Iraqi soldiers conduct a joint search mission with US troops near Yusifiya, 12 May 2007. Four thousand American soldiers backed by jets and helicopters have launched a massive search operation south of Baghdad to find three comrades missing after a deadly insurgent attack.(AFP/File/Mustafa Ahmed)
Baghdad
Car bomb near Sadriyah market kills at least 17, injures 46. (A previous attack on the market on April 18 killed 127.) This CNN story gives the precise location of the attack as al-Wathab Square, between the Sadriyah and Shorja markets. (This probably accounts for confusion among other reports that seem to suggest an additional bombing incident.)
Police find bullet-ridden bodies of 17 people at various locations around the capital.
Gunmen attack a flour mill in the Eweiraj district of southern Baghdad, kill 5 workers, injure 4. (Note: Other reports, such as this one, and this one, refer to a seemingly identical incident in Mahmudiya, but I suspect they are erroneous and that the confusion comes from the prominence of Mahmudiyah in today's news. But I don't rule out that a factory in Mahmudiyah was attacked as well. -- C)
Maqmudiyah
Update on yesterday's attack on a 2-vehicle U.S. convoy: Gen. Caldwell announces that 4 of the dead were U.S. soldiers, the other the Iraqi interpreter. Three soldiers have apparently been captured. "The Islamic State in Iraq, an al-Qaida front group, said it had captured several soldiers in the attack, but offered no proof to back up its claim, posted on an Islamic Web site." 4,000 troops are now searching for the missing soldiers.
Baqubah
Gunmen drive into city center in two cars, pull captives from the trunks, and publicly execute them. The victims were evidently collaborators with the Shiite-controlled government and/or the U.S. occupation.
Three other civilians were also executed in a market in the city center, police said. (Not entirely clear if these were related.)
Four killed, five wounded in two separate explosions.
Elsewhere in Diyala Province
An explosive device in a residential area of al-Saadiya, 95 km northeast of Baqubah, kills two women and injures two others.
Roadside bomb near al-Wajihiya, 25 km northeast of Baqubah, kills two and injures three, Aswat al-Iraq also reports.
Najaf
A roadside bomb targeting a police patrol wounded four policemen.
Kut
Gunmen attack the house of a policeman, injuring two family members. The same police source says that two unidentified bodies were found elsewhere in the city.
Basra
Iraqi and MNF (presumably British) forces arrest six militants in a raid. A British armored vehicle is destroyed in an explosion elsewhere in the city. (No report on casualties as of now.)
Balad
Gunmen attack an Iraqi army and police patrol, U.S. troops respond, claim 15 militants killed.
Mahkmoor (Kurdistan)
Suicide truck bomb attack on Kurdistan Democratic Party and municipal offices kills 43 and injured 115. (Iraqi Kurdistan is divided into areas of KDP and PUK rule, so in any given area there may be no distinction between party and government buildings. -C) Al Jazeera gives the death toll as 50, reports that there are bodies under the rubble and the toll is expected to rise. (No-one has claimed responsibility for this attack, but al-Jazeera notes that Mahkmoor is actually just south of the official boundary of Kurdistan, which suggests that the attack may have been motivated by the Arab-Kurdish border dispute. -- C)
Mosul
Gunmen kill a physician near his clinic.
Kirkuk
Katyusha rocket attack kills one civilian, injures another.
OTHER NEWS OF THE DAY
A spokeswoman for U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney, currently on a tour of Middle East capitals, says U.S. is willing to hold talks with Iran on the subject of Iraq. And, the White House confirms that talks will happen shortly in Baghdad between Ambassador Crocker and Iranian diplomats. Iran has agreed to the talks after receiving a request through the Swiss embassy. (I note that as these talks will be only at the ambassadorial level, they cannot result in any formal agreement in themselves, but Iran last week indicated an interest in talks at the ministerial level if the agenda could be defined. -- C)
Tina Susman of the LA Times reports that the oil law, one of the famous "benchmarks" for political progress in Iraq, is unlikely to pass. Excerpt:
It has not even reached parliament, but the oil law that U.S. officials call vital to ending Iraq's civil war is in serious trouble among Iraqi lawmakers, many of whom see it as a sloppy document rushed forward to satisfy Washington's clock.
Opposition ranges from vehement to measured, but two things are clear: The May deadline that the White House had been banking on is in doubt. And even if the law is passed, it fails to resolve key issues, including how to divide Iraq's oil revenue among its Shiite, Kurdish and Sunni regions, and how much foreign investment to allow. Those questions would be put off for future debates.
The problems of the oil bill bode poorly for the other so-called benchmarks that the Bush administration has been pressuring Prime Minister Nouri Maliki's government to meet. Those include provincial elections, reversing a prohibition against former Baath Party members holding government and military positions and revision of Iraq's constitution.
Hamid al-Hamrani of Baghdad Press reports that the ruling bloc is planning a broader reshuffling of the cabinet and a new political alignment. However, details are lacking and it is not clear that any current opposition groups are coming into the fold. (This talk seems to be coming mostly from Jalal Talabani and Iyad Allawi -- two strong supporters of the U.S. project in Iraq but neither of whom appear in a position to deliver anything. We'll see . . . -- C). Excerpt:
On the front that the Iraqi National Slate is allegedly seeking to establish, the newspaper quoted Allawi, the leader of the slate, as saying, "The front we are talking about is inside and outside the parliament at the same time." Allawi called on Iraqi politicians of all colors to take part in the Iraqi national project.
Meanwhile, the Kurdish al-Taakhi newspaper quoted Iraqi President Jalal al-Talabani as asserting the government's determination to achieve real national reconciliation and unity within two weeks or a month. "It is an important step that will encourage all Iraqis to be involved in the political process and to isolate al-Qaeda," the newspaper wrote.
Discussing the formation of political blocs and fronts outside the government, al-Taakhi quoted MP Mahmoud Othman from the Kurdistan Alliance as indicating that forming a wide parliamentary bloc of moderate political parties is once again under discussion. "The United States is urging political blocs to form political groups in an attempt to find an early solution to the problems facing Iraq," Othman said.
Iraqi parliament overwhelmingly passes resolution calling for end to construction of security walls around Baghdad neighborhoods. However, the tri-partite presidency must unanimously approve the measure for it to become law. But here's the good part:
The house was about to vote on another resolution, this time to ban American forces from Baghdad, when officials announced the house no longer had a quorum.
Funny, the only place I found this article was a local paper in Arizona. Somehow the New York Times and CNN missed this one.
McClatchy's Shashank Bengali reports on Iraq's missing. Excerpt:
Over the past four years, as sectarian kidnappings and killings have gripped Iraq and U.S. forces have arrested untold numbers in an effort to pacify the country, tens of thousands of Iraqis have vanished, often in circumstances as baffling as that of Kereem's husband, a Shiite Muslim father of three.
There's no accurate count of the missing since the war began. Iraqi human rights groups put the figure at 15,000 or more, while government officials say 40 to 60 people disappeared each day throughout the country for much of last year, a rate equal to at least 14,600 in one year.
What happened to them is a frustrating mystery that compounds Iraq's overwhelming sense of chaos and anarchy. Are they dead? Were they kidnapped or killed in some mass bombing? Is the Iraqi government or some militia group holding them? Were they taken prisoner by the United States, which is holding 19,000 Iraqis at its two main detention centers, at Camp Cropper and Camp Bucca?
Since her husband disappeared with his taxicab on July 30, 2004, Kereem has made countless inquiries at hospitals, police stations, morgues and missing-persons centers throughout Baghdad. No record of him has turned up.
Quote of the Day
It was a credibility-killing moment for John McCain. Last month, the senator insisted that there are parts of Baghdad are safe for Americans to go for a stroll and that General Petraeus travels around the city "almost every day in a non-armed Humvee." Obviously, that was wrong. McCain took this to the next step, of course, when he went to a Baghdad market, surrounded himself with 100 soldiers, three Blackhawk helicopters, and two Apache gunships, and then told reporters that was able to walk freely in Iraq's capital.
Tim Russert asked him about this on Meet the Press this morning. McCain responded:
"I'll be glad to back to that market -- with or without military protection and Humvees, etc."
It's hard to believe anyone will be impressed by this misplaced bravado, but it's worth remembering that the day after McCain took a heavily-protected stroll that market, 21 Shia market workers were ambushed, bound, and shot at the same location.
Nevertheless, McCain thinks he can go for an unescorted walk in Baghdad? It's as if he's given up on being taken seriously altogether.
When a once-proud man becomes a joke, it's a sad thing to watch.
Josh Marshall
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