Security Incidents for 04/25/07

Photo: Baghdad, Iraq: An Iraqi girl inspects the destruction at her house in an area that was allegedly bombed overnight by US military, according to residents at Baghdad's Adhamiyah district. Photograph: Wisam Sami/AFP/Getty Images

Baghdad:

In eastern Baghdad, at least two Iraq civilians were killed and eight others injured when a roadside bomb near a fuel station in Shaab neighbourhood exploded, independent Voices of Iraq news agency reported, citing an Iraqi police source.

Meanwhile, mortar rounds landed on the residential area of Abu Dshier, wounding six people, said the source.

One person was killed and five others were wounded when several mortar rounds landed in the Shi'ite neighbourhood of Abu Dshir in southern Baghdad, police said.

Five people were killed and 17 others wounded by mortar rounds which landed in the Zaafaraniya district of southern Baghdad on Tuesday, police said. Another police source put the death toll at four killed and 10 wounded.

A roadside bomb wounded three Iraqi soldiers when it exploded near a military patrol in Baghdad's mainly Sunni Adhamiya district, police said.

The Iraqi army killed two insurgents and detained 122 suspected insurgents during the last 24 hours in different parts of Iraq, the Defence Ministry said.

A Soldier assigned to Multi-National Corps, Iraq, died April 24, 2007 in a non-combat related incident

An Iraqi interpreter was injured in a roadside bomb attack on a military patrol in the west Rashid district of Baghdad, the U.S. military said.

One civilian was injured in a mortar shell hit Al Saidiyah intersection south Baghdad around 12,00 pm.

2 civilians were wounded in an IED explosion in Zafaraniyah neighborhood south east Baghdad.

2 civilians were killed and 2 others were injured in random fire in Hurriyah neighborhood north west Baghdad around 4,15 pm.

An Iraqi army soldier was killed in clashes between Iraqi army force and in surgents in Amiriyah neighborhood west Baghdad around 5 ,00 pm.

4 civilians were injured when a mortar shell hit Sab Al Boor district north of Baghdad around 5,30 pm.

4 civilians were wounded when a mortar shell hit Jisr Diyala district south east of Baghdad around 6 pm.

A traffic police was injured when a mortar shell hit Al Waziriyah neighborhood north east Baghdad around 6 ,10 pm

18 anonymous bodies were found in Baghdad today. 12 bodies were found in Karkh, the western part of Baghdad in the following neighborhoods (2 bodies in Hurriyah, 2 bodies in Amil, 2 bodies in Al Topchi, 2 bodies in Al Elam, 2 bodies in Bayaa, 1 body in Ahoala, 1 body Ghazaliya.) 6 bodies were found in Rusafa, the eastern part of Baghdad in the following neighborhoods (2 bodies in Adhemiyah, 2 bodies in Karrada, 1 body in Waziriyah and 1 body in Baghdad Al Jadida.)

Diyala Prv:

A suicide bomber wearing a hidden belt of explosives attacked a police station in Iraq's volatile province of Diyala on Wednesday, killing at least four people and wounding 16, police said. The explosion occurred at the front gate of the station in a marketplace in Balad Ruz city, 70 kilometres northeast of Baghdad, police said. All fatalities were policemen and the wounded included 11 civilians and five policemen, police said. [Later reports said nine died. – dancewater]

In another development, at least nine Iraqi policemen were killed and 16 others wounded in a suicide attack in Balad Ruz, a town north- east of Baghdad, pan-Arab al-Arabiya news broadcaster reported

Baiyaa:

In other violence on Wednesday, a roadside bomb hit a U.S. military convoy in Baiyaa, a mixed Sunni-Shiite area of southwest Baghdad, setting fire to one of its Humvees, police said. Associated Press television footage from the scene showed flames and smoke rising from a Humvee on a two-lane road, which was closed off by at least one other Humvee and a U.S. tank. It was not immediately known if the attack caused any casualties.

Dhi Qar Prv:

Australian troops in Iraq have come under fire for the fifth time in two days as they tried to recover an armoured vehicle destroyed during an earlier roadside bomb attack. The attacks on the Australians mark a serious upsurge in violence in the normally quiet Dhi Qar province of southern Iraq. The latest incident came on Tuesday night as an Australian patrol was sent to recover the Australian Light Armoured Vehicle (ASLAV) destroyed in an attack on Monday, which left three soldiers injured. But a gun battle erupted as insurgents opened fire with small arms and fired a rocket which hit the burned-out hulk of the ASLAV, the Department of Defence said on Wednesday. A second vehicle sustained minor damage, but no soldiers were injured.

Hilla:

The body of a man was found shot near the Shi'ite city of Hilla, 100 km (60 miles) south of Baghdad, police said.

Diwaniya:

A gunman threw a hand grenade on an Iraqi army vehicle patrol in Diwaniya city, 180 km south of Baghdad, wounding two civilians, a police source said on Wednesday.

Kut:

Unknown gunmen seriously wounded two Iraqi soldiers on Wednesday afternoon when they attacked an army patrol vehicle in al-Damok neighborhood, northeastern Kut, 180 km southeast of Baghdad, an eyewitness said.

Tuz Khurmato:

Gunmen killed a police officer and wounded two others when they attacked a patrol car just south of the town of Tuz Khurmato, 175 km (110 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.

Salman Bec:

Police sources said that 2 policemen (one of them is a captain) were killed and 3 others were injured in an IED explosion targeted their patrol on Toz motorway near Salman Bec check point north east of Tikrit yesterday evening.

Shirgat:

Police said that a civilian was killed when an IED exploded west Shirgat town south east Mosul city today, early morning.

Kirkuk:

Two Iraqi policemen were wounded when an explosive charge went off near their patrol vehicle in central Kirkuk, 250 km northeast of Bgahdad, while a policeman's body was found in the city, a security source said on Wednesday

Mosul:

At least five people, including a policeman, were wounded on Wednesday when an explosive charge went off in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, a police source said.

A roadside bomb targeting a police patrol wounded five people in Mosul, police said.

Gunmen killed two civilians and wounded another in Mosul, police said. The motive for the attack was not immediately clear.

Iraq's former bodybuilding champion, Ali al-Bayati, was assassinated in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, police said.

Unknown gunmen attacked a bakery on Wednesday in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, killing the baker along with one of his apprentices and wounding two more, a police source said.

Al Anbar Prv:

A suicide truck bombing Tuesday hit an Iraqi police patrol in a market northeast of Ramadi, 108 km west of Baghdad, killing 20 people and injuring more than 30 others, a local police source told Xinhua.

Unknown gunmen on Wednesday attacked and killed two civilians in the western Iraqi city of Falluja, a police source said.

Thanks to whisker for ALL the links above.

REPORTS – LIFE IN IRAQ

PHOTOS: Sadr City Protests Adhamiyah Wall

PHOTOS: The Wall in Adhamiyah

UN Raps Iraq For Withholding Grim Civilian Toll

The United Nations accused Iraq on Wednesday of withholding sensitive civilian casualty figures because it fears they would be used to paint a "very grim" picture of a worsening humanitarian crisis. The United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI) said Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's government would not release data on civilian deaths amid spiraling sectarian violence between majority Shi'ites and once dominant Sunni Arabs. "UNAMI emphasizes again the utmost need for the Iraqi government to operate in a transparent manner," the mission said in its latest report on human rights in Iraq. U.N. officials said they were given no official reason why their requests for specific official data had been turned down. Only broad percentages were available. "We were told that the government was becoming increasingly concerned about the figures being used to portray the situation as very grim," United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI) human rights officer Ivana Vuco told a news conference.

Iraq Most Dangerous Country For Journalists

Iraq remains the most dangerous country for journalists with 46 killed last year in bombings, abductions and drive-by shootings, twice as many as in 2005, the International Press Institute (IPI) said on Wednesday. The violence-torn country topped the organisation's annual survey of journalists' killings, which totalled 100 worldwide last year, making it the worst year since IPI started recording them in 1997, Vienna-based IPI said in a statement. "Journalists and media workers have emerged as a clear target for insurgent attacks," IPI said in the survey. "Media representatives have been repeatedly victimised by sectarian death squads intent on silencing outspoken voices through violence and intimidation," it added. Of the 46 journalists killed, 44 were Iraqi nationals, several of them working for international media outlets, it said.

UN Criticises Iraq’s Kurdistan On Press Freedom

Journalists in Iraq's Kurdistan face arrest and harassment for reporting on government corruption and poor public services, the United Nations said in a report on the autonomous region. The U.N. also criticised Kurdish officials for failing to tackle frequent cases of "honour killings" of women and said hundreds of detainees in Kurdish prisons were held without charge. Kurds promote Kurdistan as one corner of Iraq that is relatively stable, in contrast to the rest of the country that is engulfed in sectarian violence between majority Shi'ites and minority Sunnis. Drawing on that image, Kurdistan plans to build a $400 million "media village" for international organisations. While most journalists' deaths in Iraq took place in Baghdad, the human rights report on Iraq said most arrests of journalists it recorded between January and March were carried out by the Kurdish security forces.

Honour Killings In Kurdistan

Women's rights to life and personal security remained a "serious concern" in the Kurdish provinces of Arbil, Dahuk and Sulaimaniya given the high incidence of "honour killings and other abuses against women", UNAMI said. "Between January and March, UNAMI received information on some 40 cases of alleged honour crimes ... where young women reportedly died from 'accidental burns' at their homes or were killed by family members for suspected 'immoral' conduct." It said it continually received reports about domestic and communal violence which were largely ignored by the Kurdish authorities.

UN: Baghdad Security Operation Has Failed

Sectarian violence continued to claim the lives of a large number of Iraqi civilians in Sunni Arab and Shiite neighbourhoods of Iraq's capital, despite the coalition's new Baghdad security plan, the UN said today. In its first human rights report since the security plan was launched on February 14 – and began increasing US and Iraqi troops levels in the capital - the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) said civilian casualties in the daily violence between January and March remained high, concentrated in and around Baghdad. American troops are facing increasing danger as they step up their presence in outposts and police stations in Baghdad and areas surrounding the city, as part of the security crackdown to which US President George Bush has committed an extra 30,000 troops. Thousands of Iraqi soldiers are also being deployed in the streets of the capital in an attempt to pacify it. "While government officials claimed an initial drop in the number of killings in the latter half of February following the launch of the Baghdad security plan, the number of reported casualties rose again in March," the study said. But UNAMI also said that for the first time since it began issuing quarterly reports on the human rights situation in Iraq, the new January 1-March 31 one did not contain overall mortality figures from Iraq's Ministry of Health because it refused to release them.

Decline in Municipal Services Boosts Violence and Disease in Baghdad

As violence continues to plague Iraq’s capital, Baghdad, the city’s infrastructure continues to deteriorate, causing more violence, health hazards and misery for its seven million inhabitants. “Our district hasn’t had electricity for more than a year. Street lights have been long broken and not repaired, despite requests to the municipality,” said Acram Rabia’a, a community leader in Dora, one of Baghdad’s most populated districts. “Because of this [lack of light at night], violence has increased. People are afraid to leave their houses in the evenings because of thieves and children who used to study at night have been forced to stop after some people tried to kill them,” Rabia’a added. In addition to darkness giving more cover for armed groups to operate, it makes it harder for municipal workers to carry out any work before sunrise or after sunset. And continual threats and murders by armed groups have driven many workers out of their jobs.

Foreign Workers Lured to Iraq

NGOs have warned of increasing numbers of foreign workers being mislead to work in Iraq for little or no pay and at great risk to their lives. Many were destined to work in Gulf countries or other Middle Eastern countries but were deceived by employers organising their travel arrangements. “When I left Ethiopia for Jordan, they told me that I was going to work in Amman and receive US $200 a month for my services. On the second day of my arrival in Amman, they told me that I had to travel to another city by plane. Soon after, I found myself working in a house in Baghdad,” said Muluken Alemu, a 22-year-old Ethiopian who lives as virtual prisoner in the house she works in. “I got desperate. They took my passport away and since I came here five months ago, I haven’t received a single dollar for my work - they always tell me that they’ll pay me after I complete one year of service. I pleaded with them to send me back to my country, but each time I do that, the owner of the house beats me,” Muluken added. Muluken said that she knows many cases of girls and boys who are in the same situation, especially from Ethiopia and Sri Lanka. “I meet them when we go shopping near our homes for our bosses. We speak for a short period of time but we are all desperate and we need help from someone.”

Targeting Baghdad Bridges

A symbol of Shiite-Sunni unity to some, a vital supply and transportation link to others, Baghdad's bridges have come under attack from Iraqi insurgents seeking to knock them down - whether for their symbolic or strategic importance. Three of Baghdad's 13 bridges over the Tigris river have been targeted by large explosions in the past month. Iraqi and U.S. commanders say they are studying the attacks, which they term desperate acts by insurgents who are under pressure from the two-month old Baghdad security operation. Some see the attacks as an attempt to make it difficult for Iraqi and U.S. troops to bring supplies from one side of the river to the other. Others believe the goal is to divide the city's predominantly Shiite east bank, known as Risafa, from the mostly Sunni western side of the river, or Karkh. he first incident occurred on March 21, when security forces discovered a booby-trapped truck parked on the Mohammed al-Qassim bridge in northern Baghdad. The explosives were covered with boxes of fruits and vegetables. Security forces did not have enough time to dismantle the bombs so they evacuated the area and detonated the truck, causing some damage to the bridge. Although the area was evacuated, one civilian was killed and seven were wounded in the powerful blast. The most serious attack occurred April 12 when a suicide truck bomb collapsed the steel-girder Sarafiyah bridge, plunging cars into the water. Eleven people were killed and 39 were wounded. Seven cars were pulled from the river. Two days later, a suicide car bomb killed 10 people at the Jadriyah bridge, which suffered little damage.

New Security Measures Enacted in Ramadi

Ramadi residents woke up to a new security requirements this morning, as the US military has reportedly begun issuing special identification cards to locals as a measure to keep non-residents away from the city. "U.S. forces started this morning issuing identification cards to residents of Ramadi city after taking local residents’ finger prints and making cornea scans to isolate wanted persons and to prevent anyone from entering the city without an ID," a "security source in Anbar province" told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI) by phone. "U.S. marines established centres in the city with special equipment to issue these IDs, which will be given only to Ramadi's residents," he added.

UN Slams Failure to Grant Due Process

The new UN report on human rights criticized Coalition authorities for indefinitely holding detainees without charge or trial, charging, "The current legal arrangements at the detention facilities do not fulfill the requirement to grant detainees due process." The UN praised the resumption of joint Iraqi/MNF inspections of detention facilities in January, after the seven-month hiatus following the public exposure of detainee torture by Ministry of Interior personnel in a Baghdad pre-trial holding center. However, the report also cited the "continuing failure of the Iraqi government as a whole to seriously address issues relating to detainee abuse and conditions of detention." Further, the report continues, "The practice of indefinite internment of detainees in the custody of the MNF remains an issue of concern to UNAMI. Of the total of 16,931 persons held at the end of February, an unknown number are classified as security internees, held for prolonged periods effectively without charge or trial." According to current procedures, security internees are denied access to defense counsel during their first 60 days in detention, and neither they nor defense counsel are present when the initial review of internment decisions are made.

Day Six: Bilal's Burial

'A's friend brought Bilal's body to his family today, because its dangerous for Sunni men to pick their dead up from the city morgue. They washed his body and prepared it for burial in our house. This might sound morbid to some people, but for me, I feel that my house has been honored by having this shaheed cleansed in it. They prayed the janazah prayer in another neighbor's yard. Bilal had been in the morgue for three days, but not in a fridge, because the morgue had run out of space. He had no smell coming from him. InshaAllah, that is a sign that he is a shaheed, accepted by Allah. He has a smile on his face. Looks very serene and comfortable. Like he has rested from this world's burdens. I saw his picture. He is beautiful and shining. His mother is holding up well. She's tough. She told us that she's patient on the outside, but her heart is burnt up on the inside, torn asunder. She told us that when she saw him, she kissed him and told him how much she missed him. She told him, "You don't have to study anymore, your finished with your college studies." And it seemed like he smiled. Then she told him, " And you are a shaheed- a martyr," and it seemed as if he smiled even more. Allahumma taqabbalahu.
They took him to bury him next to his grandfather, in a cemetary near Abu Ghraib- a very dangerous area to travel to now. My husband told me there were masked men with kalashinkovs along the way, with arbitrary check ups set up. My mother in law was afraid for them making this journey, but alhamdulillah, they came back safely. And Bilal was left behind buried under the ground. In a much better place. I have a picture of his older brother, 'A', sitting near his grave, pondering at the ground. It's such a moving picture. It shakes me to see 'A' so sober, so worn out; 'A' who is always laughing, making jokes.
It's been six days, and the ordeal is finally over. Six hellish days. A week ago we never imagined that a week later we'd be left with broken hearts.

REPORTS – IRAQI MILITIAS, POLITICIANS, POWER BROKERS

Insurgents Claim New Methods in Iraq

Two dump trucks sped down the road, then took aim at an outpost defended by paratroopers of the 82nd Airborne Division. Under heavy gunfire, one of the heavy vehicles smashed into an outer ring of concrete barriers and exploded. The second rammed into the wrecked truck, dragging it and other rubble before it exploded 30 yards from the building housing the post's troops, collapsing two walls. Nine American soldiers lay dead and 20 others were injured, U.S. officials said Tuesday as an al-Qaida-linked group claimed it used "new methods" in staging the attack in volatile Diyala province. The assault underscored the ability of guerrillas of the Sunni Arab-dominated insurgency to wage war in Iraq four years after the U.S.-led invasion, and it came in a region that has seen violence escalate since U.S. and Iraqi troops launched the security crackdown in Baghdad. All the casualties were in the 5th Squadron, 73rd Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, which has been conducting operations in largely impoverished villages as part of a security push to tame insurgent activity in Diyala.

Michael Totten’s misinformation about Kirkuk

This kind if misinformation you get from westerners who try to be an experts in Iraq’s ethnics conflicts. Meet the Iraqi Police in Kirkuk The city’s terrorists are mostly Baathists, not Islamists, and their racist ideology casts Kurds and Turkmens as enemies. They’re boxed in on all sides, though, and have a hard time operating outside their own neighborhoods. In their impotent rage they murder fellow Arabs by the dozens and hundreds. Since my mother originally a Kurd from Kirkuk province, my father is a Turkman from Kirkuk city, and many members of the family from both sides are still living their, this is the situation right now. Kirkuk was never a stronghold of the Baath party, military kept law and order in Kirkuk during Saddam’s government and not the Baath party. After the US invasion of Iraq and the fall of Saddam’s government creating the chaos in every Iraqi city, Kirkuk was not effected by the event, police, civil services were all functioning as it was before the invasion. In a matter of a month, a wave of bombing blasted Kirkuk’s neighborhoods, ask anybody in Kirkuk and doesn’t matter if he is a Turkman or Kurd about who is doing these bombing and he will tell you:

Barazani [Kurdish warlord]

Alerted by this Kurdish invasion of Kirkuk city, Turkman who never had Militias before argued that it is the time to establish their own militias to counter the Kurds PKK militias.

REPORTS – US/UK/OTHERS IN IRAQ

US Army Warden Charged With “Aiding The Enemy”

An Army statement listed these charges against Steele: "One specification of a violation of Article 104, aiding the enemy; one specification of a violation of Article 134, retaining classified material; two specifications of violations of Article 133, conduct unbecoming an officer, for relationships involving an interpreter and another Iraqi female; five specifications of a violation of Article 92, failure to obey lawful orders for wrongfully storing classified materials, improperly marking classified materials, failing to obey an order from a superior officer, possession of pornography and dereliction of duty as an approving official for the expenditure of government funds."

COMMENTARY

OPINION: US Policy Takes A Step Closer To The Abyss

Obviously there is a conflict between the expressed US-Maliki program of national reconciliation, and this apparent escalation, both personal and military, against Sunni leaders and groups. Some will attribute this to vacillating US policy. Others posit a distinction between two factions of the Bush right wing, one favoring a return to Sunni control of Iraq (and finding the Allawi-coup theory, for instance, plausible), and the other favoring a Shiite-led eradication of the Sunni establishment once and for all (a position represented by the loony tunes people at the AEI and elsewhere who say that from this perspective, things are going really well, because not only the armed Sunni resistance, but the political Sunni groups as well, are falling apart).

But the apparent contradiction between reconciliation and escalation can be explained in a much simpler way, based on what you could call the Bush "two carrots, two sticks" policy. As Hamoun Mohammad wrote in the piece summarized here yesterday, Bush appears to have deputized the Islamic Party to offer the Sunni-Arab leaders the prospect of a return to power, if they will cut their ties to the resistance, and join in the "political process". (Otherwise, the implication is, they should contemplate the "message" of the Adhamiya wall, or what the Baath party calls the scorched earth policy). This is the mirror image of the offer to Maliki, outstanding since at least the November Bush-Maliki meeting: Pacify the country, or else we will oust you from power. What appears to have changed is in the details of Bush's assignment to Maliki: In dealing with the Sunnis, Bush has said, via Petraeus, go heavier on the stick, relatively less focus on the carrot. And in his message to the Sunni groups: Join the political process now, or else. While the purpose is to bring resistance groups into the political process, by adding fear of annihilation to hope of power, the obvious risk is this could backfire, and Bush ends up driving some of the Sunni political groups already involved in "the political process" into joining the resistance instead. In which case the Bush assignment to Maliki could well become even clearer: Forget the carrot entirely and wipe out the Sunni strongholds.

REFUGEES

Into The Iraqi Diaspora

Last week, the World Health Organization (WHO) released new figures on the disintegrating health situation in Iraq where, according to the group, 100 people a day die, on average, and countless more are wounded. Of the injured who manage to make it to an emergency room, 70% face a chance of dying there. Many don't reach clinics or emergency rooms at all, given the horrendous security conditions in the country. (Most knowledgeable observers believe that all death counts are low-ball numbers, given the increasing problem of gathering accurate figures amid the mayhem.) In Iraqi hospitals, drugs and equipment are increasingly scarce, while ever more health professionals have joined the general exodus from the country. "The daily violence coupled with the difficult living and working conditions," reports WHO, "are pushing hundreds of experienced health staff to leave." Here are a few other bits of information from the WHO report, according to Elisabeth Rosenthal of the New York Times: "80% of Iraqis lack access to sanitation, 70% lack regular access to clean water and 60% lack access to the public food distribution system… As a result of these multiple public health failings, diarrhea and respiratory infections now account for two-thirds of the deaths of children under 5… According to a 2006 national survey conducted by UNICEF, 21% of Iraqi children are chronically malnourished."

And then there's the poorly covered refugee crisis -- probably the worst on the planet at this moment -- gripping the country. Almost 4 million Iraqis have had to leave their homes, according to Refugees International. But don't just rely on some impartial NGO for your information. Here's a ball-park estimate quoted recently in an interview with David Petraeus, the general in charge of the President's "surge plan" in Iraq: "'It's a big competition right now among a variety of groups; and, again in an environment, in Baghdad in particular, [that is] very heavily colored by an influence of the sectarian violence.' Neighborhoods have been depopulated and General Petraeus believes that ‘hundreds of thousands, maybe millions' of Iraqis have been displaced."

A VOICE OF THAT DIASPORA- from email from Avaaz

My name is Khalid, i am an environmental engineering student and i am 24, but this is the least important to know about me, what's really important for me to tell, and for you to know, is that I am Iraqi, and that I have a deep, deep wound in my soul, that has been bleeding for over four years now. Iraq, my soul, is bleeding. And i had to leave it against my will, because of the incredibly bad security situation that led to me getting kidnapped and my family paying a huge ransom, which made me leave immediately after i was released in fear that i would be kidnapped again. I left Iraq one month before my graduation and had to come to Jordan, which made me lose two years of my university time and life, but even worse, made me lose the company of the Tigris and the Euphrates.
I had to travel, leaving Iraq behind me, to live like a refuge, one of a million other refuges, in a country of less than five millions people, that already has its own financial problems without needing our additional burden to add to it. I am an Iraqi refuge in Jordan.

Since I left in July 2005, things have exponentially deteriorated in every possible aspect, now people hardly get 1 hours of electricity a day, they have water problems, regular lack of gas that its prices multiplied about 20 times since the war. Let alone the main and real problems of the actual presence of an occupation that is leaching on the country and causing the destruction to its people, unity, sovereignty, infrastructure and economy.
Iraq is the loving mother, that gave birth to thinkers and builders, people that enriched humanity with their contributions in all aspects of life, people that their civilization accumulated for over 7000 years till now. Iraq, the noble wisdom, the land of the two flowing rivers, the land of the mosques and churches, is in crises, and needs your help.

Click below to join Khalid in telling US, Iraqi and international leaders to do the right thing for Iraq.

PEACE ACTION: Avaaz is launching a major advertising and text-message campaign inside Iraq this week to bring Iraqi voices to this decisive meeting . As citizens around the world, let us join our voices with theirs to end this war -- sign the petition calling for negotiations and a withdrawal of US troops here, by clicking the link above. To make sure we are heard, we will hand-deliver our petition to the leaders' conference in Sharm El-Sheikh on May 3rd, and project Iraqi text-messages on to a huge wall near the US Capitol building in Washington. Thousands of Iraqi Avaaz members have supported our N.E.W. plan -- for all-party "Negotiations", "Empowering" international mediators and the responsible "Withdrawal" of US troops.

Quote of the day: Iraqis carry a banner reading "with our unity we destroy all the walls of the occupation" during a demonstration in the impoverished district of Sadr City.