Photo: Iraqi photojournalists take pictures of a mosque damaged in a bomb attack in Baghdad May 12, 2007. The Vienna-based International Press Institute said in April that 46 journalists were killed last year in Iraq, of whom 44 were Iraqis. Overall, more than 100 journalists, 80 of them Iraqi, have been killed in Iraq since the U.S. invasion in 2003. REUTERS/Ali Jasim (IRAQ)
In Country:
Billions of dollars' worth of Iraq's declared oil production over the past four years is unaccounted for, a US newspaper reports today. The New York Times said between 100,000 and 300,000 barrels of Iraq's daily output of roughly 2 million barrels is missing, possibly due to corruption or smuggling. The discrepancy was valued between $5 million and $15 million daily, using a $50 per barrel average, the report said. That adds up to billions of dollars over the four years since the March 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq.
Baghdad:
(update) Friday's suicide car bombers attacked two bridges that cross the Diyala River, a tributary of the Tigris, and are located about 2.5 miles apart in southeastern Baghdad. On Saturday, the old Diyala bridge, which American forces had rebuilt after destroying it at the start of the Iraq war, had one of its two lanes open to traffic and pedestrians. Police kept everyone away from a large hole blown through the concrete span over the Diyala River. Blood stains from the bombing could still be seen at some points on the bridge. Nearby, on the two-lane new Diyala bridge, remnants of the truck that a suicide attacker apparently used were located near a large hole in the concrete crossover, exposing large rods of steel. The hole in the low-lying bridge was filled with water.
A bomb also exploded near a Shiite mosque in northeastern Baghdad late Friday, killing at least one worshipper and wounding six.
The son of the Iraqi Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi survived a roadside bomb attack near his car in western Baghdad on Saturday, an Interior Ministry source said. "A roadside bomb went off near the car of Ahmed Tariq al-Hashimi, son of Sunni vice president, in the Amriyah neighborhood," the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity. The vice president's son was seriously wounded in the blast and was transferred to Ibn Sina Hospital, which is run by the U.S. troops, the source said.
Separately, two more roadside bombs targeted U.S. patrols in Saidiyah and Baladiyat neighborhoods in southern and eastern Baghdad respectively, the source said. It was not clear whether the U.S. soldiers sustained any casualties as the troops cordoned off the area, he added. The U.S. military did not confirm the two attacks yet
Around 9 am, a roadside bomb exploded at Amiriya neighborhood without casualties
Smoke billowed from the vicinity of the U.S.-controlled Green Zone after at least two explosions were heard Saturday in Baghdad. The U.S. military said it had no immediate information on the blasts. Police said two mortar rounds were fired at the Green Zone from eastern Baghdad, but that could not be confirmed.
Diyala Prv:
An armed group blew up a Shiite shrine in the central Iraqi province of Diala, a security source said on Saturday. "Last night an armed group in three cars blew up a religious shrine in Mindli town, 75 km south of Baaquba," the source, who asked not to be named, told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq. "The gunmen stormed the shrine over night and disarmed the guards there. They put explosives in different parts of the shrine. Large parts of the shrine were brought down after they detonated the explosives," the source explained.
Unidentified gunmen fired 15 mortar shells at an Iraqi National Guard headquarters in the town of al-Ghalibiya in Habhab district, Diala, eyewitnesses said
Mahmoudiya:
Five soldiers from the U.S.-led forces in Iraq were killed and three remained missing after their unit was attacked south of Baghdad early Saturday morning, the military said. The attack on a patrol of seven U.S. soldiers and an Iraqi interpreter soldier occurred at 4:44 a.m. near Mahmoudiya, in a Sunni insurgent stronghold about 30 kilometers (20 miles) south of Baghdad, the military said.
Iskandariyah:
An 89TH Military Police Brigade Soldier was severely wounded by an improvised explosive device at approximately 7:15 pm Friday south of Al Iskandariyah. The Soldier was evacuated for treatment at the Coalition medical treatment facility at FOB Kalsu but later died of his wounds
Madain:
In other violence reported by police, a parked car bomb struck a gas station in the mainly Sunni town of Madain, 14 miles southeast of Baghdad, killing two people and wounding four others who were waiting in line for fuel.
The spokesman for the law-imposing plan in Baghdad said police forces foiled an attempt to detonate a truck rigged with explosives and killed its driver near a check point in al-Madaen district, southeast of Baghdad, the official al-Iraqiya TV said on Saturday. The official TV gave no further details.
Latifiya:
Three bodies were found shot dead near the small town of Latifiya, 40 km (25 miles) south of Baghdad, police said
Diwaniya:
Gunmen killed a policeman in front of his home in the southern Iraqi city of Diwaniya, police said
An Nasiriyah:
A roadside bomb in Iraq damaged an Australian military vehicle but two soldiers onboard were not injured, the Defence Department says. The incident happened on Friday night during a patrol in southern Iraq's Dhi Qar Province, the department said. A statement said the Bushmaster Infantry Mobility Vehicle was immobilised by the explosion near An Nasiriyah but had not been seriously damaged. It has since been recovered and the two soldiers remain on duty.
Basra:
At dawn, a roadside bomb exploded when a British vehicle passed through Timimiya neighborhood(near Ashar) in the downtown of Basra ( south of Iraq) having some damage to the vehicle with no casualties recorded
Hay Al-Sikak:
Early morning, gunmen bombed Asad's brother's house , the chairman of Samara municipality , after forcing the whole family to evacuate the house which is in Hay Al-Sikak south Samara (North of Baghdad).
Al Anbar Prv:
An explosive charge went off near an Iraqi patrol passing through a southern Hadithan town in the Sunni province of al-Anbar, causing severe damage to a Hummer vehicle and setting it ablaze, local residents said on Saturday. "Gunmen detonated an explosive device when an Iraqi National Guard patrol was passing through the neighborhood of al-Dawaher, southern Haditha," a local resident told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq
Gunmen killed a man who was an army colonel under Saddam Hussein in Falluja, west of Baghdad, police said.
Thanks to whisker for the links above.
REPORTS – LIFE IN IRAQ
Crackdown Makes Iraqi City 'Unbearable'
U.S. and Iraqi troops have imposed a strict security crackdown in Samarra, a stronghold of the Sunni insurgency, prompting residents to complain that basic necessities such as drinking water have not reached the city for seven days. The strictures follow recent incidents in which militants linked to the group Al Qaeda in Iraq flew black flags in the city's streets and a suicide car bomber rammed into police headquarters, killing 12 officers, including Chief Col. Jaleel Nahi Hassoun, and disabling Samarra's water system.
"Life in the city is unbearable," said Mustafa Abdul-Latee, a 38-year-old city worker and father of four. "I get paid on a daily basis, so being unable to work is causing me a big problem…. I am forced to buy in debt from all the shops since I don't have money."
The governor of Salahuddin province, who has political authority over the city, said U.S. and Iraqi troops had reacted too strongly, imposing a vehicle ban against his will in the city of 200,000. The measures have been taken "probably because they received intelligence information about terrorist threats," said Gov. Hamad Hmood. But he objected to the road closures, saying that "the curfew and the indiscriminate detentions have only exacerbated the situation in the city." … Dr. Mustafa Abdul Kareem, head of the pediatrics ward at a Samarra hospital, said a lack of fuel for generators had led to equipment failures that resulted in the deaths of two newborns in an incubator. Two other children required transport to Tikrit or Kirkuk, but he said their ambulance was blocked by U.S. and Iraqi troops.
Billions of Barrels of Oil Missing
Between 100,000 and 300,000 barrels a day of Iraq's declared oil production over the past four years is unaccounted for and could have been siphoned off through corruption or smuggling, according to a draft American government report. Using an average of $50 a barrel, the report said the discrepancy was valued at $5 million to $15 million daily. The report does not give a final conclusion on what happened to the missing fraction of the roughly 2 million barrels pumped by Iraq each day, but the findings are sure to reinforce long-standing suspicions that smugglers, insurgents and corrupt officials control significant parts of the country's oil industry. The report also covered alternative explanations for the billions of dollars worth of discrepancies, including the possibility that Iraq has been consistently overstating its oil production. Iraq and the State Department, which reports the numbers, have been under relentless pressure to show tangible progress in Iraq by raising production levels, which have languished well below the U.S. goal of 3 million barrels a day. Virtually the entire economy of Iraq is dependent on oil revenues.
Poverty Drives Children to Work For Armed Groups
Eleven-year-old Seif Abdul-Rafiz and his two brothers were left with no choice but to leave school and work so as to help their unemployed parents make ends meet. Unable to find a job, Seif resorted to making bombs for Sunni insurgents who are fighting US troops in Iraq. "We work about eight hours a day and are supervised by two men. They give us food and at the end of the day we get paid for our work. Sometimes we get US $7 and sometimes we get $10, depending on how many bombs we make," Abdul-Rafiz said. "The bombs are used to fight American soldiers. I was really afraid in the beginning but then my parents told me that it was for two good causes: the first is to help our family eat; and the second is to fight occupation forces," he added. Thousands of poor children in Iraq are forced to work to help their families. Many of them work in one way or another for a variety of armed groups that operate in the war-torncountry. "If I had choice, I would have preferred to be in a classroom but we need to eat. In the beginning, they were very kind with us but later they started to threaten us, saying that if we leave our work they would kill our family," Abdul-Rafiz said.
Attack shows peril for Iraqi journalists
In a polarized Iraq, radio host Suhad Rabia did everything she could to stop her listeners from figuring out whether she was Shiite or Sunni. When callers used abusive language to speak of ethnic or religious groups other than their own, she promptly took them off the air. When they expressed extremist sectarian sentiments, she reminded listeners that the station did not share their views. She sympathized with victims of sectarian cleansing, Shiite or Sunni, when they called in. Not giving away her religious affiliation and creating a forum for all Iraqis were some of the things Rabia used in the three years she worked for Radio Dijla to bolster the station's reputation as an independent voice in a country devastated by violence. Because Radio Dijla played a part in trying to heal Iraq's wounds, gunmen attacked the station in broad daylight May 3. The station's security chief was killed and two other employees were wounded in a 20-minute gunbattle. The building was bombed, torched and looted. Rabia, 29, survived by hiding in an editing room with six other women and two small children. But she was out of a job.
……The attack on the station began hours later, at about 2:10 p.m. Veteran radio host Siham Mustpaha had just wrapped up a 40-minute program marking World Press Freedom Day, and the station was broadcasting a news bulletin. When militants armed with automatic rifles and rocket-propelled grenades stormed the offices, the radio quickly went off the air without an announcement. While Youssef and several security guards fought back, the roughly 25 other workers in the building frantically sought help in endless calls to the police and army headquarters, personal contacts in the security forces and the "130" emergency number splashed over thousands of giants billboards and posters across the city. Help was on the way, they were told. A major Iraqi army checkpoint a mere 500 yards away failed to respond even though the boom of the grenades should have been loud and clear. Finally — 50 minutes after the attack began — an army force came to their rescue. The battle appears to have further bonded Radio Dijla's mixed Shiite and Sunni work force of about 60. "The men were ready to sacrifice themselves to protect the women and children," Mustpaha said. The solidarity is raising hopes that the staff will soon relaunch the station, whose name is Arabic for Tigris.
US Military Releases Iraqi Journalist
Iraqi journalist Jamal al-Atabi said the U.S. forces released his son Furat, a layout designer in the Iraqi newspaper al-Sabah, on Friday after three months in detention. "Iraqi Member of Parliament Mathal al-Alusi had several contacts with the U.S. forces for the release of my son, detained since February 2007, without any charges," Atabi told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI). U.S. forces arrested Atabi on February 20, 2007 when they raided his house in Tunis neighborhood in eastern Baghdad.
Cancer-related deaths soar in south
Cancer-related death rates have increased substantially in southern Iraq particularly in the provinces of Basra and Missan, a medical study has found. The study by the Basra University’s Medical College scientists said cancerous diseases are now the cause of “a large percentage of deaths” in southern Iraq. It said 10 different cancers were prevalent in the region. The researchers used hospital morgue statistics for their investigation and findings. The study reveals that 56.3 per cent of all male deaths in southern Iraq are caused by cancer. “Cancer-related female deaths amount to 43.7 per cent,” the study said.
More projects for Najaf
The provincial authorities in the holy city of Najaf have started scores of projects worth billions of Iraqi dinars. Ahmad Duaibel of the city’s local administration said work on 81 projects had started and on completion they should improve Najaf’s infrastructure. Health, agriculture and water purification schemes are among the top priorities, Duaibel said. He said 23 projects to develop the province’s transport infrastructure were underway. But most of these projects, he said, would only revamp those which were affected “by recent events” in Najaf. Najaf has been the scene of violent car bomb attacks as well as sporadic clashes involving rival Shiite militia groups as well U.S. occupation troops. Duaibel did not say when these projects will be completed and declined to reveal the names of the contracting firms.
Southern province signs housing contract with Iran
The southern Iraqi province of Missan has signed a memorandum of understanding with Iran for the construction of a new housing complex of 1,000 flats. The memorandum includes several other deals which include building of bridges and designs of a new university. A delegation representing the province was in Iran recently and a statement issued following the visit said the Iranians “have promised to begin implement strategic projects in Missan.” But the statement added the deals signed will only become valid after being ratified by the central government in Baghdad. Missan of which the city of Amara is the provincial capital shares the largest area of border with Iran. It is one of the most impoverished provinces in the country with its four major factories – sugar cane, vegetable oil, paper and plastic – currently idle.
Minorities Lose Out in Education
Central authorities accused of failing to support non-Arabic language education in northern town. Tara Emad, 10, walks home after class, singing a song in her native Kurdish that she recently learnt at school. The scene would have been unimaginable just a few years ago. During Saddam’s reign, the only language taught and used in Iraqi schools was Arabic, the exception being the autonomous Kurdish region, of which Kirkuk - Tara’s hometown - was not a part. Thousands of children like Tara were deprived of the right to speak and be educated in their mother tongue, be it Kurdish, Turkoman or Assyrian. As part of the Ba’ath party’s attempt to eliminate ethnic diversity in Iraq, languages other than Arabic were mostly banned from schools, universities, media and public places. For instance, in Kirkuk - which has a substantial Kurdish community, as well as smaller minority groups, such as Turkomans and Assyrians - schools delivered only one lesson in Kurdish, but only after 10th grade.
In 1974, the Iraqi government agreed to open several Turkoman schools, but reneged on the move after a year. Following the fall of the regime in 2003, minorities were granted the constitutional right to be educated in their mother tongues. It was essential that the likes of Tara attend a Kurdish school. She grew up speaking mainly Kurdish at home. But when she started school aged six, all the lessons were in Arabic - as a result of which she failed her first year. “My teacher always reproached me for not speaking Arabic well,” she recalled. Now some of the lessons in her school are conducted in Kurdish, which makes it much easier for her to keep up. After the fall of the regime, Iraqi provinces were given powers to run local education affairs, with support from central government. But Kurdish officials say the latter provided them with little backing for mother-tongue schooling. Yousif Saeed, in charge of Kurdish studies at the Kirkuk education office, accuses the ministry in Baghdad of neglecting an important constitutional right of non-Arab nations.
REPORTS – IRAQI MILITIAS, POLITICIANS, POWER BROKERS
SCIRI To Change Platform
Iraq's most powerful Shi'ite party will make key changes to its platform, party officials said on Friday, in a move that will increasingly align it with Iraq's top Shi'ite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. The changes could distance the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) from neighbouring Shi'ite Iran, where the party was formed in the 1980s to oppose the late President Saddam Hussein. Under the new platform, the party would get its guidance from the Shi'ite religious establishment as before, but more from Sistani, SCIRI officials said. That would mark a shift from SCIRI's current platform, which says the group gets its guidance from the religious establishment of Welayat al Faqih, led by the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Iran.
………..SCIRI officials told Reuters the Islamist party would change its name, removing the word "Revolution" because that was seen as a reference to fighting Saddam, who persecuted Iraq's Shi'ites for decades. "Our name will change to the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council. Other things will change as well," said the SCIRI official, who declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the subject. Since the U.S.-led invasion toppled Saddam in 2003, SCIRI has been a key player in Iraqi politics. It holds around a quarter of the seats in parliament in the ruling Shi'ite Alliance of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. SCIRI's leader, Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, is a powerful cleric who has good relations with the United States. [And a lot of blood on his hands. – dancewater]
Reining In Iraq’s Wolf Brigade
On the streets of Baghdad, justice is often meted out instantly and brutally. In this case, the target was a suspected insurgent wanted by the US Army brigade here – taken off the streets by Iraq’s national police – but not in the way the American soldiers working with them would have liked. “They just executed the guy in the street,” said one officer. The suspected Sunni insurgent appeared to have been unarmed when members of Iraq’s troubled National Police force responded to a home-made bomb placed in the sewer in the al-Furat neighborhood of West Baghdad last Friday. In the end his bullet-ridden body lay sprawled across the sidewalk, shot several times at close range, including through the arm as he apparently held it up to shield his face. The U.S. military is investigating the incident involving the Wolf Brigade, a unit believed previously involved in death squads which has been put back on the streets after its leadership was removed and its officers retrained. Giving American Army units oversight over Iraqi police was meant to help prevent incidents like this one but it happened on a day when the U.S. soldiers who normally would have been in the vicinity were not there. [Seems they should have gotten suspicious of the Wolf Brigade when they showed people on TV confessing to murders of people who were still alive. If not that, then the hundreds of reports of them invading homes and killing everyone inside should have done it, one would think. – dancewater]
More Alleged Kurdish Spies Exposed
Kurdish parties unlikely to punish members accused of spying for Saddam. Kurds have been shocked by fresh press revelations about alleged Kurdish collaboration with the former Ba’ath regime. The Awene and Hawlati newspapers, two private weeklies published in Iraqi Kurdistan, have recently published official documents naming people who allegedly spied on Kurdish parties during the Saddam era. The titles claim they have evidence that around 300 Kurds from various political factions worked as agents for the Ba’ath regime before it fell in 2003. An official committee was established earlier this year to investigate the claims but has so far yielded no results. After Saddam was toppled, the two Kurdish newspapers managed to get hold of much of the mountain of confidential documentation looted from the offices of the intelligence service, the Mukhabarat. Not long after the US-led Coalition defeat of the Iraqi army, Hawlati published the names of some alleged Ba’ath collaborators, all members of Kurdistan Democratic Party, KDP, and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, PUK, the major political parties in the region. After a public outcry, both parties agreed to address the issue, but were slow to do so.
REPORTS – US/UK/OTHERS IN IRAQ
Analysis: Iraq Funding Bill Too Oily
A new measure to fund the Iraq war has run into opposition from congressional Democrats who say it does not offer enough provisions to keep the United States away from Iraq's oil. "We have to be concerned that the oil in Iraq belongs to the Iraqi people," said Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Calif. "It's absolutely that simple." Woolsey is co-chair of the 72-member Congressional Progressive Caucus and 76-member Out of Iraq Caucus, a coalition from both chambers attempting to champion an exit strategy from Iraq. A bill to do so received 171 votes, including two Republicans, but was defeated Thursday prior to the supplemental passage. Woolsey and seven caucus colleagues voted against the supplemental. Unlike the supplemental bill vetoed earlier this month, the new bill does not have a timetable for U.S. troops to end combat operations, and it still includes provisions concerning Iraq's oil. [Of course, that was the bushies going in there. – dancewater]
Five Killed, Three Missing
Seven U.S. soldiers and an Iraqi army interpreter came under attack Saturday morning during a patrol in a Sunni insurgent stronghold south of Baghdad, leaving five dead and three missing, the military said. Troops were searching for the three missing, using drone planes, jets and checkpoints throughout the area, according to the statement. Soldiers were also asking local leaders for information. After the pre-dawn attack near Mahmoudiya, which is about 20 miles south of Baghdad in a Sunni insurgent stronghold dubbed the Triangle of Death, nearby units heard explosions and a drone plane later observed two burning vehicles, the statement said. Troops who arrived later found five of the soldiers dead. The other three members of the patrol were gone, according to the statement, from Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, the chief U.S. military spokesman in Iraq. The military refused to specify whether the Iraqi interpreter was among those killed or among the missing, citing security.
Life in the Triangle of Death
The area is full of palms and irrigation ditches. To the American foot patrols, having to watch out for mines and snipers, it must feel like Vietnam. At first they had great difficulty establishing bases in the countryside and suffered heavy casualties, but the bases are now more secure. The "surge" in troop levels is paying off in terms of greater stability - the sheer size of the military bootprint guarantees that. But can it be sustained? The troops are doing longer terms of duty; morale seems low; how many will re-enlist? The only contact the soldiers have with the local population is in stress situations - when a search is being conducted or IDs checked. The troops take interpreters with them, but their English is not always very good. Through the interpreters they will ask some basic questions - "Have you seen any strange people around here?", "Are there any bad guys in the area?" - but mostly the locals just shrug and say no. They don't want to get involved. One night a vehicle patrol was hit by a roadside bomb. I joined a foot patrol that went out in response, and three men were tracked to their home a mile away. They'll now be sent to Baghdad for questioning, and will either be charged or released. But that could take a long time: they can be held for a long period without being charged and can be parcelled around in the meantime. Following the explosion, the patrol searched houses nearby. That's where they surprised the boy in bed. He looks unconcerned in the photograph, but that's because here the abnormal becomes the norm. Mostly, the locals know what to do when they are confronted by a patrol - stop whatever they're doing, get out of their car, explain who they are. And do it quickly - or you run the risk of being shot.
COMMENTARY
OPINION: ...AND YET MORE TALK
Two days of talks on Iraq last week produced an international agreement promising support for the Iraqi government in exchange for political and economic reforms to be implemented by Baghdad. But while the so-called International Compact on Iraq canceled some of the country's foreign debts, the initiative yielded few other tangible results, local commentators say.
This Minute and Then The Next
Here, a short excerpt from one of the most recent in a steady stream of stories that come our way at Voices for Creative Nonviolence. Haifa, a mother, writes to us from Baghdad:
Dearest,
I'm now exhausted because I can't stop my children thinking of our situation. Hamid went to a shop: they want to hire him as a seller, selling silly things, and I want to stop him because he will be in front of the shop putting out goods to sell on the street and this is the most dangerous thing. He want to work because he said if we don't get to school then I must work to be useful for myself and for my family... Yesterday there are 200 persons killed in Al Karada neighborhood, most of them sellers in the street. I worry so much about Hamid. And little Saif is so dirty playing in the street. No water since three days. I can't keep him in house for long time; he is child, he want to play. Sometimes he forget if he get his meal or not. Huda, she want to walk and see everything. I can't manage anything here. I'll be full crazy. No home, no water even, it is so dirty. I can't buy bottles because it is expensive to buy. Everything here is bad and I can't be heavy person on people I love them. My sisters busy for their families - they search for place to be safe till now. I'm loosing my personality and my children, and even they don't listen to me. We are all lost and don't know what the solution is...
Haifa signs her letter "Love and peace." In the only time she owns, possibly the last time she will write to her friends in the States, Haifa writes of the tyranny and injustice that typifies daily life in Iraq. And then, in closing she blesses us, with wishes of love and peace. Just this minute and then the next, whenever we feel defeated, or bored, or tired of the struggle to end tyranny and injustice, let us remember Haifa. Remember her daily struggles, her fears for her children, her desperation. Remember that, in spite of all, she sends wishes of love and peace. And remember, "Right now is the only time we own!"
Quote of the day: No body talks to the [bush] administration. It is a closed bubble. –Reza Aslan
Photo: Iraqi photojournalists take pictures of a mosque damaged in a bomb attack in 
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