Security Incidents for 05/03/07

Photo: An injured Iraqi woman receives medical treatment at a hospital after a car bomb blast in Kirkuk, northern Iraq, Thursday, May 3, 2007. A parked car bomb explosion killed at least two and wounded 22. (AP Photo/Emad Matti)

Baghdad:

Four Filipinos working for the US government were killed by a rocket attack on Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone, the embassy reported on Thursday.

A rocket attack on Iraq's heavily fortified Green Zone killed four foreign contractors working for the U.S. government, the American embassy said Thursday. It was the third straight day that extremists used rockets or mortars to hit the area where Iraq's parliament meets. The embassy said two of the contractors were from India, one was from Nepal and one from the Philippines.

Unidentified gunmen blew up a mosque on Wednesday night in southern Baghdad, a security source said on Thursday. "Unidentified armed men detonated Fatah Basha mosque overnight in central al-Bayaa neighborhood using explosive charges," the source, who asked not to be named, told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI). "The blast caused severe material damage inside the mosque," he added

Gunmen killed the imam of a Sunni mosque when they stormed the mosque in the Mansour district of western Baghdad, police said.

Unknown gunmen attacked Radio Dijlah station in western Baghdad on Thursday, killing a security adviser and wounding two guards, and only hours after the crew was evacuated from the building gunmen came again and besieged it, a source from the station said. "Unknown gunmen attacked the Radio headquarters with RPGs, mortars, and machine guns. The guards succeeded in countering the attack. After Iraqi army troops arrived at the location, the gunmen fled the area," the source told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq

Two MND-B Soldiers were killed and six others were wounded in an insurgent attack in southern Baghdad May 3.

Around 12.30 p.m. A mortar shell hit Abu Dsheer neighborhood injured three civilians.

Around 7:30 p.m. A mortar shell landed in the Green Zone without knowing causalities. The following incidents occurred between 4-8 p.m.

Mortar shell landed in Al Baladiyat causalities that caused damages to a house.

Mortar shell landed in Abu Disheer. The shelling claimed the lives of 1 killed and injured 9.

Mortar shell landed in Jisr Diyala the killed 1 and injured 2.

Mortar shell landed Shurta Khamisa that killed 1 and injured 7.

Mortar shell landed in Amel neighborhood caused injuries to two.

Police found 25 dead bodies throughout Baghdad in the following neighborhoods: 1 in Mansour, 3 in Amel, 2 in Hurriya, 5 in Baia, 1 in Furat, 2 in Jaiafir, 2 in Shuala, 1 in Kathimiya, 1 in Sileikh, 1 in Waziriya, 1 in Adhamiya, 1 in NewBaghdad, 2 in Doura, 2 in Saidiyah.

Diyala Prv:

Mortar shells landed in Al Khalis city. The shell hit a house and killed a woman and injured 2 other members of the family

Basra:

Clashes on Thursday morning broke out between gunmen and a British vehicle patrol in central Basra and left three gunmen wounded, the Multi-National Forces in southern Iraq said on Thursday. "A British vehicle patrol came under small-arms fire in the central Basra neighborhood of al-Baladiyat this morning," the Multi-National Forces in southern Iraq said in a statement received by the independent news agency Voices of Iraq

Meanwhile, the statement revealed that two British bases at Basra International Airport, 25 km northwestern Basra, and in central Basra's former president Saddam Hussein's palaces came under indirect fire this morning, but no damage or injuries were reported.

Mosul:

Gunmen assassinated on Thursday an official of the Iraqi Communist Party in the northern city of Mosul, police said. A police source in Mosul told Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) that the gunmen shot dead Muthanna Mohammed Taleb, also known as Abu Thabet, in front of his house in the district of Al-Baladiat in the northern city.

Kirkuk:

IED exploded at last midnight was targeting police convoy in Al-Riyadh neighborhood. The explosion injured one policeman and damaged police vehicle

Al Anbar Prv:

Two Iraqi soldiers were killed on Thursday in a blast in western Iraq, a police source said. "An explosive charge went off near an Iraqi army vehicle patrol in western Falluja, killing two soldiers and damaging a vehicle," the source, who asked not to be named, told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI). He added "the blast occurred today at 12:30 pm in al-Resala neighborhood."

Baiji:

Bodies of six policemen, from Ramadi police department, were found dumped in Baiji district, 250 km north of Baghdad, a security source said.

Police patrols on Thursday found five unidentified bodies in Falluja city, 45 km west of Baghdad, a police source said.

Thanks to whisker for the links above.

REPORTS – LIFE IN IRAQ

Baghdad Christians Flee As Violence Against Them Mounts

Anuar, a resident of Dora district, one of the mainly Christian Baghdad neighbourhoods, has decided to take refuge in a relative’s home in Kurdistan in the north. “We [Christians] are at the end of our tether because in four years of [US] occupation and discrimination against our religion, we have never felt so threatened,” said Anuar. “In my neighbourhood, every Christian family has received threatening letters.” Anuar is one of thousands of people from minority groups who live in fear of their lives. “I saw a family being killed in front of me because they refused to leave their home. Insurgents shot dead the couple, an elderly woman and two children, and left a message by their side saying that it [the killing] was just to show what would happen if any other [Christian] family insisted on remaining in Dora district, which is already populated by Sunni fighters,” Anuar added. Alleged Islamists have said the country should be cleansed of Christians as they support the US-led occupation.

………..The CPA said it had received information that some Christian children, kidnapped over the past two years, are being used by [Sunni] insurgents to fight [Shi’a] militias and US troops. “We cannot release the source [of the information] for security reasons but we are sure about these children. There are about 25 of them and, according to a witness, they have been told that their families converted to Islam but were killed by US troops and now they have to help fight them,” Barini said.

43% of Iraqis live in absolute poverty – government report

Poverty is rampant throughout Iraq with more than half the population lacking basic means to survive, a government survey shows. The survey by the Central Statistical Bureau says that 43 percent of Iraqis suffer from ‘absolute poverty’ and another 11 percent of them live in ‘abject poverty’. Both terms are measures aid organizations use to quantify poverty in the world and they refer to people below poverty level. People in absolute poverty lack the necessary food, clothing or shelter to survive and 43 percent of Iraqis now fall into that category, the survey says. People in abject poverty lack a minimum income or consumption level necessary to meet basic needs and 11 percent of Iraqis are in that category, according to the survey. The study is the result of a nation-wide survey of families across the country and takes into consideration the millions of Iraqis who have been displaced or forced to flee abroad. The survey is the largest and most comprehensive the bureau has conducted in the past four years. Hundreds of researchers and civil servants working in its offices in Iraq were involved.

Explosives-Rigged School in Iraq

"It was truly just an incredibly ugly, dirty kind of vicious killing that would have gone on here by Al-Qaeda," Major General William Caldwell said in an interview with CNN. Caldwell said US soldiers discovered the explosives this week when they spotted detonating wire across the street from the school and followed it to its source inside the building. The general said it was "obviously a sophisticated premeditated attempt to inflict just massive casualties on our most innocent victims -- young children, girls in this case."

Violence Hampering Efforts to Helps IDPs

The United Nations Refugees Agency (UNHCR) has welcomed the Iraq government’s efforts to tackle internal displacement issues, but analysts say much more needs to be done. “People are getting displaced on a daily basis, in addition to dozens joining the refugees in neighbouring countries. The funds so far donated to tackle this problem are small. Some communities are preventing displaced families from staying in their areas and others are forcing them to leave because they are afraid that violence will reach their areas [as a result of the influx],” said Professor Moussa Khalil, a specialist on democratisation and humanitarian affairs in the Iraqi Governing Council.

Palestinians Refugees Despair After Year Marooned Between Iraq and Syria

Over 1,000 Iraqi-Palestinian refugees stranded in camps on the Syrian-Iraqi borders are sinking into despair as their situation continues to deteriorate and a solution to their plight remains elusive. “We are losing hope," one refugee in the Al-Tanf camp, who requested anonymity, told IRIN. "There are problems between husbands and wives because of the situation and we are afraid for the future of our children. We are searching for a solution, but it does not exist." Over 1,000 Palestinians are marooned in no-man's land at the Al-Tanf and Al-Waleed camps on the Syrian-Iraqi borders as well as Al-Hol camp just inside Syria. They fled the violence in Iraq only to be refused entry into Syria by the Syrian government.

Iraq Reconstruction Is Doomed, Ex-Chief Of Global Fund Says

Reconstruction efforts in Iraq are largely doomed to failure, the former chairman of the International Reconstruction Fund Facility for Iraq said Tuesday in an interview. "Reconstruction is difficult enough in a relatively pacific environment," said Michael Bell, a retired Canadian diplomat whose two-year term as chairman ended in March. "In this environment it is almost impossible, if not impossible. Over all, the picture is dire, dire." His assessment followed a report by inspectors from a United States federal oversight agency, the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, that seven projects the United States had declared successes were no longer operating. The United States has contributed to the fund, but the fund has mostly been supplied by the European Commission with contributions from Japan and Canada. It is operated by the World Bank and the United Nations. Bell, who now teaches at the University of Windsor in Ontario, cited as an impediment a desire by the United States and Britain to initially promote high-profile, high-cost projects like repairing utilities, rather than first developing institutions and personnel for their continued operation. "The objective was to improve the conditions of life for Iraqis through infrastructure development so Iraqis would conclude that they were better off and prospering from the new situation," Bell said. "In retrospect, it was too much, too soon."

He also criticized reconstruction plans for making private ownership, rather than government ownership, of infrastructure "an overriding objective." But those plans have been undermined by the widespread instability in Iraq, he said. Iraq's insecurity, he said, has created an exodus among skilled Iraqis who had initially returned to rebuild their country. It has also made supervising and completing reconstruction programs almost impossible logistically. Bell criticized Iraq's government for its lack of interest in building institutions, but he rejected arguments that it was responsible for the failure of reconstruction programs. "You can blame the prime minister, you can say the cabinet can't deliver the goods," Bell said. "But the reality is that nobody can deliver the goods."

REPORTS – IRAQI MILITIAS, POLITICIANS, POWER BROKERS

Iraqi Blocs Opposed To Draft Oil Bill

Kurdish and Sunni Arab officials expressed deep reservations on Wednesday about the draft version of a national oil law and related legislation, misgivings that could derail one of the benchmark measures of progress in Iraq laid down by President Bush. The draft law, which establishes a framework for the distribution of oil revenues, was approved by the Iraqi cabinet in late February after months of negotiations. The White House was hoping for quick passage to lay the groundwork for a political settlement among the country's ethnic and sectarian factions. But the new Kurdish concerns have created doubts about the bill even before Parliament is to pick it up for debate. In Iraq, the Kurds have taken issue with a new provision that was quietly packaged with the draft oil law by the Shiite-led Oil Ministry last month. The measure would essentially cede control of the management of nearly all known oil fields and related contracts to a state-run oil company to be established after passage of the law, said a spokesman for the Kurdish regional government.

The spokesman, Khalid Salih, said the provision violated a clause in the Constitution that says the central government must work with regional governments to determine management of known fields that have not been developed. The Kurds, who have enjoyed de facto independence in the north since 1991, have been arguing for maximum regional control over oil contracts. Contributing a further layer of complication, a Sunni Arab legislator said Wednesday evening that the main Sunni Arab bloc, which has 44 legislative seats, objected to any discussion of the law in Parliament at this time. "Acceleration in presenting it is inappropriate since the security condition is not encouraging," said the legislator, Saleem Abdullah. He said Sunni Arabs were also worried that the law would give foreign companies too large a role in the country's oil industry. Sunni Arab political leaders supported cabinet approval of the draft law, but appear ambivalent now.

REPORTS – US/UK/OTHERS IN IRAQ

Egypt plays host as great Satan eyes up axis of evil

Close to 60 different flags are flying in the hot sunshine of Sharm el-Sheikh as an international conference on Iraqi stabilisation and security gets under way today. Iraq's neighbours are here in force and being urged to do more to help as the US and Britain hone their exit strategies. But no one is betting that it will have much immediate effect on the mayhem in Iraq. Nouri al-Maliki, the Shia prime minister of Iraq, is leading his country's delegation to the two days of talks in the Egyptian Red Sea resort and is hoping that a combination of multilateral support and greater regional goodwill can help provide some light at the end of a very dark tunnel. The hosts are leaving nothing to chance. The conference centre is ringed by black-uniformed commandos posted at hundred-yard intervals. Bemused tourists on their way to the beach or scuba diving off the coral reefs gawp at the motorcades of besuited VIP's whizzing past. Noone has forgotten that al-Qaida suicide bombers recruited amongst the Sinai Bedouin shattered the holiday calm in 2005, though Sharm has kept its reputation for peacemaking, holding Arab-Israeli summits at various moments of crisis. Making progress on Iraq, though, is even harder. The good news is likely to include Saudi Arabia - suspicious of the Shia regime in Baghdad - agreeing to write off an $18bn (£9bn) chunk of Iraq's huge foreign debt, much of it reparations for the invasion of Kuwait in 1990. It is hoped that the United Arab Emirates will follow suit.

Trainers Say Iraqi Forces Would Collapse Without U.S. Support

For almost three years, training the Iraqi army has been among the top priorities for the U.S. military. And for nearly that long, U.S. officials have considered it among their chief frustrations. Now, with President Bush under steady pressure to begin pulling U.S. troops from Iraq, the administration once again is emphasizing the need to train Iraqi forces to take over the country's security. But despite some signs of progress, both Iraqis and their American advisors at this training range are blunt about how much work remains: If a U.S. pullout comes anytime soon, most say, the Iraqi army will collapse. "Honestly put, I think Iraq would be challenged to remain a unified country," said Marine Lt. Col. William Redman, the senior advisor at the range. "I've seen anarchy, and we're right on the brink of it right now. If we go in a year or two years, it's going to be a complete mess," said retired Army 1st Sgt. Jerry Massey, a 21-year veteran who trains Iraqis in how to spot and respond to threats. "We can't leave here for another five years, minimum." [The US military, and any and all military “solutions” so far – have been completely WRONG. – dancewater]

Concern Is High And Unity Hopes Are Nil At Talks On Iraq

Four years ago at this Red Sea resort, leaders of Saudi Arabia and Egypt were photographed as passengers in a golf cart driven by President Bush. The symbolism led to taunting headlines in the region's newspapers. But the United States will not be the sole driver at a two-day international conference seeking to bring stability to Iraq that starts here on Thursday. The Bush administration has lost the confidence of Arab allies frustrated with its failure to stop the bloodshed. While about 60 countries are expected to attend - evidence of global concern over Iraq - the competing agendas here suggest that cobbling together an effective, widely accepted strategy will be hard. Officials from participating nations have haggled for days in Cairo over the elements of a communiqué that the conference plans to deliver. Saudi Arabia has shied away from making the formal overtures toward Iraq that the United States would like to see. King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia last week refused to meet with Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki of Iraq while Maliki was touring the Persian Gulf states. Saudi officials said that they had been unhappy with the pace of Maliki's promised reforms, and that in particular they had been frustrated with Maliki's failure to deal with Sunni concerns. Arab leaders believe that the presence of American troops in Iraq are destabilizing the region, inciting people to adopt the most radical Islamic ideologies. But they fear that a precipitous withdrawal would lead to civil war and give Iran a stronger hand in Iraq than it already has, analysts and former officials said. The analysts, and even American diplomats, acknowledge that Iran comes to the negotiations in a strong position, having extended its influence into oil-rich southern Iraq and with close relations with the Iraqi government. It is also aware of the growing pressure on Arab and American officials to have American troops withdraw.

Senior Qaeda Figure Killed Not Iraq Insurgent Chief

The US military killed a senior Al-Qaeda figure this week in Iraq but the dead man was not the group's chief as was claimed by Iraqi officials, spokesman Major General William Caldwell said on Thursday. Caldwell told reporters that US forces killed Al-Qaeda in Iraq's "senior information minister," whom he identified as Muharib Abdul Latif al-Juburi, early on Tuesday just north of Baghdad. The militant played key roles in the kidnapping and murder of US peace activist Tom Fox and American journalist Jill Carroll in 2006 among other high profile actions, Caldwell said. [Lying or just mistaken? – dancewater]

Jill Carroll Does Not Recognize Jubouri Photo

Jill Carroll does not recognize the photo purportedly showing al Qaeda's "information minister" released this morning by US military officials. According to Major General William Caldwell Thursday morning, the US military earlier this week killed Muharib Abdulatif al-Juburi, a man he said was involved in Christian Science Monitor reporter Jill Carroll's hostage ordeal, as well as the kidnapping of two German citizens in February and the kiling of Tom Fox, an American Christian peace activist. "Based on multiple detainee briefings we know he was responsible for the transportation and movement of Jill Carroll from her various hiding places," said Caldwell. However, Dan Murphy reports for the Christian Science Monitor: General Caldwell's description of the role of the dead man – particularly that "we know he is responsible for propaganda and ransom videos for Jill Carroll" – would imply that Jubouri was Jill's chief captor, a man known to her as "Abu Nour" and as "Abdullah Rashid." Another senior captor that Carroll knew as Abu Rasha, a burly man who played a major role in the logistics of her captivity, also partially fits Caldwell's statement that Jubouri was "responsible for the transportation and movement of Jill Carroll from her various hiding places." But Carroll was held by a number of men, and the photo of Jubouri doesn't appear to be either Abu Rasha or Abu Nour. She says the photo might be of a kidnapper whom she had taken to be a low-status guard, but couldn't be sure.

COMMENTARY

A world turned upside down

The former chairman of the fund for Iraq's reconstruction no longer believes the country can be saved. Last month, my term as chairman of the donor committee for the International Reconstruction Fund Facility for Iraq (IRFFI) expired, and I left the job despondent. I have no real expectation that Iraq can be reconstituted as a viable entity, whatever is done. Many of my colleagues, Iraqi and international, have privately shared that view for some time. We knew we were working in a glass bubble, isolating ourselves from the carnage on the ground. That sense of hopelessness weighs increasingly heavy. The latest meeting of the donor committee, last month in Istanbul, was typically frustrating. The Iraqi delegation was preoccupied with process, wanting greater political control over the multilateral reconstruction facility. (They already have decisive influence.) Symbolism seemed more important than substance and the issue dominated our deliberations. Much effort over the previous months, aimed at reaching agreement on substantive reconstruction priorities such as strengthening Iraq's capacity to manage its challenges effectively, came up against the insuperable barriers of special interests and bureaucratic infighting. Some participants become destructively defensive. Over dinner, an Iraqi cabinet minister launched a vitriolic attack against a senior United Nations representative at the table, condemning the world body's entire involvement. The minister's initial concern was what he termed the grossly unfair image of violence, chaos and mismanagement his country had acquired, suggesting our UN colleague was entirely to blame. There might be, at most, the minister said, some tens of thousand of internally displaced persons in Iraq, but nothing close to the UN's official figure of close to two million. The minister was undeterred even by the fact that the estimate of two million comes from the Red Cross, not the UN. That the displaced are in severe need had no effect on him. [Read the whole thing. It is depressing as all hell. – dancewater]

Quote of the day: "Iniquity, committed in this world, produces not fruit immediately, but, like the earth, in due season, and advancing by little and little, it eradicates the man who committed it. ...justice, being destroyed, will destroy; being preserved, will preserve; it must never therefore be violated." : Manu 1200 BC