Three university professors, student kidnapped in northern Baghdad
By Wathiq Ismael
Baghdad, Jan 29, (VOI) – Three university professors of law and a student were kidnapped in northern Baghdad by unidentified gunmen, an official source in the higher education and scientific research ministry said on Monday.
"The three professors, working in the al-Nahrain law school, were kidnapped on Sunday while they were going home from work in the area of al-Kazimiya, north of Baghdad," the source told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI).
"The professors are Adnan al-Abid of Mosul, Amer al-Qisi of Diyala and Abdul-Mutaleb al-Hashimi of al-Anbar," added the source.
The source said Dr. al-Hashimi's son, a student at the law school, was kidnapped as he was in the professors' company.
The ministry denounced assaults on university professors and called on the security authorities to take whatever measures necessary to protect them and scientific institutions.
"The number of university professors assassinated since April 2003 and until the end of 2006 exceeded 185, the detained 142 and the kidnapped more than 52," the ministry said in its statement received by VOI.
29 January 2007
The Day Our Mountain Disappeared!
See for yourself!
The clear weather picture is how it seemed on 23 Jan. 2007.
And...
The other picture is how it seemed on 29 Jan. 2007.
It was a very windy, misty day here in Suli.
It made the mountain (Mt. Pira-Magroon) disappear!!!
28 January 2007
Independent Online Article: Inside Baghdad: A city paralysed by fear
By Patrick Cockburn
Baghdad is paralysed by fear. Iraqi drivers are terrified of running into impromptu checkpoints where heavily armed men in civilian clothes may drag them out of their cars and kill them for being the wrong religion. Some districts exchange mortar fire every night. This is mayhem beyond the comprehension of George Bush and Tony Blair.
Black smoke was rising over the city centre yesterday as American and Iraqi army troops tried to fight their way into the insurgent district of Haifa Street only a mile north of the Green Zone, home to the government and the US and British embassies. Helicopters flew fast and low past tower blocks, hunting snipers, and armoured vehicles manoeuvred in the streets below.
Many Iraqis who watched the State of the Union address shrugged it off as an irrelevance. "An extra 16,000 US soldiers are not going to be enough to restore order to Baghdad," said Ismail, a Sunni who fled his house in the west of the city, fearing he would be arrested and tortured by the much-feared Shia police commandos.
It is extraordinary that, almost four years after US forces captured Baghdad, they control so little of it. The outlook for Mr Bush's strategy of driving out insurgents from strongholds and preventing them coming back does not look good.
On Monday, a helicopter belonging to the US security company Blackwater was shot down as it flew over the Sunni neighbourhood of al-Fadhil, close to the central markets of Baghdad. Several of the five American crew members may have survived the crash but they were later found with gunshot wounds to their heads, as if they had been executed on the ground.
Baghdad has broken up into hostile townships, Sunni and Shia, where strangers are treated with suspicion and shot if they cannot explain what they are doing. In the militant Sunni district of al-Amariyah in west Baghdad the Shia have been driven out and a resurgent Baath party has taken over. One slogan in red paint on a wall reads: "Saddam Hussein will live for ever, the symbol of the Arab nation." Another says: "Death to Muqtada [Muqtada al-Sadr, the nationalist Shia cleric] and his army of fools."
Restaurants in districts of Baghdad like the embassy quarter in al-Mansur, where I once used to have lunch, are now far too dangerous to visit. Any foreigner on the streets is likely to be kidnapped or killed. In any case, most of the restaurants closed long ago.
It is difficult for Iraqis to avoid joining one side or the other in the conflict. Many districts, such as al-Hurriya in west Baghdad, have seen the minority - in this case the Sunni - driven out.
A Sunni friend called Adnan, living in the neighbouring district of al-Adel, was visited by Sunni militiamen. They said: "You must help us to protect you from the Shia in Hurriya by going on patrol with us. Otherwise, we will give your house to somebody who will help us." He patrolled with the militiamen for several nights, clutching a Kalashnikov, and then fled the area.
The fear in Baghdad is so intense that rumours of even bloodier battles sweep through the city. Two weeks ago, many Sunni believed that the Shia Mehdi Army was going to launch a final "battle of Baghdad" aimed at killing or expelling the Sunni minority in the capital. The Sunni insurgents stored weapons and ammunition in order to make a last-ditch effort to defend their districts. In the event, they believe the ultimate battle was postponed at the last minute. Mr Bush insisted that the Iraqi government, with US military support, "must stop the sectarian violence in the capital". Quite how they are going to do this is not clear. American reinforcements might limit the ability of death squads to roam at will for a few months, but this will not provide a long-term solution.
Mr Bush's speech is likely to deepen sectarianism in Iraq by identifying the Shia militias with Iran. In fact, the most powerful Shia militia, the Mehdi Army, is traditionally anti-Iranian. It is the Badr Organisation, now co-operating with US forces, which was formed and trained by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards. In the Arab world as a whole, Mr Bush seems to be trying to rally the Sunni states of Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan to support him in Iraq by exaggerating the Iranian threat.
Iraqis also wonder what will happen in the rest of Iraq while the US concentrates on trying to secure Baghdad. The degree of violence in the countryside is often underestimated because it is less reported than in the capital. In Baquba, the capital of Diyala province north-east of Baghdad, US and Iraqi army commanders were lauding their achievements at a press conference last weekend, claiming: "The situation in Baquba is reassuring and under control but there are some rumours circulated by bad people." Within hours, Sunni insurgents kidnapped the mayor and blew up his office.
The situation in the south of Iraq is no more reassuring. Five American soldiers were killed in the Shia holy city of Karbala last Saturday by gunmen wearing American and Iraqi uniforms, carrying American weapons and driving vehicles used by US or Iraqi government forces. A licence plate belonging to a car registered to Iraq's Minister of Trade was found on one of the vehicles used in the attack. It is a measure of the chaos in Iraq today that US officials do not know if their men were killed by Sunni or Shia guerrillas.
US commanders and the Mehdi Army seem to be edging away from all-out confrontation in Baghdad. Neither the US nor Iraqi government has the resources to eliminate the Shia militias. Even Kurdish units in the capital have a high number of desertions. The Mehdi Army, if under pressure in the capital, could probably take over much of southern Iraq.
Mr Bush's supposedly new strategy is less of a strategy than a collection of tactics unlikely to change dramatically the situation on the ground. But if his systematic demonising of Iran is a precursor to air strikes or other military action against Iran, then Iraqis will once more pay a heavy price.
Baghdad is paralysed by fear. Iraqi drivers are terrified of running into impromptu checkpoints where heavily armed men in civilian clothes may drag them out of their cars and kill them for being the wrong religion. Some districts exchange mortar fire every night. This is mayhem beyond the comprehension of George Bush and Tony Blair.
Black smoke was rising over the city centre yesterday as American and Iraqi army troops tried to fight their way into the insurgent district of Haifa Street only a mile north of the Green Zone, home to the government and the US and British embassies. Helicopters flew fast and low past tower blocks, hunting snipers, and armoured vehicles manoeuvred in the streets below.
Many Iraqis who watched the State of the Union address shrugged it off as an irrelevance. "An extra 16,000 US soldiers are not going to be enough to restore order to Baghdad," said Ismail, a Sunni who fled his house in the west of the city, fearing he would be arrested and tortured by the much-feared Shia police commandos.
It is extraordinary that, almost four years after US forces captured Baghdad, they control so little of it. The outlook for Mr Bush's strategy of driving out insurgents from strongholds and preventing them coming back does not look good.
On Monday, a helicopter belonging to the US security company Blackwater was shot down as it flew over the Sunni neighbourhood of al-Fadhil, close to the central markets of Baghdad. Several of the five American crew members may have survived the crash but they were later found with gunshot wounds to their heads, as if they had been executed on the ground.
Baghdad has broken up into hostile townships, Sunni and Shia, where strangers are treated with suspicion and shot if they cannot explain what they are doing. In the militant Sunni district of al-Amariyah in west Baghdad the Shia have been driven out and a resurgent Baath party has taken over. One slogan in red paint on a wall reads: "Saddam Hussein will live for ever, the symbol of the Arab nation." Another says: "Death to Muqtada [Muqtada al-Sadr, the nationalist Shia cleric] and his army of fools."
Restaurants in districts of Baghdad like the embassy quarter in al-Mansur, where I once used to have lunch, are now far too dangerous to visit. Any foreigner on the streets is likely to be kidnapped or killed. In any case, most of the restaurants closed long ago.
It is difficult for Iraqis to avoid joining one side or the other in the conflict. Many districts, such as al-Hurriya in west Baghdad, have seen the minority - in this case the Sunni - driven out.
A Sunni friend called Adnan, living in the neighbouring district of al-Adel, was visited by Sunni militiamen. They said: "You must help us to protect you from the Shia in Hurriya by going on patrol with us. Otherwise, we will give your house to somebody who will help us." He patrolled with the militiamen for several nights, clutching a Kalashnikov, and then fled the area.
The fear in Baghdad is so intense that rumours of even bloodier battles sweep through the city. Two weeks ago, many Sunni believed that the Shia Mehdi Army was going to launch a final "battle of Baghdad" aimed at killing or expelling the Sunni minority in the capital. The Sunni insurgents stored weapons and ammunition in order to make a last-ditch effort to defend their districts. In the event, they believe the ultimate battle was postponed at the last minute. Mr Bush insisted that the Iraqi government, with US military support, "must stop the sectarian violence in the capital". Quite how they are going to do this is not clear. American reinforcements might limit the ability of death squads to roam at will for a few months, but this will not provide a long-term solution.
Mr Bush's speech is likely to deepen sectarianism in Iraq by identifying the Shia militias with Iran. In fact, the most powerful Shia militia, the Mehdi Army, is traditionally anti-Iranian. It is the Badr Organisation, now co-operating with US forces, which was formed and trained by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards. In the Arab world as a whole, Mr Bush seems to be trying to rally the Sunni states of Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan to support him in Iraq by exaggerating the Iranian threat.
Iraqis also wonder what will happen in the rest of Iraq while the US concentrates on trying to secure Baghdad. The degree of violence in the countryside is often underestimated because it is less reported than in the capital. In Baquba, the capital of Diyala province north-east of Baghdad, US and Iraqi army commanders were lauding their achievements at a press conference last weekend, claiming: "The situation in Baquba is reassuring and under control but there are some rumours circulated by bad people." Within hours, Sunni insurgents kidnapped the mayor and blew up his office.
The situation in the south of Iraq is no more reassuring. Five American soldiers were killed in the Shia holy city of Karbala last Saturday by gunmen wearing American and Iraqi uniforms, carrying American weapons and driving vehicles used by US or Iraqi government forces. A licence plate belonging to a car registered to Iraq's Minister of Trade was found on one of the vehicles used in the attack. It is a measure of the chaos in Iraq today that US officials do not know if their men were killed by Sunni or Shia guerrillas.
US commanders and the Mehdi Army seem to be edging away from all-out confrontation in Baghdad. Neither the US nor Iraqi government has the resources to eliminate the Shia militias. Even Kurdish units in the capital have a high number of desertions. The Mehdi Army, if under pressure in the capital, could probably take over much of southern Iraq.
Mr Bush's supposedly new strategy is less of a strategy than a collection of tactics unlikely to change dramatically the situation on the ground. But if his systematic demonising of Iran is a precursor to air strikes or other military action against Iran, then Iraqis will once more pay a heavy price.
25 January 2007
CNN Article: 'Grammar Girl' a quick and dirty success
By David E. WilliamsCNN
(CNN) -- Grammar lessons often are associated with high school drudgery -- diagramming sentences and memorizing obscure rules in between passing notes in English class -- but an Arizona technical writer has turned the seemingly dry subject into a popular podcast.
Mignon Fogarty, the woman behind "Grammar Girl's Quick & Dirty Tips for Better Writing," has been explaining the finer points of commas, colons and split infinitives since July.
She recently weighed in on a dispute over apostrophes that divided the U.S. Supreme Court. Grammar wasn't the issue in the 5-4 decision, but Justice Clarence Thomas referred to "Kansas' statute" in the majority opinion, while Justice David Souter wrote about "Kansas's statute" in the minority.
Fogarty said both men were correct, but that she preferred leaving off the extra s.
"Justice Thomas' name ends with an s, so you might guess that he is more familiar with the issue," she told her audience.
Fogarty, 39, said she got the idea for the podcast, sort of an Internet radio show, during a California vacation. (Interactive: What is podcasting?)
"I was sitting in a coffee shop one day in Santa Cruz, California, on vacation and editing technical documents, because I work on vacation, and found so many grammar errors and it just hit me that grammar was something that I had expertise in that would lend itself to a short tip-based podcast," she said.
The show is currently the 47th most popular podcast on Apple's iTunes service, right behind "Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day." It has been as high as number two, Fogarty said. She said the shows have been downloaded more than 1.3 million times.
Fogarty said she's gotten some publicity, but that most of her audience comes from word of mouth.
"I get e-mails from people who say 'I just discovered your podcast and I've told everyone I work with' or 'I told every teacher at my school,'" she said. "I get a lot of e-mails like that, where people discover it and they just can't wait to tell everybody, which is really cool."
Sara Kearns, a librarian at Kansas State University, has been listening to Grammar Girl since October, and recommended it on the library's blog.
"I listen to Grammar Girl in chunks. A couple of weeks may go by and then I'll listen to 10 of them at a time," Kearns said in an e-mail interview. "The genius of Grammar Girl, apart from her ability to simplify grammar, is that she posts the transcripts so that I can stare at a gnarly piece of grammar until it clicks."
Fogarty said her audience ranges from schoolchildren in China to CEOs in the United States.
"I try to make it fun. I've even had people say 'I'm not that interested in grammar, I don't know why I listen.' But I'm glad that they do," Fogarty said. "I think people like that it's short. It's sort of a low-commitment podcast. And yet they learn something that's useful that they can put to use when they write their next e-mail."
The success of the show prompted Fogarty to produce two more podcasts "Mr. Manners' Quick and Dirty Tips for a More Polite Life" and "Money Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips for a Richer Life." She said she's started selling ads and is even getting some interest from book publishers.
One drawback of her work, she said, is that listeners are nervous about writing her.
"I feel bad about that, I don't want people to be afraid to write to me, but about half of my e-mails start with some sort of pre-apology for errors they expect to make," she said.
She said they shouldn't worry, and that she doesn't send back e-mails with big, red correction marks.
Find this article at: http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/internet/01/22/grammar.girl/index.html
(CNN) -- Grammar lessons often are associated with high school drudgery -- diagramming sentences and memorizing obscure rules in between passing notes in English class -- but an Arizona technical writer has turned the seemingly dry subject into a popular podcast.
Mignon Fogarty, the woman behind "Grammar Girl's Quick & Dirty Tips for Better Writing," has been explaining the finer points of commas, colons and split infinitives since July.
She recently weighed in on a dispute over apostrophes that divided the U.S. Supreme Court. Grammar wasn't the issue in the 5-4 decision, but Justice Clarence Thomas referred to "Kansas' statute" in the majority opinion, while Justice David Souter wrote about "Kansas's statute" in the minority.
Fogarty said both men were correct, but that she preferred leaving off the extra s.
"Justice Thomas' name ends with an s, so you might guess that he is more familiar with the issue," she told her audience.
Fogarty, 39, said she got the idea for the podcast, sort of an Internet radio show, during a California vacation. (Interactive: What is podcasting?)
"I was sitting in a coffee shop one day in Santa Cruz, California, on vacation and editing technical documents, because I work on vacation, and found so many grammar errors and it just hit me that grammar was something that I had expertise in that would lend itself to a short tip-based podcast," she said.
The show is currently the 47th most popular podcast on Apple's iTunes service, right behind "Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day." It has been as high as number two, Fogarty said. She said the shows have been downloaded more than 1.3 million times.
Fogarty said she's gotten some publicity, but that most of her audience comes from word of mouth.
"I get e-mails from people who say 'I just discovered your podcast and I've told everyone I work with' or 'I told every teacher at my school,'" she said. "I get a lot of e-mails like that, where people discover it and they just can't wait to tell everybody, which is really cool."
Sara Kearns, a librarian at Kansas State University, has been listening to Grammar Girl since October, and recommended it on the library's blog.
"I listen to Grammar Girl in chunks. A couple of weeks may go by and then I'll listen to 10 of them at a time," Kearns said in an e-mail interview. "The genius of Grammar Girl, apart from her ability to simplify grammar, is that she posts the transcripts so that I can stare at a gnarly piece of grammar until it clicks."
Fogarty said her audience ranges from schoolchildren in China to CEOs in the United States.
"I try to make it fun. I've even had people say 'I'm not that interested in grammar, I don't know why I listen.' But I'm glad that they do," Fogarty said. "I think people like that it's short. It's sort of a low-commitment podcast. And yet they learn something that's useful that they can put to use when they write their next e-mail."
The success of the show prompted Fogarty to produce two more podcasts "Mr. Manners' Quick and Dirty Tips for a More Polite Life" and "Money Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips for a Richer Life." She said she's started selling ads and is even getting some interest from book publishers.
One drawback of her work, she said, is that listeners are nervous about writing her.
"I feel bad about that, I don't want people to be afraid to write to me, but about half of my e-mails start with some sort of pre-apology for errors they expect to make," she said.
She said they shouldn't worry, and that she doesn't send back e-mails with big, red correction marks.
Find this article at: http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/internet/01/22/grammar.girl/index.html
24 January 2007
23 January 2007
AP Article: Security helicopter shot down in Iraq
Security helicopter shot down in Iraq
By KIM GAMEL, Associated Press Writer
Five civilians died in the Baghdad crash of a helicopter owned by the private security company Blackwater USA, according to a U.S. military official. The helicopter was shot down Tuesday over a predominantly Sunni neighborhood, a senior Iraqi defense official said. The crash came three days after a U.S. Black Hawk helicopter crashed northeast of Baghdad, killing all 12 soldiers aboard.
The deaths of three more U.S. troops also were announced, including a Marine who killed Sunday south of Baghdad, raising the weekend death toll to 28 as American casualties mount ahead of a U.S.-Iraqi security push to try to secure the capital.
Two U.S. soldiers were killed Monday, the military said — one in fighting in Anbar province west of the capital and another in a roadside bombing.
The Iraqi official, who would not allow use of his name because the information had not been made public, said a gunman with a PKC machine gun downed the small helicopter Tuesday afternoon over the heavily Sunni Fadhil neighborhood in north-central Baghdad, where witnesses reported clashes between insurgents and U.S. and Iraqi forces.
There were casualties, the official said, but would give no details.
A U.S. military official in the Middle East confirmed the helicopter crashed in a heavily populated Baghdad neighborhood but had no information on why or how many were on board. That official also refused to be identified because he was not authorized to release the information.
The U.S. military in Baghdad said only that it had no evidence a U.S. forces' aircraft had gone down but it was investigating what appeared to be the crash of a civilian one.
The statement gave no other details, but U.S. Embassy spokesman Lou Fintor said American officials were investigating the reports.
"We are in the process of determining the facts and checking on the welfare and status of those involved," he told The Associated Press.
Most aircraft used in Iraq belong to the coalition forces, but at least one U.S. security company was known to fly small helicopters above convoys carrying dignitaries and foreigners in Baghdad.
A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity because the investigation was still under way, said there was no indication any U.S. Embassy staff or diplomats were on the aircraft.
Witnesses reported clashes between gunmen and U.S. and Iraqi forces that lasted for several hours on Tuesday as helicopters flew low over the area where the helicopter was reportedly shot down. Police also said a car bomb struck a market in the district, killing at least three people and wounding 10.
Sunni insurgents are known to have surface-to-air missiles and rocket-propelled grenades but have not been able to use them effectively because of U.S. military avoidance tactics.
A senior U.S. military official said Monday that there was evidence that the Black Hawk helicopter that crashed northeast of Baghdad on Saturday, killing all 12 on board, may have been shot down.
Searchers at the scene found a tube that could be part of a shoulder-fired weapon that may have been used to shoot down the aircraft, said the official, who requested anonymity because the investigation was still continuing.
Attacks targeting Shiites also persisted with bombs striking two separate areas in Baghdad on Tuesday, killing five people a day after a double car bombing tore through a market crowded with Shiites elsewhere in the capital in the bloodiest attack in two months.
At least 45 other people were killed or found dead in the Baghdad area and in the northern city of Mosul, including 27 bullet-riddled bodies that turned up on the streets of the capital, apparent victims of Shiite death squads that have been behind much of the surge in violence since the Feb. 22 bombing of a Shiite mosque in Samarra.
U.S.-led forces also killed 16 suspected insurgents and detained 10 others Tuesday in the area surrounding Baghdad and Haditha, 140 miles northwest of the capital.
In Tuesday's other violence, a parked car bomb exploded at 9 a.m. near the Finance Ministry, which is run by Bayan Jabr, a Shiite and former interior minister. One civilian was killed and four people were wounded, including a ministry guard, police said.
A bomb planted under a car exploded about 45 minutes later in the predominantly Shiite commercial district of Karradah in downtown Baghdad, killing four people, including a woman and a 7-year-old boy, and wounding seven other people, police said.
The blast collapsed part of the wall of a brick building, leaving a ground floor apartment exposed and a mass of rubble and mangled cars in the alley.
"Why are the insurgents detonating bombs near our houses every day? Everyday we have a blast, what have we done wrong? May Allah curse everybody who hurts the people," an elderly woman shrouded in black said as she stood amid the wreckage.
The attacks have battered Shiites during one of their holiest festivals and were the latest in a renewed campaign of Sunni insurgent violence before a U.S.-Iraqi push to secure Baghdad. The first of the 21,000 extra U.S. troops being sent to help quell the violence have started to arrive in Baghdad.
Insurgents also continued to target police in northern Iraq, with at least four officers killed during clashes throughout the northwest city of Mosul. Five insurgents also were killed and two detained in the fighting, police said.
___
Associated Press writer Qassim Abdul-Zahra in Baghdad contributed to this report.
By KIM GAMEL, Associated Press Writer
Five civilians died in the Baghdad crash of a helicopter owned by the private security company Blackwater USA, according to a U.S. military official. The helicopter was shot down Tuesday over a predominantly Sunni neighborhood, a senior Iraqi defense official said. The crash came three days after a U.S. Black Hawk helicopter crashed northeast of Baghdad, killing all 12 soldiers aboard.
The deaths of three more U.S. troops also were announced, including a Marine who killed Sunday south of Baghdad, raising the weekend death toll to 28 as American casualties mount ahead of a U.S.-Iraqi security push to try to secure the capital.
Two U.S. soldiers were killed Monday, the military said — one in fighting in Anbar province west of the capital and another in a roadside bombing.
The Iraqi official, who would not allow use of his name because the information had not been made public, said a gunman with a PKC machine gun downed the small helicopter Tuesday afternoon over the heavily Sunni Fadhil neighborhood in north-central Baghdad, where witnesses reported clashes between insurgents and U.S. and Iraqi forces.
There were casualties, the official said, but would give no details.
A U.S. military official in the Middle East confirmed the helicopter crashed in a heavily populated Baghdad neighborhood but had no information on why or how many were on board. That official also refused to be identified because he was not authorized to release the information.
The U.S. military in Baghdad said only that it had no evidence a U.S. forces' aircraft had gone down but it was investigating what appeared to be the crash of a civilian one.
The statement gave no other details, but U.S. Embassy spokesman Lou Fintor said American officials were investigating the reports.
"We are in the process of determining the facts and checking on the welfare and status of those involved," he told The Associated Press.
Most aircraft used in Iraq belong to the coalition forces, but at least one U.S. security company was known to fly small helicopters above convoys carrying dignitaries and foreigners in Baghdad.
A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity because the investigation was still under way, said there was no indication any U.S. Embassy staff or diplomats were on the aircraft.
Witnesses reported clashes between gunmen and U.S. and Iraqi forces that lasted for several hours on Tuesday as helicopters flew low over the area where the helicopter was reportedly shot down. Police also said a car bomb struck a market in the district, killing at least three people and wounding 10.
Sunni insurgents are known to have surface-to-air missiles and rocket-propelled grenades but have not been able to use them effectively because of U.S. military avoidance tactics.
A senior U.S. military official said Monday that there was evidence that the Black Hawk helicopter that crashed northeast of Baghdad on Saturday, killing all 12 on board, may have been shot down.
Searchers at the scene found a tube that could be part of a shoulder-fired weapon that may have been used to shoot down the aircraft, said the official, who requested anonymity because the investigation was still continuing.
Attacks targeting Shiites also persisted with bombs striking two separate areas in Baghdad on Tuesday, killing five people a day after a double car bombing tore through a market crowded with Shiites elsewhere in the capital in the bloodiest attack in two months.
At least 45 other people were killed or found dead in the Baghdad area and in the northern city of Mosul, including 27 bullet-riddled bodies that turned up on the streets of the capital, apparent victims of Shiite death squads that have been behind much of the surge in violence since the Feb. 22 bombing of a Shiite mosque in Samarra.
U.S.-led forces also killed 16 suspected insurgents and detained 10 others Tuesday in the area surrounding Baghdad and Haditha, 140 miles northwest of the capital.
In Tuesday's other violence, a parked car bomb exploded at 9 a.m. near the Finance Ministry, which is run by Bayan Jabr, a Shiite and former interior minister. One civilian was killed and four people were wounded, including a ministry guard, police said.
A bomb planted under a car exploded about 45 minutes later in the predominantly Shiite commercial district of Karradah in downtown Baghdad, killing four people, including a woman and a 7-year-old boy, and wounding seven other people, police said.
The blast collapsed part of the wall of a brick building, leaving a ground floor apartment exposed and a mass of rubble and mangled cars in the alley.
"Why are the insurgents detonating bombs near our houses every day? Everyday we have a blast, what have we done wrong? May Allah curse everybody who hurts the people," an elderly woman shrouded in black said as she stood amid the wreckage.
The attacks have battered Shiites during one of their holiest festivals and were the latest in a renewed campaign of Sunni insurgent violence before a U.S.-Iraqi push to secure Baghdad. The first of the 21,000 extra U.S. troops being sent to help quell the violence have started to arrive in Baghdad.
Insurgents also continued to target police in northern Iraq, with at least four officers killed during clashes throughout the northwest city of Mosul. Five insurgents also were killed and two detained in the fighting, police said.
___
Associated Press writer Qassim Abdul-Zahra in Baghdad contributed to this report.
18 January 2007
AP Article: Advisers: Baghdad repair will take time
By BARRY SCHWEID
AP DIPLOMATIC WRITER
WASHINGTON -- Americans and Iraqis, working together to try to make Baghdad a livable city under gunfire, have made some headway in building sewer systems and schools. But the American heads of the 80-person provisional reconstruction team that provides advice acknowledged Wednesday that "it will take a very long time" to get the job done.
There are Baghdad neighborhoods, Sadr City for instance, that are simply too risky to enter, although local leaders will meet with the team outside its confines, and Iraqis generally are just beginning to get the hang of putting a city together, reporters were told on a video hookup from Baghdad.
On the other hand, Joseph P. Gregoire, the team leader, said, "We have met with large numbers of people with good will who are trying to meet the needs of the Iraqi people."
Also, Gregoire said on a positive note, projects tend to overcome sectarian differences. A sewer system built in a Shiite neighborhood that corrects backup problems where Sunnis live, for instance, is welcomed by both communities, he said.
The team was set up last March with a $100 million budget, of which $60 million has been spent to make arrangements for sewer systems, schools, electricity and other civil projects.
A typical accomplishment, said Lt. Col. Robert Ruch, the deputy team leader, is that 10 schools are scheduled to be opened in the city of 6 million people next month.
"It is not only about building schools but creating jobs," he said in the video news conference.
About 80 people are on the team's roster, half of them U.S. service personnel, 15 American civilians, six or seven bilingual advisers from the United States, Britain, Canada and New Zealand, and the rest are Iraqis.
Areas of concentration include helping local Iraqi officials to learn how to govern, offering advice on economic development, helping to provide services and instructing in legal proceedings.
Overall, new U.S. reconstruction aid for Iraq has dwindled in this fiscal year to $750 million. President Bush proposed a week ago adding $1.2 billion to that. Last month, the Iraq Study Group proposed boosting U.S. reconstruction assistance to $5 billion a year.
Calling the team headed by Gregoire and Ruch a reconstruction project is a misnomer, they said. They said their job is to provide advice and match up local officials with people who can do the work.
Even on their level, however, the task is daunting. "It will take a very long time to get to the point where the Iraqis will be able to meet the needs of the population independent of donor action," Gregoire said.
AP DIPLOMATIC WRITER
WASHINGTON -- Americans and Iraqis, working together to try to make Baghdad a livable city under gunfire, have made some headway in building sewer systems and schools. But the American heads of the 80-person provisional reconstruction team that provides advice acknowledged Wednesday that "it will take a very long time" to get the job done.
There are Baghdad neighborhoods, Sadr City for instance, that are simply too risky to enter, although local leaders will meet with the team outside its confines, and Iraqis generally are just beginning to get the hang of putting a city together, reporters were told on a video hookup from Baghdad.
On the other hand, Joseph P. Gregoire, the team leader, said, "We have met with large numbers of people with good will who are trying to meet the needs of the Iraqi people."
Also, Gregoire said on a positive note, projects tend to overcome sectarian differences. A sewer system built in a Shiite neighborhood that corrects backup problems where Sunnis live, for instance, is welcomed by both communities, he said.
The team was set up last March with a $100 million budget, of which $60 million has been spent to make arrangements for sewer systems, schools, electricity and other civil projects.
A typical accomplishment, said Lt. Col. Robert Ruch, the deputy team leader, is that 10 schools are scheduled to be opened in the city of 6 million people next month.
"It is not only about building schools but creating jobs," he said in the video news conference.
About 80 people are on the team's roster, half of them U.S. service personnel, 15 American civilians, six or seven bilingual advisers from the United States, Britain, Canada and New Zealand, and the rest are Iraqis.
Areas of concentration include helping local Iraqi officials to learn how to govern, offering advice on economic development, helping to provide services and instructing in legal proceedings.
Overall, new U.S. reconstruction aid for Iraq has dwindled in this fiscal year to $750 million. President Bush proposed a week ago adding $1.2 billion to that. Last month, the Iraq Study Group proposed boosting U.S. reconstruction assistance to $5 billion a year.
Calling the team headed by Gregoire and Ruch a reconstruction project is a misnomer, they said. They said their job is to provide advice and match up local officials with people who can do the work.
Even on their level, however, the task is daunting. "It will take a very long time to get to the point where the Iraqis will be able to meet the needs of the population independent of donor action," Gregoire said.
17 January 2007
Topix.net Article: U.N.: 34,452 Civilians Killed In Iraq In 2006
Nearly 35,000 civilians were killed last year in Iraq , the United Nations said Tuesday, a sharp increase from the numbers reported previously by the Iraqi government.
Gianni Magazzeni, the chief of the U.N. Assistance Mission for Iraq, said 34,452 civilians were killed and 36,685 were wounded last year.
Iraqi government figures in early January put last year's civilian death toll at 12,357. When asked about the difference, Magazzeni said the U.N. figures were compiled from information obtained through the Iraqi Health Ministry, hospitals across the country and the Medico-Legal Institute in Baghdad.
"Without significant progress in the rule of law sectarian violence will continue indefinitely and eventually spiral out of control," he warned.
The Iraqi Health Ministry could not immediately be reached for comment, but the government has disputed previous figures released by the U.N. as "inaccurate and exaggerated."
Magazzeni said 6,376 civilians were killed violently in November and December -- 4,731 of those in Baghdad, most as a result of gunshot wounds. He noted that was a slight decrease from the previous two-month period, during which UNAMI recorded a total of 7,047 civilians killed.
The mission's latest bimonthly report also noted that some figures were not yet included in the total for December.
The figures were released as Baghdad braces for a major security operation to be launched by the Iraqi government and U.S. forces aimed at quelling the rampant sectarian violence that has been on the rise since the Feb. 22 bombing of a Shiite mosque in Samarra.
Much of the violence has been blamed on Shiite militias, particularly the Mahdi Army militia that is loyal to radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, a key supporter of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Dozens of bodies turn up on the streets of Baghdad daily, many showing signs of torture.
"The root causes of the sectarian violence lie in revenge killings and lack of accountability for past crimes as well as in the growing sense of impunity for ongoing human rights violations," the agency said, calling on the Iraqi government to step up efforts to restore law and order.
The U.N. report also said that 30,842 people were detained in the country as of Dec. 31, including 14,534 in detention facilities run by U.S.-led multinational forces.
Gianni Magazzeni, the chief of the U.N. Assistance Mission for Iraq, said 34,452 civilians were killed and 36,685 were wounded last year.
Iraqi government figures in early January put last year's civilian death toll at 12,357. When asked about the difference, Magazzeni said the U.N. figures were compiled from information obtained through the Iraqi Health Ministry, hospitals across the country and the Medico-Legal Institute in Baghdad.
"Without significant progress in the rule of law sectarian violence will continue indefinitely and eventually spiral out of control," he warned.
The Iraqi Health Ministry could not immediately be reached for comment, but the government has disputed previous figures released by the U.N. as "inaccurate and exaggerated."
Magazzeni said 6,376 civilians were killed violently in November and December -- 4,731 of those in Baghdad, most as a result of gunshot wounds. He noted that was a slight decrease from the previous two-month period, during which UNAMI recorded a total of 7,047 civilians killed.
The mission's latest bimonthly report also noted that some figures were not yet included in the total for December.
The figures were released as Baghdad braces for a major security operation to be launched by the Iraqi government and U.S. forces aimed at quelling the rampant sectarian violence that has been on the rise since the Feb. 22 bombing of a Shiite mosque in Samarra.
Much of the violence has been blamed on Shiite militias, particularly the Mahdi Army militia that is loyal to radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, a key supporter of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Dozens of bodies turn up on the streets of Baghdad daily, many showing signs of torture.
"The root causes of the sectarian violence lie in revenge killings and lack of accountability for past crimes as well as in the growing sense of impunity for ongoing human rights violations," the agency said, calling on the Iraqi government to step up efforts to restore law and order.
The U.N. report also said that 30,842 people were detained in the country as of Dec. 31, including 14,534 in detention facilities run by U.S.-led multinational forces.
15 January 2007
The No-Smoke Zone
It was confirmed today that the smoking ban imposed by the Al-Qaida's
Islamic State of Iraq is starting to come into effect in our area.
Islamic State of Iraq is starting to come into effect in our area.
People mentioned that there are strict instructions that whoever is
seen smoking in public will be punished. Some say by amputating his
index finger.
Most shops, however, continue to exhibit cigarettes. It is not known
whether if the shop keepers accomplice with the Islamic State of Iraq
forces to pinpoint who are the smokers buying cigarettes from them, or
if the Islamic State of Iraq allows people to smoke at home and not in
public.
14 January 2007
Cleveland.com Article: Baghdad mission set for February
Baghdad mission set for February
Gates tells panel Iraqi troops must pull their weight
Saturday, January 13, 2007 From wire reports
Washington- President Bush's new operation to secure Baghdad will begin in earnest with a push by thousands of U.S. and Iraqi troops in the first week of February, and its chances of success should be evident within a few months, Defense Secretary Robert Gates told lawmakers Friday.
If the plan works, the United States could begin drawing down troop levels by the end of the year, Gates said. If the Iraqi government does not deliver troops and political and economic support, he said, the United States could withhold many of the 21,500 additional forces Bush has ordered to secure the most violent parts of Iraq.
Gates and Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, also assured members of the Senate Armed Services Committee that there are no plans to take military operations into Iran, clarifying remarks Bush made on Wednesday in announcing the new Iraq package.
"From a military standpoint," Pace said while responding to questions, there is "no need to cross the Iranian border."
Gates said a brigade of several thousand Iraqi troops is expected to arrive in Baghdad in about three weeks to beef up security, part of an effort to bring in 8,000 more Iraqi forces to quell sectarian violence. The first additional U.S. brigade is expected to arrive in Baghdad in coming days to support Iraqi forces as they clear and hold neighborhoods throughout the city.
"I think that what's perhaps the newest part of this is that it really does put the onus on the Iraqis to come through," Gates said. He later acknowledged that the Iraqi government's "record of fulfilling the commitments is not an encouraging one" but said that Iraqis "really do seem to be eager to take control of this security situation."
Gates said Iraqi lawmakers might decide to replace Iraq's prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, if he fails to take steps to prosecute the new plan to regain control of Baghdad.
"The first consequence that he has to face is the possibility that he'll lose his job," Gates said. "There are beginning to be some people around that may say, 'I can do better than he's doing,' in terms of making progress."
Administration officials have discussed among themselves whether they might need to withdraw support for al-Maliki if he doesn't perform, notably by building a new coalition in the Iraqi parliament. Gates' statement was the first mention of the subject in public by a senior administration official.
Bush is expected to ask in February for $100 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. His plan to add 21,500 troops to the 132,000 already there is estimated to cost an additional $5.6 billion.
Sen. John McCain, an Arizona Republican, and a leading presidential contender for 2008, said he supports the plan and he tried to shift the burden to war critics.
McCain said those advocating the start of a troop withdrawal, which includes many Democrats, "have a responsibility to tell us what they believe are the consequences of withdrawal in Iraq. If we walk away from Iraq, we'll be back, possibly in the context of a wider war in the world's most volatile region."
Rep. John Murtha, a Pennsylvania Democrat who oversees military funding, said he will propose tying congressional approval of war money to shutting the Guantanamo Bay military prison in Cuba. Other conditions he said he is considering include not extending troop deployments and giving soldiers and Marines more time to train between deployments.
Bush struck a defiant note in an interview to be televised Sunday by CBS on "60 Minutes." Asked if he believes he has the authority to send additional troops to Iraq no matter what Congress wants to do, Bush said: "I think I've got - in this situation, I do, yeah. And I fully understand they will . . . they could try to stop me from doing it, but, uh, I've made my decision and we're going forward."
Democratic leaders in the House and Senate intend to hold symbolic votes in coming days to demonstrate the extent of opposition to Bush's troop increase. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, told fellow Democrats in a closed-door meeting she intends to allow the Senate - where several Republicans have been vocal in their criticism of the president - to begin debate first.
13 January 2007
StarTribune.com Article: 'New Way' could run into old hurdles
Bush's approach relies on a weak Iraqi government that hasn't lived up to its promises in the past. Aides say this time is different.
WASHINGTON - President Bush announced a new plan for Iraq on Wednesday night, but the plan faces old obstacles that have defied solution ever since the United States invaded Iraq nearly four years ago.
Bush's plan relies even more than past stratagems on a weak Iraqi government to fulfill promises it's repeatedly broken to take on sectarian militias and end political squabbles.
It calls for Iraqis to strengthen their forces in Baghdad to help quell raging violence there, four months after the Iraqi government failed to contribute four of the six battalions of troops it promised to a similar security effort.
The plan calls for reordering Iraq's Interior Ministry, something U.S. officials have been insisting on since last spring, when Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki came to office.
The biggest course change is the declaration that Iraqis will be in charge of the effort to secure Baghdad, which Al-Maliki has been pushing for.
Bush aides, who detailed the plan in a series of documents and briefings, insisted that this time is different. Al-Maliki has pledged to deploy more Iraqi forces to stabilize Baghdad, and the full U.S. troop contingent and financial-aid package won't flow unless he follows through on that and other steps, the aides said.
But if Al-Maliki fails to deliver, the president appears to have little leverage other than to bring U.S. troops home.
"An awful lot depends on the Iraqis. We don't control the Iraqis anymore," said Daniel Serwer, a vice president of the government-funded U.S. Institute of Peace.
Bush for the first time Wednesday said the U.S. commitment in Iraq isn't open-ended -- though he put no time limit on how long Americans would wait to see whether Al-Maliki fulfilled his promises.
Outside analysts said they saw some positive elements in the plan, such as a focus on protecting Iraqi civilians and jump-starting the economy from the grass roots -- both classic elements of counterinsurgency doctrine. Bush proposes almost $1.2 billion in new economic assistance in Iraq and a doubling of U.S. civil-military reconstruction teams.
But many said they feared Bush's modified tactics are too little and too late to make up for past blunders in Iraq. Those include invading with too few troops, disbanding the Iraqi army, underestimating the cost of the venture and misjudging the rapid growth of Iraq's insurgency.
"The problem is the solutions applied three years ago or two years ago might have stabilized the situation. ... I find it hard to see they will apply today," said Judith Yaphe, a Persian Gulf expert at the National Defense University.
The core of Bush's "New Way Forward" is a bid to end the endemic violence in Baghdad by deploying 17,500 more U.S. troops and thousands of additional Iraqi troops and police and adopting new rules of engagement.
White House officials said Iraqi forces would take the lead, with U.S. troops embedded in Iraqi units.
That's been tried before -- and failed -- in last summer's joint effort to bring security to Baghdad, called "Operation Forward Together."
For the new plan to work, the Iraqi government must crack down on both Sunni and Shiite extremists, top military officials in Baghdad said.
But Al-Maliki has refused in the past to move against the militias of powerful Shiite politicians, including firebrand cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who are the bedrock of his political support.
Whether Iraqi troops will be up to the task of helping pacify Baghdad neighborhood by neighborhood is as questionable as ever.
During "Operation Forward Together," some Iraqi forces did their jobs well. But most daily missions started late, as Iraqi commanders and U.S. forces counted how many Iraqi troops came to work that day.
While U.S. and Iraqi troops were in troubled neighborhoods, such as Amariyah in western Baghdad, crime did fall. But as soon as the troops left, the insurgents moved back in, and the violence, including sectarian killings, car bombings and explosions, surpassed previous levels.
How Al-Maliki might bring about political reconciliation, another aspect of Bush's plan, also is unclear. There is intense skepticism that he can move beyond his Shiite base and deliver his half of the bargain.
12 January 2007
Car Bomb Nearby
Yesterday, my father went to the nearby petrol station in order to get fuel for our car and small generator. As he was waiting in the line, a car bomb exploded about 150 meters (yds) away.
The target was an American military convoy, which didn't have any damage because of the explosion.
It was a good thing that no bystanders, no passing or parked cars were effected due to that explosion.
10 January 2007
Reuters Article: Thirty-one die in Iraq plane crash-Turkish official
Thirty-one die in Iraq plane crash-Turkish official
Tuesday January 9, 06:46 PM
ANKARA (Reuters) - Thirty-one people were killed on Tuesday when their chartered plane crashed in Iraq while trying to land in foggy conditions, Turkish officials said.
The officials made no suggestion of hostile fire, although an Iraqi rebel group later claimed it had shot down the plane.
The Moldovan Antonov-26, which took off from the Turkish city of Adana early on Tuesday, was carrying about 35 people including 30 construction workers, the officials said.
"The plane came down at about midday Turkish time (1000 GMT) some 2.5 km (1.5 miles) to the northwest of Balad," a Foreign Ministry official told Reuters. He put the death toll at 31 and said one person was injured and three were missing.
Adana's governor Cahit Kirac told CNN Turk television that the plane was carrying 29 Turks, one American and a crew comprising one Russian, one Ukrainian and three Moldovans.
Balad is the main U.S. military logistics hub in Iraq, about 80 km (50 miles) north of the capital Baghdad. Turkish media initially reported that the crash occurred in Baghdad.
The plane belonged to Moldova's Aerian Tur Airlines and the workers on board were from the Turkish construction company Kulak, the Foreign Ministry official said.
The U.S. military, which controls Iraqi air space, declined to comment.
In 2005, hostile fire brought down a British military transport plane in the same area, killing all on board.
Residents of Balad said that hours after the crash leaflets were distributed in the town saying a Sunni Arab insurgent group, the Islamic Army, had shot down the plane with a missile. Similar claims follow most air crashes in Iraq.
(Additional reporting by Alastair Macdonald in Baghdad)
Tuesday January 9, 06:46 PM
ANKARA (Reuters) - Thirty-one people were killed on Tuesday when their chartered plane crashed in Iraq while trying to land in foggy conditions, Turkish officials said.
The officials made no suggestion of hostile fire, although an Iraqi rebel group later claimed it had shot down the plane.
The Moldovan Antonov-26, which took off from the Turkish city of Adana early on Tuesday, was carrying about 35 people including 30 construction workers, the officials said.
"The plane came down at about midday Turkish time (1000 GMT) some 2.5 km (1.5 miles) to the northwest of Balad," a Foreign Ministry official told Reuters. He put the death toll at 31 and said one person was injured and three were missing.
Adana's governor Cahit Kirac told CNN Turk television that the plane was carrying 29 Turks, one American and a crew comprising one Russian, one Ukrainian and three Moldovans.
Balad is the main U.S. military logistics hub in Iraq, about 80 km (50 miles) north of the capital Baghdad. Turkish media initially reported that the crash occurred in Baghdad.
The plane belonged to Moldova's Aerian Tur Airlines and the workers on board were from the Turkish construction company Kulak, the Foreign Ministry official said.
The U.S. military, which controls Iraqi air space, declined to comment.
In 2005, hostile fire brought down a British military transport plane in the same area, killing all on board.
Residents of Balad said that hours after the crash leaflets were distributed in the town saying a Sunni Arab insurgent group, the Islamic Army, had shot down the plane with a missile. Similar claims follow most air crashes in Iraq.
(Additional reporting by Alastair Macdonald in Baghdad)
09 January 2007
NY Times Article: Iraq’s Escape Is Soccer, but Soccer Can’t Escape War
Iraq’s Escape Is Soccer, but Soccer Can’t Escape War
By KIRK SEMPLE
BAGHDAD — Anyone wanting to take a measure of the importance of soccer in Iraq needed only to be in the country during the national team’s recent march to the finals of the Asian Games, which were held in Doha, Qatar.
During each match involving the Iraqi squad, work ground to a halt across Iraq as people gathered around televisions. Each victory was celebrated with sustained gunfire that etched the sky with the red streaks of tracer bullets. On Dec. 12, the day Iraq beat the heavily favored South Koreans in the semifinals, at least five people in Baghdad were taken to the hospital with wounds from stray bullets, the police said.
When the final whistle blew on the championship game against Qatar on Dec. 15 — a 1-0 defeat for Iraq — the Iraqi television channel that carried the game cut to a montage of glorious highlights from past victories, seemingly intent on forestalling a total collapse of the national spirit. “You are heroes,” the commentator declared. “Second is a beautiful position.”
Sports fandom is a universal phenomenon, but in Iraq, soccer, the country’s most popular sport, may have greater meaning than usual.
“We Iraqis don’t have much fun,” said Mehdi Hadi Sabi, 36, an auto parts salesman. On a recent afternoon, he was among a cluster of die-hard fans watching the Police Club, one of Iraq’s professional soccer teams, practice in a small stadium here. “This is one of the few recreational things we have left,” Mr. Sabi said. “It’s kind of a catharsis.”
Soccer has become an escape from the uncertainty and violence of life, a source of camaraderie and even a binding force of nationalism in a country riven by sectarianism.
When the national team beat Singapore in October, earning Iraq a spot in the Asia Cup this July, Gen. George W. Casey Jr. and Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad issued a joint statement of congratulations. “Few events bring together Iraqis as a nation like soccer,” it said. “It is a great example of what is possible when Iraqis work together regardless of sect, religion or ethnicity.”
Despite the national team’s successes abroad, the sport at home has been fraught with the same uncertainties as the rest of Iraqi life.
The professional league halted at the 2003 invasion; play was not resumed until late 2004. Though the stadiums remain remarkably free of violence, fear of attacks has cut into attendance. Ticket revenues and government support have declined, and the stadiums and practice facilities are in poor shape. The best players have fled abroad, seeking safer conditions and more lucrative contracts. “All the players would be happy to leave the country,” said Amir Sabah Hussein, 18, a forward on the Police Club. “I wish it weren’t so.”
Violence has also precluded professional league matches in areas of the country where the insurgency is particularly strong, including Anbar Province and the area north of Baghdad known as the Sunni Triangle. Teams from several violent, troubled cities have either folded or moved: the Samarra team, for instance, has relocated to Baghdad, and Mosul plays in Erbil, according to Tareq Ahmed, the acting director of the Iraq Football Association.
Amateur and school leagues have also been crippled, with many teams no longer traveling outside their neighborhoods to play because of fears of attack.
In recent months, athletes and sports officials have been shot and kidnapped. In November, Hudaib Mejhool, director of the professional Students Club, was kidnapped by gunmen while driving to work. His body turned up in the morgue. Ghanim Ghudayer, a member of the Air Force Club and the Iraqi Olympic team, was kidnapped in September.
The Police Club, which is in the soccer association’s premier league and is one of the country’s oldest teams, practices on a field scorched yellow by the sun, and the stands have fallen into disrepair. The team has not played an official league game there for two years because it is too vulnerable to attack, team officials said. During a practice in early December, a bullet sailed past the head of a player; the whole team dropped flat on the ground. It was unclear whether the bullet was a stray or from a sniper. The practice was cut short; memories were still fresh of a player with the Zawra Club who was killed by a stray bullet during practice earlier in the year.
The premier league’s season was supposed to begin Nov. 24, but was postponed twice because of security concerns. The league’s northern and southern divisions started play in November, but the season is still suspended for the teams based in Baghdad. As to when they will begin play, Ahmed Abbas, the general secretary of the Iraqi Football Association, said, “God only knows.”
The possibility that the season may evaporate has crippled the Police Club’s morale. “They’re training aimlessly,” Muhammad Shakir, the team’s coach, said during a recent practice. “They don’t know what they’re doing this for.”
The players were phlegmatically warming up by kicking around balls and stretching. “Before, we were coming to work with our hearts and minds,” the coach continued. “Now we are just coming with our minds.”
Hashim Ridah, 27, a stocky forward and one of the league’s most prolific scorers, said that if the season never began, he might seek a spot on the team in Karbala, his hometown. He said he could not afford to lose another year. “The time of the player is limited,” he said.
The fans, too, are distraught. “I may fall into a depression if there is no season,” said Mr. Sabi, the auto parts dealer. “It’s hard to imagine Iraq without a football season, and a season without the Police Club.” But Mr. Sabi and his buddies continue to turn out for most practices.
“My family has tried to prohibit me from coming here because I have diabetes, but I don’t care,” said Wasim Mohsin, 50, a rotund sheep vendor and one of the Police Club’s stalwart fans. “I watch the clock, and when it strikes two o’clock, I just leave the house and go to the club.” Once, he said, he even abandoned a sick daughter at a hospital to catch a game.
But there may be no more devoted a Police Club fan than Khalil Khalaf, 23, a deaf house painter. After a Police Club loss to a team from Najaf last season, Mr. Khalaf, a wiry blade of a man, angrily hurled himself over a retaining fence, sprinted across the playing field and tackled a Najaf player. Mr. Khalaf was pounced on by other Najaf players and a police officer, who beat him with a stick. His friends pulled him to safety.
To explain what the team meant to him, Mr. Khalaf pounded his chest with his fist, then repeatedly dragged an index finger from the corner of his eye down his cheek. Mr. Mohsin translated: “He says, ‘The team is in my heart, and sometimes I cry for them.’ ”
His message conveyed, Mr. Khalaf clenched his fists into thumbs-up signs and bounced up and down on the balls of his feet. He looked like the happiest man in Iraq.
Khalid al-Ansary and Abdul Razzaq al-Saiedi contributed reporting from Baghdad.
By KIRK SEMPLE
BAGHDAD — Anyone wanting to take a measure of the importance of soccer in Iraq needed only to be in the country during the national team’s recent march to the finals of the Asian Games, which were held in Doha, Qatar.
During each match involving the Iraqi squad, work ground to a halt across Iraq as people gathered around televisions. Each victory was celebrated with sustained gunfire that etched the sky with the red streaks of tracer bullets. On Dec. 12, the day Iraq beat the heavily favored South Koreans in the semifinals, at least five people in Baghdad were taken to the hospital with wounds from stray bullets, the police said.
When the final whistle blew on the championship game against Qatar on Dec. 15 — a 1-0 defeat for Iraq — the Iraqi television channel that carried the game cut to a montage of glorious highlights from past victories, seemingly intent on forestalling a total collapse of the national spirit. “You are heroes,” the commentator declared. “Second is a beautiful position.”
Sports fandom is a universal phenomenon, but in Iraq, soccer, the country’s most popular sport, may have greater meaning than usual.
“We Iraqis don’t have much fun,” said Mehdi Hadi Sabi, 36, an auto parts salesman. On a recent afternoon, he was among a cluster of die-hard fans watching the Police Club, one of Iraq’s professional soccer teams, practice in a small stadium here. “This is one of the few recreational things we have left,” Mr. Sabi said. “It’s kind of a catharsis.”
Soccer has become an escape from the uncertainty and violence of life, a source of camaraderie and even a binding force of nationalism in a country riven by sectarianism.
When the national team beat Singapore in October, earning Iraq a spot in the Asia Cup this July, Gen. George W. Casey Jr. and Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad issued a joint statement of congratulations. “Few events bring together Iraqis as a nation like soccer,” it said. “It is a great example of what is possible when Iraqis work together regardless of sect, religion or ethnicity.”
Despite the national team’s successes abroad, the sport at home has been fraught with the same uncertainties as the rest of Iraqi life.
The professional league halted at the 2003 invasion; play was not resumed until late 2004. Though the stadiums remain remarkably free of violence, fear of attacks has cut into attendance. Ticket revenues and government support have declined, and the stadiums and practice facilities are in poor shape. The best players have fled abroad, seeking safer conditions and more lucrative contracts. “All the players would be happy to leave the country,” said Amir Sabah Hussein, 18, a forward on the Police Club. “I wish it weren’t so.”
Violence has also precluded professional league matches in areas of the country where the insurgency is particularly strong, including Anbar Province and the area north of Baghdad known as the Sunni Triangle. Teams from several violent, troubled cities have either folded or moved: the Samarra team, for instance, has relocated to Baghdad, and Mosul plays in Erbil, according to Tareq Ahmed, the acting director of the Iraq Football Association.
Amateur and school leagues have also been crippled, with many teams no longer traveling outside their neighborhoods to play because of fears of attack.
In recent months, athletes and sports officials have been shot and kidnapped. In November, Hudaib Mejhool, director of the professional Students Club, was kidnapped by gunmen while driving to work. His body turned up in the morgue. Ghanim Ghudayer, a member of the Air Force Club and the Iraqi Olympic team, was kidnapped in September.
The Police Club, which is in the soccer association’s premier league and is one of the country’s oldest teams, practices on a field scorched yellow by the sun, and the stands have fallen into disrepair. The team has not played an official league game there for two years because it is too vulnerable to attack, team officials said. During a practice in early December, a bullet sailed past the head of a player; the whole team dropped flat on the ground. It was unclear whether the bullet was a stray or from a sniper. The practice was cut short; memories were still fresh of a player with the Zawra Club who was killed by a stray bullet during practice earlier in the year.
The premier league’s season was supposed to begin Nov. 24, but was postponed twice because of security concerns. The league’s northern and southern divisions started play in November, but the season is still suspended for the teams based in Baghdad. As to when they will begin play, Ahmed Abbas, the general secretary of the Iraqi Football Association, said, “God only knows.”
The possibility that the season may evaporate has crippled the Police Club’s morale. “They’re training aimlessly,” Muhammad Shakir, the team’s coach, said during a recent practice. “They don’t know what they’re doing this for.”
The players were phlegmatically warming up by kicking around balls and stretching. “Before, we were coming to work with our hearts and minds,” the coach continued. “Now we are just coming with our minds.”
Hashim Ridah, 27, a stocky forward and one of the league’s most prolific scorers, said that if the season never began, he might seek a spot on the team in Karbala, his hometown. He said he could not afford to lose another year. “The time of the player is limited,” he said.
The fans, too, are distraught. “I may fall into a depression if there is no season,” said Mr. Sabi, the auto parts dealer. “It’s hard to imagine Iraq without a football season, and a season without the Police Club.” But Mr. Sabi and his buddies continue to turn out for most practices.
“My family has tried to prohibit me from coming here because I have diabetes, but I don’t care,” said Wasim Mohsin, 50, a rotund sheep vendor and one of the Police Club’s stalwart fans. “I watch the clock, and when it strikes two o’clock, I just leave the house and go to the club.” Once, he said, he even abandoned a sick daughter at a hospital to catch a game.
But there may be no more devoted a Police Club fan than Khalil Khalaf, 23, a deaf house painter. After a Police Club loss to a team from Najaf last season, Mr. Khalaf, a wiry blade of a man, angrily hurled himself over a retaining fence, sprinted across the playing field and tackled a Najaf player. Mr. Khalaf was pounced on by other Najaf players and a police officer, who beat him with a stick. His friends pulled him to safety.
To explain what the team meant to him, Mr. Khalaf pounded his chest with his fist, then repeatedly dragged an index finger from the corner of his eye down his cheek. Mr. Mohsin translated: “He says, ‘The team is in my heart, and sometimes I cry for them.’ ”
His message conveyed, Mr. Khalaf clenched his fists into thumbs-up signs and bounced up and down on the balls of his feet. He looked like the happiest man in Iraq.
Khalid al-Ansary and Abdul Razzaq al-Saiedi contributed reporting from Baghdad.
07 January 2007
AP Article: Teen dies trying to save cats from fire
A teenager is being hailed as a hero for saving his aunt from a fire at their house, but he lost his own life when he went back into the burning building to search for the family's two cats, authorities say.
Seth A. DeShane, 14, was pronounced dead late Thursday at the family home, which was destroyed in the fire.
"He really saved his aunt," said the Rev. Kris Dietzen, pastor at Cambridge Lutheran Church. "He woke his aunt up and told her the Christmas tree was on fire.
"He got her out of the house. She thought he (Seth) was behind her, but he went back inside."
Dietzen said that when Seth's aunt realized the boy had gone back inside, she tried to get back in herself, but by then the smoke was so thick and the fire so intense, she had to leave the house.
"She ran to a neighbor's farm, and they proceeded to call 911," Dietzen said.
The fire is being blamed on malfunctioning lights on the Christmas tree on the first floor, Chief Edward Bole of the Cambridge Fire Department said. The front half of the two-story home was fully engulfed when firefighters arrived.
Seth A. DeShane, 14, was pronounced dead late Thursday at the family home, which was destroyed in the fire.
"He really saved his aunt," said the Rev. Kris Dietzen, pastor at Cambridge Lutheran Church. "He woke his aunt up and told her the Christmas tree was on fire.
"He got her out of the house. She thought he (Seth) was behind her, but he went back inside."
Dietzen said that when Seth's aunt realized the boy had gone back inside, she tried to get back in herself, but by then the smoke was so thick and the fire so intense, she had to leave the house.
"She ran to a neighbor's farm, and they proceeded to call 911," Dietzen said.
The fire is being blamed on malfunctioning lights on the Christmas tree on the first floor, Chief Edward Bole of the Cambridge Fire Department said. The front half of the two-story home was fully engulfed when firefighters arrived.
Smoking is Bad for Your Health!
The latest news from our area, is that the "Interior Ministry" of Al-Qiada claimed "Islamic State of Iraq" is planning to impose a ban on selling and smoking cigarettes in our area, among the areas under their "control".
There have been stories that this "Interior Ministry" detained some smokers in areas north of Baghdad and tortured them for smoking!
Smoking is bad for your health!
In other news, a new dead body appeared nearby our house, some 200 meters (yds) away. I have suspicions that the nearby Islamic Party headquarters is a Sunni militia detention center.
There have been stories that this "Interior Ministry" detained some smokers in areas north of Baghdad and tortured them for smoking!
Smoking is bad for your health!
In other news, a new dead body appeared nearby our house, some 200 meters (yds) away. I have suspicions that the nearby Islamic Party headquarters is a Sunni militia detention center.
06 January 2007
The Execution and its Echo
Saddam was executed two days short from New Year's Day, and in the 1st day of Eid Al-Adha, one of two sacred Muslim Feasts.
Although the timing is not ideal for an execution, and as Judge Rizgar Mohammed Amin put it that "it is illegal to carry out executions on weekends or holidays"; but still the execution method itself was wrong and very wrong.
I would like to clarify that i think that the man deserves life imprisonment, if bnot hanging for the crimes that he and his regime had done throughout the years; however, he must have been executed by the State, not by a militia gang, that didn't obey the prusecutor's and judge's order to maintain order in the execution room and respect the man's last moments.
It may be true that his regime's executors didn't respect their victims' last moments, but this is "The New Iraq", right guys?! This is where all Iraqis are respected, right?!!
I just sit and think; if those militia guys infeltrated the most important room and moment in Iraqi justice history; how on Earth would the gov't dissolve the militias?! Maybe they would dissolve the gov't?!!!
The man was executed. The idea was (probably) right. The timing was wrong. The implementation was very wrong.
This wrong implementation made many people who actually disliked him, sympathize with him; because they know the crimes committed by these militias (similar to the crimes committed by Baathis, if not worse). So they thought that he had to eventually be executed alright, but not on this time and certainly not this way.
As for the Sunni area of Baghdad in which i live, and to which i returned for a 2-week visit, things have really changed there, where there is no gov't presence, and even US Army never drives in (although they're the only ones "allowed" by the "people" to go in, whereas access is denied for any Iraqi forces unaccompanied by US forces). Many portraits of Saddam, as well as grafitti calling him "The Hero Martyr" appear on the areas walls. There are even signs declaring support to the Al-Qaida claimed "Islamic State of Iraq"; in addition to a zillion curse signs and grafitti against the "Safavid" gov't. Security-wise, there was a dead body on our alley, tyhat stayed there for 5-6 days, before it was taken away probably by the US Army. People drove next to that body, while kids played soccer some 50 meters (yds) away!
To finish the topic of Saddam's execution i'd say that:
Although the timing is not ideal for an execution, and as Judge Rizgar Mohammed Amin put it that "it is illegal to carry out executions on weekends or holidays"; but still the execution method itself was wrong and very wrong.
I would like to clarify that i think that the man deserves life imprisonment, if bnot hanging for the crimes that he and his regime had done throughout the years; however, he must have been executed by the State, not by a militia gang, that didn't obey the prusecutor's and judge's order to maintain order in the execution room and respect the man's last moments.
It may be true that his regime's executors didn't respect their victims' last moments, but this is "The New Iraq", right guys?! This is where all Iraqis are respected, right?!!
I just sit and think; if those militia guys infeltrated the most important room and moment in Iraqi justice history; how on Earth would the gov't dissolve the militias?! Maybe they would dissolve the gov't?!!!
The man was executed. The idea was (probably) right. The timing was wrong. The implementation was very wrong.
This wrong implementation made many people who actually disliked him, sympathize with him; because they know the crimes committed by these militias (similar to the crimes committed by Baathis, if not worse). So they thought that he had to eventually be executed alright, but not on this time and certainly not this way.
As for the Sunni area of Baghdad in which i live, and to which i returned for a 2-week visit, things have really changed there, where there is no gov't presence, and even US Army never drives in (although they're the only ones "allowed" by the "people" to go in, whereas access is denied for any Iraqi forces unaccompanied by US forces). Many portraits of Saddam, as well as grafitti calling him "The Hero Martyr" appear on the areas walls. There are even signs declaring support to the Al-Qaida claimed "Islamic State of Iraq"; in addition to a zillion curse signs and grafitti against the "Safavid" gov't. Security-wise, there was a dead body on our alley, tyhat stayed there for 5-6 days, before it was taken away probably by the US Army. People drove next to that body, while kids played soccer some 50 meters (yds) away!
To finish the topic of Saddam's execution i'd say that:
- It is wrong to be happy if someone is dead, because all of us would die.
- I think that it was a just punishment, probably not for the Dujail crime, but for the other bigger crimes such as the Anfal, and the wars with Iran and Kuwait that destroyed the once-strong Iraq and its people.
- I disagree with the timing. I couple of days after the Eid wouldn't have meant the end of the world.
- I completely disagree with the implementation method, because it was carried out by militias, not by the State.
- I am pissed off that the State was absent and unable to control that small room; because if it didn't, then it would never control the bigger picture and the whole country; and that is what's happening: A country lost either to terrorists, or to militias.
That's all about that.
02 January 2007
The Ulcer Week :(
Hello,
I’ve been away from this blog for a long time now, after keeping it updated very well for sometime. The reason of this being away, since about 20 Dec. 2006 is not out of choice, but was forced.
I kept updating the blog until that date with daily images of Mount Pira-Magroon, or quoting some news sources, and so on; but since the above-mentioned date, so many things have changed.
I had a food poisoning on Wed. 20 Dec. 2006. I was treated for that in hospital then taken out.
On Friday, 22 Dec. 2006 evening, I made a very wrong choice by eating the most wrong food at the most wrong timing, thus it felt as hell went lose inside my stomach. I suffered for about 12 hours before going to hospital with a more serious condition than the one I had before.
I remained in the hospital for a week, and after that it turned out that I had some kind of ulcer in the intestines. I lived that week on intravenous fluids, only started to drink milk in the last day.
Perhaps, the only “benefit” I got from this crisis, is that it really showed me who is a real friend, who is 50-50, and who was acting as a friend for a long time. 'Friends' i beg to take me to hospital, and they say, "sorry, it's weekend!", 'friends' who are supposed to handle some of my stuff, and that stuff end up disappearing!! To them disgrace forever shall be!!
And there are FRIENDS who proved unamiginable strong stands in these dark hours, and were with me as if they were family and more. To them respect and honor forever shall be.
Unfortunately, i wasn't able to say "Happy Birthday, dear Blog", on 26 Dec. 2006 due to my stay in hospital.
I was released out of hospital on 30 Dec. 2006; a day that had its own nationwide and worldwide impacting event, which we will discuss in the next posting.
I’ve been away from this blog for a long time now, after keeping it updated very well for sometime. The reason of this being away, since about 20 Dec. 2006 is not out of choice, but was forced.
I kept updating the blog until that date with daily images of Mount Pira-Magroon, or quoting some news sources, and so on; but since the above-mentioned date, so many things have changed.
I had a food poisoning on Wed. 20 Dec. 2006. I was treated for that in hospital then taken out.
On Friday, 22 Dec. 2006 evening, I made a very wrong choice by eating the most wrong food at the most wrong timing, thus it felt as hell went lose inside my stomach. I suffered for about 12 hours before going to hospital with a more serious condition than the one I had before.
I remained in the hospital for a week, and after that it turned out that I had some kind of ulcer in the intestines. I lived that week on intravenous fluids, only started to drink milk in the last day.
Perhaps, the only “benefit” I got from this crisis, is that it really showed me who is a real friend, who is 50-50, and who was acting as a friend for a long time. 'Friends' i beg to take me to hospital, and they say, "sorry, it's weekend!", 'friends' who are supposed to handle some of my stuff, and that stuff end up disappearing!! To them disgrace forever shall be!!
And there are FRIENDS who proved unamiginable strong stands in these dark hours, and were with me as if they were family and more. To them respect and honor forever shall be.
Unfortunately, i wasn't able to say "Happy Birthday, dear Blog", on 26 Dec. 2006 due to my stay in hospital.
I was released out of hospital on 30 Dec. 2006; a day that had its own nationwide and worldwide impacting event, which we will discuss in the next posting.
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