Iraq Killings Update 9-17-08
Good Morning,
Bloodshed continues in Iraq, as the presidential campaign continues. The US attention on Iraq has lately been diverted to 1) Presidential Election and 2) The Economy. The toxic fallout of Wall Street is effecting Main Street.
Today an ambush style attack on the US Embassy in Yemen. 16 were killed there.
Ill will against the United States is spreading accross the world.
Here is the latest updates about the murderous fallout in Iraq:
Tuesday 16 September: 9 dead
Baghdad: bomb kills 2, Taji; roadside bomb kills policeman, Shaab; 1 body found.
Tameem
Kirkuk: gunmen kill 1.
Diyala
Khaniqeen: roadside bomb kills 4 policemen.
Monday 15 September: 43 dead
Baghdad: car bombs kill 13, Karrada; car bomb kill Sahwa member, Adhamiya; journalist Kamal Aziz Khdayir killed by roadside bomb, Camp Sarah; 3 bodies found.
Diyala
Balad Ruz: suicide bomber kills 22 at family feast.
Shohati: gunmen kill tribal chief in his car.
Ninewa
Mosul: Fine Arts student shot dead; 1 body found.
Sunday 14 September: 14 dead
Baghdad: car bomb kills 2 outside restaurant, Karrada; 2 bodies.
Diyala
Sadiya: roadside bombs kill 7 policemen.
Anbar
Falluja: roadside bomb kills 1.
Ninewa
Mosul: the bodies of 2 brothers are found beheaded.
Saturday 13 September: 17 dead
Baghdad: roadside bombs kill 5 Sahwa members; 2 bodies found.
Ninewa
Mosul: gunmen kidnap and kill 4 al-Sharqiya employees (3 reporters and their driver) shooting a programme on Ramadan; gunmen kill husband and wife; gunmen kill 2 policemen.
Tameem
Kirkuk: gunmen kill real estate broker.
Babil
Iskandariya: gunmen kill Sahwa member.
Friday 12 September: 38 dead
Baghdad: 1 body found.
Ninewa
Sinjar: suicide bomber kills 3 outside mosque.
Mosul: 2 killed in drive-by shooting.
Salahuddin
Dujail: suicide car bomber kills 32 outside police station.
Thursday 11 September: 25 dead
Baghdad: truck bomb kills 1, Dora; roadside bomb kills 3 Housing Ministry employees; 1 body found.
Diyala
Khalis: gunmen kill sheikh and his infant son in their home.
Sadiya: gunmen kill 5 family members.
Ghalibiya: 4 bodies found in mass grave.
Ninewa
Mosul: car bomb kills 2; gunmen kill 3 family members (father, mother, child)in their home; 2 bodies found.
Basra
Basra: British forces kill man in hotel during raid.
Babil
Haswa: woman's body is found in her home.
Wednesday 10 September: 10 dead
Baghdad: 2 bodies.
Ninewa
Mosul: gunmen kill 1; 4 bodies.
Karbala
Karbala: 2 killed in bomb explosions.
Diyala
Khalis: 1 killed during clashes.
Have a nice day.
18 Killed 9/13/08 Including TV Station Employees
Good morning,
Bloodshed continues in Iraq as Mr. Bush declares he will withdraw 8,000 US surge troops by February 2009. This will leave our next president with over 140,000 US troops occupying Iraq.
Here is the highlight for today's killings:
BAGHDAD - Gunmen on Saturday abducted and killed four employees of an Iraqi television station who were filming a program about the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, one of a series of attacks in Iraq that left at least 18 people dead.
A bomb concealed in a kiosk used to sell ice killed four security personnel and wounded nine people at a checkpoint in Baghdad, Iraqi officials said. Northeast of the capital, eight Kurdish soldiers died in a roadside bombing that reflected how ethnic tensions remain dangerously high.
The attacks underscored the persistent threat in Iraq despite significant security gains since last year.
Al-Sharqiya television said its employees were seized at noon in the northern city of Mosul as they filmed an episode for a program about Iftar, the evening meal at which Muslims break their sunrise-to-sunset fast during Ramadan, which began this month.
The dead included Mussab Mahmoud al-Azawi, head of the station's office in Mosul, two cameramen and a driver.
An announcer on the station, which broadcasts to Iraq from Dubai by satellite, blamed the killings on "dark forces that are destabilizing the security in Iraq, silencing the voices of freedom and attacking the national independent media."
Brig. Khalid Abdul-Sattar, the police spokesman in Ninevah province, said two suspects were being questioned after a pistol and an assault rifle were found in their car in the area of the slayings.
Insurgents remain active in Mosul despite a U.S.-Iraqi offensive against them and setbacks in urban centers elsewhere in Iraq. Al-Sharqiya is owned by a former chief of radio and TV for Saddam Hussein and has been accused of being sympathetic to the former Baathists who once ruled Iraq.
Prominent employees of Al-Sharqiya have fallen victim to Iraq's violence in the past. Those slain include correspondent Ahmed al-Rasheed and Walid Hassan, a comedian who performed in a series that mocked coalition forces and Iraqi governments after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.
Also Saturday, gunmen stormed a house in eastern Mosul and killed a man and a woman, police and hospital officials said on condition of anonymity because of security concerns. A police officer said that the victims were Sunni Arabs and that the man was a taxi driver. Authorities did not speculate on the motive.
The dead in the bombing in eastern Baghdad included three Iraqi police commandos and a member of a U.S.-funded armed Sunni group that has turned against al-Qaida in Iraq, police and medics said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media. Seven Iraqi security personnel and two bystanders were injured.
The Kurdish peshmerga soldiers, including a brigadier general, died on patrol in Khanaqin, 90 miles (140 kilometers) northeast of Baghdad near the border with Iran, said Col. Azad Issa, chief of the city's police force. Six died at the scene and two injured peshmerga died later in a hospital.
Diyala is critical to Baghdad's security because of its strategic importance as a conduit for the smuggling of weapons and fighters to the capital. Its proximity to Iran is also a concern, with U.S. officials accusing Tehran of supporting Shiite militias in Iraq.
Despite security gains, Diyala has a volatile mix of Sunni and Shiite militants along with desert terrain and dense palm groves to take refuge in. A large Kurdish community adds to the mix and some Iraqi government officials are concerned that forces from the Kurds' autonomous region in northern Iraq are encroaching on territory there.
Have a nice day.
