Tomb Attack Stokes Sectarian Conflicts

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Car Bomb Claims 15 Lives in Iraqi Capital

Car Bomb Claims 15 Lives in Iraqi Capital
By Cihan News Agency, Baghdad (Bagdat)
Published: Thursday, March 23, 2006
zaman.com


Fifteen people died and over 30 were wounded in a car bomb attack in the city center of the Iraqi capital Bagdat (Baghdad) earlier today.

Most of the casualties were police officers, it has been confirmed. The attack was targeted against a police station.

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Bush: Iraq pullout up to 'future presidents'

Bush: Iraq pullout up to 'future presidents'

The Associated Press / Washington



President George W. Bush says American forces will remain in Iraq for years, and it will be up to a future president to decide when to bring them all home.

Defying critics and plunging poll numbers, he declared: "I'm optimistic we'll succeed. If not, I'd pull our troops out."

The president rejected suggestions that he should ask for the resignation of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, chief architect of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"Listen, every war plan looks good on paper until you meet the enemy," Bush said. He acknowledged mistakes as the United States was forced to switch tactics and change a reconstruction strategy that offered targets for insurgents.

He also rejected assertions by Iraq's former interim prime minister that the country had fallen into civil war amid sectarian violence that has left more than 1,000 Iraqis dead since the bombing last month of a Shiite Muslim shrine.

"This is a moment the Iraqis had a chance to fall apart, and they didn't," Bush said, crediting religious and political leaders for the restraint.

The president spoke for almost an hour Tuesday at a White House news conference, part of a new offensive to ease Americans' unhappiness with the war and fellow Republicans' anxiety about fall elections. He faced skeptical questions about Iraq during an appearance Monday in Cleveland, Ohio, and plans another address soon on Iraq.

Public support for the war and for Bush himself has fallen precipitously in recent months, jeopardizing the political capital he claimed from his 2004 re-election victory. "I'd say I'm spending that capital on the war," Bush said.

The White House believes that people appreciate Bush's plainspoken approach even if they disagree with his decisions.

"I understand war creates concerns," the president said. "Nobody likes war. It creates a sense of uncertainty in the country."

Bush adamantly has refused to set a deadline for the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq. Asked if there would come a day when there would be no more U.S. forces in the Middle Eastern country, Bush said: "That, of course, is an objective. And that will be decided by future presidents and future governments of Iraq."

Pressed whether that meant a complete withdrawal would not happen during his presidency, Bush said, "I can only tell you that I will make decisions on force levels based upon what the commanders on the ground say."

White House officials worried that Bush's remarks would be read as saying there would not be significant troop reductions during his presidency. They pointed to comments Sunday by Gen. George W. Casey, commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, who said he expected a substantial troop reduction "certainly over the course of 2006 and into 2007."

The Pentagon announced in December that U.S. force levels would be reduced from the baseline figure of about 138,000 to about 131,000 by the end of March. The total currently is 133,000. In late February the Pentagon told Congress that "it will be possible to consider" additional reductions as the political process moves forward and as Iraqi security forces gain experience. No timetable has been set for deciding additional cuts.

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Western Hostages in Iraq Released After 4 Months

Western Hostages in Iraq Released After 4 Months
By Cihan News Agency, Bagdat (Baghdad)
Published: Friday, March 24, 2006
zaman.com


Three Christian peace activists have been released following their abduction in Iraq four months ago.

Harneet Sooden and Jim Loney from Canada and Norman Kember from Britain were set free a statement from the British Consulate confirmed.


Upon receiving intelligence reports, British troops took immediate action to locate the kidnappers; the hostages were located alone in a house with their hands bound, although no kidnappers were present. The rescue was completed without the exchange of gunfire, the statement further said.


Tom Fox, an American Christian peace activist taken hostage along with the released hostages, was found dead on March 10 in western Bagdat (Baghdad).


The "Swords of Righteousness Brigade" took credit for the abduction of the activists. Elsewhere in Baghdad on Thursday, 35 people were reported dead in attacks across the city.

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Death Toll Rises to 11 in Bagdat

Death Toll Rises to 11 in Bagdat
By Anadolu News Agency (aa), Bagdat (Baghdad)
Published: Friday, March 24, 2006
zaman.com


The number of deaths in this morning's attacks in Bagdat (Baghdad) has reached 11.

Security sources said four people were killed in a bakery in the district of Saydiya that was raided by gunmen. One police officer died in the clash with assailants.

Three security officers were killed in Yarmuk, west of Baghdad, when gunmen attacked a patrol car.

Three workers were killed in an ambush in Taciya located in the north of the capital.

Eight bodies were found blindfolded in the Binok and Kazimiya regions of Baghdad.

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Attacks in Bagdat Kill 7

Attacks in Bagdat Kill 7
By Cihan News Agency, Bagdat (Baghdad)
Published: Friday, March 24, 2006
zaman.com


Seven people including three police officers were killed in an attack this morning in the Iraqi capital, Bagdat (Baghdad).

A bakery shop was raided by gunmen in the south of the city, four of the bakery workers were killed and one was wounded.

A police patrol car was ambushed as it arrived at the scene by a roadside bomb that exploded, killing one and injuring two police officers.

In the west of Baghdad, armed men planned a surprise attack on police officers. Two officers were killed and one was wounded in the clash.

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Mosque targeted in Iraq bombing

Mosque targeted in Iraq bombing

Hundreds of Iraqis have been killed in violence during the past month
Five Iraqis have been killed and 17 injured by a bomb planted outside a Sunni mosque in the town of Khalis, 60km (40 miles) north-east of Baghdad.
Earlier, a series of insurgent attacks in the capital left seven other people dead, including three policemen.

Police also discovered the bodies of seven men in the city's east. They had been handcuffed and shot in the head.

The violence came as US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld urged Iraqi leaders to form a new government.

In what appeared to be the latest in a series of sectarian killings which has stricken the country since the bombing in February of a Shia shrine in Samarra, a bomb was planted near the entrance of the Saad Bin Abi Waqqas mosque in Khalis, 60km (40 miles) north-east of Baghdad.

The bomb exploded as worshippers left the mosque after Friday prayers.

Police told the BBC that US forces were in the vicinity of the mosque earlier, but had left by the time prayers ended.

Baghdad attacks

In Baghdad, four people were killed when gunmen raided a bakery in the predominantly Sunni district of Saidiya.



A policeman was killed soon afterwards by a bomb that the attackers had left behind.

Two other policemen were shot dead in an ambush in the city's west.

Earlier, the bodies of seven men were found by police in Canal Street in eastern Baghdad.

The victims had been handcuffed, blindfolded and shot in the head.

The men have not been identified, but they were all wearing civilian clothes.

More than 30 people were killed, many of them policemen, and dozens wounded in a series of bomb attacks in Baghdad on Thursday.

New government

Speaking to reporters before the attacks, Mr Rumsfeld urged Iraqi leaders to form a government that included all of the country's religious, ethnic and political groups.

"A good government, a competent government, a government that's seen as inclusive and seen as governing from the centre, that gets about the task of serving the Iraqi people... I believe that that would be a good thing for the country and would reduce the level of violence," he said.

"So to the extent that isn't happening, obviously, the level of violence continues and people are being killed, and that's unfortunate. And they need to get about the task."

On Sunday, Iraqi leaders formed a security council to tackle key issues while talks on forming a new government continued, but there has been no sign of progress since.

There has been deadlock over the post of prime minister, with the Shia-led United Iraqi Alliance's potential coalition partners rejecting its candidate - the incumbent - Ibrahim Jaafari.

The UIA won the right to nominate someone for the premiership after taking 128 out of 275 seats in Iraq's new parliament, the Council of Representatives, in the 15 December elections, 10 seats short of a majority.

bbcworld

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Arms Aim at Educated Iraqis

Arms Aim at Educated Iraqis
By Foreign News Desk, Istanbul
Published: Saturday, March 25, 2006
zaman.com


Expected to play a pivotal role in reconstruction works following the US occupation, educated Iraqis are leaving the country after the recent attacks targeting them.

According to the news of The Guardian, hundreds of Iraqi doctors, engineers, professors, and teachers think they are being murdered in what some see as a deliberate campaign of violence that can not be prevented.


The news includes a list prepared by Iraqi academics, based on the statistics of the Ministry of Education. According to the list, 105 faculty members have been assassinated, 311 teachers have been killed so far and many schools are in need of teachers.

Thousands from the country's educated team immigrate to neighboring countries such as Syria, Egypt and especially to Jordan.


Refugees now living in Jordan told the Guardian that they think the happenings are part of a deliberate campaign aiming at destroying everything civilized in the country.


People using code names in these interviews claim their kidnappers work for the Ministry of Interior.

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Dozens of Iraqis die in attacks in Baghdad

Dozens of Iraqis die in attacks in Baghdad

The Associated Press / Baghdad



Drive-by shootings, roadside bombings and sectarian killings left nearly 20 Iraqis dead in Baghdad Friday.

American and Iraqi troops swept the oil-rich region of Kirkuk for suspected insurgents and captured dozens.

Drive-by gunmen killed three policemen in west Baghdad and three power station workers headed to their jobs in Taji, just north of the capital, police said.

In south Baghdad's Saydiyah district, gunmen killed four employees of a pastry shop, police said. Nearby, a roadside bomb killed a policeman.

Retaliatory killings between Shiite and Sunni Muslims have become increasingly common in the capital since the Feb. 22 bombing of an important Shiite shrine that unleashed the continuing rash of sectarian murders. Baghdad police said they discovered 13 bodies, blindfolded and shot, on Friday in the Binok, Kazimiyah and Sadr City neighborhoods.

Meanwhile, soldiers of the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division joined Iraqi troops in a sweep of five villages outside the city of Kirkuk, 290 kilometers north of Baghdad. Forty suspected insurgents were picked up in Hawija, police said.

A day earlier, the U.S. military spokesman in Iraq asserted that major violence is largely confined to just three of the country's 18 provinces, where fighting raged on Thursday with at least 58 people killed in execution-style slayings, bombings and gunbattles.

For the third straight day Thursday, Sunni insurgents hit a major police and jail facility - this time with a suicide car bombing that killed 25 in central Baghdad. The attacker detonated his explosives at the entrance to the Interior Ministry Major Crimes unit in the Karradah district, killing 10 civilians and 15 policemen, authorities said.

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'Beheaded bodies' found in Iraq

'Beheaded bodies' found in Iraq

Iraqi security forces say they have found found 30 bodies - all of them beheaded - near the town of Baquba.
Security officials said they found the bodies near the road by Mullah Eid, a village to the south-west of the town.

The area has been plagued by sectarian violence between Shia and Sunni Muslims since the bombing of a Shia shrine in the city of Samarra in February.

Baquba, a mixed town home to Shia and Sunni Muslims, has itself been the focus of continuing violence.

The grim discovery came shortly after US National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice suggested that the US could pull significant numbers of troops out of Iraq this year, depending on the security situation.

There are currently about 133,000 US troops in Iraq. The Pentagon is reportedly aiming to cut that number to about 100,000 by the end of 2006.

Scene probed

Residents in Mullah Eid found the bodies by a roadside close to the village and reported their discovery to Iraqi authorities, an Iraqi army commander said.

Brig Saman Talabani told the Associated Press news agency he sent a detachment of soldiers, accompanied by medics from the nearby town of Diyala, to investigate the scene.

All of those killed were thought to be men.

Earlier on Sunday police in Baghdad said they had found at least 10 bodies, some of which had been handcuffed and shot.

Elsewhere in the city, politicians continued negotiations over the formation of a national unity government.

Talks have been deadlocked since elections three months ago, with disagreements continuing over whether Shia, Sunni or Kurdish politicians should hold key ministries.

bbcworld

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14 Bodies Found in Iraq

14 Bodies Found in Iraq
By Anadolu News Agency (aa), Bagdat (Baghdad)
Published: Tuesday, March 28, 2006
zaman.com


The bodies of 14 people have been found in Iraq’s capital Bagdat (Baghdad) today; each has a bullet shot wound to the head.

Iraqi police said some of the victims were blindfolded.

The identities of the bodies that were discovered in they Hay Al-Adil region have not yet been revealed