Security Incidents for 05/05/07

Photo: An Iraqi soldier holds a machine gun as he mans a checkpoint in Baghdad May 5, 2007. REUTERS/Namir Noor-Eldeen (IRAQ)

Baghdad:

In southern Baghdad, U.S. soldiers on a routine patrol Friday searched a suspicious blue tanker truck and discovered it had been converted into a large truck bomb, the military said. The explosive on the truck consisted of 14 155 mm artillery shells and was destroyed by a team of sappers, the military said Saturday.

A mortar round killed a woman and wounded two men in the largely Shiite southwestern neighbourhood of Bayaa, one of the faultlines of the sectarian fighting in Baghdad.

In the capital, a suicide bomber blew up a vehicle against a police station in the western Yarmuk area, killing one officer and wounding 10, medical and security sources said.

In other news, residents and police in a Shiite area in eastern Baghdad said U.S. helicopters fired on three houses early on Saturday, killing six men and wounding a woman and five children. The U.S. military said a helicopter supporting ground operations in the area was attacked with small-arms fire but "did not return fire." AP Television News footage showed a shattered wall of one house and a satellite dish punctured by large holes apparently caused by artillery. A resident said four men were killed as they slept, conflicting with reports that six were killed. There was no immediate reason for the discrepancy in reports of casualties.

A U.S. Hummer vehicle was destroyed in an attack by unidentified gunmen on a U.S. patrol in the eastern Baghdad neighborhood of Jamila on Saturday, Iraqi police sources said. "The gunmen attacked the U.S. patrol with RPG-7 shells in Jamila, near Sadr City, eastern Baghdad, causing an unidentified number of casualties," the sources told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI

Diyala Prv:

Iraqi police said on Saturday a local council member in central Diala province was reported missing and he was expected to be kidnapped by an armed group. "Sheikh Ridha Ahmed Hussein, a member of al-Saadiya local council, disappeared two days ago and there was no indication to his whereabouts," the source, who asked not to be named, told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq

Najaf:

Meanwhile, clashes broke out Friday in Baghdad and in the Shiite shrine city of Najaf when police said gunmen from the Mahdi Army, a militia loyal to anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, attacked offices of the rival Supreme Council for the Islamic Republic in Iraq, or SCIRI, a key member of the U.S.-backed Iraqi government but with strong ties to Tehran. Tensions rose after a key Sadr aide, Abdul-Hussein al-Obeidi, was stopped at an Iraqi police checkpoint and prevented from driving into Najaf's old quarter. Four people were injured in the clashes Najaf

Diwaniyah:

In Diwaniyah, a Shiite city 80 miles south of Baghdad, suspected Shiite gunmen attacked a joint U.S.-Iraqi patrol late Friday, killing one Iraqi soldier and wounding four civilians, police said.

Basra:

An Iraqi policeman was killed by British forces' fire in western Basra, a police source said

The Basra International Airport will be closed indefinitely to all flights as of Saturday, according to a statement by the Multi-National Force (MNF) in southern Iraq. "The (Basra) airport has come under shooting attacks that caused some damage," read the statement received by the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI) on Saturday.

Abu Ghraib:

A suicide bomber killed nine people and wounded 13 others when he detonated his explosive-packed vest next to a queue of police recruits west of Baghdad on Saturday, an army source said. The blast occurred outside an Iraqi army base near the Abu Ghraib prison west of the capital in Anbar province. Another army source confirmed the suicide attack but had no precise casualty figures

Baiji:

Five Iraqi police officers were shot, killed and dumped in a deserted field in central Iraq, and U.S. forces thwarted a potentially devastating bombing attack in Baghdad, the police and military said Saturday. The bullet-riddled bodies of the five police officers, who were dressed in civilian clothes, were discovered late Friday outside the city of Beiji, 155 miles north of Baghdad, police said. Their ID documents showed they were from the turbulent city of Ramadi, police said

The victims were members of a special police unit from Anbar province, west of the capital, charged with tracking down al-Qaeda suspects, a police intelligence captain said.

Samarra:

A curfew imposed in the city of Samarra, north of the capital, after the killing of a policeman remained in force.

Kirkuk:

In the northern oil city of Kirkuk, a roadside bomb targeting a passing police patrol killed a bystander.

"An explosive charge went off near a police vehicle patrol in central Kirkuk, killing a civilian and wounding three policemen," the source told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq

Meanwhile, the source said "only five minutes later, another explosive charge detonated near a second police vehicle patrol in northern Kirkuk, wounding a policeman."

A roadside bomb wounded two civilians in central Kirkuk, police said.

Kirkuk:

The dead body of a neurologist kidnapped by gunmen on Friday in western Mosul was found by policemen, a Ninawa police official said

Thanks to whisker for the links above.

REPORTS – LIFE IN IRAQ

From Juan Cole’s blog:

Back in Iraq, The Mosul correspondent of al-Zaman, writing in Arabic, reports "an utter deterioration of the security situation" in the city, saying that guerrillas use cars to kill any time a group of youths or children gathers together in the residential sections of the city. Police found 15 bodies on the streets on Friday, all of them with gunshot wounds. Police declared a 3-day curfew. Guerrillas cut telephone communication between the city and the outside world!

Iraq Reimposes Freeze on Medical Diplomas In Bid To Keep Doctors From Fleeing Abroad

Iraq is hemorrhaging doctors as violence racks the nation. To stem the flow, the Iraqi government has recently taken a cue from Saddam Hussein: Medical schools are once again forbidden to issue diplomas and transcripts to new graduates. Hussein built a fine medical system in part by withholding doctors' passports and diplomas. Although physicians can work in Iraq with a letter from a medical school verifying their graduation, they say they need certificates and transcripts to work abroad. It is a common refrain among war-weary Iraqis that things were better before the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. Electricity in Baghdad was more reliable; sectarian hostility was rare; Iraq was safe -- except for the many victims of Hussein's tyranny. But rarely has the government embraced a policy that so harshly evokes the era of dictatorship. To some students and doctors, the diploma decision, like Iraq's crumbling medical system, provides clear proof of the government's helplessness and the nation's decline.

REPORTS – IRAQI MILITIAS, POLITICIANS, POWER BROKERS

Iraqi Security Forces

Sunni tribesmen that once fought with the insurgency have been increasingly joining the security services at the urging of their elders to restore stability to their strife-ridden lands. Interior ministry spokesman Brigadier General Abdel Karim Khalaf told reporters Saturday that thanks to the efforts of the tribes, specifically in the western Al-Anbar province, security forces are now on the offensive. "For the first time in four years the government is giving an offer to the armed groups to lay down their weapons and give themselves up to the government," he said. "Those that have not shed Iraqi blood will be given a general amnesty." "We intend to raise the people of the province in the army and police to 21,000 fighters to ensure security there," he said, adding that at the end of 2006, there were 9,000. Tribes in Iraq's western province of Al-Anbar have banded together and are working with US and Iraqi forces to combat Al-Qaeda and sending people to join the security services to restore stability and hasten the departure of US troops. The fiercely independent Sunni tribesmen also see the advantage of not being patrolled by security forces largely made up of Shiites from elsewhere in the country. Attempts are being made by the US military and Iraqi government to build such tribal alliances elsewhere in the country where the predominantly Sunni insurgency is raging with limited success. [I think this is bunk, what do you think? – dancewater]

Al-Qaida Criticizes Iraq’s Sunni VP

Al Qaida in Iraq released a recording Saturday purportedly of its leader, who had been reported killed in recent fighting, branding the country's Sunni vice president a "criminal" for participating in the government. A suicide bomber, meanwhile, struck an army recruitment center outside Baghdad, killing 15 people — among nearly 40 killed or found dead on Saturday. The statement by Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, also known as Abu Ayyub al-Masri, was seen as a warning to Sunnis not to join the political process and legitimize the Shiite-led government and its U.S. backers. Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi has resisted calls by fellow leaders of the main Sunni alliance to pull out of the government. The statement, posted on a militant Web site, did not directly address reports from Iraqi officials that the al-Qaida leader was killed Tuesday by rivals north of Baghdad.