News & Views 03/29/07

PHOTO: A man shouts during a protest of refugees from the town Tal Afar in the northwest of Iraq, in Najaf, Thursday, March 29, 2007. Refugees protested recent sectarian violence in Tal Afar, a day after Shiite militants and police went on a shooting rampage against Sunnis in the city, killing as many as 70 men execution-style. The killings were triggered by twin truck bombings there the previous day that killed 80 people and wounded 185. (AP Photo/Alaa al-Marjani)

REPORTS – LIFE IN IRAQ

Shi’ite Market Bombings Kill at Least 122

Five suicide bombers struck Shiite marketplaces in northeast Baghdad and a town north of the capital at nightfall Thursday, killing at least 122 people and wounding more than 150 in one of Iraq’s deadliest days in years. At least 178 people were killed or found dead Thursday, which marked the end of the seventh week of the latest U.S.-Iraqi military drive to curtail violence in Baghdad and surrounding regions. The suicide bombers hit markets in the Shiite town of Khalis and the Shaab neighborhood in Baghdad during the busiest time of the day, timing that has become a trademark of what are believed to be Sunni insurgent or al-Qaida suicide attackers. Three suicide vehicle bombs, including an explosives-packed ambulance, detonated in a market in Khalis, 50 miles north of the capital, which was especially crowded because government flour rations had just arrived for the first time in six months, local television stations reported. At least 43 people were killed and 86 wounded, police said. In the north Baghdad bombings, two suicide attackers wearing explosives vests blew themselves up in the Shalal market in the predominantly Shiite Shaab neighborhood. At least 79 people were killed and 81 wounded as they jammed the market to buy provisions on the eve of the Muslim day of rest and prayer.

Dozens Killed in Revenge Attack in Iraq

Shiite militants and police enraged by deadly truck bombings went on a shooting rampage against Sunnis in a northwestern Iraqi city Wednesday, killing as many as 70 men execution-style and prompting fears that sectarian violence was spreading outside the capital. The killings occurred in the mixed Shiite-Sunni city Tal Afar, which had been an insurgent stronghold until an offensive by U.S. and Iraqi troops in September 2005, when militants fled into the countryside without a fight. Last March, President Bush cited the operation as an example that gave him "confidence in our strategy." The gunmen roamed Sunni neighborhoods in Tal Afar through the night, shooting at residents and homes, according to police and a local Sunni politician. Witnesses said relatives of the Shiite victims in the truck bombings broke into Sunni homes and killed the men inside or dragged them out and shot them in the streets. Gen. Khourshid al-Douski, the Iraqi army commander in charge of the area, said 70 were shot in the back of the head and 40 people were kidnapped. A senior hospital official in Tal Afar, who spoke on condition of anonymity out of security concerns, said 45 men were killed. Outraged Sunni groups blamed Shiite-led security forces for the killings. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's office ordered an investigation and the U.S. command offered to provide assistance. Ali al-Talafari, a Sunni member of the local Turkomen Front Party, said the Iraqi army had arrested 18 policemen accused in the shooting rampage after they were identified by Sunni families. Shiite militiamen also took part, he said.

Revenge Killings by Iraq Police

Iraq's Sunni vice president urged the government on Thursday to do more to purge security forces of militias after a group of Shi'ite police shot scores of men in reprisal killings in a northern town this week. Hours after truck bombs killed 85 people on Tuesday in a Shi'ite area of Tal Afar, up to 70 Sunni Arab men were shot dead in a town which only a year ago was held up by U.S. President George W. Bush as an example of progress towards peace. The governor of Nineveh province, which includes the town of Tal Afar, said policemen who took part in the reprisal shootings were arrested but then freed again to prevent unrest. Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, a Shi'ite, has ordered an inquiry into the involvement of police in the killings. Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi, the most senior Sunni Arab politician, said militias acting under "official cover" in the reprisal killings should be treated as severely as insurgents. A statement from his office said car bombs against "our Shi'ite brothers" must stop and condemned "the criminal behaviour by some policemen in randomly killing many civilians". "It requires efforts from both sides to put an end to this bloodshed which aims to destroy all of Iraq. But this is not enough if the government does not move quickly to clear the security forces of militias," the statement said. ……Doctor Salih Qadu, head of Tal Afar hospital, said the final toll from the two bombs had risen to 85. He said 60 bodies of men shot in the aftermath had been brought to the hospital. A senior Iraqi army officer put the toll from those attacks at 70.

In March 2006, Bush called Tal Afar a "free city that gives reason for hope in a free Iraq".

What a fool believes, he sees…….

Thirteen Police Arrested for Iraqi Town Massacre

Iraqi authorities have arrested 13 policemen for carrying out a massacre of 70 Sunni Arabs in a northern Iraqi town to avenge a devastating bomb attack, officials said on Thursday. On Tuesday, a suicide bomber blew up a truck in a Shiite district of Tal Afar -- a town rated in 2006 by US President Bush as a symbot of a stable Iraq – and killed 85 people and wounded 183 others. A few hours after the blast, dozens of armed men, some wearing police uniforms according to witnesss, went on a rampage in a Sunni district, dragged men out of their homes and shot them with bullets to the head. At least 70 people were killed, while 30 were wounded and 40 more remain missing in one of the worst sectarian attacks in Iraq in recent months.

A Syrian’s Risky Choice To Help Young Iraqis Heal

Just 8 years old, Noor fell victim to an all-too-common crime in Baghdad. Kidnapped from school, she was held for ransom – beaten, blindfolded, and locked in an empty room – for four days. Her father raced to come up with the money, fearing she would be yet another casualty in the city's plague of abductions. A driver by occupation, he sold the family's car to give his tormenters what they wanted: $8,000 for his daughter's life. Noor and her family fled Baghdad. But three years later she was still haunted by her memories. They joined some one million Iraqis now living in Syria among them an untold number of children struggling to cope with the emotional wounds of war. For Noor, and many other Iraqi children like her, there appeared to be no place to turn until a Syrian psychiatrist, risking his job at a state institution, defied authorities and decided to help. Dr. Naim isn't his real name. The Syrian psychiatrist says he is afraid of his Syrian state employers who refused to allow him to treat Iraqi children, even though he volunteered to do so on his own time. In the same Christian neighborhood where Noor and her family lives is a small center run by the Sisters of the Good Shepherd. "The nuns would come and visit us and other Iraqi families at home," Noor's mother, Wafaa, says. "They told us about a program for children that was going to be held at the church." It was there that Noor, a Christian, and the doctor, a Muslim, first met. Naim had worked with the Sisters before, helping a handful of troubled Syrians whom the nuns had referred to him. But soon he saw the need for another kind of program. "The nuns were seeing a lot of disturbed Iraqi children," he says, from his sparsely furnished office in central Damascus. And so, after weeks of intense research on the Internet – and much encouragement from his physician wife – he devised a group-therapy program that incorporated games, puppet shows, and artwork. Every Saturday for seven months, the tiny chapel run by the Sisters was transformed into a clinic for 28 children, ranging in age from 7 to 14. "I doubted myself at first. I was afraid that I couldn't help these kids, that I might open a wound that wouldn't heal," says Naim. "But circumstances can make you do extraordinary things."

REPORTS – US/UK/OTHERS IN IRAQ

Excerpts from Arab Summit Declaration

Following are key excerpts from the final declaration endorsed by Arab leaders at the end of a two-day summit in Riyadh on Thursday. The declaration endorses an Arab peace initiative launched in 2002 but makes no direct mention of key issues such as the fate of Palestinian refugees. - (The summit) "affirms a just and comprehensive peace as a strategic option for the Arab nation and the Arab peace initiative that draws the right path for reaching a peaceful settlement to the Arab-Israeli conflict based on the principles and resolutions of international legitimacy and the land for peace formula." - (The summit) "stresses the importance of freeing the region from weapons of mass destruction without double standards, warning against starting a dangerous and destructive nuclear arms race in the region and emphasising the right of all countries to peaceful nuclear power." - (The summit) "decides to spread the culture of moderation, tolerance, dialogue and openness, to reject all forms of terrorism and extremism as well as all exclusionary, racist trends, campaigns of hatred and endeavours to question our humanistic values or defame our religious beliefs and holy places, and to warn against growing sectarianism for political purposes that aims to divide our nation and ignite destructive sedition and civil strife."

Iraqi VP Meets Turkish President

Iraqi Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi, in Ankara, discussed with Turkish President Amhet Necdet Sezar ways of bolstering relations between Iraq and Turkey. "The Iraqi government is determined not to allow its territories to be a source of concern to Iraq’s neighbors, particularly Turkey," al-Hashemi's office said in a statement received by the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI). For his part the Turkish president stressed his country's keenness to lend support to the people of Iraq and to preserve its unity, the statement added. The two sides also exchanged views on the situation in Kirkuk city, a northern Iraqi city with mixed population of Arabs, Turkmans and Kurds, said the statement, noting that they agreed to act to insure that Kirkuk would remain a city where all communities live in peace altogether.

New US Ambassador To Iraq Sworn In

The new US ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker, was sworn in at the American embassy in Baghdad's tightly fortified Green Zone on Thursday. Crocker, who is one Washington's most experienced career diplomats with extensive knowledge of the Middle East, replaces Zalmay Khalilzad, who left the country earlier this week after a 21-month posting. He was sworn in by embassy official Tina Tran at a ceremony attended by US Lieutenant General David Petraeus, the head of US forces in Iraq, and by embassy officials, embassy spokesman Lou Fintor said. "We have a historic challenge ahead of us. Terrorists, insurgents and militias continue to threaten security in Baghdad and around the country. Security is without question the central issue," Crocker told the ceremony.

How Analysts In The Arab World See The Iraq War

Policymakers and strategic analysts in the Arab world have little confidence that current US troop surge in Iraq will do much more than – at best – postpone a complete political-security breakdown in Iraq, which, they fear, could then spread across the Middle East. During my lengthy recent discussions with experts in Egypt, Jordan, and Syria and well-connected Iraqis in Jordan, and well – connected Iraqis in Jordan, I heard a lot about how Iraq’s collapse has been affecting these Arab societies.

Fake Maritime Boundaries

The British Government has published a map showing the coordinates of the incident, well within an Iran/Iraq maritime border. The mainstream media and even the blogosphere has bought this hook, line and sinker. But there are two colossal problems.

A) The Iran/Iraq maritime boundary shown on the British government map does not exist. It has been drawn up by the British Government. Only Iraq and Iran can agree their bilateral boundary, and they never have done this in the Gulf, only inside the Shatt because there it is the land border too. This published boundary is a fake with no legal force.

B) Accepting the British coordinates for the position of both HMS Cornwall and the incident, both were closer to Iranian land than Iraqi land. Go on, print out the map and measure it. Which underlines the point that the British produced border is not a reliable one.