*IRAQ: latest news and developments

[Barking_Mad]

'Collaborator' has eye gouged out

July 09, 2004
AN Iraqi man who owns a laundry and a restaurant on a US military base in this northern Iraqi city was found with his hands cut off and an eye gouged out, the police said today. Accused of "collaborating" with the US forces, Yunes Mohamed Ali, 58, was kidnapped while driving in his car on June 29.

The kidnappers demanded a $US20,000 ($27,750) ransom from his family, who handed over the money, said police commander Rael Faez Nafal. The victim was found dumped by the roadside yesterday in the region of Kukeji, east of Mosul, 370 kilometres north of Baghdad.

After examining the amputations, Mosul hospital Doctor Walid Jassem said the kidnappers had "some knowledge of surgery".

 

[Barking_Mad]

Update:

Mortar attack kills 10

July 9, 2004

A MORTAR attack on an Iraqi national guard post in the hotbed city of Samarra yesterday resulted in a bloodbath that left at least 10 people dead, including five US troops, and scores wounded, officials said. The violence flared just one day after Prime Minister Iyad Allawi was granted wide powers to impose emergency measures to fight the insurgency that has left thousands dead since last year's US-led invasion.

Adding to the pressure on the interim government to gain control of security, a Filipino was abducted and threatened with decapitation. Insurgents fired up to 38 mortar rounds at the Iraqi national guard headquarters in Samarra, which was being guarded by US 1st Infantry Division troops, said military spokesman Major Neal O'Brien.

Five of the division's soldiers were killed and 20 wounded, while one national guardsmen died and three were injured in the onslaught that started just before 11am local time (5pm AEST), he said.

 

[Barking_Mad]

About 3,000 Texas Guard Members Called Up

Fort Worth -- The Army Thursday announced about three-thousand Texas National Guard members have been called up for duty in Iraq. The soldiers are part of the 56th Brigade of the 36th Infantry Division headquartered in Fort Worth.

The units that will make up the 56th Brigade Combat Team are located across Texas. Officials say it's the first divisional brigade in the Texas National Guard to be mobilized for duty outside the U.S. since World War Two.

The troops will report to Fort Hood in mid-August for training before they head to Iraq early next year. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports the Iraqi deployment will last at least 12 months and is expected to be in the Baghdad area. About 2,200 Texas National Guard members currently are on active duty, although not all are serving overseas.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Gunbattle Near U.S. Marine Hassoun's Lebanon Home

TRIPOLI, Lebanon (Reuters) - A gunbattle erupted Thursday near the family home of a Lebanese-born U.S. Marine who had been missing in Iraq, killing at least two people and wounding several others, witnesses said.
Relatives of Wassef Ali Hassoun, who arrived at the U.S. embassy in Beirut Thursday, traded fire with another family who taunted them by referring to the Marine and his family as U.S. agents, said the witnesses.

The gunbattle occurred in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli. Hassoun, 24, had been missing from his unit since June 21, and at one point was reported on an Internet site to have been killed by militants holding him hostage. U.S. officials said Hassoun had been picked up in Beirut after making contact and was safe at the embassy. They gave few details. The northern Lebanon area where Hassoun's family lives is a stronghold of deeply religious Sunni Muslims with strong clan ties. Blood feuds among rival families are not uncommon.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Do they really think that after 25 minutes the insurgents would be still stood round the mortar's having a chat?

Five US soldiers killed

The U.S. and Iraqi troops were killed when insurgents launched 38 mortar rounds about 10:30 a.m. and destroyed the headquarters building in Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad in the so-called Sunni Triangle, a hotbed of resistance to the coalition. Some of the rounds landed in civilian areas, the military said. Dr. Abid Tawfiq, director of the Samarra General Hospital, said three civilians were killed in the violence and 20 others were injured.

About 25 minutes later, when radar determined the source of the shelling, U.S. soldiers responded with four mortar rounds.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Sunni anger fuels insurgency

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- The Iraq insurgency is far larger than the 5,000 guerrillas previously thought to be at its core, U.S. military officials say, and it's being led by well-armed Iraqi Sunnis angry at being pushed from power alongside Saddam Hussein.

Although U.S. military analysts disagree over the exact size, dozens of regional cells, often led by tribal sheiks and inspired by Sunni Muslim imams, can call upon part-time fighters to boost forces to as high as 20,000 -- an estimate reflected in the insurgency's continued strength after U.S. forces killed as many as 4,000 in April alone.

And some insurgents are highly specialized -- one Baghdad cell, for instance, has two leaders, one assassin, and two groups of bomb-makers. The developing intelligence picture of the insurgency contrasts with the commonly stated view in the Bush administration that the fighting is fueled by foreign warriors intent on creating an Islamic state.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Clarke calls U.S. treatment of Iraqi prisoners "war crime"

SAN FRANCISCO -- Former White House terrorism czar Richard Clarke called the mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib a "war crime" and again blasted the Bush administration for actions that he said are intensifying the threat of terrorism. "We have a major problem and we have not improved it over the last three years," Clarke said Thursday at the annual conference of the American Civil Liberties Union. "It, in fact, has gotten worse."

An unlikely medley of speakers, including former Republican congressman Bob Barr and FBI whistleblower Coleen Rowley, joined Clarke to talk about the increasing tension between civil liberties and national security. Later Thursday, Colorado Gov. Bill Owens, a Republican, debated former Democratic presidential contender Howard Dean on the same issue. Clarke leveled the worst of his volleys against the Bush administration for its handling of terrorism, which he said had helped al-Qaida mutate into an uncontrollable entity "that no longer need Osama bin Laden to direct it," he said.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Robert Fisk on Martial Law in Iraq

Many Iraqis may initially welcome the new laws. Security - or rather the lack of it - has been their greatest fear since the American military allowed thousands of looters to ransack Baghdad after last year's invasion. They have, anyway, lived under harsh "security" laws for more than two decades under Saddam. But the new legislation may be too late to save Mr Allawi's "new" Iraq.

For large areas of the country - including at least four major cities - are in the hands of insurgents. Hundreds of gunmen are believed to control Samara north of Baghdad; Fallujah and Ramadi - where four more US Marines were killed on Tuesday - are now virtually autonomous republics.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Translator's throat slashed

INSURGENTS slashed the throat of a translator working for American forces in the oil-rich city of Kirkuk today in the latest of a series of assaults on professionals supporting coalition troops in Iraq.

The body of Hewah Omar, 28, was dumped by the side of a river flowing through the middle of the city. Local residents found his corpse and called authorities.

"His throat was cut by a knife and he was stabbed in the chest seven times," said Colonel Sarhat Qader, a senior police official. Insurgents have targeted translators and other people helping the military and the interim government to disrupt efforts to rebuild the country after years of war, sanctions and instability.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Interesting piece by former UN weapons inspector, Scott Ritter.

Facing the Enemy on the Ground

The battle for Iraq's sovereign future is a battle for the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people. As things currently stand, it appears that victory will go to the side most in tune with the reality of the Iraqi society of today: the leaders of the anti-U.S. resistance.

Iyad Allawi's government was recently installed by the United States-led Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) to counter a Ba'athist nationalism that ceased to exist nearly a decade ago. In the aftermath of the first Gulf War, Saddam Hussein's regime shifted toward an amalgam of Islamic fundamentalism, tribalism and nationalism that more accurately reflected the political reality of Iraq. Thanks to his meticulous planning and foresight, Saddam's lieutenants are now running the Iraqi resistance, including the Islamist groups.

Not only has the United States failed to put into place a viable government to replace the CPA in the aftermath of the so-called "transfer of sovereignty," but more importantly, it continues to misidentify the true nature of the Iraqi insurgency. As a consequence, the resistance will inevitably continue to flourish and grow until no force can defeat it, Iraqi or American....

.....The Pentagon today speaks of a "marriage of convenience" between Islamic fundamentalists and former members of Saddam's Ba'athist regime, even speculating that the Islamists are taking over Ba'athist cells weakened by American anti-insurgency efforts.

Once again, the Pentagon has it wrong. U.S. policy in Iraq is still unable or unwilling to face the reality of the enemy on the ground. The Iraqi resistance is no emerging "marriage of convenience," but rather a product of planning years in the making. Rather than being absorbed by a larger Islamist movement, Saddam's former lieutenants are calling the shots in Iraq, having co-opted the Islamic fundamentalists years ago, with or without their knowledge.

One look at the list of the 55 "most wanted" members of the Saddam regime who remain at large reveals the probable chain of command of the Iraqi resistance today. It also underscores the success of Saddam's strategic decision nearly a decade past to disassociate himself from Ba'athist ideology.

......The historical parallel that best underscores the current disaster-in-the-making is not the Vietnam War but rather Israel's invasion of Lebanon in 1982. Originally intended to rid Lebanon of the Palestine Liberation Organization, Israel's subsequent occupation led to the creation of Hizbollah as a viable force of political and military resistance. The Hizbollah was so effective that Israel was forced to unilaterally withdraw its forces from Lebanon in May, 2000. The 18-year occupation not only failed to defeat the PLO, but it also created an Islamic fundamentalist movement that today poses a serious threat to the security of Israel and the Middle East region.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Four Marines killed in Iraq

July 11, 2004 2:45 AM

Baghdad, Iraq-AP -- Four U-S Marines are dead after a vehicle accident in Iraq. U-S Central command says the Marines were assigned to the First Marine Expeditionary Force. The accident happened when the four were conducting security operations near Fallujah.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Iraqis Hold Pro-Saddam March in Baquba

BAQUBA (Reuters) - Hundreds of Iraqis demonstrated Sunday in support of ousted President Saddam Hussein in the town of Baquba, northeast of Baghdad, witnesses said. Masked gunmen led the protesters marching through the mixed Sunni-Shi'ite town chanting against Iraq's new Prime Minister Iyad Allawi. They shouted: "We sacrifice our souls and blood for you, Saddam" and "No, no to Allawi."

The demonstrators brandished portraits of Saddam and condemned moves by Allawi's interim government to put the deposed dictator on trial for crimes against his people. "Saddam will remain the symbol of Iraq and the Arab nation," one banner read. "We condemn the staged trial of President Saddam," read another.

Saddam, who was captured by U.S. troops in December, appeared before an Iraqi judge on July 1 at the start of proceedings that could lead to formal indictments for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. A handful of anti-Saddam demonstrators gathered in a central Baghdad square Sunday to burn his effigy and call for his execution. They unfurled a banner that read: "Defending Saddam is defending brutality and crime."

 

[Barking_Mad]

U.S. soldier killed in bomb blast

Sun 11 July, 2004 11:08

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A soldier from a U.S. taskforce has been killed and another wounded in northern Iraq in a roadside bomb attack on a convoy that also killed an Iraqi civilian, the U.S. military said. In a statement, it said the convoy then came under fire on Sunday from an approaching vehicle. Troops returned fire and killed the driver.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Soldier's dad in fresh Blair attack

REG Keys - whose son was killed in Iraq - this weekend launched a blistering attack on Tony Blair as the Prime Minister prepares for a fresh battering over the decision to go to war.

Mr Keys, from Bala, North Wales, said Mr Blair had to face the consequences for intelligence failings on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction and repeated calls for the PM to resign. His words echo fresh criticisms from members of the intelligence community, with a former senior spy due to tell a television programme tonight he could "almost hear the collective raspberry going up around Whitehall" when Mr Blair told MPs the threat from Iraq was serious and current.

Today the PM's closest aides are preparing for the upcoming Lord Butler report on UK intelligence, which is expected to be as devastating as Friday's findings in the US. They highlighted a "global intelligence failure" on Iraq. Mr Keys has already received a letter from Mr Blair saying he believes Iraq was a "just and important cause".

 

[Barking_Mad]

Bomb Sets Iraqi Gas Pipeline Afire

Baghdad, Iraq — Striking with apparent impunity, saboteurs detonated an improvised bomb next to a gas pipeline north of Baghdad early Saturday in an area that has seen more than a dozen major pipeline attacks over the past year. The attack shut down the gas pipeline, which feeds the enormous Bayji power plant, and set it on fire.

The most recent attack in the region came only five days ago, cutting off a pipeline feeding several northern power plants and a factory that makes gas canisters for household use. “You're going to see this kind of attack against feeder pipelines just continue,” said Anne Korin, of the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security in Washington, adding that militants were using well-planned attacks to discredit the new Iraqi government. “When it's really hot outside and the electricity is out, that's a really good way to make you unhappy,” she said.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Task Force Olympia Soldier dies from roadside bomb

MOSUL, Iraq - One Soldier assigned to Task Force Olympia was killed and another injured this morning when their convoy was attacked with a roadside bomb approximately 140 kilometers south of Mosul. While the injured Soldier was being treated following the explosion, a vehicle approached at a high rate of speed and fired on the convoy. The Soldiers returned fire killing the driver.

The injured Soldier has been evacuated to the U.S. Army combat support hospital at Forward Operating Base Speicher and is in stable condition. The roadside bomb explosion also killed an Iraqi citizen that was driving behind the Task Force Olympia convoy.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Bomb Kills 2 U.S. Soldiers Near Samarra

Sunday, July 11, 2004; 3:17 PM

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A roadside bomb targeting a U.S. patrol near the city of Samarra killed two U.S. soldiers Sunday and wounded three others, the military said in a statement. The soldiers from the 1st Infantry Division were wounded when an improvised explosive device blew up near their convoy about 4:30 p.m., the statement said.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Iraqi saboteurs may have inside help

Baghdad, Iraq-AP -- Many of those acts of sabotage on Iraq's oil and electricity systems may be inside jobs. A Western diplomat in Baghdad says facilities are being targeted in their most vulnerable or valuable areas -- suggesting the involvement of employees or others acting on inside information.

The diplomat says insurgents are suspected of using blackmail and threats to coerce Iraqi workers into launching attacks or providing information about the country's oil pipelines and electric power lines. Iraq's interim prime minister has blamed saboteurs for a nationwide loss of power of more than four hours a day. He says they also have attacked vital oil pipelines 130 times in the last seven months.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Explosion rocks central Baghdad

12.16PM, Mon Jul 12 2004

A loud exploaion has been heard in central Baghdad near a fortified compound housing the Iraqi government and the US embassy. A large plume of smoke was seen rising from the Green Zone area on the west bank of the Tigris River and three US helicopters hovered overhead. The blast came as Iraqi interim President Ghazi al-Yawer threatened to use a "very sharp sword" to fight insurgents and anyone else threatening the security of the country.

Shiite Party Official Killed in Iraq

Monday July 12, 2004 11:01 AM

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Gunmen killed the head of a regional office of one Iraq's largest Shiite parties in a drive-by shooting south of the capital, police officials said Monday. Abd el-Oun Hassan, the head of the Musayyib office of the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, was gunned down late Sunday night, said Col. Ahmed Mohammed Ali, the head of the regional police in Musayyib, about 45 miles south of Baghdad. Late last month, the group's office came under attack in Baqouba, a city north of the capital that has been a hotspot of resistance to coalition forces. Three party members were killed and two others injured in the incident.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Turkish driver killed in Iraq road bomb - police

12 Jul 2004 16:08:00 GMT

BAGHDAD, July 12 (Reuters) - A Turkish driver was killed on Monday when a roadside bomb destroyed his truck as he travelled with a U.S. military convoy north of Baghdad, an Iraqi police officer said. Lieutenant Colonel Namis Saeed said an Iraqi civilian was also killed and his wife injured when U.S. soldiers in the convoy opened fire after the explosion near Baiji, about 180 km (112 miles) north of Baghdad. The U.S. military could not immediately be reached for comment.

Roadside bombs are one of the most common methods used by insurgents to attack U.S.-led forces and other foreigners working with the U.S. military. The bombs often consist of explosives concealed inside soft drink cans or plastic bags, which are detonated remotely as vehicles pass.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Iraqi rebels dividing, losing support

Fallujah is now emerging as a symbol of the splintering Iraqi resistance. The mutilation of six Shiites widens the divide.

BAGHDAD – In April, with anger swelling at the US occupation and a Marine-led assault on the Sunni city of Fallujah,thousands of Shiites provided assistance to their Iraqi brothers in the city. Adnan Feisal Muthar filled up his truck with food and drove it to Fallujah to help residents rendered homeless by US bombing. His uncle and two of his sons donated blood for the wounded. "We wanted to help the people there,'' says Mr. Muthar. "They were Iraqis and they were suffering."

 

[Barking_Mad]

Philippines announces Iraq pullout

The Philippines has told militants threatening to execute a Filipino truck driver that it will withdraw its forces from Iraq "as soon as possible". Deputy Foreign Minister Rafael Seguis announced the withdrawal in a statement read out on Al Jazeera television. His statement was addressed to a group calling itself the Islamic Army in Iraq, which is holding a Filipino driver hostage and has threatened to kill him unless Manila agrees to withdraw its troops by July 20.

"In response to your request, the Philippines ... will withdraw its humanitarian forces as soon as possible," Mr Seguis said, according to Al Jazeera's translation of his remarks. "I hope the statement that I read will touch the heart of this group," Mr Seguis told the satellite television channel from Baghdad.

He declined to give an exact date for the withdrawal, which Manila had insisted would take place by August 20 as earlier scheduled.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Fire in Iraq oil pipeline near Kirkuk

KUWAIT, July 15 (KUNA) -- A pipeline connecting the oil fields of the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk and the Turkish port of Ceyhan was attacked and was ablaze on Thursday. Radio "Sawa" reported, eyewitnesses said that smoke was filling the sky and there is a large pool of spilt oil. The radio quoted an Iraqi oil official saying that the pipelines connecting the oil fields of Kirkuk with the Turkish port of Ceyhan was attacked, causing a halt in exports. Iraqi crews rushed to the site near Al-Fathah between Kirkuk and Iraq's largest refinery at Beiji. It was not immediately known whether the country's northern export pipeline, which runs in the same area, was the one on fire.

Five dead in clash with marines

July 15, 2004 FIVE Iraqis were killed and another 21 wounded today in clashes between insurgents and US marines in the flashpoint western Iraqi city of Ramadi, hospital and police sources said. "Clashes at the northern entrance to the city during the afternoon (local time) left five dead and 21 wounded," according to a doctor at the hospital in Ramadi, 100km west of Baghdad. Police Major Ahmed Rabiyeh confirmed the report, saying the clashed occurred in an industrial zone. He would not give any details on the identities of the casualties.

Earlier, witness Mohammed Mahmoud said a convoy of around 10 US military vehicles was moving on Al-Karraj Street at the entrance to the city when attackers open fired with Kalashnikov assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades. The US military would not comment on the situation. Ramadi, patrolled by US marines and army, is considered a bastion of the insurgency, along with Fallujah just to the east. Separately, a police source in Ramadi said US soldiers had arrested the local representative of the anti-coalition Rally for National Unity, a party formed after the fall of dictator Saddam Hussein last year, and seized weapons during a search of the party's offices there.

Attackers kill governor of Mosul

Wed 14 July, 2004 16:37 BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Attackers have killed the governor of the Iraqi city of Mosul as he was driving in a convoy of vehicles towards Baghdad, an Interior Ministry source has said. The assailants threw a grenade at the governor's vehicle on Wednesday and fired automatic weapons, the source said. "He was on his way to Baghdad with a security escort of four cars, when the attackers in another car pulled up beside his vehicle and threw a grenade, and then shot at his car," said the source, who declined to be named. Iraqi officials have frequently been targeted for assassination by insurgents battling U.S.-led troops and Iraqi security forces in the country.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Five liquor shops blown up

July 15, 2004

ATTACKERS blew up five alcohol shops along a street in a Christian district of Baghdad overnight, the latest in a series of such strikes by suspected Muslim radicals. The attacks devastated stockpiles of liquor and damaged other shops nearby but did not cause any injuries, witnesses and staff said today. Shopkeepers were hard at work trying to repair the damage, pulling shards of metal out of their store fronts and sweeping pieces of broken glass from the pavement, an AFP correspondent reported. Witnesses confirmed that five liquor stores were targeted in the attack along Al-Thariba avenue at about 11pm (5am AEST) and accused the police of doing little to try to stop the onslaught.

Rebels clash with police in Baghdad

09:56 AEST Tue Jul 13 2004 AP - Iraqi police have conducted a massive sweep of a Baghdad neighbourhood, killing one person, wounding two and rounding up hundreds of suspected criminals. The operation involved dozens of Iraqi police officers and was intended to crack down on "criminals, kidnappers and looters", said Hussein Ali Kamal, the deputy interior minister.

Just after dark, police in pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles fanned out into the Bab Alsheikh neighbourhood and snatched suspects off the streets. Some fought back, setting off dozens of small gunbattles. One suspect died and two were injured while resisting arrest, Kamal said. Hundreds were detained, he said. Associated Press Television News video showed dozens of detained men sitting on the ground. It was not immediately clear where the men were taken.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Iraq Pipeline Attacks Halt Turkey Exports

Saboteurs attacked two oil pipelines Thursday, halting exports to Turkey, hours after insurgents assassinated a guard with the state oil company in a renewed spate of attacks on Iraq's crucial industry.
Prime Minister Iyad Allawi said Thursday the sabotage has cost the government $1 billion in oil sales over the past 10 days. The money is desperately needed to help rebuild Iraq in the wake of war and years of sanctions.

The most damaging attack Thursday hit a line that feeds into the main export line to the Turkish port of Ceyhan, abruptly ending the roughly 250,000 barrels a day that Iraq exports from its northern oil fields. Crews watched helplessly, unable to immediately control flames surging from the pipeline. North Oil Company officials said the damage was caused by an apparent bombing.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Iraq Blast Kills 10; Headless Body Found

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Attackers detonated a car bomb near police and government buildings in the western city of Haditha on Thursday, killing 10 Iraqis, while the prime minister said he would create a new security service geared toward halting the insurgency.
A decapitated body in an orange jumpsuit was discovered in the Tigris River in northern Iraq on Wednesday night, the military said. Although it was not identified, there were suspicions it could be that of a Bulgarian driver taken hostage recently and slain.

In an interview with Associated Press Television News, interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi said terrorists aiming to undermine Iraq's new government are determined not only to kill civilians and soldiers but to destroy the nation's infrastructure.

"The terrorists are so evil that they are not only satisfied by hitting the targets, and killing and inflicting loss of life" but are also bent on destroying the quality of life by attacking Iraq's oil and other vital industries, he told AP.

 

[Barking_Mad]

15 killed in raid on infamous Baghdad street

Defence minister says Iraqi security forces carry out operation to cleanse Haifa street from terror suspects. Iraqi security forces killed 15 terror suspects and arrested nine in a raid on Haifa street in central Baghdad, Defence Minister Hazem al-Shaalan told reporters on Thursday.

"You have all heard about the notorious Haifa street, where there are criminal cells of salafists (Islamists) and those loyal to the previous regime," said Shaalan, flanked by Prime Minister Iyad Allawi and Interior Minister Falah al-Naqib. "A joint operation by the national guard and elements of the defence ministry led to the killing of 15 people and the arrest of nine."

He said those arrested provided information and intelligence which "led to the chief of the Haifa street cells who in turn confessed and gave information that has in turn led to other criminal elements in Baghdad."

 

[Barking_Mad]

Four killed in Iraq rocket strike

Four members of the same family, including three children, have been killed in a rocket strike as they slept on the roof of their home in Iraq, police said. Colonel Kamaran Ahmed of the Kirkuk police force said the family of six was sleeping on cushions on the flat roof of their home, where they had gone to escape the heat, when the rocket struck.

Three pairs of house slippers lay abandoned amid the destruction.

"We don't know where the rocket was fired from or what the target was," said Colonel Ahmed. He said that two family members were wounded in the attack, which blew a 1.5-metre wide hole in the concrete roof.

 

[Barking_Mad]

U.S. Soldier Suffers Minor Injuries In Baghdad Roadside Blast

AFP: 7/18/2004
BAGHDAD, July 18 (AFP) - A US soldier was slightly injured in a roadside bomb blast in southeast Baghdad on Sunday morning, a military spokesman said. "There was one minor injury but no damage to equipment," he said, without being able to give further details on the blast.

Several loud booms were heard later in the day around the city but it was not immediately clear what caused them. Baghdad is frequently rocked by explosions largely caused either by insurgents or controlled detonations of munitions from Saddam Hussein's deposed regime.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Sunni Cleric Gunned Down In Baghdad

AFP: 7/17/2004
BAGHDAD, July 17 (AFP) - A Sunni Muslim cleric belonging to the Iraqi Islamic Party was gunned down by unidentified assailants in Baghdad on Saturday, a party official said.

The party's spokesperson had no further details about the attack, but said Sheikh Abdul Samad Ismail al-Adhami may have been targeted because he is the brother of Abdul Wahab al-Adhami, a prominent Sunni cleric and party member known for his opposition to the ousted regime of Saddam Hussein.

"I cannot blame anyone but it might be that some elements loyal to the previous regime hold a grudge against us because we occupy the offices of the Baath party," said Amar Wajih Zein-Alabideen. He said that some members of Saddam's banned Baath party also "may not be too pleased with the party's message for national reconciliation."

The party's headquarters were hit with a rocket-propelled grenade on July 2 that killed a guard, minutes after Hajem al-Hassani, the party's deputy chief, left the building. Hassani is industry minister in the caretaker government of Prime Minister Iyad Allawi.

Two senior party members were also the target of two assassination attempts in June, according to Zein-Alabideen. The party's chief Muhsin Abdul Hamid was a member of the US-appointed Governing Council, dissolved after the handover of sovereignty in early June.