Guerrillas Kill 6 Iraqi Soldiers, Wound 25
Over a thousand demonstrators rallied in Hilla to protest the bombing on Monday that is now estimated to have killed 106 persons at a medical clinic, including women and children and civilian men. It appears to have targeted potential recruits for the police and national guard standing in line for medicals, but wrought a wide swathe of devastation among civilians at the clinic. They blamed the Iraqi police for not having made better security arrangements. They also chanted against “terrorism” and “Wahhabism.” (There are no Wahhabis in Iraq, but Iraqis often use this term to refer to Salafis and other hard line Sunni fundamentalists.)
The BBC is reporting that on Tuesday guerrillas detonated a car bomb at an army base in Baghdad at the site of the old Muthanna airport, killing at least 6 Iraqi soldiers and wounding 25. The report said, ‘ Police and eyewitnesses say a car was driven towards the base near the old al-Muthanna airport as would-be recruits and soldiers queued up outside it. “It was a suicide car bomb… As he arrived, he blew himself up. There were two soldiers lifted up into the air and knocked across the street,” eyewitness Hussein Mohammed was quoted as saying by the AFP news agency. ‘
Guerrillas also assassinated judge Barwize Mohamed Marwan and a relative of his. He was rumored to have been involved in the tribunal that will try Saddam Hussein.
A prominent trade unionist was also assassinated, but apparently only New Zealand cares.
Speaking of which, as a parting gift the interim Allawi government has [Arabic link] dissolved a number of civil society organizations, including the Lawyers’ Union. Iraqi attorneys abroad accused the interim government of violating a number of international treaties and agreements to which Iraq is signatory.
US mainstream media appears to have behind the scenes instructions not to mention unions if at all possible (older television actors remember this instruction being explicit back in the 1960s with regard to dramas.)