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Bloody Friday in Bagdat: 79 Dead
By Foreign News Desk, Istanbul
Published: Saturday, April 08, 2006
zaman.com
At the brink of a civil war, Iraq experienced another bloody day on April 7.
At least 79 people were killed in three simultaneous explosions in a Shiite mosque in Bagdat (Baghdad) after the Friday Prayer and 164 people were injured.
The suicide bombers, disguised as women, exploded the bombs simultaneously by scurrying into the congregation in the mosque, deepening the anxiety over a sectarian war.
A recent car bomb attack a few meters away from the sacred Shiite Imam Ali tomb killed another 14 people.
Two of the suicide attackers detonated their bombs inside the mosque and the other exploded the bomb the inner court, turning the atmosphere into a war zone.
Eyewitnesses noted the attackers were three men dressed in women clothes. A few witnesses said one of the bombers was a woman. The local officials called the people to donate blood after the attacks.
The Imam of the Buratha mosque, where the carnage took place, is Jalaladdin al-Sagir, who is also the president of the Parliamentary Constitution Commission in Iraq.
Al-Sagir had previously urged Prime Minster Ibrahim al-Jaafari to step down.
Interestingly enough, the mosque belongs to Iraq Islam Revolution High Council under Abdelaziz al-Hakim in the Shiite Alliance and some claim the attack may be related to the government crisis in the country.
After the surprise Baghdad visit of the US and British Foreign secretaries in order to force the Iraqi politicians to establish the government immediately, Defense secretaries of the two countries also issued similar messages.
Meeting with his American counterpart British Defense Secretary John Reid explained the lack of authority in Iraq, where violence is on the rise, brings a great deal of risks.
Reid said the National Unity government should be established as soon as possible, "The terrorists "love a vacuum of power."
US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld emphasized although four months passed after the elections in Iraq, the government still has not been formed and that the solution is in Iraqis hands not in the British or Americans.
The main reason for the governmental crisis in Iraq is related to the Sunni and Kurd reluctance towards al-Jaafari, the candidate of the Shiite Alliance, to be the prime minister.
If al-Jaafari, who was elected as a candidate with one vote margin in Shiite's own election, withdraws from candidacy the Kurds and Sunnis will be relieved but Shiites will suffer.
Thus, the alliance is in a dilemma. Along with the Sunnis and Kurd, the US and UK also accepts vice President Adil Abdelmehdi's, who lost the elections against al-Jaafari, becoming the prime minister in Iraq.
Explosions took place after the alarm
The brutal attack in Baghdad took place after Iraq Ministry of the Interior issued a statement, warning the people to keep away from crowded places due to possible attacks.
The ministry warned people to stay away from crowded places like mosques and market places.
Seven car bomb attacks were planned in Baghdad, the statement noted further, and the warning will be valid until all of these cars are found; other bomb laden cars were sent to southern cities for new attacks.
Bomb Attacks After Friday Prayer Kill 4
By Cihan News Agency, Bakuba
Published: Friday, April 14, 2006
zaman.com
Four people died and eight were injured in bomb attacks following the Friday prayer in Bakuba, 65km north of Iraqi capital Bagdat (Baghdad).
Police said the explosions took place at the Aqsa and Saad bin Mahaz mosques.
No deaths or injuries were reported in another mortar attack committed immediately after the Friday Prayer at a Shiite mosque in Zafaraniye a neighborhood in the south of Baghdad, reported officials.
At Least 42 Die in Iraqi Violence Today
By Cihan News Agency, Bagdat (Baghdad)
Published: Friday, April 14, 2006
zaman.com
At least 42 people have died in the last 24 hours in attacks committed in Iraq, despite the four months passed since elections.
In Bakuba, 65 kilometers north of capital Bagdat (Baghdad), attacks on Sunni mosques left four people dead and eight injured.
A police officer in Kerkuk (Kirkuk), north of the country, lost his life.
In Musul (Mosul) two civilians died due to shots fired from passing vehicles.
In the south of the country, Basra, a roadside bomb killed two Iraqi soldiers and injured four British military members. Eleven construction workers abducted in the city last night were murdered.
An attack north of Baghdad targeting a police convoy killed seven officers, no news on the 20 remaining.
Fifteen people lost their lives when a car bomb exploded at a neighborhood market in a Shiite majority neighborhood in the north of the capital.
Attacks in Iraq Kill 13 Today
By Cihan News Agency, Bagdat (Baghdad)
Published: Thursday, April 20, 2006
zaman.com
Thirteen people including five police officers lost their lives in attacks staged today across Iraq.
Two police officers died in an ambush targeting police patrols 80 km northeast of capital Bagdat (Baghdad), in the Hails region. A similar attack 60 km north of Baghdad in Bakuba killed one officer, two were wounded.
Four civilians lost their lives in an exchange of fire there.
While one civilian died in the bomb attack targeting General Mohammed Namah's convoy in the capital, four body guards were wounded.
A bomb-laden car exploded near a British military vehicle in south of the country near Basra. While two civilians lost their lives in the attack, British soldiers reported no causalities or injuries.
Two police officers died and four officers were wounded following a roadside bomb explosion in north of country, Telafer (Tel Afar) city. A doctor was also killed by armed attackers
Kidnappings and Family Displacements Mount in Iraq
Kidnappings and Family Displacements Mount in Iraq
By Foreign News Desk, Istanbul
Published: Thursday, April 20, 2006
zaman.com
The results of the economic and political instability in Iraq are getting serious. A survey conducted by 125 non-governmental organizations operating in the country was announced yesterday at a news conference held in the Shiite town of Karbala.
According to the survey, 20,000 people have been kidnapped in the last four months and 7,000 families migrated to escape the strain of sectarian clashes. No death toll is given in the poll, where the number of injured within the same period is recorded at 15,000.
The survey indicates 19,548 people have been kidnapped, including 4,959 women and 2,350 children; the majority of these abductions took place after the February 22 bomb attack on the Askariyah tomb, a holy place for Shiites.
In the report the number of top level foreigners kidnapped is very low, the majority of these 20,000 kidnapping cases are for sectarian clashes, domestic political conflicts, and ransom.
Due to increasing clashes a reported 6,877 families immigrated. This figure may in fact be about 10,000, the survey warns.
Sunnis living in Shiite-dominated regions are reported to have abandoned their homes to flock into Sunni regions and vice versa. Those who remain are reported to have changed their names in order to be safe from violent acts.
Eighty percent of the incidents are politically based, according to the poll, and the kidnappings are mostly realized by militias reporting to political parties. Political instability feeds the current negative atmosphere and the government must be set up immediately in order to prevent further uproar.
The bloodshed comes while PM-designate al-Maliki works on choosing a Cabinet, which will share power among Shiites, Sunni Arabs and Kurds
BAGHDAD/TEHRAN - Reuters
A wave of car bombs hit Baghdad on Monday, killing at least eight people and wounding nearly 80 as the trial of Saddam Hussein heard his signature was on documents linking him to the killings of 148 people.
The bloodshed comes while Prime Minister-designate Jawad al-Maliki works on choosing a Cabinet, which will share power among Shiites, Sunni Arabs and Kurds in a bid to end the sectarian violence that threatens to drag Iraq into a civil war.
Two car bombs near Baghdad's Mustansiriya University, killed at least five people and wounded 25 others. Another bomb near the Health Ministry in the city center killed three and wounded 25, police said. Four more bombs across the city wounded at least another 27 people.
Maliki has four weeks to choose a new Cabinet and form a government of national unity, widely seen as the only way to halt sectarian violence.
The Cabinet and Maliki's own appointment, made by President Jalal Talabani on Saturday, must be ratified by parliament.
A key test of his ability to lead and to unite will be his choice of interior minister, perhaps the most sensitive post given the brutal past many Iraqis endured under Saddam's rule and a present wracked by relentless instability and violence.
"We want nothing but security and a safe community in which we can live and raise our children safely," said Wael Khamis, a 44-year-old businessman.
"Despite all that happened, I think we can still make a new beginning and forget the past if the new government makes a genuine good beginning by forming a Cabinet away from sectarian interests and the militias.
"All we have now is a hope and a dream of a better life. The coming government is our last chance. My wish is to take my family on a car ride without fear."
Ahmadinejad says no need now for US talks:
Separately on Monday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said there was no need for U.S.-Iran talks now that a permanent Iraqi government was in place.
Asked whether he believed Iran and the United should still hold talks over Iraq, he told a news conference: "By God's will, we think that right now, because of the presence of a permanent government of Iraq, there is no need."
Saddam trial:
The court trying Saddam and six others heard signatures on documents linking them to the killing of 148 Shiites in the 1980s were genuine.
"The signatures and margins stipulated in the documents match the signature of Saddam Hussein on presidential decrees," said the report read out by a judge.
The prosecution had demanded the court commission a team of criminal experts to authenticate signatures and handwriting of the defendants facing charges of crimes against humanity.
Saddam and his half brother Barzan al-Tikriti have refused to give samples of their writing but both have said there was no crime in prosecuting the 148 from the village of Dujail because they were accused of trying to kill the former leader.
The defendants could face death by hanging if found guilty.
Defense lawyers demanded 45 days to study new evidence before commenting. The trial was adjourned until May 15 to give the defense time to present their witnesses in next session.
Saddam sat in his dark suit and white shirt in his metal pen, unusually quiet for a man who has dominated the court with tirades calling for Iraqis to revolt against U.S. occupation.
He could soon face a new trial on charges of genocide against the Kurds in the late 1980s in the Anfal campaign which killed about 100,000 people and destroyed many villages.
Prosecutors had hoped for a quick sentence in the Dujail case because it is far simpler than others such as genocide against the Kurds and charges of crimes against humanity in the suppression of Shiite uprisings.
But it has been tarnished by the killings of two defense lawyers, boycotts and the resignation of the first chief judge to protest what he called government interference in the case.
Iraqi security forces reported that armed men traveling in a car shot and killed a policeman in Sammara, north of the Iraqi capital Bagdat (Baghdad), and a bomb exploded on the highway between Kerkuk (Kirkuk) and Tuz, wounding another two police officers.
Bombs wounded two police in Baghdad’s Yarmouk neighborhood and one civilian in Amriya neighborhood, the same sources reported.
It was reported that three bodies, two of which showed signs of torture, were also found in Baghdad.
About 60 people were arrested earlier in the day in a series of raids in Yousefiye near Baghdad, the US army reported.
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