Two big bombings targeted Shiites on Friday. A bomb killed over 30 persons and wounded over 40 in Dujail, a largely Shiite city northeast of Baghdad. Earlier on Friday, a bomb at the Dhakir al-Din Mosque in Sinjar killed two and wounded 15.
The security situation has deteriorated in Mosul, (pop. 1.8 mn), Iraq’s second largest city, which lies in the north of the country. Reuters reports that “U.S. military officials say attacks fell from around 130 per week just before the May offensive to 30 a week in Nineveh by July, before creeping up to 60-70 per week.”
When you’ve got 60 attacks a week in the country’s second largest city, things are not “calm.”
Tim Cocks did interviews with residents of Mosul: “People here are very afraid,” said Nisreen Mustafa, a housewife. “We always heard explosions before the operation and we still hear them a lot now. What’s changed?”
Cocks points to Arab-Kurdish ethnic divisions in the city as one reason there has not been better sharing of intelligence on guerrillas among residents and authorities.
Al-Hayat reports in Arabic that Sadrist MP Diya’ Shawqi expressed his opposition on Friday at the Friday prayers in Kufa to any agreement at all on security arrangements between the Iraqi government and the United States, on the grounds that it would inevitably legitimize the occupation. The worshippers staged a demonstration against the security agreement after Friday prayers.
The same article reports that on another front, another prominent Sadrist, Abd al-Shaikh Abd al-Hadi al-Muhammadawi (who yesterday led Friday prayers in Sadr City) said, “We deplore the incorporation of the Awakening Councils into the Iraqi security forces, and enabling them to decide the fate of the Iraqis.” Muhammadawi ordinarily directs the Sadr Movement office in Karbala. He added, “The Awakening Councils were enemies of the Iraqi people just yesterday.”
Abdul Mahdi Karbala’i, a representative of Grand Ayatollah Sistani, called for a consensus-based resolution of the crisis over Kirkuk. He said that Sistani affirmed the important of resorting to dialogue in calming passions on this issue.
Andrew Bacevich on the anniversary of Sept. 11, which, contrary to Sarah Palin, had nothing to do with Iraq and everything to do with Neoconservative hubris.
McClatchy reports other political violence in Iraq on Friday:
‘ BaghdadFive civilians were injured by an adhesive bomb that was stuck to a civilian car. The bomb exploded when the car reached a checkpoint of the Iraqi army in Mansour neighborhood in west Baghdad around 2:00 p.m.
Around 5:00 an adhesive bomb that was stuck to a car exploded in Bonouk neighborhood in east Baghdad. Two cars were destroyed in the explosion.
Gunmen threw a grenade inside a house in al Jihad neighborhood in south Baghdad around 6:00 p.m. thirteen civilians were wounded.
Police found one un identified body in Ur neighborhood.
Nineveh
Gunmen broke in a house in al Karama neighborhood in Mosul city and killed a family (parents and their son)
Three civilians were killed and fifteen others were wounded when a suicide bomber wearing an explosive vest detonated while prayers were leaving a Shiite mosque after finishing Friday prayers in Sinjar town southwest of Mosul city around 2:00 p.m. . .
Basra
A civilian was injured by a roadside bomb that targeted a British patrol in al jininiyah neighborhood in north Basra.’