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| 11/23 |
| 2006/3/27-29 [Politics/Foreign/MiddleEast/Iraq] UID:42470 Activity:low |
3/27 http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060327/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq U.S. and Iraqi army units (headed by a Sunni) kill ~ 20 Shiite insurgents in or just outside a Shiite mosque in Baghdad. Baghdad governor cuts military/political ties to U.S., Baghdad council suspends cooperation with U.S. on reconstruction projects. Iraq president calls for investigation. \_ so, should mosques be a place of sanctuary, or a safe base of operations from which to launch insurgent attacks with impunity? \_ they should be a place of sancturary, unless they are used as a base of operation for insurgents \_ which sure looks like what was going on from the quoted news story. And yet, protest from Baghdad governor. \_ "And yet, protest from <political official doing what's popular with his constituency>" \_ what do Shiite insurgents do? I know Sunni insurgents attack Americans, Iraqi police, and blow up Shiite civvies. \_ Probably they attack Americans, Iraqi police, and blow up Sunni civvies. \_ Aren't nearly all Iraqi police Shiites? Can you give me a URL of Sunni civvies getting blown up as an intentional target by Shiites? When's the last time Shiites attacked Americans? http://www.islamonline.org/English/News/2006-03/27/article05.shtml _/ \_ http://csua.org/u/fcn (islamonline.org) \_ So which is it? \_ Not quite. They attack Americans, and with the acquiescence of the Iraqi Police, execute Sunni civilians. \_ "Police and representatives of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who holds great sway among poor Shiites in eastern Baghdad, said all those killed were in the complex for evening prayers and none was a gunmen." So believe al-Sadr now? \_ Bush vs Al-Sadr. Who has more credibilty? \_ FYI, my take on this: Iraqi army (headed by a Sunni) told U.S. Army that a Sunni dentist was taken hostage by al-Sadr Shiite militia 12 hours ago. Americans, wanting to send a message to Shiite militia (who have been on a death squad spree on Sunnis since Feb 22), went on a joint op with Iraqi army. Iraqi army entered the mosque and shot everyone up, including the 80-year-old imam; Americans stayed on the outside and shot up all the Shiite militia running out. -op \_ Mission Accomplished! |
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| news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060327/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq Bombing Kills 40 By STEVEN R HURST, Associated Press Writer 35 minutes ago BAGHDAD, Iraq - Shiite politicians raged at the United States and halted negotiations on a new government Monday after a military assault killed at least 16 people in what Iraqis claim was a mosque. Fresh violence erupted in the north, with 40 killed in a suicide bombing. The firestorm of recrimination over Sunday's raid in northeast Baghdad will likely make it harder for Shiite politicians to keep a lid on their more angry followers as sectarian violence boils over, with at least 151 dead over the two-day period. A unity government involving Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds is a benchmark for American hopes of starting to withdraw troops this summer. There were numerous conflicting statements from Iraqis and the Americans about the raid. Iraqi police, Shiite militia officials and major politicians have all said the structure attacked was the al-Mustafa mosque. But the US military disputed this, saying no mosques were entered and that the raid targeted a building used by "insurgents responsible for kidnapping and execution activities." JD Thurman, commander of the 4th Infantry Division, which is in control of Baghdad, said 25 US forces were in a backup role to 50 Iraqi Special Operations troops. The mission, the generals said, was developed by the Iraqis on their intelligence that an Iraqi dental technician, kidnapped 12 hours earlier because he could not come up with $20,000, was being held in what they called an office complex. "It's important to remember we had an Iraqi unit with us, an Iraqi unit of 50 folks and they told us point blank that this was not a mosque," Chiarelli said. Mustafa mosque is located six blocks north on our maps of this location." Associated Press reporters who visited the scene of the raid identified it as a neighborhood Shiite mosque complex. Television footage taken Monday showed crumbling walls and disarray in a compound used as a gathering place for prayer. It was filled with religious posters and strung with banners denouncing the attack. In an earlier statement, the military said the building had been under US observation for some time. The statement said gunmen opened fire as Iraqi special operations troops closed in. It said the troops then killed 16 insurgents and wounded three "during a house-to-house search," detained 18 men, found a significant weapons cache and freed the hostage. "In our observation of the place and the activities that were going on, it's difficult for us to consider this a place of prayer," said Lt. For their part, Iraqi police said gunmen fired on the joint US-Iraqi patrol from a position in the neighborhood but not from the mosque. Police and representatives of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who holds great sway among poor Shiites in eastern Baghdad, said all those killed were in the complex for evening prayers and none was a gunman. Police put the death toll at 17 -- seven members of al-Sadr's militia, seven civilians and three Shiite political activists. Video from Sunday night showed male bodies with gunshot wounds on the floor of what was said by the cameraman to be the imam's living quarters, attached to mosque itself. Saddam Hussein 's government, consists of a political party office, the mosque and quarters for the imam. The video also showed 556 mm shell casings scattered on the floor. US forces use that caliber ammunition and have provided it to Iraqi special operations troops. But Chiarelli said someone had gone into the scene of the raid to make it look as though there had been an assault without cause. "After the fact someone went in and made the scene look different than it was," Chiarelli said. Neither general would say who might have carried out such a charade. Nor would they say what they had learned about the men detained in the operation, citing intelligence strictures. Interior Minister Bayan Jabr angrily rejected the US account and demanded a "clear explanation." "Entering the Mustafa Shiite mosque and killing worshippers was unjustified and a horrible violation from my point of view," Jabr said on the Al-Arabiya TV network. "Innocent people inside the mosque offering prayer at sunset were killed." President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, said he called US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad and that they decided to form an Iraqi-US committee to investigate. "I will personally supervise, and we will learn who was responsible. Those who are behind this attack must be brought to the justice and punished," Talabani said. The United Iraqi Alliance, the largest Shiite bloc in parliament, canceled Monday's session of negotiations to form a new government because of the raid, said lawmaker Jawad al-Maliki. "We suspended today's meetings to discuss the formation of the government because of what happened at the al-Moustafa mosque," al-Maliki said, adding that the alliance was expected to decide Tuesday when to resume the talks. The Baghdad governor said he cut ties with US forces and diplomats. And all 37 members of the Baghdad provincial council suspended cooperation with the United States in reconstruction projects planned for the remainder of the year, as well as political and security coordination, said council chairman Moeen al-Khadimi. He said the local government would try to rely instead on the budget allocated to it by the Finance Ministry and on the money that comes from donor countries. The US statement describing the kidnappers and killers they were targeting as "insurgents" was unusual because the operation took place at a Shiite facility. The insurgents who have been carrying out nearly daily bombings are Sunnis, while those believed responsible for execution-style slayings are primarily Shiite militias or death squads working inside the Shiite-dominated Interior Ministry, which runs the police. "They were terrorists, insurgents, you can call them what you will." Monday's major suicide bombing took place at an Iraqi army recruiting office near the gate of a US-Iraq military base about 20 miles east of Tal Afar, an ancient city not far from the Syrian border. The bomber, wearing an explosives vest, struck shortly after noon, killing at least 40 Iraqis and wounding 30 others, the Iraqi Defense Ministry said. In yet one more gruesome discovery -- a nearly daily occurrence since the Feb. The country's senior Shiite politician, Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, told CNN that the shrine bombing "was similar to what happened on 9/11 in the US" He said it's now much more difficult to control the streets, and that Shiites had earlier exercised restraint in the wake of attacks by Sunni insurgents. "For three years we've been burying the slaughtering, killing, explosions, attacking of our scholars, our mosques, our facilities, our pilgrims, our barbers, our bakers, our innocents," al-Hakim said. "We are always speaking to people to restrain themselves and calm down." Iraqi men survey the site of a US backed raid on a Shiite neighborhood in Baghdad Monday March 27, 2006 in Baghdad. At least 16 Iraqis were killed in a US backed raid in a Shiite neighborhood of the capital on Sunday evening. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. |
| www.islamonline.org/English/News/2006-03/27/article05.shtml Madaen people are fed up with police aggressive tactics. net) - Arbitrary arrests and pre-dawn house-to-house raids have cast a pall over the picturesque Iraqi town of Al-Madaen, southeast of Baghdad, with locals fearing that the aggressive tactics were a prelude for "another Fallujah." Scores of people have been detained by Iraqi security forces, backed by US troops, during crackdown operations in the city since the February bombing of the Shiite shrine of Imam Ali Al-Hadi in Samarra. Up to 450 civilians, mostly Sunnis, were killed and 81 Sunni mosques targeted, including eight completely destroyed, in reprisal attacks triggered by the bombing of the celebrated Shiite shrine. The continued crackdowns and arrests have also turned Al-Maden into a ghost city, with shops and markets forced to close down. Fallujah, which used to be a resistance hub, was the scene of one of the bloodiest US raids since the start of the US-led invasion-turned-occupation in March 2003. The November 2004 operation left at least 700 people killed, including children and women, and thousands injured. Residents furthers said threats by self-styled and sometimes government-sanctioned Shiite militias have added insult to injury. They accused the militias of sending many locals into panicky flight on the heels of the Samarra bombing, which was strongly condemned by Sunni leaders. US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said on Saturday, March 25, that militias, many with strong ties to powerful Shiite leaders and well entrenched in security and police forces, are killing more Iraqis than "terrorists," urging Iraqi leaders to rein them in. An attack on a police station, which left four police officers killed, also fueled tension in the city. Gunmen blasted the police station with grenade and mortar fire on Wednesday, March 22. Following the assault, the Iraqi police randomly detained about 70 people. Last April, the town of Al-Madaen came under a joint US-Iraqi attack on claims of rescuing Shiites reportedly taken hostage by militants holing up in the town. A 1,500-strong Iraqi force backed by US troops moved into the town without resistance, finding its streets deserted, shops shuttered and most of its 7,000 residents hiding inside their homes. No hostages had been found and the hostage crisis turned out to be a hoax. Mosque Standoff Tension has also escalated after Shiite leader Muqtada Al-Sadr's Mahdi Army controlled the "Salman Al-Farisi" mosque, run by the Sunni Wakfs Authority. Seeking the return of the prayer place, a cohort of dignitaries met with Adnan al-Dualism, leader of the National Concord Front, to seek his intervention to resolve the standoff. Sunni calls on the Shiite militiamen to leave the mosque have fallen on deaf ears. Located approximately 20 miles southeast of the city of Baghdad, Al-Maden was the last bastion falling to the Muslim army under Caliph Umar Ibn Al-Khattab and Commander Sa'ad Ibn Abi-Waqqas in the famous 637 Al-Qadisya Battle. The battle led to the Islamic conquest of Persia, which was then ruled by the Magus. The breathtaking Taq-i Kasra is now all that remains of a magnificent palace that was, for seven centuries, the main seat for the successive dynasties of the Achaemenids, Parthians and Sasanians. The massive barrel vault covered an area 80ft wide by 160 ft long. Al-Maden is also the burial ground for several companions of Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), chiefly Al-Farisi. |
| csua.org/u/fcn -> www.islamonline.org/English/News/2006-03/27/article05.shtml Madaen people are fed up with police aggressive tactics. net) - Arbitrary arrests and pre-dawn house-to-house raids have cast a pall over the picturesque Iraqi town of Al-Madaen, southeast of Baghdad, with locals fearing that the aggressive tactics were a prelude for "another Fallujah." Scores of people have been detained by Iraqi security forces, backed by US troops, during crackdown operations in the city since the February bombing of the Shiite shrine of Imam Ali Al-Hadi in Samarra. Up to 450 civilians, mostly Sunnis, were killed and 81 Sunni mosques targeted, including eight completely destroyed, in reprisal attacks triggered by the bombing of the celebrated Shiite shrine. The continued crackdowns and arrests have also turned Al-Maden into a ghost city, with shops and markets forced to close down. Fallujah, which used to be a resistance hub, was the scene of one of the bloodiest US raids since the start of the US-led invasion-turned-occupation in March 2003. The November 2004 operation left at least 700 people killed, including children and women, and thousands injured. Residents furthers said threats by self-styled and sometimes government-sanctioned Shiite militias have added insult to injury. They accused the militias of sending many locals into panicky flight on the heels of the Samarra bombing, which was strongly condemned by Sunni leaders. US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said on Saturday, March 25, that militias, many with strong ties to powerful Shiite leaders and well entrenched in security and police forces, are killing more Iraqis than "terrorists," urging Iraqi leaders to rein them in. An attack on a police station, which left four police officers killed, also fueled tension in the city. Gunmen blasted the police station with grenade and mortar fire on Wednesday, March 22. Following the assault, the Iraqi police randomly detained about 70 people. Last April, the town of Al-Madaen came under a joint US-Iraqi attack on claims of rescuing Shiites reportedly taken hostage by militants holing up in the town. A 1,500-strong Iraqi force backed by US troops moved into the town without resistance, finding its streets deserted, shops shuttered and most of its 7,000 residents hiding inside their homes. No hostages had been found and the hostage crisis turned out to be a hoax. Mosque Standoff Tension has also escalated after Shiite leader Muqtada Al-Sadr's Mahdi Army controlled the "Salman Al-Farisi" mosque, run by the Sunni Wakfs Authority. Seeking the return of the prayer place, a cohort of dignitaries met with Adnan al-Dualism, leader of the National Concord Front, to seek his intervention to resolve the standoff. Sunni calls on the Shiite militiamen to leave the mosque have fallen on deaf ears. Located approximately 20 miles southeast of the city of Baghdad, Al-Maden was the last bastion falling to the Muslim army under Caliph Umar Ibn Al-Khattab and Commander Sa'ad Ibn Abi-Waqqas in the famous 637 Al-Qadisya Battle. The battle led to the Islamic conquest of Persia, which was then ruled by the Magus. The breathtaking Taq-i Kasra is now all that remains of a magnificent palace that was, for seven centuries, the main seat for the successive dynasties of the Achaemenids, Parthians and Sasanians. The massive barrel vault covered an area 80ft wide by 160 ft long. Al-Maden is also the burial ground for several companions of Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), chiefly Al-Farisi. |