[Centraal] Irak na de oorlog - deel 33

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16 killed in Iraq violence

BAGHDAD (AFP) - At least 16 people were killed in violence around Iraq, including five civilians killed by a blast outside the main courthouse in the northern oil city of Kiruk.
\Twelve civilians were also wounded in the bombing, most of them staff of the court.

In the capital, five people were killed and 20 wounded in a deadly combination of explosions targeting a police patrol and then rescue workers, an interior ministry official said Wednesday.

A car bomb exploded as a police patrol drove by the technology university in the central Rusafa district, wounding three policemen.

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Iraq gunmen kidnap 20 Sunni agency workers

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Gunmen on Wednesday kidnapped 20 employees of a government agency that cares for Sunni mosques and shrines nationwide, and the organization suspended its work until further notice, an official said.

Also Wednesday, at least 20 people were killed in a string of bombings and shootings, mostly in Baghdad, police said. They included a senior Interior Ministry official slain on his way to work, police said.

Sixteen other bodies were found in widely separate parts of the country — apparent victims of sectarian death squads.

The announcement by the Sunni Endowment, a major institution within the Sunni community, further escalated sectarian tensions.

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Iraqi civilian toll 6,000 for May, June

UNITED NATIONS - Nearly 6,000 civilians were slain across Iraq in May and June, a spike in deaths that coincided with rising sectarian attacks across the country, the United Nations said Tuesday.


The report from the U.N. Assistance Mission in Iraq describes a wave of lawlessness and crime, including assassinations, bombings, kidnappings, torture and intimidation.

Hundreds of teachers, judges, religious leaders and doctors have been targeted for death, and thousands of people have fled, the report said. Evidence suggests militants also have begun to target homosexuals, it said.

"While welcoming recent positive steps by the government to promote national reconciliation, the report raises alarm at the growing number of casualties among the civilian population killed or wounded during indiscriminate or targeted attacks by terrorists or insurgents," the U.N. said in a note accompanying the report.

In the last two days alone, more than 120 people were killed in violence in Iraq. In the worst attacks, fifty-three perished in a suicide bombing Tuesday in Kufa, and 50 were slain Monday in a market in Mahmoudiya.

According to the report, 2,669 civilians were killed in May and 3,149 were killed in June. Those numbers combined two counts: from the Ministry of Health, which records deaths reported by hospitals; and the Medico-Legal Institute in Baghdad, which tallies the unidentified bodies it receives.

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Japanese troops return home from Iraq


TOKYO (AFP) - The first batch of Japanese troops has returned home from
Iraq to emotional family reunions as the officially pacifist nation wrapped up its most significant military operation since World War II.

The Iraq deployment was the closest Japanese troops had come to harm's way in more than 60 years, when it renounced the use of force under a US-imposed constitution.

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In Iraq, Civil War All but Declared

BAGHDAD — Retaliatory massacres by gunmen and bombers linked to rival Muslim sects have left more than 130 people dead across Iraq over the last two days, the latest casualties of what some politicians now are calling an undeclared civil war.



At least 57 Iraqis were killed Tuesday and scores more injured when a suicide bomber lured a group of day laborers to his minivan with the promise of work before setting off explosives.

The bombing in Kufa rained blood, burnt debris and charred body parts on a small market across the street from the Muslim bin Aqil mosque, the main platform for radical Shiite cleric and militia leader Muqtada Sadr.

Since the beginning of May, attacks by Sunni Arab and Shiite Muslims have claimed the lives of more than 6,000 Iraqi civilians, according to a United Nations study and Iraqi police reports.

The Kufa blast, coming on the heels of mass killings and bombings attributed to Sadr's Al Mahdi militia and its Sunni Arab enemies, brought the battle to the Shiite cleric's doorstep, igniting fears of a fresh wave of reprisal killings.

"The message is clear, and the message confirms the sectarian differences," said Fadhil Sharih, a leader of the Sadr movement. [n]"It seems clear that it's been moving toward the direction of civil war."[/n]

U.S. and Iraqi government leaders have argued that the 150,000-strong foreign troop presence has kept the country from descending into full-scale civil war. But many Iraqi officials fear the threshold has been crossed.

"What is happening in Iraq is a disaster and a tragedy," Adnan Dulaimi, a Sunni Arab leader, said in an interview.

"It's bloodshed and killing of the innocents, killing the elderly and women and children. It's mass killings. It's nothing less than an undeclared civil war."

Many members of Iraq's political class spoke gravely of the massacres and bombings of the last few days, even as two U.S. Cabinet officials visiting Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone this week touted Iraq as a potential bonanza for private investors.

The Iraqi Islamic Party, the largest Sunni Arab political group, warned Tuesday that "Iraq is witnessing a grave escalation in violence," and it called on Iraqis "to return to their senses instead of slipping into the abyss."

The surge in violence has terrified residents of Baghdad and other mixed Sunni and Shiite areas. The Baghdad airport has been flooded with Iraqis of modest means seeking to escape even temporarily the country's upswing in sectarian slayings.

According to a U.N. study based on Health Ministry statistics, 2,669 Iraqi civilians were killed in May and 3,149 were killed in June. And this month, the violence appears to be accelerating, particularly in the Baghdad area that is the target of a sweeping security crackdown aimed at quelling the violence. U.S. and Iraqi troops launched the sweep, to great fanfare, after a visit in mid-June by President Bush.

"Things are getting worse," said Mahmoud Othman, a Kurdish lawmaker.

Even those who hesitate to call Iraq's sectarian violence a civil war have begun saying that defusing the situation will require the international mechanisms used to mediate previous ethnic, religious and political conflicts in Central America, the former Yugoslavia and Sri Lanka.

"I start to feel the need to say that there is a civil war," said Salim Abdullah Jabouri, a Sunni politician, "in order to borrow the tools and solutions of past civil wars to apply them here, and to call upon the international community to deal with Iraq's problems on this basis."

The latest cycle of violence began with the July 8 bombing of a small Shiite mosque in the Jihad neighborhood of southwest Baghdad.

Shiite militiamen took to the streets the next day, pulling Sunnis from their homes and cars and executing them on the spot.

A string of bombings targeting Shiite mosques and markets followed.

In the morgue, the bodies of Sunnis piled up, felled with single bullets to the head, apparently by Shiite death squads.

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Sistani calls for end to violence
Iraq's most prominent Shia cleric, Ali al-Sistani, has called for an end to sectarian "hatred and violence".

The grand ayatollah said the violence would only prolong the presence of US forces in the country.

His call came as the US military admitted the level of violence was little changed since a large security crackdown in Baghdad last month.

A number of people were killed in fresh violence in the capital and other parts of the country on Thursday.

'Blind violence'

Correspondents say the ayatollah's comments were his strongest public statements on the issue of sectarian violence in recent months.

We have not witnessed the reduction in violence one would have hoped for in a perfect world
US Maj Gen William Caldwell

"I call on all sons of Iraq... to be aware of the danger threatening their nation's future and stand shoulder to shoulder in confronting it by rejecting hatred and violence," he said.

Ayatollah Sistani said the bombing in February of a Shia shrine in Samarra had unleashed "blind violence".

Unless halted the violence would "harm the unity of the people and block their hopes of liberation and independence for a long time", he said.

The US military on Wednesday again urged the Sunni and Shia communities to root out militias and death squads.

But the US military admitted on Thursday the massive security clampdown that followed the killing of al-Qaeda leader in Iraq Abu Musab al-Zarqawi had achieved only a "slight downtick" in violence.

The security plan included up to 50,000 police and soldiers on the streets of Baghdad and more checkpoints and raids on violent areas.

US Maj Gen William Caldwell said: "We have not witnessed the reduction in violence one would have hoped for in a perfect world."

The US said attacks had risen from an average of 24 a day between 14 June and 13 July to about 34 a day over the past five days.

The threat of sectarian violence has caused an increasing internal refugee problem.

Iraq's migration ministry said more than 30,000 people had registered as refugees this month alone, bringing the total of people seeking help since the Samarra bombing to 162,000.

In other developments on Thursday:

* A US marine died as a result of hostile action in western Anbar province, the military said

* At least three car bombs exploded in Baghdad - one killing three people and injuring 10 in a market area in Shula, police say

* Iraq's National Security Adviser Mowaffaq al-Rubaie says Iraq will be in charge of security in eight of the country's 18 provinces by the end of the year.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/5199162.stm

Published: 2006/07/20 16:10:14 GMT

© BBC MMVI

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Op donderdag 20 juli 2006 20:23 schreef Dr-Islam het volgende:
Al-Sistani heeft al eerder eenzelfde oproep gedaan waaraan de sjiieten een lange tijd gehoor hebben gegeven. Maar het probleem was juist dat de soennieten vanaf het begin t/m heden non-stop sjiieten hebben afgeslacht en sinds een paar maanden doen de sjiieten wat terug. Als Israel het recht heeft om terreuracties te vergelden, dan hebben de sjiieten eenzelfde recht om zichzelf te verdedigen. De sjiieten worden als makke lammen afgeslacht op dit moment door Al-Qaida terroristen (soennieten), Saddam-loyalisten (soennieten) en sectarische psychopaten. Tot nu toe vergelden alleen leden van de Mahdi-leger (minderheid van de sjiieten) van Muqtada al-Sadr de aanvallen van de soennieten. Als er officieel sprake is van een burgeroorlog dan zullen de soennieten pas echt worden afgeslacht. Maar nu, nee, op dit moment houden de sjiieten zich nog redelijk goed in. Sinds tien dagen geleden de Mahdi-leger 40 soennieten heeft doodgeschoten (waaronder per ongeluk enkele sjiieten) zijn al ruim 200 sjiieten vermoord als "reactie". Drie keer raden welke incident het wereldnieuws haalde? Juist, de actie waarbij soennieten omkwamen. Als er sjiieten omkomen, dan is dat bijzaak. Want dat zijn we onderhand toch al wel gewend?

Blijkbaar moeten de sjiieten in Irak zich net zo terroristisch gedragen als een gedeelte van de sjiieten in Libanon (60%), Hezbollah, om het wereldnieuws te halen en om sympathie te krijgen.

Maar goed, blijf je ogen maar sluiten voor het leed van onschuldige mensen totdat de maat een keer goed vol is en je een zware reactie terug kan verwachten. En dan reageren de V.N en de internationale gemeenschap weer verbaasd..

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Op donderdag 20 juli 2006 20:32 schreef Slayage het volgende:

[..]

Ten eerst waarom zo'n username?

Als er nu eenmaal een all out burgeroorlog wordt ontkenetend zal niemand meer veilig en dan zal het gevaar dat het een regionale oorlag wordt alleen maar groter.

Tegen wie heb je het eigenlijk met je laaste alinea? Wie zou zijn ogen blijven sluiten voor het leed van onschuldige mensen?

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Op donderdag 20 juli 2006 21:08 schreef Autodidact het volgende:
Nu niks. Zowel Sji'ieten en soennieten plegen smerige aanslagen op burgers van de andere sekte.

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Op donderdag 20 juli 2006 21:19 schreef Autodidact het volgende:
Ik heb in dit topic van meerdere aanslagen van sji'ieten op soennieten bericht, dus van actief terrorisme is sprake. Kan ik een staatje vinden met de claim dat 5.500 van de 6.000 burgerslachtoffers shi'ieten zijn?

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Op donderdag 20 juli 2006 21:28 schreef Autodidact het volgende:
Ja, ik bericht eigenlijk over alles wat ik op nieuwssites en weblogs lees, dat kun je ook wel zien als je een beetje moeite zou doen. Ik vraag je nogmaals een staatje voor je claim dat 5500 van de 6000 burgerslachtofferse sji'ieten zijn, want ik weet helemaal niet wat de verhouding is. Show me the figures .

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Op donderdag 20 juli 2006 20:39 schreef Autodidact het volgende:
Laat me raden, hierboven twee sji'ieten?

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Op donderdag 20 juli 2006 20:58 schreef Dr-Islam het volgende:


1) Wat is er mis met mijn username?

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Op donderdag 20 juli 2006 21:25 schreef Dr-Islam het volgende:

[..]

En je hebt zeker niet bericht over de aanslagen van soennieten op sjiieten?

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Op donderdag 20 juli 2006 22:52 schreef Slayage het volgende:

[..]

Hoezo? Waaruit zou blijken dat ki Shia ben?

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Op donderdag 20 juli 2006 22:53 schreef Slayage het volgende:

[..]

Met zo'n username prfileer je jezelf als een cyber imam of moet ik dat anders zien?

Maak je maar geen zorgen. Ik ben geen imam
En al helemaal niet de opvolger van die smeerlap Van de Ven.

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Op donderdag 20 juli 2006 21:46 schreef Autodidact het volgende:
Ja, ik ben benieuwd.
In dit topic en de vorige staan bijna alle aanslagen van de laatste maand al vermeld.

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US troops kill five, including child, in Iraq raid



BAQUBA, Iraq (AFP) - US troops in Iraq have killed two suspected insurgents, two women and a child when they called in air support during a raid on an alleged hideout north of Baghdad, a military statement said.

A further 23 people, including several more women and children, were wounded in the assault, which the US said targeted "terrorists associated with senior al-Qaida in Iraq network members".

An Iraqi police officer had earlier said US troops killed six people in the raid northwest of Baquba, and an AFP photographer saw six bodies in the city's hospital following the operation.

"As the troops began to secure the area, they received small arms fire from the rooftop of one of the initial target buildings," the US statement said on Friday, adding that soldiers had shouted warnings before calling in air support.

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Curfew extended as Baghdad violence mounts

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Bombs blasted worshippers at two mosques in Iraq during Friday prayers and the authorities extended a daytime curfew on Baghdad in an apparent effort to prevent violence after one of the bloodiest weeks this year.

Bombs outside minority Sunni mosques in Khalis, north of the capital, and in the mainly Shi'ite east of Baghdad, each killed one man and wounded two, police said.

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“What do you call the situation in Iraq right now?” asked one person familiar with the situation. “The analysts know that it's a civil war, but there's a feeling at the top that [using that term] will complicate matters.” Negroponte, said another source regarding the potential impact of a pessimistic assessment, “doesn't want the president to have to deal with that.”

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Gunmen attack Iraqi Shiite areas; 18 die

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Gunmen attacked two Shiite neighborhoods Friday in the same town where Sunnis opened fire on a market earlier this week, prompting Iraqi forces to call for American air support in a clash that killed at least 18 people, the Iraqi army said.

The attacks on Shiite neighborhoods occurred in Mahmoudiya, where 50 people were killed this week in a raid by Sunni gunmen on a market. Most of the victims were believed to be Shiites.

The 18 killed Friday included 11 attackers, four Iraqi soldiers and three police officers, the Iraqi army statement said.

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On the eve of a high-profile meeting intended to demonstrate reconciliation among sectarian and ethnic factions before a White House visit by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, leaders admitted despair on the chances of averting all-out civil war.

"Iraq as a political project is finished," a top government official told Reuters -- anonymously because the coalition led by the Shi'ite Muslim prime minister remains committed in public to a U.S.-sponsored constitution preserving Iraq's unity.

"The parties have moved to Plan B," said the official, adding blocs representing Sunnis, Kurds and majority Shi'ites were looking at ways to divide power and resources and to solve the conundrum of Baghdad's mixed population of seven million.

"There is serious talk of Baghdad being divided into east and west," said the official, who has long been a proponent of the present government's objectives. "We are extremely worried."