Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Media: The Associated Press
Byline: By HAMZA HENDAWI
Date: 23 October 2006
BAGHDAD, Iraq_Fearing new attacks, Iraqi Sunnis in Baghdad largely shunned
public celebrations of the end of the holy month of Ramadan on Monday, while
a car bomb in an eastern district of the capital killed at least three
people.
The U.S. military reported the death of a Marine in action in the restive
western province of Anbar on Saturday, bringing the number of U.S. troops
killed in October to 86 _ the highest monthly toll since November 2004.
Five soldiers were reported killed from gunfire or roadside bombs on Sunday.
The military also reported the death of a member of the international force
training Iraqi policemen in a roadside bombing in eastern Baghdad on Sunday.
Four soldiers were also wounded in that attack, the military said, without
giving details.
The car bomb on Baghdad's Palestine street had targeted a police patrol, but
it's victims, including 13 injured, were merely pedestrians, police Lt.
Thair Mahmod said.
U.S. commanders and Iraqi officials hope for a reduction of violence
following Ramadan, during which killings had spiked to an average of more
than 40 a day from a previous daily average of about 27.
Facing growing impatience with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's failure to
stem the carnage, Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Barham Saleh said
international forces must not abandon Iraq while the situation there
remained volatile.
"I do believe there is no option for the international community to cut and
run," Saleh told reporters after meeting British Prime Minister Tony Blair
in London. About 7,000 British troops are assigned to southern Iraq as part
of the U.S.-led coalition force there.
Saleh said Iraqi forces will be in control of seven or eight of Iraq's 18
provinces by the end of the year, adding: "We understand that this cannot be
an open-ended commitment by the international community."
The near absence of public displays of jubilation in Baghdad's Sunni areas
reflects the worsening security in the capital, whose 6 million residents
are roughly divided between Shiites and Sunnis, making it the main
battlefield in the country's widening sectarian violence.
Iraq's majority Shiites will celebrate the three-day Eid al-Fitr Tuesday or
Wednesday, which means Monday to them could be the last day of the holy
month of Ramadan when devout Muslims refrain from food, water, sex and
smoking from dawn to dusk.
Despite an increased police and army presence on the streets, many Baghdad
Sunnis said they would rather stay home than risk falling victim to car
bombs or Shiite death squads.
"We are telephoning friends and relatives or sending text messages to wish
them a happy holiday," said Nadhim Aziz, a math teacher from the city's
mixed district of New Baghdad.
He said he found fewer worshippers than last year when he went to a local
mosque to perform the early morning prayers marking Eid al-Fitr.
"We were 50 to 60 in the mosque. Last year, there were about 400," Aziz
lamented.
In Baghdad's Azamiyah district, home to Sunni Islam's holiest shrine in
Iraq, the neighborhood's formerly bustling amusement parks and kebab
eateries remained virtually empty.
Insurgents set the tone for the holiday on Sunday, with mortar and bomb
attacks on Baghdad markets packed with shoppers buying sweets, pastries and
new clothes.
"We are still afraid to venture outside Azamiyah," said Mohammed, a
government employee.
The scene was different in the mainly Sunni city of Tikrit, former dictator
Saddam Hussein's hometown, 130 kilometers (80 miles) north of Baghdad.
Families thronged the city's main street, shopping, buying pastries and
filling restaurants. Children in new clothes played on the street outside
their homes.
"Brothers, we have to make use of these blessed days and stop killing each
other and end our divisions," prayer leader Rashid Youssef al-Shamkhan told
worshippers in one of the city's mosques. "We have to live together in peace
again," he said.
Under increasing pressure to find new tactics to contain the bloodshed ahead
of Nov. 7 Congressional elections, President George W. Bush administration
has been meeting with top commanders in Washington.
However, the administration took issue with a report in The New York Times
on Sunday that said Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, and Gen.
George Casey, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, were working on a plan that
would outline milestones for disarming militias and meeting other political
and economic goals.
The report said the blueprint, to be presented to al-Maliki by the end of
this year, would not threaten Iraq with a withdrawal of U.S. troops. The
White House said the article was not accurate, and the administration was
constantly developing new tactics to help the Iraqi government sustain and
defend itself and govern.
Khalilzad and Casey were scheduled to hold a rare joint news conference in
Baghdad on Tuesday.
Also Sunday, a U.S. State Department official Alberto Fernandez apologized
for saying U.S. policy in Iraq displayed "arrogance" and "stupidity" in an
interview broadcast by Arab satellite channel Al-Jazeera.
"Upon reading the transcript of my appearance on Al-Jazeera, I realized that
I seriously misspoke by using the phrase 'there has been arrogance and
stupidity' by the U.S. in Iraq," said Fernandez, director of public
diplomacy in State's Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs. "This represents
neither my views nor those of the State Department," Fernandez added in a
statement. "I apologize."
Fernandez spoke in fluent Arabic in the interview, which Al-Jazeera said was
taped in Washington on Friday. His remarks were translated into English by
The Associated Press.
In the latest violence, a car bomb targeting a police patrol in central
Baghdad killed three people, including two officers, and wounded ten other
police and civilians, police Lt. Ali Mohsen said.
Unknown gunmen assassinated two police commanders in Amarah, where rival
Shiite militias battled each other last week, a local hospital official
said. Lt. Sarmad Majid al-Shatti from his home at 4:00 a.m. (0100 GMT) and
his body was found six hours later at a farm on the southern city's
outskirts with bullet wounds to the head and chest, said Ali Chaloub of Sadr
General Hospital. Lt. Alaa al-Kabi was shot to death at 9:20 a.m. (0620 GMT)
outside his home, Chaloub said.
Members of the Mahdi Army, loyalists of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada
al-Sadr, had attacked police stations and fought running gunbattles with
members of the force, dominated by the rival Badr Brigade, leaving 25 dead.
Residents said police stations there remain closed and the city was largely
in the hands of Mahdi fighters, who had pushed the police to the edges of
town and were pursuing officers who had taken part in the fighting.
The clashes were sparked by the killing of the provincial head of police
intelligence, a leading member of the Badr Brigade militia, setting off
reprisals by both militias.
Members of the Badr Brigade then kidnapped the teenage brother of the local
Mahdi Army commander, and the man's bullet-riddled body was found dumped in
a farm in the outskirts of Amarah Monday. The body of the man, Hussein
al-Bahadli, showed signs of severe torture, Chaloub said.
Five dead bodies were found floating in the Tigris in Suwayrah, 40
kilometers (25 miles) south of Baghdad, two of them in the uniform of
electric company security guards, said morgue official Hadi al-Atabi.
The men had their throats cut and had been bound and blindfolded and showed
signs of torture, al-Atabi said.
Byline: By HAMZA HENDAWI
Date: 23 October 2006
BAGHDAD, Iraq_Fearing new attacks, Iraqi Sunnis in Baghdad largely shunned
public celebrations of the end of the holy month of Ramadan on Monday, while
a car bomb in an eastern district of the capital killed at least three
people.
The U.S. military reported the death of a Marine in action in the restive
western province of Anbar on Saturday, bringing the number of U.S. troops
killed in October to 86 _ the highest monthly toll since November 2004.
Five soldiers were reported killed from gunfire or roadside bombs on Sunday.
The military also reported the death of a member of the international force
training Iraqi policemen in a roadside bombing in eastern Baghdad on Sunday.
Four soldiers were also wounded in that attack, the military said, without
giving details.
The car bomb on Baghdad's Palestine street had targeted a police patrol, but
it's victims, including 13 injured, were merely pedestrians, police Lt.
Thair Mahmod said.
U.S. commanders and Iraqi officials hope for a reduction of violence
following Ramadan, during which killings had spiked to an average of more
than 40 a day from a previous daily average of about 27.
Facing growing impatience with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's failure to
stem the carnage, Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Barham Saleh said
international forces must not abandon Iraq while the situation there
remained volatile.
"I do believe there is no option for the international community to cut and
run," Saleh told reporters after meeting British Prime Minister Tony Blair
in London. About 7,000 British troops are assigned to southern Iraq as part
of the U.S.-led coalition force there.
Saleh said Iraqi forces will be in control of seven or eight of Iraq's 18
provinces by the end of the year, adding: "We understand that this cannot be
an open-ended commitment by the international community."
The near absence of public displays of jubilation in Baghdad's Sunni areas
reflects the worsening security in the capital, whose 6 million residents
are roughly divided between Shiites and Sunnis, making it the main
battlefield in the country's widening sectarian violence.
Iraq's majority Shiites will celebrate the three-day Eid al-Fitr Tuesday or
Wednesday, which means Monday to them could be the last day of the holy
month of Ramadan when devout Muslims refrain from food, water, sex and
smoking from dawn to dusk.
Despite an increased police and army presence on the streets, many Baghdad
Sunnis said they would rather stay home than risk falling victim to car
bombs or Shiite death squads.
"We are telephoning friends and relatives or sending text messages to wish
them a happy holiday," said Nadhim Aziz, a math teacher from the city's
mixed district of New Baghdad.
He said he found fewer worshippers than last year when he went to a local
mosque to perform the early morning prayers marking Eid al-Fitr.
"We were 50 to 60 in the mosque. Last year, there were about 400," Aziz
lamented.
In Baghdad's Azamiyah district, home to Sunni Islam's holiest shrine in
Iraq, the neighborhood's formerly bustling amusement parks and kebab
eateries remained virtually empty.
Insurgents set the tone for the holiday on Sunday, with mortar and bomb
attacks on Baghdad markets packed with shoppers buying sweets, pastries and
new clothes.
"We are still afraid to venture outside Azamiyah," said Mohammed, a
government employee.
The scene was different in the mainly Sunni city of Tikrit, former dictator
Saddam Hussein's hometown, 130 kilometers (80 miles) north of Baghdad.
Families thronged the city's main street, shopping, buying pastries and
filling restaurants. Children in new clothes played on the street outside
their homes.
"Brothers, we have to make use of these blessed days and stop killing each
other and end our divisions," prayer leader Rashid Youssef al-Shamkhan told
worshippers in one of the city's mosques. "We have to live together in peace
again," he said.
Under increasing pressure to find new tactics to contain the bloodshed ahead
of Nov. 7 Congressional elections, President George W. Bush administration
has been meeting with top commanders in Washington.
However, the administration took issue with a report in The New York Times
on Sunday that said Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, and Gen.
George Casey, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, were working on a plan that
would outline milestones for disarming militias and meeting other political
and economic goals.
The report said the blueprint, to be presented to al-Maliki by the end of
this year, would not threaten Iraq with a withdrawal of U.S. troops. The
White House said the article was not accurate, and the administration was
constantly developing new tactics to help the Iraqi government sustain and
defend itself and govern.
Khalilzad and Casey were scheduled to hold a rare joint news conference in
Baghdad on Tuesday.
Also Sunday, a U.S. State Department official Alberto Fernandez apologized
for saying U.S. policy in Iraq displayed "arrogance" and "stupidity" in an
interview broadcast by Arab satellite channel Al-Jazeera.
"Upon reading the transcript of my appearance on Al-Jazeera, I realized that
I seriously misspoke by using the phrase 'there has been arrogance and
stupidity' by the U.S. in Iraq," said Fernandez, director of public
diplomacy in State's Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs. "This represents
neither my views nor those of the State Department," Fernandez added in a
statement. "I apologize."
Fernandez spoke in fluent Arabic in the interview, which Al-Jazeera said was
taped in Washington on Friday. His remarks were translated into English by
The Associated Press.
In the latest violence, a car bomb targeting a police patrol in central
Baghdad killed three people, including two officers, and wounded ten other
police and civilians, police Lt. Ali Mohsen said.
Unknown gunmen assassinated two police commanders in Amarah, where rival
Shiite militias battled each other last week, a local hospital official
said. Lt. Sarmad Majid al-Shatti from his home at 4:00 a.m. (0100 GMT) and
his body was found six hours later at a farm on the southern city's
outskirts with bullet wounds to the head and chest, said Ali Chaloub of Sadr
General Hospital. Lt. Alaa al-Kabi was shot to death at 9:20 a.m. (0620 GMT)
outside his home, Chaloub said.
Members of the Mahdi Army, loyalists of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada
al-Sadr, had attacked police stations and fought running gunbattles with
members of the force, dominated by the rival Badr Brigade, leaving 25 dead.
Residents said police stations there remain closed and the city was largely
in the hands of Mahdi fighters, who had pushed the police to the edges of
town and were pursuing officers who had taken part in the fighting.
The clashes were sparked by the killing of the provincial head of police
intelligence, a leading member of the Badr Brigade militia, setting off
reprisals by both militias.
Members of the Badr Brigade then kidnapped the teenage brother of the local
Mahdi Army commander, and the man's bullet-riddled body was found dumped in
a farm in the outskirts of Amarah Monday. The body of the man, Hussein
al-Bahadli, showed signs of severe torture, Chaloub said.
Five dead bodies were found floating in the Tigris in Suwayrah, 40
kilometers (25 miles) south of Baghdad, two of them in the uniform of
electric company security guards, said morgue official Hadi al-Atabi.
The men had their throats cut and had been bound and blindfolded and showed
signs of torture, al-Atabi said.