Photo: A man looks at the ruins of a destroyed Sunni mosque near Basra, 550 km (340 miles) south of Baghdad, June 15, 2007. An important Sunni mosque near the southern Iraqi city of Basra was destroyed on Friday, according to an eyewitness, and a British military spokesman said it had been attacked and significantly damaged. REUTERS/Atef Hassan (IRAQ)
REPORTS – LIFE IN IRAQ
Number Of Iraqi Civilians Slaughtered In War On Iraq - At Least 655,000 + +
Plight of Iraqi journalists worsens
Samira al-Shibli's dream of becoming a journalist came true when Saddam Hussein's regime collapsed in the 2003 U.S.-led invasion. Her dream turned to a nightmare in the chaos that followed. Al-Shibli fled her career and her country this year after receiving death threats. The last threat came in March, when extremists posted a statement on the walls warning she had been sentenced to death for working with infidels. "I know that (journalism) is the profession of looking for trouble, but I didn't realize that trouble also means death," she told The Associated Press in Cairo. Iraqi journalists — who marked Iraqi Press Day on Friday, the 138th anniversary of the first Iraqi newspaper Al Zawra' — are increasingly worried that intimidation and the prospect of sudden, violent death are threatening their profession. At least 106 journalists have been killed since the Iraq war began, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists in New York. Eighty-four of them were Iraqis. Reporters Without Borders said at least 182 journalists and other employees of media organizations have been killed since the start of the war. "Sometimes people accuse the judges of being too lenient with terrorists because they're sentenced to 15 or 20 years instead of the death penalty," Busho Ibrahim, deputy justice minister, told The Associated Press. He wouldn't discuss numbers of death sentences and executions. But the U.N. mission here reports 256 people condemned and 85 hanged as of this Feb. 25.
They’re Hanging Those Who Do
In a northern corner of this baking hot city, inside a broad bend of the sluggish Tigris River, dozens of men, and a few women, sit in prison cells and await a rendezvous with Baghdad's hangmen. Although polls show many Iraqis favor attacking U.S. occupation troops, some prisoners face the death penalty for doing just that — for shooting down a U.S. helicopter, firing mortars at the U.S. Embassy, being caught with the makings of a roadside bomb. Human rights groups acknowledge that the Iraqi government has an inherent right to prosecute and punish those fighting to bring it down. But they deplore the way it's being done. Hina Shamsi, a lawyer with New York-based Human Rights First, said that after Iraq reclaimed sovereignty from the U.S. occupation in 2004, the insurgency became a "non-international armed conflict." Iraqi militants, under international law, are now "unprivileged belligerents ... mere criminals," not entitled to the Geneva Conventions' full prisoner-of-war protections, she explained. Rights advocates say, however, that the death-penalty law is too sweeping and the trials too perfunctory. Iraqi officials reject such complaints.
Iraq's cultural heritage in ruins
Iraq's archaeological and artistic culture is in danger of being wiped out due to a lack of protection and targeted assassinations, a group of archaeologists and artists have told Al Jazeera. According to figures from the ministry of culture, 18 archaeologists and researchers have been killed since late 2005. Fuad Rassi, an Iraqi archaeologist and professor of antiquities at Baghdad University, said: "We are unable to protect important historical sites and the remaining books and parchments documenting Iraq's culture have been stolen from local libraries." Rassi also said the intimidation and murder of archaeologists since the 2003 US-led invasion has impeded the country's research into, and preservation of, millennary culture. He said: "There aren't archaeologists remaining in Iraq because most of them have been killed and the others have fled from the violence. Our situation is getting critical in Iraq. Archaeologists and artists are being targeted by militias and insurgents."
REPORTS – US/UK/OTHERS IN IRAQ
Iraqi Police Discovers Biggest Weapon’s Cache Near Green Zone
Iraqi forces have discovered a huge weapon's cache hideout during patrol duty in Al-Yarmouk area near the green-zone in Baghdad, US military said on Friday. The US military said in a statement that among other things the weapon's cache contained 113 landmines, 63 hand-grenade, three missiles, three mortars, two gas masks, and more than 2000 rounds of AK-47bullets. According to the US military, the findings are the biggest weapon's cache hideout discovered by the Iraqi forces in Al-Yarmouk area near the green-zone.
U.S. says all Iraq reinforcements in place now
All U.S. troop reinforcements heading to Iraq to help restore security have now arrived, but it could take several more months before their weight is fully felt, the U.S. military said on Friday. The United States has sent around 28,000 extra troops to Iraq for a fresh security push, launched in mid-February, aimed at curbing sectarian killing and winning the government of Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki time for political reform. Everyone is here on the ground now. But obviously the troops that have just got here are going to take some time to integrate into their battle space and get to know their counterparts," U.S. military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Christopher Garver said. It will take 30 to 60 days for the new arrivals, who have taken total U.S. troop levels in Iraq to 160,000, to win the confidence of residents and start getting the intelligence needed to counter insurgent and militant attacks, Garver said. [Probably closer to 30 to 60 years, if ever. – dancewater]
An “Ominous” Feeling – Then A Blast
Men packed on a sidewalk outside a Sunni mosque for Friday prayers glared as we passed. The Humvee driver said he had an ominous feeling. Less than a minute later: an explosion. The armored vehicle shook. It was swallowed by dust. We had been hit by a roadside bomb. Nobody was wounded, but the vehicle was out of commission — leaking gas and oil. The soldiers of the 12th Infantry Regiment spent the morning patrolling one of the most dangerous sections of Dora, the district in south Baghdad known as a staging ground for Sunni insurgents. The day started with a rocket-propelled grenade attack and gunfire.
U.S. Troops Arrest Another 3 Iranian Officals
US soldiers on Friday reportedly arrested three Iranian diplomats north of Baghdad. The officials had first been detained by Iraqi forces who had subsequently freed them, allegedly after the intervention of the Iraqi foreign ministry.
Iran strongly condemns arrest of 3 diplomats in Iraq
According to Foreign Ministry Media Department report on Friday, Hosseini said, "Three Iranian diplomats on their way to Iran were arrested by the Iraqi police."
IRAQI REFUGEES
IOM appeals for 85 million dollars to help Iraqi refugees
The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) on Friday launched an urgent appeal for 85 million dollars (63 million euros) to help Iraqis displaced by the violence in their country. "Without a massive injection of funds to provide critical humanitarian assistance to millions of internally displaced Iraqis, there will be no let-up on the large numbers of people forced to flee Iraq's borders," it said. According to a statement from IOM, 85 million dollars would help it respond to the growing needs of the two million internally displaced Iraqis and four million others who are facing a desperate shortage of food. The UN High Commission for Refugees said last week that the total number of Iraqi refugees and displaced people has risen to 4.4 million. A total of 1.4 million are now in Syria, 750,000 in Jordan, 80,000 in Egypt and a further 200,000 have sought refuge in Gulf countries.
Uprooted Iraqis move into "atrocious" camps – UN
People fleeing violence in Iraq have begun to move into atrocious makeshift camps on the fringes of cities such as Najaf, the United Nations refugee agency said on Friday. Andrew Harper, coordinator of the UNHCR's Iraq Support Unit, said the sites were a result of certain governorates sealing off their regions to newcomers. "Camps are one of the worst things you can have, because you are not going to have proper provision of water ... of sewage, of shelter, of security," he said. "They are atrocious." At one site near the holy Shi'ite city of Najaf, hosting 200 families, people were drinking from a polluted water source and many women were urinating and defecating inside their huts because they were afraid of being attacked outside, he said. Without improved access to food and other emergency aid, Harper said such people would be extremely susceptible to diseases such as typhoid and cholera, particularly in summer. "The more vulnerable are likely to die," he said. Some 4 million Iraqis have left their homes since U.S.-led forces invaded Baghdad in 2003, toppling Saddam Hussein and unleashing deep sectarian tensions.
How to Help Iraqi Refugees
Quote of the day: "We will cry all together for this sad reality threatening our culture." - Muhammad Khalid Lattif, actor and member of the Iraqi Artists Association
Photo: A man looks at the ruins of a destroyed Sunni mosque near 
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