Bombings in Basra, Baghdad
US Airstrike Kills 13 at Baqubah
A suicide bomber targeted pensioners standing in line in Basra, killing 1 and wounding 5.
In Baghdad, a bomber killed 7 and wounded 18 in a market.
Al-Zaman/ DPA say that police found 16 corpses in various parts of Iraq.
Al-Zaman reports that [Ar.] dozens of physicians went on strike in Baghdad on Tuesday to protest the assassination of a specialist.
The US killed 15 persons it says were insurgents in an air strike near Baqubah. Locals denied that the deceased, who include an 12-year-old boy, were involved in violence. Arab news channels tended to see that strike as a tragic error or as a "massacre."
British Lieutenant General Nick Houghton came out Tuesday with a gloomy portrait of sectarian violence in the southern port city of Basra:
' "There is a worrying amount of violence and murder carried out between rival Shia factions," he said. "The security situation in Basra has no doubt got worse of late due to the protracted period of talks to form the government." That, he said, allowed "a period of time in which politics that should have been conducted more appropriately, actually were conducted through violent means on the streets". Gen Houghton continued: "There has been inter-faction rivalry, much of it then reflecting in non-judicial murder between rival Shia factions struggling for political and economic power." '
Supreme Jurisprudent of Iran Ali Khamenei, pressed again Tuesday for withdrawal of all US troops from Iraq.
posted by Juan Cole @ 6/21/2006 01:25:00 AM
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4 Comments:
Crocodile Tears with a British Accent
It's quite interesting to watch a British brigadier cry crocodile tears so publicly. The British forces in Basra seem to be under the conviction that they "control" or "are responsible for" security in Basra, yet the brigadier baldly admits that things are getting worse.
Not clear how violent the place has become, in figures, he just says it's "worrying" and allows as how he'll just have to put off elections from the summer until the autumn; presumably that could turn into the winter, or later....
One might have thought such a decision should be made by the new Iraqi government....how silly.
So the failures are putting off the elections that might lead to a reduced amount of violence because violence has gotten so bad. Do they really teach this stuff at Sandhurst, or does Rove write his talking points?
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CIA wet job on Cheney/Rumsfeld/Bush (proper order)
Very messy
Gen. Houghton (and the Mr. Ingram mentioned in the Guardian article) both show a certain tendency to pass the buck to Baghdad -- and therefore to Crawford. Does the maintenance of elementary law and order at Basra really depend as much as they suggest on Big Picture things well outside British control, like getting a federal government or a functioning national economy together?
The UK generals have been talking like that at least since their helicopter was shot down and their pretensions to being a much better Occupying Power than the Yanks are began to look a little shaky.
http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/AFP_Breaking_More_than_100_kidnapped_0621.html
AFP Breaking: Dozens kidnapped at Iraq factory
06/21/2006 @ 12:00 pm
Filed by RAW STORY
AFP: "More than 100 Iraqis employed by the ministry of industry north of Baghdad were kidnapped by gunmen as they left work.
"The workers at the Hateen and Nasr factories in the restive town of Taji were ambushed by at least 50 gunmen who had arrived in five minibuses, the source said.
"They were loaded onto the same buses that were waiting to take them back to their homes, he said.
"Hateen and Nasr were part of the military-industrial complex under the rule of ousted leader Saddam Hussein before their conversion into civilian manufacturing facilities belonging to the ministry of industry."
#
AP: "Gunmen abducted about 85 workers Wednesday as they left work at an industrial plant north of Baghdad, police and a witness said. The workers were thought to be mostly Shiite and the plant is located in a predominantly Sunni Arab area.
"The witness said that about 85 workers were taken near the plant's parking lot, while police Lt. Thaer Mahmoud said they filled up a bus and a minivan. They were taken at the al-Nasr General Complex in Taji, 20 kilometers (12 miles) north of Baghdad. Taji is predominantly Sunni Arab area that has seen much insurgent activity." DEVELOPING.......
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