursday in the killings of 24 Iraqi civilians last year during a bloody, door-to-door sweep in the town of Haditha that came after one of their comrades was killed by a roadside bomb.
In the biggest U.S. criminal case involving civilian deaths to come out of the Iraq war, four of the Marines _ all enlisted men _ were charged with unpremeditated murder.
The other four were officers who were not there during the killings but were accused of failures in investigating and reporting the deaths.
The most serious charges were brought against Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich, a 26-year-old squad leader accused of murdering 12 civilians and ordering the murders of six more inside a house cleared by his squad. He was accused of telling his men to "shoot first and ask questions later," according to court papers released by his attorney.
The highest-ranking defendant was Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani, 42, of Rangely, Colo. He was accused of failing to obey an order or regulation, encompassing dereliction of duty.
At a news conference to announce the charges, military officials would not say what they believe prompted the killings on Nov. 19, 2005. But investigators have raised the possibility that the men went on a rampage in a fury over the roadside bombing that killed Lance Cpl. Miguel Terrazas of El Paso, Texas, and wounded two other Marines.
Defense attorneys have disputed that, saying their clients were doing as they had been taught: responding to a perceived threat with legitimate force.
"There's no question that innocent people died that day, but Staff Sergeant Wuterich believes, and I believe, they did everything they were trained to do," said Wuterich's lawyer, Neal Puckett.
Terrazas' father denounced the charges, saying his son was murdered by insurgents. "What they are doing to our troops ... it's just wrong," Martin Terrazas said in Texas. "I feel for their families. They are in my prayers."
Wuterich and two comrades charged with murder could get life in prison. The military is not seeking the death penalty. The other men face shorter prison sentences.
The Marine Corps initially reported that 15 Iraqis died in a roadside bomb blast and that Marines killed eight insurgents in an ensuing firefight. That account was widely discredited, and later reports put the number of dead Iraqis at 24.
A criminal probe was launched after Time magazine reported in March, citing survivor accounts and human rights groups, that innocent people were killed.
Lt. Gen. James Mattis, commanding general of the Marine Corps Central Command, said Thursday that the Corps' initial news release, which stated that the civilians in Haditha had been killed by an improvised explosive device, was incorrect.
"We now know with certainty that the press release was incorrect, and that none of the civilians were killed by the IED explosion," Mattis said in another release.
As word spread that charges were imminent, some Iraqis said Thursday that American troops should face justice in Iraq.
"They committed a horrible crime against innocents," Naji al-Ani, a 36-year-old laborer, said by telephone from Haditha.
Other residents of Haditha agreed.
"Are they terrorists or are they fighting terrorism?" said Jamal al-Obaidi, a 40-year-old teacher. "The trial is not fair because it is taking place in America. Executing them is the minimum penalty."
Besides Wuterich, Sgt. Sanick P. Dela Cruz, 24, of Chicago, was accused of the unpremeditated murders of five people and making a false statement. Lance Cpl. Justin Sharratt, 22, of Cannonsburg, Pa., was charged with the unpremeditated murder of three Iraqis. Lance Cpl. Stephen Tatum, 25, of Edmond, Okla., was accused of the unpremeditated murders of two Iraqis, negligent homicide of four Iraqis and assault.
The other officers charged were 1st Lt. Andrew Grayson, 25, Capt. Lucas McConnell, 31, of Napa, Calif., and Capt. Randy Stone, 34, a military attorney.
The men are not being locked up for now because they are unlikely to flee and are not a danger to themselves or others, said Col. Stewart Navarre, a Corps spokesman.
In Meriden, Conn., Frank Wuterich's father, Dave, said his son was out Christmas shopping. The father said family members believe his son's version of events.
"He says they followed the rules of engagement," Dave Wuterich said. "They were taking small arms fire. They did what they had to do."
Have a nice day.
53 Bodies Found & 10+ Killed
Good Afternoon,
Police said they found 53 bodies around Baghdad on Tuesday, apparent victims of violence between Sunnis and Shiites. Many of the bodies showed signs of torture.
The morgue in the city of Baqouba north of Baghdad said it received 15 bodies of people who died violently, including those of two women and an Iraqi soldier. The morgue in Kut, southeast of Baghdad, received the bodies of seven people.
In other violence Tuesday:
_ In southern Baghdad, two civilians were killed and seven wounded by mortar rounds, and a roadside bomb killed two civilians and wounded nine near an electricity plant, police said. In the city's western Yarmouk district, a bomb narrowly missed a police patrol, wounding four civilians and setting several vehicles ablaze.
_ Three children were killed when mortar rounds hit their village near Baqouba, and seven civilians were wounded in a mortar attack nearby, police said. North of the city, five insurgents were killed in clashes with U.S. and Iraqi forces, Iraqi officials said. Also in Baqouba, insurgents attacked a police patrol, killing two officers.
_ An Iraqi army captain was killed outside his home in Diwaniyah, south of the capital, according to police.
_ U.S.-led forces killed two insurgents in Fallujah and another in eastern Baghdad, the U.S. military said.
_ A suicide bomber blew up near an American convoy in Mosul, wounding two civilians, police said. A Shiite university student was killed in a drive-by shooting in the city.
Have a nice day.
5 Killed 19 Wounded By Car Bomber
Good Morning,
BAGHDAD, Iraq - The former electricity minister _ a dual U.S.-Iraqi citizen who was jailed for corruption _ escaped police custody with the help of security agents he once hired to protect him, an anti-corruption official said Monday.
Elsewhere in Baghdad, a car bomb killed five people and wounded at least 19 in the southern Sunni area of Sadiya, near a vegetable market. Though no one immediately claimed responsibility, sectarian conflict between Sunnis and Shiites has fueled much of the recent violence in Baghdad.
Have a nice day.
23 Killed 53 Shot Up Bodies Found
Good Evening,
At least 23 people were killed Saturday in Iraq, including a Sunni cleric and a Sunni politician who were shot to death in Iskandariyah, south of Baghdad. Police also found the bodies of 53 men who had been bound and blindfolded before they were shot to death in Baghdad _ apparently the latest victims of sectarian death squads.
Have a nice day.
50-70 Kidnapped, Nearly 30 People Killed or Found Dead Elsewhere In Iraq
Good morning,
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Gunmen in military uniforms kidnapped dozens of people Thursday from a major commercial area in Baghdad, the second mass abduction in the capital in a month, and nearly 30 people were killed or found dead elsewhere in Iraq.
The attackers drove up to the busy al-Sanak area in about 10 sport utility vehicles and began rounding up shop owners and bystanders. Two police officers said 50 to 70 people were abducted, but the Interior Ministry declined to give a number, saying it was still under investigation.
Elsewhere in Baghdad, a suicide car bomber slammed into an Iraqi army check point, killing a soldier and a civilian and wounding nine other people, police said.
Police in the mostly Shiite Wasit province southeast of Baghdad also found 17 bullet-riddled bodies _ bound, blindfolded and bearing signs of torture _ including five that were dumped in a flour mill in the town of Wahda.
Three other bodies, including one that was beheaded, were found elsewhere in a volatile area southwest of the capital.
The al-Sanak area _ one of the capital's main commercial districts _ holds stores selling auto parts, agricultural equipment and the small power generators that are ubiquitous in Baghdad due to severe power shortages.
The stores are owned by a mix of Shiites, Sunnis and others, and it was not immediately clear why the area was targeted. But suspicion fell on militias, which are believed to have infiltrated police forces and have killed hundreds in sectarian violence, personal vendettas and kidnappings for ransom.
On Nov. 14, suspected Shiite militiamen in Interior Ministry commando uniforms abducted scores of men from an office that handles academic grants and exchanges for the Higher Education, which is predominantly Sunni Arab. Several of those kidnap victims apparently were later released, although there were conflicting accounts about how many people were involved.
Many victims of other past kidnappings have been found among the dozens of bullet-riddled bodies that turn up daily on the streets of Baghdad.
Mohammed Qassim Jassim, a 37-year-old owner of a clothing store in the area, said the attack started about 11 a.m.
"We heard cars and shootings in the area and then we saw gunmen wearing Iraqi army uniforms and driving SUVs who were snatching people from the shops and street. It took like 20 minutes for them to fan out and control the area," Jassim said.
Iraqi security forces sealed off the area and were interviewing witnesses, while panicked store owners closed their shops and fled.
A spokesman for the Defense Ministry, which oversees the army, stressed the difficulties in controlling the distribution of uniforms.
"Anyone can buy military or police uniforms from the market, although we have issued orders to confiscate these uniforms and punish the owners," spokesman Mohammed al-Askari said.
Video from AP Television News showed boarded and locked store fronts with the blue dome of a Shiite mosque in the background. Few people were on the street of what is usually a bustling area.
Officers were on high alert, stepping up security after receiving tips that militants were moving car bombs into the Shiite Sadr City slum.
A car bomb killed two policemen who were trying to defuse it and wounded four civilians late Wednesday in the sprawling district, police Capt. Mohammed Ismail said. He said explosives experts successfully defused a second car bomb in the same area.
The capital has seen a series of attacks since a Feb. 22 bombing of a Shiite shrine in Samarra set off a cycle of retaliatory violence between the majority sect and disaffected Sunnis, who were dominant under Saddam Hussein but lost power with his ouster.
In other violence reported by police Thursday:
_ Gunmen stormed a boys' school in southwestern Baghdad, killing a Shiite guard.
_ Gunmen killed two people in separate attacks northeast of the capital and a police officer was shot to death in the northern city of Mosul.
_ A roadside bomb targeting an Iraqi army patrol exploded in Musayyib, 40 miles south of Baghdad, killing one soldier.
_ A roadside bomb stuck a joint patrol of police and Interior commandos, killing two commandos and wounding one policeman in Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad.
Have a nice day.
3 Car Bombers Kill 19, 21 Corpses Found, Gunman Kills 9 Member Shiite Family in Their Home
Good Morning,
BAGHDAD, Iraq - A car bomb exploded near a crowded bus stop in eastern Baghdad during morning rush hour on Wednesday, killing 11 people and wounding 27 in a mostly Shiite area, police said.
The blast in Kamaliyah neighborhood at 8:45 a.m. also occurred about 50 yards from the Shiite al-Rasoul mosque but did not damage the small building, said police Capt. Mohammed Abdul-Ghani and police Maj. Mahir Hamad.
"A Volkswagen car exploded right near the bus stop, hitting a group of people, including women and children who were waiting to take a bus to a fruit and vegetable market," said one witness, Abu Haider al-Kaabi.
The poor area of Baghdad appeared to be the latest target of widespread sectarian violence in the capital involving Sunni Arabs and Shiites. On Nov. 23, suspected Sunni insurgents carried out the deadliest single attack of the Iraq war by using bombs and mortars to kill 215 people in the capital's Shiite slum of Sadr City.
Two other car bombs exploded in the mostly Shiite area of New Baghdad and another one in the largely Sunni area of Yamouk, killing a total of four people and wounding 16, police said.
An announcement at 9 p.m. said that the tortured, bullet-ridden bodies of 21 kidnap victims had been found on the streets of the capital.
In other attacks in Iraq, men armed with guns and explosives destroyed a small Shiite shrine in Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, early Wednesday, causing no injuries, and gunmen killed a nine-member Shiite family in an attack on their house in Hasna village south of the capital, police said.
Iraqi troops also opened fire on two suicide car bombers who drove up to the headquarters of the Iraqi army's 2nd Battalion near the oil-rich northern city of Kirkuk, but the attackers set off their explosions, killing four soldiers and wounding 10, said Iraqi Maj. Gen. Anwar Mohammed Amin. The base protects the area's oil pipelines.
In Musayyib, 40 miles south of Baghdad, three roadside bombs missed a police patrol, killing one civilian and wounding one, and damaging a nearby municipal council building, police said.
Have a nice day.
63 + Killed, 236 Wounded In Double Car Bombing
Good morning,
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Two car bombs targeting day laborers looking for work exploded within seconds of each other Tuesday on a main square in central Baghdad, killing at least 63 people and wounding scores, the government said.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a member of Iraq's Shiite majority, condemned the attack and blamed it on Sunni extremists and supporters of Saddam Hussein.
In the northern city of Mosul, a television cameraman working for The Associated Press was shot to death by insurgents while covering clashes _ the third AP employee killed in the Iraq war.
The coordinated attack in Baghdad's Tayaran Square involved a suicide attacker who drove up to the day laborers pretending to want to hire them, then set off his explosives as they got into his minibus, Lt. Bilal Ali said. At virtually the same time _ 7 a.m. _ a bomb exploded in a car parked some 30 yards away.
The blasts shattered storefront windows, dug craters in the road and set fire to about 10 other cars.
Interior Ministry spokesman Brig. Abdul-Karim Khalaf said at least 63 people were killed and 236 were wounded, although some police put the number of dead as high as 71 with a lower wounded toll of 151. The different figures could not immediately be reconciled.
Ali said most of the victims were Shiites from poor areas of the capital such as Sadr City.
Iraqis gather on the square early in the morning, soliciting jobs as construction workers, cleaners and painters. They buy breakfast at stands selling tea and egg sandwiches while they wait for potential employers to drive up.
Khalil Ibrahim, 41, who owns a shop in the area, was treated at a hospital for shrapnel wounds to his head and back.
"In the first explosion, I saw people falling over, some of them blown apart. When the other bomb went off seconds later, it slammed me into a wall of my store and I fainted," he said.
Police at a nearby checkpoint fired random shots in several directions. Residents rushed to the devastated area to see if friends or relatives had been killed or wounded.
Mangled bodies were piled up at the side of the road and partially covered with paper. Two men sat on a nearby sidewalk, crying and covering their faces with their hands.
"The driver of the minibus lured the people to hire them as laborers, and after they gathered he detonated the vehicle," said another witness, Ali Hussein.
Al-Maliki condemned the attack, calling it a "horrible crime."
"Iraq's security forces will chase the criminals and bring them to justice," he said.
Parliament speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, a Sunni, said the massacre targeted poor people who were trying to feed their families, "turning them into pieces of flesh."
Have a nice day.
Mixed Bag of Car Bombs, Gunmen, Kills 10, Wounds 31
Good morning,
At 9 a.m. Monday, a suicide car bomb hit an abandoned house being used by policemen as an outpost in Dora, southern Baghdad, killing one policeman and wounding five, a police officer said on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media.
At 9:45 a.m., a roadside bomb exploded near Mustasiriyah University in east Baghdad, wounding seven civilians standing nearby, said police Lt. Ali Muhsin.
A parked car bomb detonated at 10:30 a.m. near al-Maamoun college in western Baghdad, killing one student and wounding two others and two policemen, a police officer said on condition of anonymity out of concern for his safety.
Last week, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki urged university professors and students _ who are often targeted by violence _ to ignore a Sunni Arab insurgent group's warnings to avoid classes, calling them "desperate attempts." The group had sent e-mails to students and posted signs at schools and mosques in Baghdad, saying students should stay away while it cleanses the campuses of Shiite death squads, according to a statement from al-Maliki's office.
Elsewhere in the capital, three mortar rounds killed four people and wounded 15, and gunmen stole $1 million from a bank truck and kidnapped its four guards, police said.
In attacks outside Baghdad, three policemen and four civilians were gunned down, and funerals were held in a village near Kirkuk, 180 miles north of Baghdad, for a family of five Shiites, including a pregnant woman, who had been gunned down at their home Sunday.
Have a nice day.
5 Killed Outside Shiite Shrine, US Blamed For 19+ Civilian Killings
Good Morning,
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraq's influential Association of Muslim Scholars and the country's largest Sunni Arab political party on Saturday condemned a deadly U.S. military attack they say killed civilians. Separately, a suicide car bomb struck near a Shiite shrine, killing at least five people.
The U.S. command said Friday's raid and airstrike killed 20 insurgents, but the association and the Iraqi Islamic Party joined a village mayor who alleged that the attack killed at least 19 civilians, including women and children.
On Saturday, about 1,000 residents of the predominantly Sunni village of al-Ishaqi in the volatile province of Salahuddin held a funeral for the 19 dead, shouting slogans such as "Down with the occupiers," "Long live the resistance," and "There is no God but Allah."
Also Saturday, a suicide car bomb exploded outside of the Al-Abbas shrine in Karbala, 50 miles south of Baghdad. The golden dome and minarets of the shrine did not appear to be damaged in video footage shown on Iraqi state TV, but the powerful blast set many parked cars on fire in a nearby street, and two Iraqi men with bloody faces could be seen running through heavy black smoke past the body of another victim of the attack.
Rahman Meshawi, the city's police spokesman, said five Iraqis were killed and 44 wounded, 15 of them seriously.
A main goal of Sunni Arab insurgent groups such as al-Qaida in Iraq has been to spark sectarian violence by attacking sites considered holy by the country's Shiite majority. Attacks by Sunni insurgents and Shiite militias, and revenge killings in mixed Sunni-Shiite areas of cities such as Baghdad, often kill scores of Iraqis a day.
Karbala is considered Iraq's second holiest Shiite city after Najaf, which is 45 miles to the southeast. Shiites make pilgrimages to both locations and bury their dead in large cemeteries there.
At least 47 other Iraqis were killed or found dead on Friday, including 25 who were struck in a mortar attack that night on a poor Shiite neighborhood on the outskirts of Baghdad.
Havew a nice day.
470+ Academics Killed. Iraq Universities In Meltdown - A SPECIAL REPORT
Good Morning,
I thought I'd take this opportunity to present a special report concerning Iraq's Universities. They are in a crisis, and the situation is not getting any better. Please read on:
Universities in Iraq are in meltdown. On 30 October 2006, Professor al-Rawi, head of the University Professors' Union, was shot outside his home, the victim of unknown gunmen. He was trying to highlight the dangers on Iraq's campuses - and he was not alone in his fate.
A few weeks later a Baghdad University dean, Jassim as-Asadi, was returning home with his wife and son when gunmen drove alongside and sprayed his car with automatic weapons. All three were killed.
Since the war began in 2003, hundreds of Iraqi academics have been kidnapped or murdered - and thousands more have fled for their lives, many ending up in Britain. So far more than 470 academics have been killed. Buildings have been burnt and looted in what appears to be a random spree of violence aimed at Iraqi academia, a conference organised by the Council for Assisting Refugee Academics (Cara) at University College London was told last week. No one knows who is responsible for the mayhem.
The sense is that Iraq's leading scholars are being systematically liquidated or hounded out of the country in an orgy of mindless terrorism by local militia and other factions. Planned acts of assassination against academics are taking place daily. The kidnapping of staff at the Scientific Ministry in Baghdad is one illustration of this. It is thought to be no coincidence that afterwards the Iraqi government closed all universities. "What we are seeing today in Iraq is a cynical and ruthless strategy of destabilisation," said Dr John Withrington of Exeter University, chairman of the British Universities Iraq Consortium. "The strategy is to intimidate, to introduce anarchy instead or order, despair instead of hope."
This a tragedy for the individuals affected and their families, and it is a serious threat to the intellectual foundations of modern Iraq, putting the recovery of that country at risk.
Because of the urgency of the situation, Cara has decided to take immediate action to help Iraqis. Set up in the 1930s by William Beveridge when he was director of the LSE with the help of eminent scholars such as Maynard Keynes and Lord Rutherford, it sought to help the Jewish intelligentsia being persecuted in Germany.
"Now we have a crisis that is comparable in magnitude to the 1930s," said John Ashworth, president of Cara and a former director of the LSE. "In the 1930s Jews were not only being encouraged to emigrate but were also being murdered. We intend to support Iraqi academics wherever they may be."
To this end Cara has decided to change one of its rules. Until now it has only ever agreed to help people who have won formal refugee status in the UK. From now on it will help Iraqis who aren't officially classed as refugees. And it is immediately allocating £100,000 for this purpose.
Last week, the organisation wrote to Tony Blair asking him for both moral and financial support for Iraqi academics. Professor Ashworth called on all universities in the UK and all student unions to "adopt" an Iraqi - to give an Iraqi academic work or give a student a place at a British university.
When Professor Ashworth was a student in the 1950s at Exeter College, Oxford, he and other students adopted a Hungarian refugee, George Radda, who came to Britain to study law and quickly switched to chemistry. That charitable act had important repercussions for Radda, who subsequently became Sir George Radda, after a long and distinguished career in the UK, ending up as secretary of the Medical Research Council and a fellow of the Royal Society.
"If every student union and university decided to adopt an Iraqi in the same way, hundreds of Iraqis would survive, hopefully to restart their academic lives when the security situation improves," said Professor Ashworth. "I think we owe a moral obligation to Iraqis, many of whom are graduates of British universities."
A Jewish refuge, Lewis Elton, professor of higher education at UCL, and father of the comedian Ben Elton, told the story of how he left Prague in 1939 with his brother Geoffrey, later to become the noted historian and Tudor expert. "We arrived on St Valentine's Day and we have had a love affair with England ever since," he said. "My brother and I obtained degrees from London University, we became academics; none of that would have been possible without the help we received. I went back to Prague after the war and saw our synagogue with the names of those Jews who perished, including my favourite teacher and my best friend. I owe my life to this society and I will be grateful to it for the whole of my life."
Iraqi academics flocked to UCL last week in an emotional display of support for their country's education system. One academic from a technology institute in Baghdad said that he had witnessed the day of the invasion, 9 April 2003. "Everything was intact on that day," he said. "Two days later everything had been destroyed. All universities were looted one day after the invasion."
There were pleas for special treatment for Iraqi students coming to Britain. Dr Abdullah Al Musawi, a former chancellor of the University of Iraq, now with the Iraqi Embassy in London, called on UK universities to reduce overseas student fees for Iraqis. These range from £3,500 to £18,000 a year and are prohibitively expensive for most Iraqis. "Will you please ask universities to give us special fees?" he pleaded. Another speaker suggested British universities could offer special scholarships to Iraqi students rather than fee-waivers on the grounds that this might be more politically acceptable.
Cara's sister organisation in the US, the Scholar Rescue Fund, has already begun to mobilise support for a programme to save the lives of Iraqi academics and to ensure they are able to go back to rebuild the country's education system. Their plan is to support 200 Iraqi scholars to teach Iraqi students from outside the country, in, for example, the Middle East.
The hope is that the British government will support a similar scheme in the United Kingdom to help Iraqi scholars in the UK and in the Middle East. The plight of the Iraqi academics who have arrived as refugees in Britain was starkly illustrated by a speaker who said he had been an assistant professor at the University of Baghdad engineering college. "I have lived in the UK for four years and have applied for hundreds of jobs and am now an unpaid researcher at King's College London for one year," he said.
There are no easy solutions, said John Akker, Cara's executive secretary. There are hundreds of Iraqi academics in Syria and Jordan who are short of money. "There is an urgent need to help the Iraqi academics in London. Many need funds or have practical difficulties with living."
Iraqi universities and academics have a proud history and are a threat to those now competing for power. Is that why they are being targeted?
75 Killed. 48 Bullet Riddled Bodies Found - Dozens Wounded
Good Morning,
BAGHDAD, Iraq - A mortar attack killed at least eight people and wounded dozens in a secondhand goods market Wednesday in a shelling followed closely by a suicide bombing in the Sadr City Shiite district of the capital, police said.
Two rounds landed and exploded in the Haraj Market in a mixed Shiite-Sunni area in northern Baghdad, said police officers Ali Mutab and Mohammed Khayoun, who provided the casualty totals.
About 25 minutes later, a suicide bomber on a bus in Sadr City detonated explosives hidden in his clothing, killing two people and wounding 15, police 1st Lt. Thaer Mahmoud said.
It appeared to be the first attack by suspected Sunni Arab insurgents on the large slum since Nov. 23, when a bombing and mortar attack killed 215 people in the deadliest single attack since the Iraq war began more than three years ago.
A total of at least 75 people were killed or found dead across Iraq on Wednesday, including 48 whose bullet-riddled bodies were found in different parts of the capital.
Have a nice day.
40 + Killed 25 Wounded
Good Afternoon,
In new bloodshed, suspected insurgents set off a car bomb to stop a minibus carrying Shiite government employees in Baghdad, then shot and killed 15 of them, the government said. In another attack in the capital on Tuesday, two car bombs exploded in a commercial district, killing 15 other Iraqis, police said.
In northern Baghdad, gunmen set off a car bomb to intercept a minibus carrying employees of the Shiite Endowment, a government agency that cares for Shiite mosques in Iraq, to work, the organization said. The gunmen then opened fire on the workers, killing 15 and wounding seven, said Salah Abdul-Razzaq, an endowment spokesman.
An Interior Ministry official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of security concerns, also said the blast occurred first and was followed by the ambush.
The U.S. military said 14 Iraqis were killed and four were wounded before the explosion, when the bus on which they were riding received small arms fire, then a BMW drove into the area and exploded as the wounded were being taken to a hospital. The car bomb caused no further injuries, according to the military statement. The discrepancy could not immediately be explained.
AP Television News video showed shattered glass and shoes in the middle of the highway, with the burned-out hulk of the car that exploded on the side of the road.
A similar attack occurred last month in southern Iraq against the Sunni Endowment, the government agency that cares for Sunni Arab mosques in Iraq amid sectarian violence and retaliatory killings that have been rising since the Feb. 22 bombing of a Shiite shrine in Samarra.
Also Tuesday, two car bombs exploded near one another in western Baghdad, killing 15 people and wounding 25, police said.
The explosions occurred near a gas station in Baiyaa, a commercial area with a mixed Sunni Arab and Shiite population, a policeman said on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media.
A parked car bomb struck a market in a predominantly Shiite neighborhood in southwestern Baghdad, killing two people and wounding seven, police said.
At least 13 other people were killed in shootings and bombings elsewhere, and four bodies were pulled from the Tigris River in Suwaira, about 45 miles south of Baghdad.
56 Bodies Found + 13 Killed
Good afternoon,
The violence persisted Monday, with at least 13 people killed in attacks nationwide. The victims included Nabil Ibrahim al-Dulaimi, a 36-year-old Sunni news editor with the private, independent Dijlah radio station who was gunned down in his car on his way to work.
Al-Dulaimi's slaying raised to at least 93 the number of journalists killed in Iraq since the Iraq war began, according the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders.
Police also found 56 bodies in Baghdad and the province of Diyala, northeast of the capital. Forty-eight of those were handcuffed, blindfolded and shot before they were dumped in two different areas of the capital _ 18 on the Sunni-dominated western bank of the Tigris River and 30 on the eastern side, which is largely Shiite.
Have a nice afternoon.
Triple Car Bombing Kills At Least 51
Good evening,
BAGHDAD, Iraq - A triple car bombing struck a food market in a predominantly Shiite area in central Baghdad on Saturday, killing at least 51 people a day after a U.S.-Iraqi raid against Sunni insurgents in a nearby neighborhood.
Three parked cars blew up nearly simultaneously as shoppers were buying fruit, vegetables, meat and other items in the busy al-Sadriyah district.
The blasts sent clouds of black smoke over concrete high-rises in the area, which has narrow alleys that made it difficult for ambulances and fire trucks to navigate. At least 51 people were killed and 90 wounded, said police Lt. Mohammed Khayoun and hospital officials.
A cheese vendor who was wounded said the market was full of people shopping on their way home from work.
"We heard a big explosion from the western side of the area and the second from the eastern side. After one minute the third explosion took place near us," Ahmed Salman said from a hospital bed.
It was one of the worst incidents since a bombing and mortar attack killed 215 people and wounded more than 200 in the Shiite district of Sadr City in Baghdad on Nov. 23 amid escalating sectarian conflict.
Nobody claimed responsibility for the attack, but it followed a Friday raid by Iraqi forces backed by U.S. helicopters targeting Sunni insurgents in al-Fadhil, less than a half mile away.
Have a nice evening.
