28 Killed in Wave of Violence;
Sadr Demands Reinstatement of Sacked Troops
' A surge of violence killed 28 people in the past 24 hours in Iraq, among them 12 members of the Kurdish peshmerga forces who died in a bomb blast near the Syrian border, officials said on Monday.
The country's north bore the brunt of the violence, with the attack on the [Kurdish] peshmerga troops at the town of Rabiyah, three car bombs exploding in separate incidents in the main city of Mosul, and a suicide bomb attack on a funeral in the town of Tal Afar. . .
The US military announced that two American soldiers were killed on Monday by roadside bombs in separate incidents in Iraq, pushing the toll for the first half of April to 24.'
Greg Mitchell considers the implications of the high suicide rates among US soldiers in Iraq.
Muqtada al-Sadr demanded on Monday that Iraqi troops fired this weekend by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki be reinstated. He said that in refusing to fight other Shiites they had only been obeying the strictures of their religious leaders.
Reilly dismantles a WaPo Neocon editorial about Iran, showing it to be the shoddy piece of writing that it is.
Don't miss Barnett Rubin's string of fine entries on Afghanistan.
McClatchy reports political violence for Monday:
' Baghdad
- Around 11:30 pm of Sunday , a roadside bomb targeted an American patrol at the New Baghdad neighborhood (east Baghdad) near Samarayee mosque .One Humvee was damaged with about 20 commercial shops were burned , Iraqi police said. No casualties reported. While the MNC in Iraq reply on the incident was “Criminals attacked a Multi-National Division - Baghdad patrol with an improvised-explosive device in eastern Baghdad April 13. The IED attack ignited a major fire at the nearby Al Ummal market. The market blaze began at approximately 11:30 p.m. Iraqi emergency response personnel responded to the fire. MND-B Soldiers recovered the vehicle and sustained no major injuries in the attack.”
- Around 8 am, a roadside bomb targeted an American patrol at Tahriyat intersection in Karrada neighborhood .No casualties reported.
- Around 8:30 am, a roadside bomb targeted an American patrol at Fudhailiyah neighborhood (east Baghfdad).No casualties reported.
- Around 11:30 am, a roadside bomb targeted an American patrol at Shaab intersection. No casualties reported.
- Around 11:45 am, a roadside bomb targeted a police patrol at Tayran square in Bab Al-Sharji (central Baghdad).Five policemen were killed and 13 others were injured (two policemen and 11 civilians).
- Around 3 pm, 7 mortar shells hit the following neighborhoods:
- 4 shells hit Zayuna neighborhood killing one person and injuring 4 others.
- 2 shells hit Ghadeer of the New Baghdad neighborhood injuring three people.
- one shell hit a mini bus (coaster model) at Sinaa street Karrada near Technology University .Two people were killed and 6 others were injured.
- Police found (5) dead bodies in the following neighborhoods in Baghdad: (3) were found in east Baghdad (Risafa bank); 1 in Zafaraniyah , 1 in Qahira and 1 in Khilani. While (2) were found in west Baghdad( Karkh bank); 1 in Amil and 1 in Doura.
Basra
- Monday night, gunmen assassinated an officer of Basra intelligence directorate at Al-Jaza’er neighborhood (downtown Basra). Major Rafia Mohammad was killed by gunmen who opened fire on him from a sedan car (Cresta model, Toyota) and ran away.The assassinations attacks had disappeared since the Charge Knights operation in Basra has started due to the army check points in neighborhoods and controlling the entrances of the city.
Salahuddin
-In the morning , gunmen of about 40 members of what is called the Islamic State of Iraq attacked some houses at Ral Al-Dhahab village north of Fatha andwest of Baiji which is 240 km north of Baghdad )injuring 17 Sahwa members .
- In the morning, the Iraqi army found a dead body in Dour (south Tikrit and north of Baghdad).
Diyala
- In the morning, gunmen killed a head of one of the electoral station centers ay Had Mizaid in Wajihiyah (east of Baquba).
- An American squad with Sahwa members found 30 dead bodies at Al-Zour village in Muqdadiyah (45 km north east of Baquba).
Mosul
- In the afternoon, a suicide truck bomber targeted a Peshmerga squad while they were on their way home to Sinjar in vacation .Also after that , gunmen opened fire on the Peshmerga squad .14 soldiers were killed and 15 others were injured , an official of Peshmerga said .
- In the afternoon, a car bomb targeted an American patrol at Muthna neighborhood (east mosul) .Two Iraqi people were killed and two others were wounded having no casualties of the American army reported.
- In the afternoon, a car bomb exploded at Al-Mahata neighborhood (south Mosul).Two civil defense men were wounded in that incident.
- Around 6 pm, a suicide bomber targeted a funeral ceremony in Tal Afer (west of Mosul) .Four people were killed with 22 others injured in that incident.'
Labels: Iraq
posted by Juan Cole @ 4/15/2008 06:31:00 AM
3 Comments:
The sacking of the soldiers is not as dramatic as it appears. The turnover rate in the Iraqi Army, and police, is sky high. At any point a quarter to a third of all troops are AWL.
Unemployed people regularly buy a soldier's job from a Shi'a cleric for one month's pay. They enroll to collect few month's pay either to repay debt or to raise a small capital for a project. They then leave quickly to avoid the high risk of the job.
The people who were sacked would probably have left of their own accord, and ccording to the government, they will not face any legal action anyway.
to clarify,
part of the "absenteeism" of Iraqi soldiers is because
Iraqi doesn't have a modern banking system;
soldiers are paid in cash;
and each one takes off 1 week per month,
right after they're paid,
to take the money home to their family.
avid student
.
Do you see any connection between the recent escalation of rhetoric by the Bush Administration (equating Iran with Al Qaeda) and within the MSM (the WaPo article critiqued by Reilly) and the shift in rhetoric by Ahmadinejad? The AP recently reported that Ahmadinejad has questioned details about 9/11 on three occasions in the last week:
'Although Iran has condemned the 2001 al-Qaida attacks on New York and Washington in the past, this was the third time in a week that Ahmadinejad questioned the death toll, who was behind the attacks and how it happened.
"Four or five years ago, a suspicious event occurred in New York. A building collapsed and they said that 3,000 people had been killed but never published their names," Ahmadinejad told Iranians in the holy city of Qom.
Under this pretext, the U.S. "attacked Afghanistan and Iraq and since then a million people have been killed only in Iraq," Ahmadinejad said in the speech broadcast live on state-run television.'
Does the AP have this story right? Has there been some change in Ahmadinejad's rhetoric or is this just another translation problem? These statements by Ahmadinejad were later used in juxtaposition to comments by Netanyahu in an article in Ha'aretz. I'm curious about whether you think there is any substance to the stated concerns about Ahmadinejad's recent remarks or if they are just being used out of context to hype an Iranian threat.
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