Baghdad:
Two car bombs exploded Tuesday near the Iranian Embassy in Baghdad, police said. The bombs exploded within two minutes of each other at about 10 a.m. in a public parking lot located about 150 yards from the front of the Iranian Embassy, wounding six civilians but causing no damage to the embassy or its guards, a police officer said on condition of anonymity out of concern for his own security.
An explosive charge went off near the dentistry college, Baghdad University, wounded four students, eyewitnesses said.
Around 8.30 am, a bomb was put inside one of the students' lockers at the Dentistry College in Bab Al-Muadham killing one student and injuring 2.
A bomb hidden in a bag exploded on a minibus in eastern Baghdad, killing four passengers and wounding eight, police said.
The son of the Electricity Ministry escaped an apparent assassination attempt when a bomb exploded inside his locker in a dentistry college in central Baghdad, police said. Two other students were wounded in the blast.
Two roadside bombs exploded in quick succession, killing one person and wounding two others, in Palestine Street in northeastern Baghdad, police said.
Mortar rounds killed four people and wounded 10 in eastern Baghdad, police said.
Also Tuesday, at least eight Iraqis were killed and 15 others injured, some seriously, when a public market in southern Baghdad was bombarded with mortar shells, witnesses said.
Around 7. am, a roadside bomb exploded in Mansour neighborhood (west Baghdad) injuring 2 civilians.
Around 7.30 am, a roadside bomb targeted an American convoy on Qanat Al-Jaish street ( Army canal) north Baghdad damaging one of the vehicles without knowing the American casualties.
Around 2 pm, a roadside exploded at Maghrib street in Adhamiya neighborhood injuring 2 civilians.
Around 4.30 , three mortar shells targeted the green zone, one fell inside the area . the second fell near the river bank, and both without casualties, while the third hit Al-Jadiriya neighborhood injuring 2 civilians.
Nineteen (19) corpses were found in all over Baghdad : (16) in west Baghdad( Kharkh bank) ; 3 in (Doura) , 3 in (Amil) , 2 in Ghazaliya , 2 in Bayaa , 2 in ( Amiriya) , 2 in ( Saidiya) , 2 in (Adel), 3 in east Baghdad ( Rusafa bank) ; 1 in (Sadr) , 1 in (Husseinia) , 1 in Adhamiya.
Diyala Prv:
Also Tuesday, gunmen disguised as Iraqi soldiers raided a remote village near the city of Baqouba on Tuesday, killing six people, wounding 15, and burning five homes, police said.
Eight civilians were killed and 17 others wounded in an attack by a group of gunmen at a neighborhood in Baaquba, Diala province, an official security source said. "The gunmen, boarding more than 10 vehicles, opened their machine-gun fire at civilians and houses close to the main road," the source, who declined to be named, told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq
Unknown gunmen on Tuesday shot and killed two civilians in Khalis district, Diala province, 57 km northeast of Baghdad, a police source said
Diwaniya:
The Multi-National Force (MNF)'s Echo camp in Diwaniya came under an attack with four Katyusha missiles, a security source said.
An Iraqi army vehicle patrol on Tuesday shot and killed a police officer in western Diwaniya, 180 km south of Baghdad, a police source said. "An Iraqi army vehicle patrol shot and killed Major Hussein Saheb from the 2nd regiment of police commandos forces in Diwaniya," the source, who asked not to be named, told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq
Jaara:
Elsewhere, gunmen stormed a house south of Baghdad at dawn, going room to room and killing seven relatives while they were still in their beds, police and neighbors said. The attack occurred in the mostly Shiite village of Jaara, less than 25 miles south of Baghdad.
Hilla:
A car bomb went off near a restaurant in Hilla City, some 100 km south of Baghdad, killing three people and wounding seven others, local police said on Tuesday. The attack took place on Monday evening when a car with bomb parking near the Adam Restaurant, owned by a police officer, in central city detonated, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity. The blast badly damaged the restaurant and set four civilian cars blaze, the source said.
Kut:
Four bullet-riddled bodies were delivered to the morgue in Kut, 100 miles southeast of Baghdad, said morgue official Mamoun Ajeel al-Rubaie. Three had been decapitated, he said.
Tallil:
Three soldiers have been injured and an armoured vehicle destroyed in a string of attacks on Australian troops in southern Iraq. On a day when nine US soldiers were killed and 20 injured in a suicide car bombing north of Baghdad, Australian troops were attacked four times in the southern Dhi Qar province. In the most serious attack, a roadside bomb exploded as three Australian light armoured vehicles (ASLAVs) carrying six soldiers passed by on a routine patrol north of An Nasariyah on Monday night. The first ASLAV took the brunt of the blast, bursting into flames as the soldiers travelling behind battled to rescue their two colleagues from the burning vehicle. The first ASLAV was destroyed by fire while the other two were damaged
About six hours earlier, insurgents fired rocket-propelled grenades at an Australian patrol. And after the bombing, as soldiers tried to secure the scene, they were forced to fire on a speeding car racing towards them. As they returned to Tallil, the Australians came under more fire from small arms and rockets. Brigadier Gilmore said the troops had made it back to Tallil without further injury or damage.
Karbala:
A roadside bomb targeting a joint Iraqi-U.S. patrol killed three Iraqi soldiers and wounded four others near the holy city of Kerbala, 100 km south of Baghdad, on Monday, police said.
Around 6.30 pm, a roadside bomb targeted a convoy of the chairman of Kerbala with an official delegation who were on their way home to Kerbala from Baghdad near Husseinia area (25 km north east of Kerbala) injuring 5 civilians without knowing the casualties of the convoy.
Yesterday evening , terrorists attack the chairman of Kerbala council and the governor's deputy 's convoy while they were coming back to Kerbala from Baghdad without knowing casualties
Basra:
An armed group wounded three personnel from the oil facilities protection department before seizing 382 million dinars (roughly more than 300,000 U.S. dollars), a media source in the Basra police said
Dalouiya:
A group of gunmen blew up a police station in Dalouiya, 90 km north of Baghdad, after forcing policemen to leave it, a police source in Salah ad-Din province said on Tuesday. "A large number of gunmen planted explosive devices inside a police station on eastern Dalouiya and blew it up after forcing policemen to leave it and seizing the weapons inside," the source told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq
Baiji:
A Salah ad-Din governor's aide survived an attempt on his life on Tuesday when his motorcade was attacked by gunmen in Baiji, 250 km north of Baghdad. "The motorcade of Ahmed Abdallah, an aide of Salah ad-Din governor, was attacked by gunmen in Baiji," the source told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq. The attack did not hurt the official," he added. "The bodyguards started a shootout with the attackers and the shooting ended with the injury of three bodyguards, who were moved to a Tikrit hospital," the source also said.
Yathreb:
Meanwhile, an armed group kidnapped on Tuesday morning an Iraqi army soldier along with his wife from their house in Yathreb town, east of Balad district, the source noted, adding no further details.
Mosul:
The bodies of five people were found shot in different districts of Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.
Tal Afar:
At least two civilians were wounded on Tuesday when a Katyusha rocket landed onto a house in the northern Iraqi city of Talafar, the city mayor said.
Al Anbar Prv:
A suicide truck bomb exploded on the outskirts of Ramadi city on Tuesday, killing at least six people and wounding 25, police said. The fuel tanker blast occurred about 6 p.m., five kilometers (3 miles) north of Ramadi,
A suicide truck bomb killed 25 people and wounded 44 others near the Iraqi insurgent stronghold of Ramadi on Tuesday, police said. The attack took place near a makeshift football field and market in the Albufarraj area east of Ramadi as a police patrol passed by. Police, women and children were among the dead, police said.
The dead include nine Iraqi policemen and six civilians.
At least two policemen were killed and three more were wounded in a blast that occurred on Tuesday afternoon in Falluja, 45 km west of Baghdad, a police source said. "An explosive charge, planted on a main road in al-Jaghaifi neighborhood in northern Falluja, exploded near an Iraqi police vehicle patrol today at 6:30 pm," the source, who asked not to be named, told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq
A Marine assigned to Multi National Force-West died April 23 while conducting combat operations in Al Anbar Province.
Thanks to whisker for ALL the links above.
REPORTS – LIFE IN IRAQ
Gunmen Kill 7 Relatives At A House South Of Baghdad
The whole incident lasted just a few minutes, police said, with the gunmen methodically moving room to room and pumping bullets into the residents while they slept. Neighbors said they could not recognize the assailants, who wore masks and screeched into town in three pickup trucks. The whole incident lasted just a few minutes, police said, with the gunmen methodically moving room to room and pumping bullets into the residents while they slept. All seven victims were from the same family: a mother and father, their son and four teenage grandchildren, police said. The attack occurred in the mostly Shiite village of Jaara, less than 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of Baghdad.
US Forces and Civilians Are Perilously Close
A massive funeral tent stood on the street in Baghdad's Al Amel neighborhood. Taped verses from the Koran echoed from loudspeakers. Black-clad women wailed and slapped their faces in sorrow. On the surface, the scene last week was nothing unusual for Baghdad. But instead of mourning those killed by insurgents or militiamen, this time residents grieved for a mother and two of her adult sons killed in a US helicopter strike earlier this month. While the Americans insist those killed were insurgents who had previously fired "small arms" with "hostile intent" on a US combat outpost (COP), neighbors see it differently. Witnesses say the men weren't firing on Americans, but reacting to what they thought was a Sunni insurgent attack. It proved to be a deadly mistake in the ever more dense fog of war in Iraq. Regardless, the Amel incident underscores the deepening complexities for US troops as they wade farther into neighborhoods, living side by side with Iraqis as part of the plan to secure Baghdad. [In this incident, the US forces were firing at people with weapons who were firing those weapons (reportedly, at a different group then US forces) but I have seen many reports of firings on unarmed civilians, and the ACLU’s files on US compensation claims to Iraqis is full of such examples. – dancewater]
…..Four years into the war, human rights groups complain there is a lack of transparency and adequate compensation by the US military to the families of victims in incidents such as the one in Amel. "The data is so tightly held [by the US military] that we have a hard time wrapping our heads around the extent of the problem," says Marc Garlasco, senior military analyst at New York-based Human Rights Watch. And, experts say, the lack of information about incidents in which civilians are killed is preventing the Army from learning from its mistakes, and preventing such incidents in the future. "The information is not making it into lessons learned," says Mr. Garlasco. Earlier this month, US government documents released by court order to the American Civil Liberties Union showed that only one-third of the families of 479 Iraqi civilians killed by US soldiers between 2003 and 2006 received compensation after filing for claims, while very few incidents were forwarded for further investigation.
Baghdad Becomes A Memory
One by one, the old places where Baghdad's residents loved life are disappearing under violence. Parks, book markets, cafes -- where many played as children, browsed bookshelves as students or whiled away afternoons smoking water pipes -- have been erased, leaving a city many residents say they no longer recognize. With car bombs, concrete barriers and shortages slowly eating away at people's lives and forcing once easy-going residents to stay indoors, Baghdad is becoming a memory. In conversations laced with nostalgia, many Baghdadis speak of their city as if it was a bygone time, or a lost childhood. As the country tears itself apart by sectarian violence, "haneen" -- an Arabic word that means longing -- has become a national past-time of sorts in private gatherings. Baghdad has always evoked a past. It was once the capital of a medieval caliphate and its lavish court life is featured in the "One Thousand and One Nights" tales.
Iraq Students Show Virginia Tech Support
Students in Baghdad, where universities have been hard-hit by violence, said they were saddened by last week's massacre at Virginia Tech and hung up a banner to express their solidarity with "our brothers in humanity and in pursuing knowledge." "We want to let the whole world know that we do not support terrorism anywhere," said Yassir Nazar, head of the student union at Baghdad Technology University, who organized the hanging of the banner near the campus gate. It reads, "We, the students of Technology University, denounce the attack at Virginia Tech. We extend our condolences to the families of the victims who faced a situation as bad as Iraq’s universities do. The sanctity of campuses must be protected around the world." “We have lost many friends and professors," Nazar said Monday. "But in spite of our wounds, we want to show our solidarity with the students of Virginia Tech who are our brothers in humanity and in pursuing knowledge."
Despair Stalks Baghdad As Plan Falters
Trying to get into the centre of Baghdad earlier this week offered one view of how far away the Americans and Iraqi authorities are from gaining control here. We were at the airport. Just before we were due to leave, the entrance car park was hit by a car bomb. US troops and private security forces who guard the perimeter locked the whole area down for the next four hours. No traffic was allowed in or out. While we waited with scores of other vehicles, mortars were fired at the airport. Fortunately for us they landed on the other side of the runway, plumes of smoke shooting into the air. You won't have heard about any of this because at the same time a series of other far more serious attacks was taking place. One was at the Sadriya market in the city centre, where a massive car bomb killed more than 140 people. It was placed at the entrance to a set of barriers put up around another part of the market where a previous single bomb, in February, claimed more than 130 lives. The market blast "did not penetrate the emplaced barriers" a later US military press release helpfully pointed out, ignoring the fact that the bombers had yet again adapted their tactics with vicious perfection - setting off their device at the point where crowds congregated outside and at the very moment when they were busiest.
So far, their surge seems to be having more effect than the American one. Last month alone there were more than 100 car bombings, and the number of attacks has continued at a similar rate so far this month. This indicates a high level of organisation. This despite the fact that there are many extra US and Iraqi troops in the city now. There are more raids and patrols.
……. Exhaustion and despair hang over the country. And there are no signs of change.
Gunmen Execute 23 Kurds in Mosul – Background Information on the Evolution of This Violence
The Yazidi are concentrated around the town of Bashika, in Northern Iraq, as well as small commuities of Yazidi Kurds in Syria, Turkey, Georgia, and Armenia. The Yazidi in Iraq claim to be ~800,000 strong in the region with another 30,000 living in Germany. The Iraqi Kurds want those numbers included in their ethnic demography and, given the Kurds' better understanding of the Yazidi faith (they know it is not devil worship) and their propensity for blood feud in protecting other Kurds, these murders, already a tragedy, this development presents the potential for a new front of sectarian violence if such assassinations continue. So, who killed the 23 Yazidi in Mosul? No specific group had been identified (yet). However [update], a police spokesman from Ninevah has claimed it was in response to the stoning of a Yazidi woman after she converted to Islam and ran off with a Muslim man. According to an updated AP report, a video of the stoning was posted on the Internet, which incited the violence against the 23 Yazidi Kurds. So, one inexcusable act, inflamed over the Internet, led to the deaths of 23 Kurdish Yazidis. Which leads me to the point of this diary; the fact that the AP report did not give an accurate representation of the Yazidi's religion, which, in turn, perpetuated a rumor (devil worship) that has led to violence in the past. Rumor (religion) leads to sectarian hatred, tradition leads to inexcusable punishment (stoning), more rumors (Internet video) inflame the population, mob mentality leads to more murder(23 men against a wall). Eventually, no one knows what it was all about in the first place.
Sunnis Protest Against Baghdad’s “Prison Wall”
Residents of a Sunni enclave of Baghdad demonstrated and shouted slogans yesterday against a newly built wall sealing off their neighborhood from the rest of the city. About 2,000 people marched through al-Adhamiyah in east Baghdad carrying banners saying that their district was being turned into “a big prison”. There was confusion as the Iraqi Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, said that the building of the wall must stop while the spokesman for the US-led security crackdown asserted that “construction of security barriers across Baghdad will continue without exception”. Inside al-Adhamiyah, the three-mile long wall under construction around the area was being compared with the walls built by Israel to surround and control Palestinian towns and villages on the West Bank. “Adhamiyah will be isolated from all other areas,” said one man in a cafe in the district. “We’ll be like the Palestinians and we will not accept that.” The US military in Baghdad says it is constructing the 12ft high walls to create so-called “gated communities” in five different districts in Baghdad to protect them from sectarian attack.
Curfew Imposed To Avert Anti-Wall Protests
The U.S. and Iraqi forces slapped a curfew on the Adhamiya district in northern Baghdad Monday to prevent plans by the residents to hold a peaceful demonstration against the 12-foot high, 3-mile long wall around their area. Eyewitnesses said residents remained confined to their homes as Iraqi and U.S. troops surrounded Adhamiya to enforce the curfew, while U.S. military helicopters were seen hovering above the area. Instructions from mosque speakers warned the people to remain indoors after the U.S. forces allegedly threatened to forcefully confront any protests. The U.S. forces began erecting the wall April 10 on the grounds of protecting the Sunni population from Shiite attacks. But many residents and Sunnis have condemned the move, saying it was a sectarian separation that constitutes a large prison. However, growing pressure against the barrier might reverse the measure.
Frustration Over Wall Unites Sunni And Shiite
The unexpected outcry about the proposed construction of a wall around a Sunni Arab neighborhood has revealed the depths of Iraqi frustration with the petty humiliations created by the new security plan intended to protect them. American and some Iraqi officials were clearly taken aback by the ferocity of the opposition to the wall, and on Monday the United States was showing signs of backing away from the plan. The strong reaction underscores the sense of powerlessness Iraqis feel in the face of the American military, whose presence is all the more pervasive as an increasing number of troops move on to the city's streets. And it has proved to be an unlikely boon for Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, making the Shiite politician - at least for now - into a champion for Sunnis because he publicly opposed the wall's construction.
At a rally on Monday, residents of the Sunni Arab neighborhood of Adhamiya pledged support for Maliki because of his declaration on Sunday in Cairo that construction of the wall around their neighborhood must stop. Their endorsement was all the more telling because many Sunnis see Maliki as the representative of a government bent on Sunni oppression. "My view of Maliki has changed since I heard of this news, and we hope he would be able to carry out this decision," to stop the wall's construction, said Um Mohammed, a teacher in Adhamiya. "We denounce the building of the wall, which will increase the sectarian rift," she said as she stood with more than 1,000 neighborhood residents at the peaceful protest.
REPORTS – IRAQI MILITIAS, POLITICIANS, POWER BROKERS
Al-Maliki Support Eroding In Iraq
A broad range of prominent Iraqi lawmakers say they have lost confidence in Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's ability to reconcile the country's warring factions. A leading Kurdish lawmaker said al-Maliki should resign. Legislators from several parties told USA TODAY that al-Maliki lacks the support in parliament to push through laws, such as a plan to distribute oil revenues, that could reduce tensions between Sunnis and Shiites. Iraq's parliament has failed to pass major legislation since a U.S.-led security plan began on Feb. 14. "He is a weak prime minister," said Mahmoud Othman, a Kurdish legislator who supported al-Maliki until recently. "This government hasn't delivered and is not capable of doing the job. They should resign."
Army Deserters To Be Executed
Iraqi soldiers who desert their units now face execution, according to a decree by the country's Presidential Council. The offense is the latest of nearly 200 others convicted Iraqis are to be punished with death penalty. The council slapped three-year imprisonment on absentee soldiers. The harsh penalties come following reports of large-scale desertion from army ranks in the wake of the latest surge in rebel attacks against U.S. and Iraqi forces. The penalties are also applicable to the cadets of military academies in the country. Turning desertion into an offense punishable by death comes amid mounting criticism from human rights groups that Iraq has become one of the world’s highest users of death penalty. Amnesty International, for example, says that more than 100 people have been hanged since mid-2004 after unfair trials and 270 others are on the death row.
Militants Force Palestinians To Leave Anbar
Palestinians living in Iraq's Anbar province have come under increasing pressure from militants to leave or be killed, NGOs and Palestinians say. Palestinians in the capital, Baghdad, have long been threatened by armed groups and harassed by authorities but threats to them in other provinces are a new development, aid workers say. Sunni-dominated Anbar used to protect Palestinians, who are predominantly Sunni too, but times have changed. "Palestinians had been looking for safety and had found it in Anbar province but now they are being targeted [there also]. The threats they have received are an effrontery against the feelings of Muslim Arabs. They have nowhere to go and might be killed if they try to go to another place," Mahmoud Aydan, a media officer for the Ramadi council, said. "We believe that there are about 150 families taking refuge in different cities of Anbar province but they haven't been registered with the National Food Programme which makes it harder to know their exact location," Aydan said. A spokesman for the Baghdad-based Palestinian Muslims Association (PMA) said he was concerned about the fate of Palestinians in Anbar governorate after militants left threatening notes on the doors of Palestinians taking refuge in the area.
Palestinians have nowhere to go.
REPORTS – US/UK/OTHERS IN IRAQ
Qaeda-Linked Group Claims Attacks on US in Iraq
A group linked to Al Qaeda in Iraq claimed responsibility on Tuesday for attacks that killed U.S. soldiers in the eastern province of Diyala on Monday. "Two knights from the Islamic State in Iraq ... driving two booby-trapped trucks hit the heart of the Crusader American headquarters in the region of Diyala," a statement from the Sunni group of the Islamic State in Iraq said in a Web posting. [And they have yet to claim responsibility for many attacks, including the Samarra shrine bombing. – dancewater]
Britain To Resume Boarding Boats In Gulf
Britain is to resume naval boarding operations in the northern Gulf that it suspended last month after 15 sailors and marines were held by Iran, Defence Secretary Des Browne told parliament on Tuesday. Britain suspended its participation in the anti-smuggling searches after Iranian gunboats captured the sailors, who were held for 13 days. Britain has been part of the mission searching ships in the area alongside the U.S. and Australian navies.
COMMENTARY
Letter: Consider This War From An Iraqi Viewpoint
Let us say that we were invaded, and our government disbanded. The invader destroyed our telephone and electric service, our sewers, our TV and radio stations, and our medical facilities. During their invasion many innocents were killed. After the invasion, if you were a government official at any level, school teacher, in charge of any government department or a member of the armed forces, or any kind of manager, you would not be able to get a job. The invader sets up prisons and tortures and kills. They send patrols into our neighborhoods, break down doors in the middle of the night, and lead men away blindfolded. Many are never heard from. There would be great animosity between anyone supporting or working for the invaders, and those who no longer have jobs. The invader sets up a democratic - to them - government, holding elections and forming a government dependent upon the invaders. They encourage and allow the puppet government to execute the leaders of our prior government. This would lead to Americans forming guerillas to fight, not only the invaders, but anyone helping them in any way. So anyone doing anything that helps the invaders would be considered a legitimate target. Our best weapons would be ones that do the most damage, create terror and are something we could make ourselves: the suicide bomber, roadside bomb and homemade land mines. Other weapons, such as the RPG-7, and the AK-47 would soon find their way to our guerilla forces via countries that disliked the invader or that simply wanted to help us. Folks, this is what took place in Vietnam, and is taking place in Iraq as you read this. We cannot win this because we aren't the good guys in the eyes of the Iraqis. It's time for a reality check!
Jewish Voice for Peace and Just Foreign Policy have a petition to Democratic Presidential candidates and Senators asking them to support Senator Feinstein's legislation limiting the use, sale, and transfer of cluster bombs. Current co-sponsors: Brown, Cantwell, Kennedy, Leahy, Mikulski, Sanders.
Quote of the day: Thomas Jefferson wrote, "If there is one principle more deeply rooted than any other in the mind of every American, it is that we should have nothing to do with conquest." - posted by Salah in Helena Cobban’s blog
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