PHOTO: A boy holds an Iraqi flag during a protest in Kerbala, 110 km (70 miles) south of Baghdad, March 24, 2007. Thousands of displaced families took to the streets in Kerbala on Saturday, demonstrating against a government decision to ask them to move out from the government buildings they have occupied. REUTERS/Mushtaq Muhammad (IRAQ)

Security Incidents for March 24, 2007

Baghdad:

A suicide truck bomber with explosives hidden under a load of bricks struck a police station in a mainly Sunni area in southern Baghdad on Saturday, killing at least 11 people and wounding 23, police said. The attacker detonated his explosives at the concrete blast walls protecting the gate of the Dora police station because he could not go any farther, but the building was heavily damaged, police said. Those killed included four policemen and seven civilians, including some detainees, while 15 officers and eight civilians were wounded, according to the authorities. Policemen were searching the debris for survivors or more victims, including detainees who were being held in a room inside the station.

Officers said the 20 killed in the attack on the police station in the volatile southern district of Dora included 14 policemen and three detainees as well as three others working in the building. Another 26 were wounded, most of them police.

20 were killed (14 policemen, 3 detainees and 3 construction workers) were killed and 27 others were injured, 19 of them were policemen including the director of Al Rasheed police directorate in a suicide truck bomb targeted the directorate in Doura neighborhood south Baghdad around 10,50 am.

The attack happened three hours after two mortar shells landed on a Shi'ite enclave elsewhere in Dora, killing at least three people and wounding seven

U.S. and Iraqi troops sealed off the Karrada district in the heart of Baghdad on Saturday, stopping all vehicles and pedestrians from entering the area as part of major crackdown on sectarian violence in the capital.

Gunmen attacked an army checkpoint in Hay al Jamiya in western Baghdad and there were fierce clashes in the area, police and a resident said

Gunmen also ambushed an Iraqi army checkpoint in Baghdad's western Sunni neighborhood of Jami'a, killing a soldier and wounding two others, police said, adding that a militant also was killed in subsequent clashes.

While conducting a dismounted combat patrol, a MND-B Soldier died when an improvised explosive device detonated near the Soldier’s position south of Baghdad March 23.

A civilian was killed and 4 others were wounded when mortar round fell in Abu Disheer neighborhood south Baghdad around 9 am.

Around 10:30 a.m. gunmen clashed with the Iraqi army in KambSara area. 2 civilians were injured.

Around 1:30 p.m. mortar shell landed in Tariq neighborhood (east Baghdad). The shelling killed one woman and injured 3 all from one family

Around 3:00 p.m. Gunmen attacked and killed Dr. Abdul Hussein Jafar Mutlak the director of Al Karama hospital in Al Baia neighborhood west Baghdad.

Around 5:00 p.m. mortar shells landed again in Abu Disheer neighborhood causing injuries to 5 civilians.

Police found 10 corpses throughout Baghdad. The corpses were found in the following neighborhoods: 1 in Baia, 2 in Doura, 2 in Jihad, 1 in Amil, 1 in Shuala, 1 in New Baghdad, 1 in Sadr, 1 in Husseiniya.

Diyala Prv:

Two gunmen were killed and eight others arrested in violent clashes between Iraqi policemen and an armed group in central Baaquba, an official police source said. The source did not elaborate on the reasons behind the clashes or whether there were casualties from the policemen's ranks.

A security source from Bani Saad police directorate east of Baquba city said that 2 civilians were killed and 3 others injured when 15 mortar rounds fell downtown Bani Saad town and Shaimaa village early morning today.

Insurgents kidnapped 9 people yesterday afternoon in Muqdadiya city, police said .one of the kidnapped group is an interpreter working for the MNF.

Haswa:

A suicide truck bomber also struck near a Shi'ite mosque in the town of Haswa about 60km south of Baghdad. A local hospital said five were killed and 33 wounded.

Hilla:

A roadside bomb exploded in Hilla, 100 km (62 miles) south of Baghdad, wounding six policemen and three civilians, police said.

The casualties of the blast that occurred on Saturday morning north of Hilla rose up to five dead and 34 more wounded after four mortar shells landed into the location, a police source said. "Four mortar rounds landed near a Shiite mosque in north of Hilla only minutes after explosives stashed in a truck detonated in the location," the source told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq

Diwaniya:

The bullet-riddled body of a military intelligence officer was found in the centre of Diwaniya, 180 km (110 miles) south of Baghdad, police said.

Suwayrah:

Witnesses in Suwayrah city, 50 kilometres south-east of Baghdad, said a US army patrol opened fire on a car, killing a former Iraqi senior army officer and his driver and wounding a third Iraqi.

Kirkuk:

At least two Iraqi army soldiers were shot dead and three others wounded Saturday in an attack in the northern city of Kirkuk, an Iraqi police source said. Armed men opened fire at dawn on an Iraqi army vehicle in Riyad district, north-west of Kirkuk, senior army officer Khalil al-Zobai said.

A source in Kirkuk police directorate said that tow Iraqi army soldiers were killed and 4 others were injured in addition to the commander of the 3rd brigade when they were attacked by gunmen near Al Safra village on the road of Karkuk- Beiji north of Baghdad. The source said that clashes happened between the two sides lasted for 30 minutes.

Mosul:

Four bodies were found in the northern city of Mosul on Friday, a morgue official said. One was a policeman and another was a Kurd.

Three people were killed and three others wounded in a suicide blast in Mosul, the mayor of Talafar district said on Saturday. "A suicide bomber attacked a crowded place in Talafar, northwest of Ninawa province," Brig. Nijm Abdullah al-Juburi told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI) by telephone.

Al Anbar Prv:

In the Rutba area near the Jordanian border, the U.S. military said it killed three suspected insurgents in an airstrike on their car. A fourth suspect blew himself up.

three car bombers launched almost simultaneous attacks against a police station and checkpoints in western Iraq. Dr Hamdi al-Alousi at al Qaim hospital put the death toll from the attacks in the Qaim area near the Syrian border at six with 17 people, mostly police, wounded. Anbar provincial police said eight people had died and 20 wounded.

At least 20 Iraqi policemen were killed and 30 others wounded on Saturday when suicide attackers detonated three explosives-rigged cars near police stations in Anbar province, a security source said. "Today at 1:00 pm, a suicide attacker detonated an explosives-rigged car near al-Saada village police station in south of al-Qaim town, 450 km west of Baghdad, and another suicide bomber simultaneously detonated a second explosives-rigged car near al-Karablah village police station in east of the town," the source told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI). The source added "only one hour later, a third explosives-rigged car was detonated by another suicide bomber near al-Obeidi police station in south of al-Qaim."

Militants attacked a U.S. and Iraqi security post in Ramadi on Friday with rifles, RPGs and a suicide car bomb, the U.S. military said. Iraqi forces shot the vehicle which detonated early, and three Iraqi soldiers were wounded, a U.S. statement said.

Four Iraqi soldiers were killed when a roadside bomb exploded in Falluja, Iraqi police told the AFP news agency

And the bullet-riddled bodies of eight men showing signs of torture in Fallujah.

The bodies of 12 people were found in Falluja, in western Iraq, police said.

A soldier assigned to Multi National Force-West died March 23 while conducting combat operations in Al Anbar Province.

A patrol of U.S. Marines came under attack on Saturday by unidentified gunmen, an Iraqi police source said. "Unidentified gunmen ambushed a U.S. patrol of several Humvee vehicles while it was leaving a base in the district of al-Risala, west of Falluja," the source told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI). He said, "attackers opened fire at the U.S. patrol, which was followed by violent clashes with automatic weapons that lasted for 15 minutes." The source was not sure about the number of casualties from the Marines' ranks.

Iraqi and U.S. forces clashed with gunmen in Falluja and a medical source said four people were killed.

Tal Afar:

A suicide bomber blew himself up in a market in the northwestern Iraqi town of Tal Afar on Saturday, killing 10 people and wounding three, the mayor of the town said. Brigadier Najim al Jibouri, mayor of Tal Afar, said the attacker was wearing a suicide vest and targeted the Al Saray market in the centre of the town near the Syrian border. Two of the dead were policemen, he said.

Thanks to whisker for the links above.

REPORTS – LIFE IN IRAQ

FILM: “I Know Shut Up”

It could have been a moment out of the reality show Cops. Men in uniform break through the door of a house and take "wrongdoers" into custody. All we viewers know is that there is "good intelligence" that some brothers live here, and they're involved in bomb-making for a terrorist cell. Menace hangs in the air. We see captured men on their knees in the yard. Are they terrorists? One man, his hands tied behind his back, loses patience. "I am journalist," he complains in broken but perfectly understandable English. "You mistake this." His captors tell him to shut up, and the tied-up man parrots back what he hears, anger seeping into his voice. "Shut up, shut up. I know 'shut up.' Always 'shut up' in Iraq." At which point he is taken out of his house, dumped in a truck, and whisked off to a detention facility with his brothers. This haunting moment stuck with the man behind the camera, Michael Tucker. The year was 2003. Tucker was filming in Baghad during the early months of the US occupation for what would become the critically acclaimed documentary Gunner Palace. Tucker was embedded with the soldiers so when the journalist was turned over to military police, his story thread ended. But something about the man haunted Tucker, as it will anyone who sees Tucker's new film co-directed with his wife Petra Epperlein.

……….. What is America doing in Iraq? Though no one says it explicitly, what Yunis is describing is a concentration camp, where innocent civilians suffer indefinite imprisonment under horrifying conditions with no semblance of due process. At the South by Southwest film festival where I saw The Prisoner, director Michel Tucker called it a conspiracy of indifference. That revelation alone is reason enough to see the film, but another is the presence of "the good soldier," Benjamin Thompson. A twenty-something reservist who worked in real estate before he was deployed, Thompson, like Yunis, struggles to maintain his humanity in an inhumane place. His story is ultimately a hopeful one, that a few "good soldiers" are able to make a difference.

Silence is Golden

You never really appreciate something until you lose it. I never really paid any attention to the bliss of silence, until I lost it. It’s not that I don’t care for the loss of electricity; It’s not that I don’t care for the loss of security; It’s not that I don’t care for the loss family get-togethers, or any of the ordinary things you would take for granted living in the Baghdad of my memories, like taking a walk. No, all these things I do miss; but silence, I miss most of all. Every politician drives around in a security convoy, with sirens screaming and weapons gleaming, and there are very many politicians in Iraq today, take my word for it. Every police car patrols with its siren sounding. Army and MNF Forces usually use sirens. It has become common for young men to use sirens and sport weapons, simply as a means to open a route through traffic congestion at check points; no one dares stop or question them for fear of their belonging to “such” or “such” group. The loss of state-supplied electricity has made private generators a necessity. Every 50-100 homes are supplied with power from a generator, situated “around the corner” or “down the road” from where you live. The noise generated by these machines has contaminated our very lives. (Not to mention the smoke and fumes that are killing us).

COMMENTARY

Another Casualty: Coverage of the Iraq War

The primary reason why reporting from Iraq is dangerous for all journalists is the horrific security situation. Iraqi journalists reporting from the streets are in perpetual danger. If any of the countless militias does not want a certain story made public, it will make sure that the journalist has filed his or her last story. Not to mention the scores of reporter deaths which have been the combined handiwork of the Iraqi government, occupation forces and/or criminal gangs. Despite President Bush’s assertion that life in Iraq is improving, a senior Iraqi journalist was found dead in the capital on March 3, 2007. On the same day the body of the managing editor of Baghdad’s al-Safir newspaper, Jamal al-Zubaidi, was found shot in the head. The United States continues to claim that its military operations in Iraq bring freedom and democracy. But such freedom apparently doesn’t extend to Iraqi journalists. Several journalists critical of the United States or the U.S.-backed Iraqi government have been killed. For instance, on March 4, 2007 gunmen killed prominent journalist Mohan al Zaher in his home. That Sunday, his column concluded with the lament, “...if this is the democracy that we (Iraqis) dreamt of.” His earlier articles questioned U.S. policies in Iraq.

VIDEO: Songs Of Pain

How to Help

Very few organizations are working on getting aid to Iraqi refugees, and of those that are, many are too small or too beleaguered to accept individual donations; the Iraqi Red Crescent, for example, has suffered bombings and mass kidnappings, yet its volunteers continue to deliver aid to displaced families inside Iraq. One of the larger relief organizations working with the refugees is the Catholic group Caritas, whose caseworkers I shadowed while in Amman. Bucking the image of the Land Rover-driving aid worker, they made their rounds in an aging gray Honda, its roof eaten through by rust. They visited Iraqi doctors, engineers, and executives desperate for food, heat, or blankets to fend off the desert winter; one family told the crew they had just sold their stove to buy food. Caritas helps a few thousand families a year, but "the demand far outstrips the money available to us," says Magy Mahrous, who oversees the project. You can make a contribution at: International Catholic Migration Commission Citibank USA 153 East 53rd Street, 16th floor New York, NY 10043 Account # 10100491, ABA # 21000089, Swift Code CITIUS33 To ensure that the money reaches the Iraqi program, write "Iraq-icmc" on your check.

Filibuster For Peace Petition: We now have about 3000 signatures, after only a few days, and that is quite impressive for a new program and a new site. This has been accomplished without any advertising, just word of mouth. But we would like many more than that. (Among our signers are Cindy Sheehan and Daniel Ellsberg.) So we ask you to contact everyone you know. Ask them to sign the petition by going to www.FilibusterForPeace.org (or click the link above). And ask them to contact their friends as well.