Photo: Hassan(L) and his brother Ali Mousa holding a family photo at their home in Basra in 2005. British Corporal Donald Payne, who had admitted abusing Iraqi civilians, including the boys' father Baha Mousa, was thrown out of the army and jailed for a year on Monday after being convicted as the country's first war criminal.(AFP/File/Essam al-Sudani)
Baghdad:
A Multi-National Division – Baghdad Soldiers Soldier was killed when a combat patrol was attacked with small arms fire in an eastern section of Baghdad April 28.
The roadside bomb killed three Multi-National Division-Baghdad soldiers and wounded another while they were on a combat patrol Sunday in eastern Baghdad, the military said. An Iraqi interpreter also was killed in the attack.
In violence Monday, a suicide car bomber apparently targeting an Interior Ministry convoy struck an Iraqi checkpoint near a busy square in the predominantly Sunni area of Harthiyah in western Baghdad, killing four people and wounding 10, police said. The bomber detonated his payload, causing part of the road to buckle, as he emerged from an underpass and was heading toward the checkpoint being manned by Interior Ministry commandos. Those killed included two commandos and two civilians.
Three roadside bombs went off in and south of the capital on Monday morning, killing a civilian and wounding four others, a well-informed police source said. A roadside bomb detonated at about 8:00 a.m. (0400 GMT) in the commercial street of Bayaa neighborhood in southern Baghdad, killing a civilian and injuring two more, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.
In separate incident, a roadside bomb went off in the Abu al- Tayyara Street in Baghdad's southern district of Doura, wounding two civilians, the source added.
Gunmen killed three street cleaners on Sunday in the Adhamiya district of northern Baghdad, police said.
Eight gunmen were killed in a U.S.-Iraqi operation in Baghdad on Sunday, the U.S. military said, in what some witnesses described as a clash with the Mehdi Army militia loyal to Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. The U.S. military said in a statement one Iraqi soldier was killed in the incident in the Shi'ite Kadhimiya district.
At least two people were killed and 15 wounded when a bus bomb exploded in a tunnel targeting a police check point, police said. The explosion badly damaged the tunnel, which is on a main artery in western Baghdad.
In Baghdad, a suicide bomber blew up a vehicle outside a police headquarters in a western district, killing five people and wounding 12, a security official said.
Elsewhere in the capital, a former brigadier general in Saddam Hussein's army was shot dead in the volatile Dura neighborhood
The bodies of another three people killed in a gunfight in the capital were brought to Al-Yarmuk hospital in west Baghdad, the hospital said
A series of explosions rocked central Baghdad Monday night and witnesses reported seeing smoke rising from the heavily fortified Green Zone. The U.S. military said it had no immediate information on the blasts. About a dozen blasts began about 10 p.m. and lasted about five minutes. Iraqi police said several mortar shells landed in the Green Zone,
A roadside bomb killed a person and wounded six others in eastern Baghdad, police said.
A car bomb killed one person and wounded six others when it exploded on a main street in southern Baghdad's Bayaa district, police said.
Mortar rounds killed one civilian and wounded six when they landed on a residential area of northern Baghdad's mainly Shi'ite district, police said.
Around 11 am, a roadside bomb exploded when an American convoy passed by in Yusifiya neighborhood ( south of Baghdad ) without knowing the casualties.
Around 3.30 p.m. A suicide car exploded in Hay Al-Ja'mia neighborhood near Mula Huaish mosque injuring 4 civilians.
Around 4:50 p.m. A parked car bomb exploded in Al Baia neighborhood (street 13) killing 2 civilians and injured 8.
Around 5 p.m. A mortar shell landed in Al Husseiniya neighborhood killing 2 residents.
Around 5 p.m. A mortar shell landed in Albu Etha area killing one and injuring 1.
Around 6 p.m. Gunmen killed and interior ministry officer LC Alaa Mahmoud Mohamed in Al Ghadeer neighborhood.
Around 7 p.m. A mortar shell landed in Abu Disheer neighborhood. 2 residents were killed and 5 were injured.
Around 9 p.m. A mortar shell landed in Al Baia neighborhood damaging one house at least and started a fire in the house.
Police found 27 corpses throughout Baghdad in the following neighborhoods: 2 in New Baghdad, 2 in Sileikh, 1 in Shaab, 2 in Binouk, 2 in Qahira, 2 in Sadr, 1 in Shalchia, 5 in Abu Ghreib, 2 in Doura, 2 in Amel, 2 in Jihad, 2 in Baia, 2 in Shuala (one of the two corpses belongs to an Egyptian citizen his name is Hamoudi Hashim)
Mortar bombs killed six people and wounded eight in the northern Shi'ite Baghdad neighbourhood of Hussainiya, police said
Diyala Prv:
A suicide bomber wearing an explosive belt blew himself up inside a funeral tent in a Shiite enclave in a volatile province north of Baghdad, killing at least 20 people and wounding 30, officials said. The attack occurred at 6:30 p.m. as a Shiite family was holding a funeral in Khalis, a flashpoint Shiite city in Diyala province, where U.S.-Iraqi forces have seen fierce fighting with Sunni and Shiite militants.
A suicide bomber wearing a vest packed with explosives killed 32 people when he blew himself up among mourners at a Shi'ite funeral in the town of Khalis, north of Baghdad. The attack took place inside a crowded mourning tent. More than 52 people had been wounded, police said.
Around 1.45 pm, two female students were killed in a car which was supposed to take them home coming from Diyala university to Al-Sadda neighborhood near Bald Rouz ( 45 km east of Baquba) when gunmen opened their fire against them.
Around 1.45 pm, two female students were killed in a car which was supposed to take them home coming from Diyala university to Al-Sadda neighborhood near Bald Rouz ( 45 km east of Baquba) when gunmen opened their fire against them.
Today morning a road side bomb exploded in central Baqouba injuring 7 civilians including 3 children.
Police found 2 corpses in Al Khalis city carries multiple shots.
Chairman of Diala provincial council on Monday survived unharmed an attempt on his life when a bomb exploded near his motorcade in central Baaquba, capital city of Diala province, 57 km northeast of Baghdad, a security source said.
Kut:
Authorities found six corpses, two of them decapitated, in an area north of the southern city of Kut.
Yousifiyah:
He, meanwhile, reported a third roadside bombing targeting a U. S. patrol in the Yousifiyah town, some 25 km south of the capital, but failed to give the U.S. casualties as they immediately cordoned off the area. The U.S. military did not confirm the information from the town yet.
Gunmen killed two people, including an Iraqi contractor, when they carried out a drive-by shooting in the town of Yusufiya, just south of Baghdad, police said.
Suwayra:
The bodies of six people were retrieved from two rivers in Suwayra, 40 km (25 miles) south of Baghdad, police said.
Basra:
In the southern city of Basra, some five people were killed in an explosion Sunday. Iraqi police initially reported that it was a car bomb, but the British military said it appeared that the blast accidentally occurred while explosives and weapons were being moved.
Two British bases in Basra came under shelling attacks on Sunday night and Monday morning but no casualties were reported, a military spokeswoman said. "The British bases in the former presidential palaces and Basra International Airport came under attacks but these caused no casualties," Capt. Katie Brown, the spokeswoman for the Multi-National Force in southern Iraq, said in a statement received by the independent news agency Voices of Iraq
1 gunman was killed and other 4 gunmen were injured and one passing by civilian as they were attacking a military aircraft (according to eye witnesses) and the aircraft responded. The attack occurred in Al Hussein area western Basra.
Senior official of Sadr’s office captured in Basra by US army. Basra provincial council condemned the arrest.
Baiji:
An Iraqi police brigadier was kidnapped while returning home from work in the district of Baiji, said a source from the Sunni Salah al-Din province police.
Early this morning, a roadside bomb exploded when an American convoy passed near the check point of Biji refinery damaging one Humvee vehicle without knowing casualties.
Mosul:
In northern Iraq, a parked car bomb struck a police patrol in the Raas al-Jada, a mainly Sunni Arab area in the northern city of Mosul, killing one policeman and wounding two others, police Brig. Gen. Mohammed Idan al-Jubouri said. The attack occurred at 8 a.m.
about four hours after some 50 gunmen attacked a police station in the same area, prompting a firefight and clashes as police chased the gunmen through the narrow streets. Four of the gunmen were killed and two others detained, while one policeman was wounded, police said.
Police also cordoned off the area and blocked five bridges after four mortar rounds landed on the police command headquarters elsewhere in Mosul, causing no damages, said Brig. Saeed Ahmed al-Jubouri, the media director for the provincial police.
Two members of Iraqi Kurdistan Region President Massoud Barazani's Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) were killed by gunmen in two separate incidents in the city of Mosul, KDP sources said.
Al Anbar Prv:
One Marine assigned to Multi National Force-West was killed April 29 while conducting combat operations in Al Anbar Province.
A tanker laden with chlorine gas exploded near a restaurant west of the Iraqi city of Ramadi, killing up to six people and wounding 10, police and hospital sources said
A U.S. base on Monday came under a mortar attack in the western Iraqi city of Falluja, a police source said.
Thanks to whisker for the links above.
REPORTS – LIFE IN IRAQ
Death Toll Up To 68 After Blast in Shia Holy City
The blast in Karbala, 50 miles south of Baghdad, took place about 7pm on Saturday in a crowded area close to the shrines of Imam Abbas and Imam Hussein. The shrines were not damaged, police said. Police first thought the explosion was caused by a parked car bomb, but Ghalib al-Daami, a Karbala provincial council member, said it was a suicide bomber. Salim Kazim, the spokesman for Karbala health directorate, said the death toll had risen to 68 and 178 wounded. "The explosion was so powerful that it threw me up into the air," said Haidar Ismail, a patient at Imam Hussein Hospital. Saturday's attack was the second car bomb to strike the city's central area in two weeks. On 14 April, 47 people were killed and 224 were wounded in a car bombing.
Multiple Blasts Heard in Baghdad
Up to a dozen loud explosions have rocked central Baghdad as armed groups continued to target civilians and police in the country's capital. The sound of sirens coming from the Green Zone could be heard across the city after the blasts after nightfall on Monday, which sounded like mortar bombs or rockets. Smoke was seen rising from the government compound at the Green Zone which houses the US and British embassies as well as Iraqi government buildings.
VIDEO: Life in Iraq
Two Iraqi women risk their lives to document what is happening in their country, in particular what is happening to the civilians. This film is about 45 minutes long. One thing they show is the bombing of a hospital in Quam, how it was totally destroyed and how the local children promise to fight Americans forever. It shows them practicing medicine under very difficult situations. Quote: “This is destruction, not democracy.” Be sure to watch the end and what happened to an 8 year old Iraqi girl. Another quote: “The destruction caused by the occupation has shattered Iraqi’s lives in a way that is almost too much to bear. A dark future lies ahead. I believe it is a shame on the world that it did not stop this happening.”
“I Thought I Would Not Stand The Torture”
Saleh Nizar, a 58-year-old gardener, says he was tortured in an Iraqi prison after he was arrested and accused of participating in an attack in the capital, Baghdad. He was arrested on 15 October 2006 and set free on 5 April 2007 after he was helped by a senior Iraqi officer who said that Nizar was his gardener and that he was definitely innocent. As result of the torture he endured, one of his legs sustained serious injuries and doctors said it might require amputation. Nizar, who has a heart condition which he did not receive treatment for while in prison, now spends much of his time in hospitals and clinics trying to stay alive. "For the nearly six months that I was in prison I didn't have a day of peace. Either they were torturing me or shouting at me, using the ugliest words, accusing me of being a Saddam Hussein follower who deserved the same fate as his [death by hanging]. "The most common torture was the use of electric shocks and cigarettes to burn our skin. Other times they would beat us with pieces of wood or electrical wire. Some detainees were also raped by the officers in front of everyone. And if the victim tried to run away, they hit him with a piece of wood. The suffering I endured in prison was doubled because in addition to the pain that I had after each torture session, there was also the desperate screaming of the other prisoners.”
Trapped Between the Wall and the Militants
The concrete walls going up in certain Baghdad neighborhoods and other parts of the country will cost ten million dollars, in addition to the costs of transportation and installation, al-Hayat writes on Monday, citing an economist's estimate. Regardless of what happens in Adhamiya, the predominantly Sunni area of Eastern Bahgdad were the construction of a concrete wall has sparked much controversy, separation walls are planned to be installed in at least ten districts of Baghdad and in 40 other areas around the country, Iraqi officials said. Ominously, one interior ministry official said to al-Hayat that “building separation barriers will not end the series of violent acts in the capital.” The official added that the money coming from the Defense Ministry for the construction was enough to create and equip an advanced brigade of security forces. The source added that the majority of detachments of the Defense and Interior ministries lacked the most basic equipment, due to lack of funds. Meanwhile, residents of Adhamiya are watching the debate about the wall that isolates them from the rest of Baghdad with concern, as the completion of the concrete wall means the isolation of the district from the rest of the city, imprisoning Adhamiya in a “closed cocoon,” whereas undoing the wall means continuing the tragic conditions the neighborhood is experiencing, al-Hayat reported last week.
REPORTS – IRAQI MILITIAS, POLITICIANS, POWER BROKERS
From Juan Cole’s Blog
Al-Hayat , writing in Arabic, alleges that on Sunday night, the elected Governing Council of Basra decided to fire provincial governor Muhammad Misbah al-Wa'ili, the leader in that region of the Islamic Virtue Party (Fadhila). The move came in the wake of a campaign waged by the rival Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq against him after the Virtue Party withdrew from the Shiite party coalition, the United Iraqi Alliance. Al-Hayat's sources maintained that British forces escorted al-Wa'ili to the airport, from which he left for parts unknown.
Al-Hayat reports in Arabic that a source close to nationalist Shiite cleric says that he has sent representatives to Arab countries "to lay the foundation for a Sunni-Shiite alliance." The source said, "Sadr commissioned Aws al-Khafaji and Ahmad al-Shaybani to make a tour of Arab, regional and Islamic states in order to unite Sunnis and Shiites." He added, "The tour will end in the next few days, and will include meetings with Sunni clergymen in the Islamic world, along with political and Islamic personalities in the regional and Arab environs-- to explain the dimensions of the suspicious efforts to provoke conflict between the sects."
VIDEO: An Iraqi Fighter Reflects on Saddam Hussein
This week, on the anniversary of President Bush’s “Mission Accomplished” speech, May 1st, 2003, we interview a member of the Iraqi resistance group, Islamic Army in Iraq. The Islamic Army of Iraq is considered a terrorist group by the United States and most members of the Iraqi government. Tareq Al-Hashemi however, while Vice President of Iraq, called them a resistance group. Some confusion about the exact nature and make-up of the Islamic Army exists because it was initially confused with Al-Qaeda. It has since been determined that they are two separate groups. That became especially clear early in April, 2007, as a war of words began on their opposing websites.
Hamas--Iraq: A new factor in the Iraqi resistance?
Apparent efforts by some parts of the domestic Iraqi resistance to negotiate with the Americans, coupled with the efforts by the Qaeda-related Islamic State of Iraq to monopolize the resistance (among other reasons to block any such negotiations), have led to a number of interesting developments, one lasting one being the formation, or re-formation, of something called "Hamas--Iraq," following the split-up of the Brigades of the 1920 Revolution. There is a lot of background available here on the birth of Hamas--Iraq and its ideology, the most important point being that according to its manifesto, this looks like a group that could be inclined to follow the kind of combined military-political strategy for which the original Palestinian Hamas is known. In theory this might give the Americans a counterparty to negotiate with. Marc Lynch (see the link above) emphasizes that their willingness to negotiate depends on a convincing withdrawal-commitment from the Americans. But there are other issues too.
REPORTS – US/UK/OTHERS IN IRAQ
Ex-Soldier Recalls Horrors of Abu Ghraib
Saturday marked the third anniversary of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal. On Apr. 28, 2004 CBS broadcast the first graphic photos of torture inside of the U.S.-run prison in Iraq on its 60 Minutes II programme. "Americans did this to an Iraqi prisoner," news anchor Dan Rather said as a slideshow of disturbing torture photos flashed across the screen. "The man was told to stand on a box with his head covered, with wires attached to his hands. He was told if he fell off the box, he would be electrocuted." More photos followed. U.S. soldiers posed with naked Iraqi prisoners, including one with detainees stacked in a pyramid. In most of the photos, the soldiers were smiling. At the time, the Pentagon, represented by Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, said only a few "bad apples" engaged in torture. "What would I tell the people of Iraq?" he said. "This is wrong. This is reprehensible, but this is not representative of the 150,000 soldiers that are over here. I would say the same thing to the American people. Don't judge your Army based on the actions of a few." The soldiers in the photos were prosecuted and many received prison sentences, but no high-ranking officers or George W. Bush administration officials were put on trial. That didn't sit well with U.S. Army interrogator Tony Lagouranis. He came forward to say that torture was common practice in Iraq and that he had himself tortured prisoners while stationed in Mosul in 2004.
UK Soldier Jailed One Year for Iraq Prisoner Abuse
Britain's first convicted war criminal was sentenced to one year in jail on Monday for mistreating Iraqi prisoners in a case that exposed senior commanders to accusations they had authorised abuse. Corporal Donald Payne was also kicked out of the army, becoming the only British soldier punished in the case of Baha Musa, an Iraqi hotel receptionist who died after suffering 93 injuries from beatings while in British custody in 2003. His lawyer called him a "sacrificial lamb", punished for carrying out orders. Payne had entered his guilty plea to the war crime of abusing prisoners at the start of an eight-month trial that then failed to secure convictions against six others, including his unit commander, Lieutenant Colonel Jorge Mendonca. During the trial, witnesses testified that abuse of prisoners had been authorised by the British brigade headquarters in Iraq, which allowed detainees to be "conditioned" with harsh treatment such as stress positions. Britain has denied its commanders authorised such techniques, which it considers illegal. But the judge ruled Mendonca and his staff were not to blame because they believed their own commanders had approved the abuse.
Fight Yields ID Cards for Green Zone
Documents captured in recent fighting in Baghdad included two identity cards for access to the fortified Green Zone, which contains Iraqi government headquarters, and an ID card for access to the U.S. Embassy, the Pentagon says. The area where the documents were captured - just west of the Green Zone - has been a stronghold of Sunni extremists linked to al-Qaida, said Army Col. Steven Townsend, commander of 3rd Stryker Brigade that led the operation. Townsend, speaking to reporters at the Pentagon on Monday in a videoconference from Baghdad, did not mention the discovery of the identity cards. That information was provided separately by Pentagon officials after he spoke.
World Terror Up Nearly 30%
A State Department report on terrorism due out next week will show a nearly 30 percent increase in terrorist attacks worldwide in 2006, to more than 14,000, with almost all of the boost due to growing violence in Iraq and Afghanistan, U.S. officials said Friday.
The annual report's release comes amid a bitter feud between the White House and Congress over funding for U.S. troops in Iraq and a deadline favored by Democrats to begin a U.S. troop withdrawal. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and her top aides earlier this week had considered postponing or downplaying the release of this year's edition of the terrorism report, officials in several agencies and on Capitol Hill said.
COMMENTARY
OPINION: A Sea of Flags Represent A Sea of Sadness
Last week something eye-catching sprouted on the lawn of the Unitarian-Universalist Fellowship on Pendleton Road in Clemson. From a car window, whizzing past at 30 miles per hour, it looked like a flock of small white birds, or maybe a bag of confetti scattered across the grass. Not something you normally see in front of a church. So I parked my truck and got out to have a closer look. Dozens of tiny flags on metal stems were stuck into the grass, in a random pattern. A few flags, in front, were baby blue but all the others were white. In front of them was a sign affixed to a wooden stake, also stuck in the grass. “Each flag represents more than 100 deaths,” the sign stated in capital letters, stark black. Another, smaller sign stood next to it. That one announced that the blue flags represented United States troops, the white ones Iraqi civilian casualties. Farther back was one last sign, much taller than the others, standing stiffly like a general amid his troops. “With these flags we sadly commemorate Iraqi war deaths,” it said.
I squatted to look at one of the blue flags near my feet. It had a black outline of a dove, with an olive branch in its mouth. In the corner was a tiny stars-and-stripes emblem. Small letters whispered the message: “This is a remembrance of US military casualties in Iraq. May they rest in Peace. May their country find Peace.” I counted the blue flags. There were 25. Twenty-five times 100 American soldiers.
Then I looked out over the sea of white flags. There were so many, I couldn’t count them. They stretched across the grass to the other side of the church parking lot. Each one was encased in a plastic sleeve, still dotted with water droplets from an overnight rain. They carried the same dove, the same “Rest in Peace” message. A chilly wind stirred the flags, making them flutter slightly, like origami paper cranes about to take flight. War statistics are always brain-numbing. The week before last, 700 Iraqis were killed by roadside bombs and other violence. The total of U.S. troops killed in Iraq now tops 3,000. We read the numbers, but so often they’re just that — numbers.
Slowly I walked the length of the lawn, trying to let it sink in how many tens of thousands of dead people these flags represented. One hundred per flag. All of them civilians. Children. Grandparents. Newlyweds. Elders. Newborns. Next to the display, on a rain-slickened road, cars sped by in both directions. People on their way to work, school, errands. Living their lives. One flag had collapsed into the wet grass. I picked it up and pushed it back into the damp ground. As if that could make a difference.
Quote of the day: “The destruction caused by the occupation has shattered Iraqi’s lives in a way that is almost too much to bear. A dark future lies ahead. I believe it is a shame on the world that it did not stop this happening.” – from video made by Iraqi women, link above
