Bombs, Violence Kill 60 in Northern Iraq
The massive violence in Iraq on Tuesday underlines that in the north, the US is mainly fighting Sunni Iraqis, some of them neo-Baathists. It is a misnomer to call the resistance "al-Qaeda," since most of them are not foreign fighters but Iraqis, and none of them has Usamah Bin Laden's telephone number.
The recent propaganda push by Bush and his aides to blame Iran for most of Iraq's ongoing instability is revealed as grounded in false premises. The Sunni guerrillas who hit Baquba, Baghdad, Ramadi and Mosul were completely unconnected to Iran.
At the very end of the Reuters post quoted below, we see an implicit acknowledgment that what Iranian weapons have come into Iraq have often come in via freelance smugglers using donkeys.
There were several big bombings:
Baqubah, a mixed city of a couple hundred thousand northeast of Baghdad, is the capital of Diyala province. Diyala is 60% Sunni Arab, but has strong Shiite and Kurdish minorities. The attempt of the US to establish Sunni militias or 'Awakening Councils' in Diyala has faltered in part because it is a mixed area and fights keep breaking out with Shiites. Diyala Awakening Council fighters have at points gone on strike to demand arrears of pay, and to protest the arbitrary actions of the Shiite police chief.
Some 40 persons were killed and 70 wounded in a suicide bombing on Monday in Baquba. AP writes, "AP Television News footage showed many of the bodies covered in crisp white sheets in the main hospital's courtyard while the emergency room inside was overwhelmed with the wounded."
AP adds, "A suicide attacker on a motorcycle later drove up to a kebab restaurant in Ramadi and detonated his explosives vest around 12:30 p.m., killing at least 13 people including three policemen and wounding 20 other people . ."
Ramadi is in the Sunni al-Anbar Province west of Baghdad.
The city of Mosul was also hit by bombings. Mosul is in the north and is 80 percent Sunni Arab. It is fought over by Sunni militants and the Kurds.
This Reuters report suggests the full extent of the calamity:
'BAQUBA - A car bomb killed 40 people and wounded 80 in the city of Baquba, 65 km (42 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.
RAMADI - A suicide car bomb killed 13 people and wounded 14 others near a restaurant in western Ramadi, 110 km (68 miles) west of Baghdad, a hospital source and police said.
* NEAR KERBALA - Gunmen attacked a small town near the southern city of Kerbala, killing five people including two women and wounding six others, police said. The attack forced 150 people to flee. The attackers then blew up 14 houses, police said. Kerbala is 110 km (68 miles) southwest of Baghdad.
* BAGHDAD - U.S. forces detained 18 militants on Monday and Tuesday during operations targeting al Qaeda in the Tigris River Valley and the country's north, the U.S. military said.
* BASRA - Gunmen wounded an aide to the country's top Shi'ite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani in a drive-by shooting in Basra in southern Iraq, police said. The aide's bodyguard was killed.
* MOSUL - A girl was killed inside her schoolroom by a stray bullet in eastern Mosul, police said.
* MOSUL - A roadside bomb wounded four policemen when it struck their patrol in eastern Mosul, Brigadier-General Khalid Abdul-Sattar said.
* MOSUL - Two Iraqi soldiers were wounded by a roadside bomb in western Mosul.
BAGHDAD - Three people were killed and eight wounded in car bomb attack in central Baghdad, police said. The target was an Iraqi police convoy.
BAGHDAD - Six people were killed and 26 wounded in fighting in the Sadr City district overnight, police and hospital sources said. The U.S. military said it had killed at least 10 fighters in Sadr City. Three were killed in one gunbattle in the slum, before U.S. troops ordered air strikes that killed another three, the military said in a statement. A spokesman said U.S. forces in a tank killed another four militants who attacked them in a separate engagement.
MOSUL - Gunmen killed a female lawyer and her sister in eastern Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.
BASRA - Iraq's defence minister left the southern city of Basra to return to Baghdad on Monday, transferring all duties and authority to Lieutenant-General Mohan al-Furaiji, commander of Iraqi armed forces in Basra, an officer said. Basra has been the scene of a crackdown on militias overseen by the central government.
MOSUL - Gunmen stormed an apartment and killed three women and a man on Monday in Mosul, police said.
NEAR KHANAQIN - Iraqi border guards clashed with smugglers trying to bring in 170 roadside bombs stacked on mules near Khanaqin in Diyala province, on the border with Iran, a border guard source said. The U.S. military said Iraqi officers discovered a cache of anti-tank mines after taking small arms fire from an unknown number of gunmen on Monday. It gave no location but the incidents appeared to be the same.
(Compiled by Aws Qusay, editing by Dean Yates)'
Labels: Iraq
posted by Juan Cole @ 4/16/2008 06:30:00 AM
7 Comments:
What an awful day. But, if anything, it sounds like Sadr has more in common with the Sunnis (as a nationalist) than he has with Iran (that is, it sounds like the Sunnis could be trying to draw pressure away from Sadr City with these horrendous bombings).
As for the US push into Sadre City, if they've only killed 10 fighters, it sounds like they are meeting little to no resistance. I'm glad no US soldiers got killed yesterday, it seems.
in Baghdad: American forces appear to be executing their so-called "counter-insurgency" strategy with what might be more accurately described as classical "Seige Warfare" tactics; ie. : establishing checkpoints to regulate all ingress and egress; controlling utilities such as electricity and water, etc.; and building walls, erecting concrete barriers and earthen berms ~ to surround the perimeter apparent and containerize, thus ‘Sadr City’.
This is interesting, imho because it comes in response to a kind of "seige", itself of the American ‘GreenZone’, during which time the main US base was literally impacted; logistical in-flows and out-flows were jeopardized, and most personnel were forced to live/work in bunkers ~ by a relentless shelling that persisted for several days. At least one recent report notes that mortar & rocket attacks on the base have abated, that fire now being re-directed toward American and Iraqi forces' "counter-seige" of ‘Sadr City.
“An article in the New York Times last Friday explained that ‘Sadr City’ was being used by the US as “a testing ground for the Iraqi military”. The article explained: “Whether they like it or not, Iraqi troops are hundreds of yards ahead of the farthest American position and in the thick of the fight.” The newly-trained Iraqi troops “have often been firing wildly, expending vast quantities of ammunition to try to silence the militias.” In the course of a discussion with American advisers, one trigger-happy Iraqi soldier declared: "In case I see a bad guy I will not arrest him. I will kill him immediately to get revenge for my guys who were lost."”
This is interesting, imho because in the mind's eye of native guerilla fighters, "foreign occupation" troops fighting in such a manner are often seen as “hiding behind” the collaborationist forces (many of whom choose to mask their identities from their countrymen) of their puppet State ~ in much the same way that formal, regular Army troops often see guerillas as “hiding behind” civilians.
Further, in reference to the Iraqi soldier's statement: "...to get revenge for my guys who were lost," we are reminded that the metrics we receive through our media recount American KIA+WIA, "insurgents" KIA; sometimes some notion of "civilians" KIA... yet: we do not often receive metrics about the Iraqi Army's KIA+WIA, nor do we consider, or count the Iraqi Army (behind whom we are fighting) dead, wounded or missing-in-action as “Coalition Casualties”.
I have never posted to this blog before, but reading today's post made my stomach churn to the point that I felt compelled. How can anyone stand to call THIS an "acceptable level of violence"!? This one horrid, awful day leaves the Bush administration without recourse to the words "Iran" or "Al Qaeda" and thus they probably simply deleted this one from memory. And yet, in one day hundreds of people lost someone they love. Juan, I don't know how you can post this stuff every day, but keep up the good work.
-Jacob
Re: MonsieurGonzo's comment about the the Iraqi Army being at the front lime.
Bad blood between the IA and the Sadr people is a key part of the 'divide and rule' strategy. I would suggest that the prominence of the alleged remark by the Iraqi soldier in the US crooked media is part of the scheme.
However, the strategy is not working. The troops clearly see through it: the occupiers sat right behind them urging them to kill their countrymen!
The deserters will almost certainly join the rebels if only to find hiding places away from the state and occupiers. I think "this is another mess you got us into" ..W.
“Whether they like it or not, Iraqi troops are hundreds of yards ahead of the farthest American position and in the thick of the fight.”
I wonder if the Americans' job isn't to kill the Iraqi troops who shrink from killing their brothers and sisters?
"However, the strategy is not working. The troops clearly see through it: the occupiers sat right behind them urging them to kill their countrymen!"
Quite right. In fact, there was an article in Wednesday's NYT regarding a company of Iraqi soldiers who abandoned their posts during a Sadr City offensive. The article was implying (Michael Gordon, enough said) that the Iraqi soldiers retreated out of fear/cowardice. Clearly, this is not the case. The thought of killing their own people for an occupying force was no doubt the motivating factor.
The public is never shown any of this "evidence" of course.
Iran groups offering extra aid to Iraq rebels: US
Sun, 20 Apr 2008
BAGHDAD (AFP) - A US general said on Sunday that the increasingly sophisticated attacks carried out by Shiite extremists in Iraq were evidence they were getting extra aid from Iranian groups in the country.
Major General Rick Lynch, commander of US forces in central Iraq, said rocket and mortar attacks by Shiite extremists were "more effective than before". This he charged indicated a rise in Iranian help to the militants.
"We are seeing an increase in (Iranian) influence ... the number of attacks that are directly attributed to Iranian influence have indeed increased," Lynch said.
"The number of EFP (explosively formed penetrator) attacks have increased, the number of Iranian rocket attacks have indeed increased, the amount of Iranian weapons I am finding on the battlefield has increased. The amount of Shiite extremists who tie their training back to Iran have indeed increased."
Lynch, whose area of operation in Iraq has a long stretch of border with Iran, also charged that his troops have found large numbers of caches of weapons and ammunition bearing Iranian markings.
Citing a recent example, the general said his troops found in one place "enough components for 1,100 EFPs directly traceable back to Iran."
Iran denies supplying ammunition to insurgents, or training them.
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