THE US, THE UN AND THE IRAQIS THEMSELVES, V. 7.0

25 Killed as Insurgents Strike in Wide Area of Iraq
By EDWARD WONG

Published: February 24, 2005

TIKRIT, Iraq, Feb. 24 - Insurgents unleashed a wave of attacks across central and northern Iraq today, killing at least 25 people and injuring scores in one of the deadliest days of violence since the country held free elections less than a month ago.

In the most lethal assault, a suicide bomber detonated a car packed with explosives at police headquarters here, in Saddam Hussein's hometown, killing at least 10 Iraqis and wounding at least 35, American military officials said. The powerful blast could be heard across the city in the morning and set nearby cars ablaze.

The bomber was apparently wearing a police uniform, underscoring the fact that insurgents have infiltrated Iraqi security forces and have access to equipment from the Iraqi police and military.

The explosion took place on the same day that senior Iraqi security officials and American commanders, including the top American general in Iraq, attended a conference in Tikrit, but it was unclear whether the attack was timed to coincide with the meeting.

Elsewhere, two American soldiers were killed in separate incidents by roadside bombs, the deadliest weapon employed by insurgents against the American military.

Most of the attacks today unfolded in the so-called Sunni triangle, where opposition to the American presence and the Iraqi government run high. The fiery violence indicated that that the insurgency, led by the former governing Sunni Arabs, has not quieted down despite the elections. In fact, the vote on Jan. 30 may have left the Sunni Arabs feeling more disenfranchised than ever, since Sunni voters and politicians largely boycotted the electoral process, allowing the long-oppressed Shiites and Kurds to seize an overwhelming majority of seats in the constitutional assembly.

As the victorious politicians jockey to form a new government, they will have to confront one of the toughest problems plaguing Iraq since the fall of Mr. Hussein: How to bring recalcitrant Sunni Arabs into the political process and persuade them to lay down their arms and accept their minority status in the new society. Shiite and Kurdish leaders have said they intend to give senior positions in the government to Sunni Arabs to ensure broad representation.

The Sunni Arabs, who ruled the country for decades until the toppling of Mr. Hussein, make up a fifth of the population, while the Kurds account for another fifth and the Shiite Arabs at least 60 percent. If the Shiites and Kurds fail to reach a peaceful accord with the Sunni Arabs, then the country could very well slide toward a large scale civil war.

One of the attacks today raised the specter of sectarian civil violence: In the insurgent stronghold of Iskandariyah, south of the capital, a suicide car bomber blew himself up in front of the office of a prominent Shiite party, killing at least five people, including three police officers and a child who was strolling along the road at the time, The Associated Press reported, citing government officials. The Shiite party, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, won a large share of seats in the 275-member constitutional assembly and is expected to be a powerful force in the new government.

The party is a member of a broad Shiite political alliance assembled by Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the most revered Shiite cleric in Iraq. As a whole, the alliance won a slim majority of assembly seats and on Tuesday named Ibrahim al-Jaafari, leader of the Dawa Islamic Party, as its candidate for prime minister. Mr. Jaafari is popular among many Shiite voters, but his conservative Islamic values could alienate more secular political groups with whom the Shiite politicians need to ally to form a government.

Prime Minister Ayad Allawi has already announced that he is pulling together a diverse coalition of secular-learning parties, including possibly the Kurds, who hold more than a quarter of the assembly seats, to oppose the religious Shiites.

Sunni Arab politicians hold only a tiny percentage of assembly seats, and one danger in the continuing negotiations is that the Sunnis could get ignored since they have little political leverage. That would likely fuel the insurgency, which has shown no signs of abating.

Other attacks today included two roadside bomb explosions in the embattled Sunni city of Qaim, near the Syrian border, killing four Iraqi National Guardsmen, The Associated Press reported. Another roadside bomb in the oil-rich northern city of Kirkuk killed at least two policemen and injured three. In Baghdad, gunmen opened fire inside a bakery, killing two people and injuring a third.

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ican711nm wrote:

revel wrote:
It is not as improbable as you imagine that the Iraqi's will chose to govern themselves after the Iranians and that sometime down the road we would be unhappy about it.

We disagree. I think it highly improbable that the Iraqi people will choose to design a tyranical governent to rule over them. The Iranian people did not design/choose their present tyrannical government that murders its own civilians, and that permits murderers of civilians in other countries to be located in Iran.

Ican I was speaking of a conservative enforced Islamic state type of government.

Right now it is all up in the air because allawi is trying to muck things up and he might turn things around. I don't think the main Shiite's will be happy if he does.

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C.I. didn't post a link but Edward Wong is one of those typical NY Times journalists who bends over backwards to make the most amazing success look like a dismal failure. He may actually be one of the best the NY Times has and the NY Times itself is a daily instruction manual in how to ignore any good news and be as depressed as possible. Wong's specialty in the last couple of years anyway is to write on Middle East events.

Is it any wonder that some still view the events in Iraq as a dismal failure and can project nothing but doom and gloom as the outcome?

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"He knew who I was, at that time, because I had a reputation as a writer. I knew he was part of the Bush dynasty. But he was nothing, he offered nothing, and he promised nothing. He had no humor. He was insignificant in every way and consequently I didn't pay much attention to him. But when he passed out in my bathtub, then I noticed him. I'd been in another room, talking to the bright people. I had to have him taken away." --Hunter S. Thompson, on meeting George W. Bush at Thompson's Super Bowl party in Houston in 1974

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Foxfyre, I didn't post the article based on the writer. I just thought it was relavant to share current news about what is happening in Iraq. If he is responsible for reporting erroneous information, that's another matter, but the information in this article seems straight-forward. I have not expressed an opinion on the content of this article; readers can do that for themselves.

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Quote:

TIKRIT, Iraq, Feb. 24 - Insurgents unleashed a wave of attacks across central and northern Iraq today, killing at least 25 people and injuring scores in one of the deadliest days of violence since the country held free elections less than a month ago.

Yeah, boy, that Ed Wong really knows how to make 25 deaths and scores injured sound terrible!

We need to get some more 'neutral' writers in here ASAP in order to avoid making things look bad in Iraq!

Cycloptichorn

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CI writes

Quote:

Foxfyre, I didn't post the article based on the writer. I just thought it was relavant to share current news about what is happening in Iraq. If he is responsible for reporting erroneous information, that's another matter, but the information in this article seems straight-forward. I have not expressed an opinion on the content of this article; readers can do that for themselves

No actually he usually does have his facts straight which is why I usually read his stuff. I was very serious--he's one of the best the NY Times has. It's just that the only facts he presents are those that make it look as if all is gloom and failure in Iraq. And I only mentioned it because the New York Times is one of the most negative news sources out there relatied to anything other than the very narrow issues they support. So, in the interest of balance, I commented that caution must be used in order to draw accurate conclusions about what he writes.

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Foxfyre, We're all for balanced news on Iraq. Please post all the positive news from Iraq you can find; I'll personally welcome them, and thank you.

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What would an accurate conclusion about what Ed Wong writes be?

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A large percentage of it is Wong?

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What I find interesting about the insurgency is that the targets, aside from the coalition forces themselves, are all Shia, or Shia collaborators with the occupying forces. The Kurds are perhaps the biggest supporters of the occupation, but they are virtually ignored by the insurgency. I haven't come across any reports of attacks on Kurds by the insurgency.

I know that Ansar al-Islam was a Kurdish terrorist group that operated in Iraqi Kurdistan that had a very localized agenda, namely Kurdish independence under Islamic rule. After the invasion, Ansar split into various groups such as Ansar al-Sunna--the group behind the bombing of the dining tent at the US base in Mosul, and its primary offshoot--Tawhid wa Jihad and others. Being Sunni Muslims, it is believed that Ansar al-Islam changed its name to Ansar al-Sunna to attract Sunni Arabs to its cause.

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InfraBlue wrote:

What would an accurate conclusion about what Ed Wong writes be?

Well, for starters he doesn't really need to stagger murder paragraphs with political maneuvering paragraphs since they are not the same story. Idea

By doing so he casts an added shadow of gloom over the political progress that's being made. His wording is such that an uninformed reader would think the Sunnis are unfairly represented as a minority... as opposed to finally only having equal rights with everyone else. He plays up the opposition between Allawi and Jaafari as potentially dangerous, but doesn't bother to point out that compromises will be necessary most likely with the Kurds... or that in so compromising they will have inadvertently created some of the same protections the Sunnis seek.

Mr. Wong is one of the Times' very talented writers who doesn't have to provide any misinformation for his own bias to bleed through his words. Fox's point was easily understood for anyone interested in understanding it.

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On good news from Iraq- there was a report on BBC PM Radio4 yesterday which described the seaport which has been rebuilt and modernised (can't remember its name, sorry) and the waterways dredged deeper and wider and wrecked ships removed, and the dock facilities and warehousing arrangements are working well, and are the pride of the Iraqis who run it. They themselves report any suspicious persons seen to the security forces, because they have a pride in the place and recognise its importance to the rebuilding of their country.
There was an interview with the captain of a Russian ship which had carried sugar from Brazil.
Interesting programme item.

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InfraBlue wrote:

What I find interesting about the insurgency is that the targets, aside from the coalition forces themselves, are all Shia, or Shia collaborators with the occupying forces. The Kurds are perhaps the biggest supporters of the occupation, but they are virtually ignored by the insurgency. I haven't come across any reports of attacks on Kurds by the insurgency.

I know that Ansar al-Islam was a Kurdish terrorist group that operated in Iraqi Kurdistan that had a very localized agenda, namely Kurdish independence under Islamic rule. After the invasion, Ansar split into various groups such as Ansar al-Sunna--the group behind the bombing of the dining tent at the US base in Mosul, and its primary offshoot--Tawhid wa Jihad and others. Being Sunni Muslims, it is believed that Ansar al-Islam changed its name to Ansar al-Sunna to attract Sunni Arabs to its cause.

Now that you mention it, that is strange how it is only the Shia who are being targeted when the kurds are a big part of the government too. I never paid attention to that before.

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Klik on 'view clip'

Quote:

Uncovered chronicles the Bush administration's determination to invade Iraq following the events of September 11. It deconstructs the White House's case for war through interviews with U.S intelligence and defence officials and U.N. weapons inspectors - including a former CIA director and ambassador to Saudi Arabia. Their analyses and conclusions are sobering and often disturbing. It's the story of how truth became the first American casualty of war.

You will need 'realplayer' and a broadband connection.

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http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20050225/ts_nm/iraq_zarqawi_aide_dc_2

Iraqi Govt Says It Captures Top Zarqawi Aide

49 minutes ago

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq (news - web sites)'s government said on Friday it had captured a key lieutenant of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian militant who is al Qaeda's leader in Iraq and has been behind some of the country's worst attacks.

It said Talib Mikhlif Arsan Walman al-Dulaymi, also known as Abu Qutaybah, was captured on Feb. 20 in Anah, a town northwest of Baghdad, about 35 miles from the Syrian border.

"Abu Qutaybah was responsible for determining who, when and how terrorist network leaders would meet with Zarqawi," the government said in a statement.

"Abu Qutaybah filled the role of key lieutenant for the Zarqawi network arranging safe houses and transportation as well as passing packages and funds to Zarqawi."

Iraq's government has said it has captured several of Zarqawi's aides and associates in recent weeks, with several arrested in the run-up to the Jan. 30 election. It is impossible to verify what role the detainees play in Zarqawi's network.

Zarqawi is the U.S. military's most-wanted man in Iraq, with a $25 million bounty being offered for information leading to his death or capture. He was believed to be hiding out in Falluja until a U.S. offensive on the city last November.

Since then, U.S. military officials have said he could have fled to Mosul, in northern Iraq. Iraqi police in Kirkuk, south of Mosul, recently said they were on his trail near there.

In its statement, Iraq's U.S.-backed interim government said Abu Qutaybah's contacts throughout western Iraq made him a critical figure in the Zarqawi network.

Western Iraq, specifically the vast province of Anbar, which stretches to the Syrian, Jordanian and Saudi Arabian borders, has been a hotbed of the Sunni Muslim-led insurgency over the past 18 months.

U.S. and Iraqi forces are currently engaged in a security sweep along Anbar's Euphrates river valley leading toward Syria in an effort to hunt down insurgents holed up there. Anah, where Abu Qutaybah was caught, is one of those valley towns.

"Abu Qutaybah was a known associate of other detained Zarqawi lieutenants including Abu Abdul Rahman, Abu Ahmed and Abu Ali, who were captured by coalition forces," the Iraqi government said.

Another militant, Ahmad Khalid Marad Isma'il al-Rawi, also known as Abu Uthman, was captured during the same raid. Abu Uthman arranged meetings for Zarqawi and occasionally acted as his driver, the government's statement said.

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I wonder if at some point the Sunnis/insurgents will collectively realize that;
A. Majority is going to rule
B. The Shia will have majority, no matter how much trouble they cause.
C. It is very much in the Sunnis best interest to have a Shia majority that more closely resembles the U.S. vision than the Iranian alternative.

It seems to me that if the insurgents were successful in convincing the U.S. to throw in the towel, and the Shia did choose to go the hard-line way of Iran: Among the first orders of business for the Shia would be too crush the Sunnis.

On the other hand, in a comparatively peaceful representative type system that reflects the necessary compromises to satisfy (if only barely) all of the opposing factions sufficiently to become law; the Sunnis would have more protections than any Fundamentalist type of Sharia would ever offer.

I don't think it's likely that the Sunnis could ever be victorious in a Civil War now that Saddam's networks have been dismantled, redistributed or destroyed, so don't the Sunnis at some point have to collectively start being more careful what they wish for?

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http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20050225/ts_nm/iraq_dc&cid=564&ncid=1480

Quote:

Negotiations on Iraq Government Look Protracted

7 minutes ago

By Michael Georgy

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The frontrunner to be Iraq (news - web sites)'s next prime minister held talks with the country's top Shi'ite cleric on Friday on ways to include all parties in politics as negotiations on forming a new government looked set to drag on.

"There is an important issue we discussed: the participation of our brothers who could not take part in the election," Ibrahim al-Jaafari told reporters after meeting Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani in the southern city of Najaf.

"The next government requires consultation and consensus."

Islamist Shi'ite Jaafari and other politicians are jockeying for the top positions in the next government after last month's election, negotiations complicated by delicate ethnic and sectarian issues in a country plagued by violence.

Minority Sunnis, who watched the majority Shi'ites replace them as the leading power after the polls, boycotted the election or did not vote due to fear of violence.

The election result has raised concerns disaffected Sunnis will join insurgents waging a campaign of violence.

Iraq's government said it had captured a key lieutenant of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian militant who is al Qaeda's leader in Iraq and behind some of the bloodiest attacks.

Talib al-Dulaymi, known as Abu Qutaybah, was captured on Feb. 20 in Anah, 35 miles from Syria's border.

"Abu Qutaybah was responsible for determining who, when and how terrorist network leaders would meet with Zarqawi," the government said. "Abu Qutaybah filled the role of key lieutenant for the Zarqawi network arranging safe houses and transportation as well as passing packages and funds to Zarqawi."

U.S. and Iraqi forces, meanwhile, detained 35 insurgents in the northern city of Mosul, a mostly Sunni Arab city.

SECURITY

Shi'ite leaders have said Sunnis will play a role in Iraq's new political landscape despite their election turnout.

Whoever becomes prime minister is likely to make the country's security crisis the top priority.

Three U.S. soldiers were killed and eight wounded in a roadside blast north of Baghdad on Friday, the U.S. military said.

And mortars hit houses in the northern city of Samarra, wounding at least 13 people, police and doctors said.

Jaafari, a soft spoken man who believes dialogue can ease Iraq's many problems, was nominated to be prime minister by the United Iraqi Alliance, which won last month's election.

The alliance will have a slim majority in the elected 275-seat National Assembly but must cut a deal to secure the two-thirds majority it needs to form a government.

A Kurdish coalition is in a strong bargaining position after coming second in the ballot, winning 25 percent of the vote to secure it 75 seats in the parliament.

The Kurds could give their backing to Jaafari or the group led by secular Shi'ite Iyad Allawi, which came third in the Jan. 30 vote, clinching 40 seats in the assembly, and is determined to keep their leader at the country's helm as prime minister.

Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani said on Friday the Kurds had not decided who to back, as negotiations over the formation of the government looked set to be protracted.

NO TIME LIMIT

There is no time limit for the naming of the country's top positions -- a president and two vice-presidents, who must then decide on the prime minister -- and Western diplomatic sources believe it could take weeks longer to form a government.

Barzani, head of one of the two main parties in the Kurdish coalition, said the Kurds would seek key posts.

He was diplomatic but firm on the issue of Kirkuk, the most ethnically diverse and hotly contested city in the country.

"In the future we want Kirkuk to be an example of ethnic, religious and national coexistence. But this is after Kirkuk's identity is fixed as (part of) Kurdistan," he said.

On Thursday, Nechirvan Barzani, Masoud's nephew and prime minister of the Kurdish regional government, said the Kurds would only agree to a deal on the formation of a new national government if they were given control of disputed areas in the north of the country, including Kirkuk.

Thousands of Iraqi Kurds were pushed out of their homes by Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) when he sought to move Arabs into Kirkuk and the surrounding area to increase his influence. The Kurds have repeatedly said they want the areas back.

The issue of Kirkuk, 250 km (155 miles) north of Baghdad, is a big sticking point. The city, which sits near 6 percent of the world's known oil reserves, is split roughly in thirds among Kurds, Arabs and Turkish-speaking Turkmen.

The Kurds dominated last month's local elections in the city. "Kirkuk's identity is Kurdish as the elections proved," said Masoud Barzani.

In the end it seems even by Iraqi's it is coming to down to oil and who controls it.

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No surprise there then.

At a news conference today, PM Blair was asked again to publish the details of the legal advice he said he had received, prior to going to war, and he would not answer the question.

Several senior figures including a former Lord Chancellor (Lord MacKay) are now suggesting he must publish or be accused of covering something up.

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Is there no attorney/cliient privilege in the U.K.?

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THE US, THE UN AND THE IRAQIS THEMSELVES, V. 7.0

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