Yazidi sect members are targeted by suicide bombers in Northern Iraq: 190 killed, 200 or more wounded

BAGHDAD – At least 190 people were killed and more than 200 were injured in four suicide bombings using fuel trucks as weapons.  A pre-Islamic Kurdish religious sect was targeted.   “Half the houses are completely collapsed because they were made from clay, said Capt. Mohammed Ahmad of the Iraqi army’s Third Division. He said that a market, a bus station and scores of families were obliterated.  Another Iraqi officer described the scene as apocalyptic: “It looks like a nuclear bomb hit the villages,” he said.

Most of the victims in Tuesday’s attacks were reportedly from the Yazidi sect, who number around 350,000 in the area around Mosul in Ninevah Province. There are additional small populations in neighbouring countries and in Europe, particularly Germany.

The faith combines elements of Zoroastrian, Manichaean, Jewish, Christian and Muslim religion and centres on an angel, believed by Yazidis to be God’s chief representative on Earth. Portrayed as a peacock, the angel is often misunderstood by Christians and Muslims who perceive Yazidis to be Satanists, which has long resulted in persecution.

The bombs tore through communities near Qahataniya, 75 miles west of Mosul, Iraq’s third-largest city, said Abdul-Rahman al-Shimiri, the top government official in the area, and Iraq Army Capt. Mohammed Ahmed.

Elsewhere, an American transport helicopter crashed near an air base in Anbar, killing five U.S. servicemembers. Four more U.S. soldiers were reported killed in separate attacks — three in an explosion near their vehicle Monday in the northwestern Ninevah province and another who died of wounds from combat in western Baghdad.

This was the deadliest attack since November 23, when 215 were killed in Sadr City.

The BBC says Yazidis were targeted by Sunni gunmen last April, in part because of a clan feud sparked by a Juliet and Romeo star-crossed romance between a Yazidi young woman and a Sunni man.

Juan Cole reports:  “This massive bombing is likely to be the work of the Sunni Arab guerrilla movement, which has been blocked from carrying out such destabilizing operations in Baghdad itself by Gen. Petraeus’s efforts. The point is to spread generalized fear. It may be that Salafi Jihadis are also especially targeting non-Sunni populations in the north, since that has the double value to them of also punishing lack of orthodoxy.”

Today also marks the sixth-month anniversary of Bush’s escalation, the “surge” that was supposed to give the Iraqis the breathing room to come together politically.

kos scribe chides “whack-a-mole” policy

Iraq:  The Whack-a-Mole Policy Continues

by BarbinMD

Tue Aug 14, 2007 at 04:30:03 AM PDT

The never-ending game of whack-a-mole in Iraq continues.  In the north:

About 16,000 U.S. and Iraqi troops began a new operation north of Baghdad targeting insurgents who have fled a crackdown in the restive city of Baqouba, the military said Tuesday.

While in the south:

The Shiite-on-Shiite struggle for Iraq’s economically important south has taken a violent turn.

And of course we shouldn’t forget that George Bush’s “surge” was touted as a plan to give the Iraqi government breathing room to solidify and to meet those formerly all-important benchmarks that the administration rarely mentions anymore.  And how is that going?

Al-Maliki appeared to have cleared the way, with a last-minute push from U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker, for a crisis council that seeks to save his crumbling government, but the timing of the meeting was uncertain.

Al-Maliki’s government — a shaky coalition of Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds — has been gutted by boycotts and defections. A full-scale disintegration could touch off power grabs on all sides and seriously complicate U.S.-led efforts to stabilize Iraq.

And in other news, four U.S. soldiers and fourteen more Iraqi civilians were killed.

americans deny killing civilian father and child on roof in Sadr city

Four Killed in Raid in Sadr City

“The Americans raided our house from the roof. They were jumping from one roof to another. They jumped on to our roof and killed my brother and my 5-year-old niece, Zahra Hassan,” Ali Khamis Eidan, a policeman, told Reuters.

U.S. military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Christopher Garver said: “Our troops at the site did not inflict any casualties on civilians. The only people they fired at were people who fired at them.” Family members, including the girl’s small brother, wept at the scene. On the roof blood had stained a mattress, where relatives said the girl had been killed. Many Iraqis sleep on their roofs in the summer to stay cool. An official at Sadr City’s Imam Ali hospital, Qasim Abdul Zahara, said the hospital’s morgue had received three dead bodies, including a 5-year-old girl and her father, both killed by gun wounds to the head.

blogger updates: Afghanistan recap et. al.

RCP has a lengthy Foreign Affairs essay/conversation on the role of the generals in the Iraq debacle.  “Salute and Disobey.”

This fantastic NYT recap of the War in Afghanistan to date from Sunday New York Times is a must-read. It does not paint a pretty picture.

  Iraq Security Developments: Two Sunni Tribal Leaders Assassinated; U.S. Troops Arrest Two Sadrist Leaders: Iraqis reported killed: 55. Iraqis reported wounded: 23.  U.S. troops reported killed: 4. U.S. troops reported wounded: 1.

Bomber Strikes Bridge in Iraq; 10 Dead BAGHDAD – A suicide truck bomber struck a strategic bridge outside Baghdad on Tuesday, sending cars plunging into the river and killing at least 10 people in the second attack on the span in three months, police said. The attack came as 16,000 U.S. and Iraqi troops began a new operation north of the Iraqi capital targeting insurgents who have fled a crackdown in the restive city of Baqouba, the military said Tuesday.

Suicide: 3% of US Deaths in Iraq: 118 Troops Took Own Lives in Iraq, an unknown number after they return home.  About 3% of US deaths in Iraq have resulted from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, and suicide can create casualties of war months after troops have left the field of battle. The Pentagon’s official tally counts 118 troops who have taken their own lives in Iraq, but does not maintain statistics (at least publicly) on the number who choose death even after they have survived the war zone and returned home.

Iraq needs new government, says former PM Allawi: WASHINGTON (AFP) – Iraqi former prime minister Iyad Allawi on Monday blasted the current government for being ill-equipped to halt the slide toward all-out chaos, and urged a nonsectarian replacement of the regime. Allawi, whose mixed Sunni-Shiite Iraqi National List this month joined a boycott of the government led by Shiite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, told US National Public Radio that the present government is fueling the problems ravaging the country.

Miracle Baby In Iraq:  Her name is Fatima and the nurses caring for her guess she’s about nine months old. No one knows for sure because both her parents are dead. In fact, it’s a small miracle that Fatima herself isn’t dead as well.

Armor-Piercing Slug Killed Governor, Top Cop:  Iraqi mourners carry the coffin of Khalil Jalil Hamza, the governor of the neighbouring province of Qadisiya, and police chief Major General Khalid Hassan during their joint funeral procession in Najaf, Aug. 12. The southern Iraqi city of Diwaniya is on tenterhooks as major factions in the predominantly Shi’a capital of Qadisiya province brace for reaction or reprisals to this weekend’s assassination of the provincial governor and the provincial chief of police in a roadside bombing attack.

U.N. to talk to Iraqi armed groups: The United Nations intends to include all parties and factions in the talks it is going to hold to bring about national reconciliation in the country, Iraq U.N. spokesman said.

Basra falls to unruly militias as British troops’ role recedes: The most powerful authority in Basra is not the British garrison where more than 5,000 British troops have withdrawn behind barbed wire and cement blocks. It is the Iranian consulate where major decisions regarding the city are taken.

Hashimi wants Iranian ambassador summoned to protest Ahmadinejad’s statements: Iraqi Vice President Tareq al-Hashimi on Tuesday urged Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zibari to summon Iranian ambassador Hassan Kazemi Qomi to protest President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s ongoing interference in Iraq’s internal affairs, due to recent statements of opposition against the Iraqi government.

the nightmare of occupation and family values

By Tina Susman, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
August 12, 2007

Sectarian ‘Cleansing’ In Baghdad

BAGHDAD — The expressway skirting the Amil neighborhood in Baghdad is only a couple of miles from Mahmoud Mekki’s home, but it might as well be a hundred.

To reach it, Mekki must pass checkpoints guarded by Iraqi police commandos who he says are really Shiite Muslim militiamen trying to drive Sunni Muslims out of Amil.

So Mekki, a Sunni, remains holed up in his home, dependent on sympathetic Shiite neighbors to pick up his groceries and run other errands.

Since May, Iraqi police say, more than 160 bodies have been found in Amil and Bayaa — men without identification, usually shot and bearing signs of torture, hallmarks of sectarian death squads.

On many days, the number of corpses found in the two neighborhoods account for half of those picked up across the capital. Before the war, Amil and Bayaa were middle-class neighborhoods where Sunnis and Shiites lived easily among one another. Now, not only are they mainly Shiite, but they have become prime territory for Shiite militias looking to expand into the surrounding Sunni-dominated areas.

Representatives of Al Mahdi, the militia loyal to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada Sadr, blame the violence on Sunni extremists linked to the group Al Qaeda in Iraq. Sunni leaders blame Al Mahdi men. Residents say that Iraqi security forces are complicit in the violence, and that there aren’t enough U.S. forces to stop it. U.S. and Iraqi military officials say the problem isn’t as bad as they say.

At a news conference June 20, Iraqi Brig. Gen. Qassim Musawi, a spokesman for the Baghdad security plan, declared the situation in both neighborhoods “under control.” U.S. Army Maj. Kirk Luedeke, a spokesman for the American unit deployed in the areas, said the violence was “not a cause for alarm.” He said the number of bodies being found had dropped considerably since January.

“We’ve had extremist actors in the area. We’re aware of that. When we get word of their activities we investigate and we take action,” he said. “All we can continue to do is work closely with our Iraqi security force partners.”

Residents say they enjoyed a period of relative calm at the start of the Baghdad security crackdown in mid-February, when Iraqi army soldiers were deployed in Amil and Bayaa.

It was short-lived.

In April, a Sunni mosque in Bayaa was heavily damaged by a bomb. Since then, scores of people have died in car bombings in Amil and Bayaa. Amid the carnage have been assassinations and abductions.

Talal, a Sunni, fled Amil after two men were fatally shot at a gas station near his home, and a doctor, a pharmacist and a baker he knew were killed. All were Sunnis.

His wife, a Shiite, and 10-year-old son visited their old house frequently, but stopped two months ago after two women — a Sunni and a Shiite — were killed for allegedly helping Sunnis. They were accused of being spies, said Talal, who did not want his full name used. He said his son later saw the veil of one of the slain women burning in the street.

“We don’t know who they are,” Talal said when asked about the killers. “They just come in and kill.”

Abu Zahara, a teacher in Bayaa, said Al Mahdi militiamen took to the streets after the May bombings, which police and residents blamed on Sunni Arab militants. After that, long-simmering sectarian tensions began to soar.  Abu Zahara, a Shiite, said he was passing a Sunni mosque one day and heard calls over the loudspeaker for attacks on Shiites. Bombs began appearing outside Shiites’ homes, and Sunnis received warnings to leave.  “These gunmen think they have a cause,” said a Shiite man, Abu Sara, referring to Al Mahdi and to the police, who he said overlook militia activities. “They are protecting Shiites.”

Abu Sara, who runs a business in Amil, said the Iraqi soldiers had been unable to stop attacks on Sunnis and the car bombings blamed on Sunni extremists because they spent most of their time running checkpoints at busy intersections.An official at the local Sadr office agreed. “The Iraqi army is very weak in facing the terrorists. They are only setting up checkpoints on the main roads and can’t get inside the dangerous neighborhoods,” said the official, who did not want his name used for fear of being targeted for his affiliation with the Shiite cleric. He denied that Al Mahdi was trying to drive out Sunnis and said the group offered social assistance to residents of both sects.  “You can’t call the people militias,” he said. “They are only civilians defending themselves from Al Qaeda.”

Some Shiites agree, and their view of the situation underscores the dilemma most Iraqis face as they weigh their craving for security against their distaste for militias. “I think the militia guys came because they’re tired of always being the ones attacked. I think they said, ‘OK, we can’t let these explosions take place and kill our families,’ ” said a Shiite woman from Amil. She said she dislikes the militia presence but that the Sunnis started the problem. “I don’t think they initiated this,” she said of the Shiite militias, who residents say have checkpoints at every neighborhood entrance.

Abu Sara agreed that things had quieted down, for Shiites at least, since the militias had arrived, but at a cost. Now, he said, militiamen openly dump bodies in ditches and cover them with rubble, and hand out the victims’ cars, guns and other possessions to young recruits. People who witness crimes are afraid to speak up. This fear, mixed with bitterness over bombings, is turning everyone into a silent co-conspirator, Abu Zahara said.

“The problem is that even good Sunnis don’t condemn the bad Sunnis, so sometimes now the Shiites might do bad things to innocent Sunnis, but good Shiites stay quiet,” he said.

The few Sunnis remaining are clustered in a section called Janabat, where Mekki lives. It is a working-class area of just a few blocks. For now, it is his world.  Each night, he and several neighbors get together to pass the time. They say they have no electricity, no running water, and no means to buy fuel for their generators. They sleep on their roofs to stay cool, and they use a wood fire to bake bread.

One of them, Ali Hamoudi, said militiamen take shots at them if they venture too far from their homes. Al Mahdi fighters chant pro-Sadr slogans to irritate the Sunnis, he said. When his brother tried to pass a checkpoint, he was stopped. “They beat him,” Hamoudi said. Asked why he had not left, Mekki said, “I have lived here all my life. Would it be easy for you to leave your house, your neighborhood?”

tina.susman@latimes.com,  Times staff writers Saif Hameed, Mohammed Rasheed and Raheem Salman contributed to this report.

How we are taking care of the widows….

Photo: Bayan Mahmoud grieves for her husband, Mahmoud Saber, a 24-year-old police officer killed outside Kirkuk, 290 kilometers (180 miles) north of Baghdad, Iraq on Sunday, Aug. 12, 2007. Gunmen ambushed a police patrol southwest of the northern city of Kirkuk, killing three officers and wounding another, police Brig. Gen. Sarhat Qadir said. (AP Photo/ Emad Matti)

REPORTS – LIFE IN IRAQ

In Iraq, sex is traded for survival

When Rana Jalil, 38, lost her husband in an explosion in Baghdad last year, she could never have imagined becoming a prostitute in order to feed her children. A mother of four, Jalil sought out employment, but job opportunities for women had decreased since the US invasion. She begged shop owners, office workers and companies to hire her but was treated with what she calls chauvinistic discrimination. Within weeks of her husband’s death, a doctor diagnosed her children with malnutrition. Fighting tears, she recalled the desperation which led her to the oldest profession: “In the beginning these were the worst days in my life. My husband was the first man I met and slept with, but I didn’t have another option … my children were starving.” She left the house in a daze, she recalled, and walked to the nearest market to find someone who would pay her for sex.

…. Nuha Salim, the spokesperson for OWFI, told Al Jazeera: “Widows are one of our priorities but their situation is worsening and we are feeling ineffective to cope with this significant problem. Hundreds of women are searching for an easy way to support their loved ones as employers refuse to hire them for fear of extremists’ reprisals.” She said the NGO has documented the disappearance of some 4000 women, 20 per cent of whom are under 18, since the March 2003 invasion. OWFI believes most of the missing women were kidnapped and sold into prostitution outside Iraq. Although few reliable statistics are available on the total number of widows in Iraq, the ministry of women’s affairs says that there are at least 350,000 in Baghdad alone, with more than eight million throughout the country.