Tomb Attack Stokes Sectarian Conflicts

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Death Toll Rises to 11 in Felluce

Death Toll Rises to 11 in Felluce
By AA, Felluce (Fallujah)
Published: Friday, March 10, 2006
zaman.com


The number of casualties in the attack by a truck bomb targeting a check point in Felluce (Fallujah), west of the Iraqi capital Bagdat ((Baghdad), increased to 11.

Police sources reported the death of five officers in the attack at the American soldiers and Iraqi security forces control point.

The attack occurred while the crossing was busy with a line of traffic

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Violence Continues in Bagdat: 20 Die

Violence Continues in Bagdat: 20 Die

Published: Sunday, March 12, 2006
zaman.com


Reportedly, 20 people have died in violent clashes that lasted during the night in Iraqi capital Bagdat (Baghdad).

Following the tensed night, a series of blasts in the capital this morning killed two people and wounded six others.


Yarmuk Hospital officials announced at least 20 people’s bodies were brought to the hospital during the night.


Howitzer missiles targeted a paint shop in the middle regions of the capital this morning as well, killing two and wounding four people.

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Kurds Changing Fronts Push Politics

Kurds Changing Fronts Push Politics
By Foreign News Desk, Istanbul
Published: Saturday, March 11, 2006
zaman.com


As the works to assemble the government after the elections continue in Iraq, Kurds acting together with the Shiite Alliance in the provisional administration are now moving over to the bloc of Sunni and seculars (Sunni-Shiite).

The Washington Post reported Kurdish changes caused drastic changes in coalition scenarios as well. The new situation makes arithmetically harder for the groups in parliament to assemble the government, the Post article stressed, as it predicts this could either pave the way for a civil war or a true reconciliation.

The Iraqi constitution requires a broader coalition government and for two third of the parliamentary members to be minorities. But the current situation in Iraq is not so pleasing. According to the article in the Washington Post the system will either be corrupted and lead to a big disaster, or a new door will be opened to a new government overlooking sectarian differences.

Kurdish-Sunni and secular entity, upon the request of Washington, wants to form the national unity government under a "new leader"; therefore, a "change of heart" by Kurds is a good sign for Iraq that has been shaken by bad news for a long time.

A broad-base national unity government might also encourage the US to withdraw from the region, the Post claims.

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Bloody Sunday Kills 60, Injures 250 in Iraq

Bloody Sunday Kills 60, Injures 250 in Iraq
By Cihan News Agency, Anadolu News Agency (aa), Bagdat (Baghdad)
Published: Monday, March 13, 2006
zaman.com


Sectarian conflict in Iraq resumed after a brief interval yesterday (on Sunday), with bomb attacks targeted mostly in market places in the capital Bagdat (Baghdad).

At least 60 people were killed and over 250 were injured in the attacks.


In six car bomb attacks, four of which targeted a marketplace in the Shiite-majority Sadr district of Baghdad, 46 people were killed.


Several other strikes in the capital left 14 people dead.


Ibrahim al-Jaafari, a Shiite leader who was designated by the Shiite Alliance, the winner of the December elections, as the second-term prime minister, but later discarded by the Sunnites and the Kurds, re-asserted his ambition to continue as the prime minister.


Cast as a hindrance to the efforts to form a government of national unity, al-Jaafari met yesterday with President Jalal Talabani, which was followed by his stronger statements reminding that he was democratically designated by the Shiite Alliance as the prime minister, a preference that needs to be respected, he said.

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More violence in Iraq as politicians huddle over politics

More violence in Iraq as politicians huddle over politics

The Associated Press / Baghdad



The American ambassador's high wire act to broker a unity government in Iraq appeared Sunday to have taken on greater urgency as his office took the unusual step of announcing he was in meetings with the country's major politicians trying to break the stalemate.

At least 11 more Iraqis were killed in violence.

A key Kurdish politician indicated the timing of the sessions with Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad may have been forced by a threat from Massoud Barzani, the president of one of two Kurdish provinces, to leave the capital for home if there was no progress.

"Massoud has commitments in Kurdistan and he wants to know if there is a reason to keep staying in Baghdad or go back to the region," said Kurdish parliamentarian Mahmoud Othman.

Barzani, leader of the Kurdish Democratic Party, joined Khalilzad last week in calling for the leaders of all Iraq's political factions to meet away from the capital in an effort to untangle the increasingly snarled efforts to form a unity government.

Barzani suggest the meeting be held in his provincial capital, Irbil.

Formation of a strong central government is key to U.S. hopes to announce troop withdrawals beginning this summer. Key military leaders were expected to make recommendations on that step in meetings with U.S. President George W. Bush in the coming days. The intensification of Khalilzad's political efforts appeared dictated by the need for progress before the coming meetings in Washington.

In an interview with the pan-Arab al-Hayat daily published Sunday, Khalilzad linked stability in Iraq, which he said would take "a long time," to creation of a unity government.

"We are prepared to work with the Iraqis to speed up the process, but the speed of this process depends on the decisions of the Iraqis to form a national unity government and give Cabinet posts to competent individuals who unite the people and who do not quarrel with each other," Khalilzad was quoted as saying.

In recent weeks, the ambassador has expressed increasing frustration over the bickering among politicians, who he has accused of putting their own political interests ahead of the needs of the Iraqi people.

Bomb blasts, rocket and gunfire killed at least 11 people- 10 in Baghdad - and wounded 23 Sunday. The low thud of mortar fire rumbled over the city.

As the Iraqi work week resumed, a roadside bomb exploded in a busy west Baghdad street, killing at least six people and wounding 12, police said. The blast targeted a police patrol in a mostly Sunni area; three officers were among the dead and three were injured, police said. The other victims were civilian bystanders.

Another bomb targeting a police patrol near the Mustansiriyah University in east Baghdad wounded five officers, police said.

Drive-by shooters killed three occupants of a car in west Baghdad, including a member of President Jalal Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan party, police said. Another carload of gunmen fired into a crowd of day laborers in another troubled west Baghdad neighborhood, wounding four of them, police said. And a rocket landed near a house, killing one occupant and injuring two others.

In Mahmoudiya, about 30 kilometers (20 miles) south of Baghdad, gunmen ambushed and killed a police major as he headed to work, police said.

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Scores of bodies found in Baghdad

Scores of bodies found in Baghdad

Violence has soared since an attack on a key Shia shrine
Iraqi authorities have discovered bodies from two mass killings, taking the number of corpses found in the past 24 hours to more than 80.
The bodies of 15 bound and apparently tortured men were found in an abandoned vehicle in Baghdad's Khadra district.

Hours later, at least 27 bodies were found bound, blindfolded and buried in a south-eastern suburb of the capital.

Analysts say the killings reflect the continuing sectarian violence between Sunni and Shia extremists.

Mass grave

The victims in Khadra - a mainly Sunni neighbourhood in western Baghdad - were found in a minibus at about 0945 (0645 GMT) on the main road between Amariya and Ghazaliya.

Interior ministry spokesman Maj Falah Mohammedawi said the men had been shot in the head and chest and showed signs of torture.


Fifty people were killed by bomb attacks in Sadr City on Sunday

Their full identities were not immediately known although police said one victim was carrying papers identifying him as a 22-year-old Sunni student.

The second group of victims was discovered at about noon in the Shia neighbourhood of Kamaliya. The bodies were in a mass grave in an empty field.

The victims were blindfolded and their hands were bound. They had suffered gunshot wounds.

Their identities have also not been confirmed but police believe they are from the Sunni minority.

Maj Mohammedawi said that more than 40 other bodies had been found in areas around Baghdad over the past 24 hours.

These included four men reportedly strung up from electricity pylons in the eastern Shia district of Sadr City.

The sectarian violence has soared since a bomb attack on one of the most important Shia shrines, at Samarra, last month.

Hundreds of people have been killed in reprisal attacks since then.

Fifty people were killed and 90 injured in bomb attacks on markets in Sadr City on Sunday.

On Monday, radical Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr appealed for calm, saying he would order his Mehdi Army militia not to respond to attacks despite his belief Iraq was now in civil war.

Parliament meeting

Sunni, Shia and Kurdish politicians have begun intensive discussions ahead of the inaugural session of parliament on Thursday.

The opening of the body, elected in December, has been delayed by squabbling over the composition of the government.

The most contentious issue is the Shia-proposed prime minister Ibrahim Jaafari, whom many Sunnis and Kurds consider too divisive.

The BBC's Andrew North in Baghdad says those involved in the latest talks have warned there is little prospect of rapid progress.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4804270.stm

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Saddam's Half Brother Claims No Involvement in Massacre

Saddam's Half Brother Claims No Involvement in Massacre
By Cihan News Agency, Bagdat (Baghdad)
Published: Wednesday, March 15, 2006
zaman.com


Former Iraqi president Saddam Hussain and seven co-defendants took the stand at the trial of the Dujail massacre once more today.

Former intelligence chief Berzan Tikriti defended that he was not involved in the 1982 arrest and killing of Shiites in Dujail.

In his testimony today, Saddam's half brother Tikriti said he did not arrest anyone, and the inquiry was the responsibility of the general security forces.

Saddam is expected to take the stand today as well.

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Bush warns of more violence in Iraq

Bush warns of more violence in Iraq

The Associated Press / Washington



U.S. President George W. Bush said insurgents in Iraq were trying to ignite a civil war by escalating violence and warned there will be more "chaos and carnage in the days and months to come."

Despite the gruesome violence, Bush said progress was being made and he laid out a timetable.

"As more capable Iraqi police and soldiers come on line, they will assume responsibility for more territory - with the goal of having the Iraqis control more territory than the coalition by the end of 2006," the president said in the first of a series of speeches to mark the third anniversary of the start of the U.S.-led war.

Bush highlighted improvements in the Iraqi security forces and repeated his promise that U.S. troops will stand down as Iraqi forces are able to defend the country.

Democrats charged that Bush was relying on the same rhetoric to defend policies that Americans oppose instead of developing a real strategy for victory in Iraq. Both sides of the political debate have their eye on
congressional elections in eight months, when all 435 seats of the House of Representatives and 33 seats in the Senate are at stake.

"Rather than leading a White House public relations blitz, the president should lead by pulling the factions together right away in a summit to develop a unified plan for Iraq's future," said Democratic Sen. Edward M. Kennedy.

Bush urged patience among Americans and coalition allies as Iraqis work to form a new government. He said the Feb. 22 bombing of a Shiite shrine in Samarra "was a clear attempt to ignite a civil war."

https://www.thenewanatolian.com

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Iraqi leaders begin marathon meetings with Khalilzad to reach agreement on govt

Iraqi leaders begin marathon meetings with Khalilzad to reach agreement on govt

The Associated Press / Baghdad



Leaders of Iraq's main political blocs began a round of marathon meetings Tuesday with the U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad in an attempt to reach agreement on a broad-based government.

Adbul-Aziz al-Hakim, leader of the main Shiite bloc, hosted the meeting which was also attended by Kurdish, Sunni and secular leaders.

Iraq has been headed by a caretaker government since Dec. 15 parliamentary elections, and officials fear the vacuum in authority has contributed to surges of sectarian killing.

The new parliament is scheduled to meet for the first time Thursday, setting in motion a 60-day deadline for the legislature to elect a new president, approve the nomination of a prime minister and sign off on his Cabinet.

Leaders of the main ethnic and religious blocs, however, have been unable to agree on key issues, including how many positions various groups will have in the government, who will fill key posts and the government's program of action.

Among the most contentious is Shiite Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari's candidacy for a second term. Kurdish, Sunni and some secular leaders argue he is too divisive a figure and accuse him of doing too little to contain a wave of reprisal violence triggered by the Feb. 22 bombing of a revered Shiite shrine in Samarra.

The Shiite United Iraqi Alliance is itself divided over al-Jaafari. He won the nomination by just one vote last month in large part because of the support of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Al-Hakim favored Adil Abdul-Mahdi, one of two current vice presidents.

The stakes are high for the United States, which hopes the formation of an inclusive government would help stabilize Iraq so U.S. forces can start drawing down in the summer.

U.S. Ambassador Khalilzad has been shuttling between the main Iraqi factions in a bid to reinvigorate negotiations that have dragged on for nearly three months.

Leaders of the main blocs agreed at a meeting with Khalilzad on Sunday to move parliament's inaugural session forward by three days in part to show their resolve to break the deadlock.

https://www.thenewanatolian.com

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25 Bodies Found in Bagdat

25 Bodies Found in Bagdat
By Anadolu News Agency (aa), Bagdat (Baghdad)
Published: Thursday, March 16, 2006
zaman.com


Reportedly, 25 bodies were found throughout the night in different regions of the Iraqi capital, Bagdat (Baghdad).

The statement released by the Iraqi Interior Ministry read that the victims, all of who were male, were discovered in the Sunni and Shiite districts of the city between 19.00 pm yesterday (on Wednesday) and 07.00 am this morning.



After the attacks organized against the Shiite Samarra shrine on February 11, thousands of people died in sectarian clashes.