PHOTO: An Iraqi boy sleeps as U.S. army soldiers from B Company, 1st Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment search his home in west Baghdad's Ghazaliyah neighborhood, Iraq, Sunday, March 25, 2007. The U.S. and Iraqi forces continued house searches throughout the dangerous Sunni area of Ghazaliyah Sunday, discovering caches of weapons and ammunition. (AP Photo/Marko Drobnjakovic)

Security Incidents for March 25, 2007

In Country:

At least 12 Iraqis soldiers and officers were killed and 26 others wounded in operations during the past 24 hours, according to an Iraqi military statement released Sunday.

Baghdad:

Iraqi and U.S. soldiers detained 16 insurgents and found two weapons caches on Saturday during search operations in the western Ghazaliya district of Baghdad, police said

Six militants were killed while 23 others were arrested in action around the Iraqi capital's suburbs, the statement added. Also large amounts of weapon caches were found and ten explosive devices were defused.

Gunmen and Iraqi security forces clashed Sunday as U.S. attack helicopters buzzed overhead in a Sunni area in central Baghdad, and police said at least two people were killed and four wounded. The fighting started about 1:30 p.m. when gunmen attacked Iraqi army patrols in the Fadhil neighborhood, which sits on the east side of the Tigris River, police said. The U.S. military had no immediate comment. Iraqi police said two civilians were killed and four people wounded — two policemen and two civilians.

A suspected sniper shot dead a man in the al-Sinak area in central Baghdad, police said.

A roadside bomb targeting an Iraqi army patrol, killed an Iraqi soldier near Yarmouk hospital in western Baghdad, police said.

Two people were killed and five wounded in a mortar attack in Abu Dsheer in southern Baghdad on Sunday, police said.

Around 4:30 p.m. a mortar shell landed on a resident house in Al Shurta Al Rabia (south west Baghdad) causing injuries to 5 civilians.

Around 5 p.m. a mortar shell landed in Palestine street east Baghdad. one woman was injured

Police found 17 corpses throughout Baghdad. Three corpses were found in Risafa (the eastern side of the city) and 14 in Karkh side (the western side of Baghdad). The corpses were found in the following neighborhoods: 3 corpses in Sileikh, 1 in Raghiba Khatoun, 1 in Kamaliya, 2 in Baia, 1 in Amil, 1 in Doura, 1 in Shuala, 1 in Saidiya, 2 in Hurriya, 1 in Jamia, 1 in Eskan, 1 in Yarmouk, 1 in Ghazaliya.

Diyala Prv:

Forensics in Baaquba on Saturday received five unidentified bodies found by Iraqi police patrols, a medic said.

police source said that the clashes between Iraqi police and gunmen in Baquba yesterday afternoon caused of killing 2 and arrest 8 from gunmen one of them was wanted to security forces

Iraqi police defused a rocket was prepared to target a Kurdish political party in the city of Jalawla today

Gunmen attacked Diyala police directorate this morning. The driving by gunfire targeted the visitors to the building and police responded to the source of fire. No casualities were reported.

Haswa:

Suspected Shiite militants bombed a Sunni mosque in southern Iraq on Sunday in apparent retaliation for a suicide attack the day before against a Shiite shrine in the same city. The explosives blew a hole in the minaret of the Sunni mosque in Haswa, a predominantly Shiite city 30 miles south of Baghdad, but the mosque was empty and no casualties were reported.

In retaliation for yesterday bombing in the mixed city of Haswa (50 Km south of Baghdad) gunmen burned 4 Sunni mosques and attacked the Iraqi Islamic party (IIP) headquarter in the city. Around 1 p.m. and during the funeral of yesterday bombing victims, Shiite gunmen attacked and burned two mosques, Abdullah Al Jubouri and Hiteen mosques. The gunmen set a bomb in Usama bin Zaid mosque and burn it. The fourth mosque, Al Anwar mosque, gunmen bombed the Minaret and burned the mosque after no resistance were noticed. Almost at the same time the gunmen attacked the IIP headquarter in the city and a clash started between the guards and the attackers till around 4:30 p.m. The three hours continues clashes and sectarian violence stopped after the arrival of the American and Iraqi troops. Police said 2 men were injured only but sources of the IIP said 15 of the attackers were killed.

U.S. and Iraqi troops clashed with gunmen in the town of Haswa, 50 km (30 miles) south of Baghdad, as a Sunni mosque was set ablaze in an apparent revenge attack for the destruction of a Shi'ite mosque in the town a day earlier. Police said four people were wounded in the Sunni mosque attack

Latifiya:

Iraqi soldiers killed an insurgent, detained 71 others, and discovered two car bombs and 10 weapon caches on Saturday in the town of Latifiya, 40 km (25 miles) south of Baghdad, the Defence Ministry said.

Tikrit:

One Iraqi policeman was killed and three others wounded when an explosive charge went off near a patrol, a security source in Tikrit, Salah al-Din province, said on Sunday. "The blast, which occurred on the main road north of Tirkit, killed a policeman ranked captain and seriously wounded three others," the source, who preferred not to be named, told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq

Sulaimaniyah:

Three people, including two policemen, were wounded after gunmen, believed to have links to the Ansar al-Islam (Islam Supporters) organization, clashed with police at a checkpoint in Iraqi Kurdistan Sulaimaniyah, a security source said on Sunday."Gunmen, believed to have links to the Ansar al-Islam organization, attacked overnight a police checkpoint in Banjoin district near the borders with Iran," the source, who asked not to be named, told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI). The attackers used small and mid-sized arms in the hour and a half long clashes, he said.

Mosul:

Gunmen killed Ali Amin, the director of a gas factory, near his house in a drive-by shooting in Mosul, police said

Police said they found the bodies of five people, including a policeman, in different districts of Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad.

Al Anbar Prv:

Clashes erupted between police and tribal leaders opposed to al Qaeda on one side and al Qaeda militants on the other in the Sunni Arab insurgent stronghold of Ramadi, police Lieutenant-Colonel Ahmed al-Dulaimi said.

An unidentified number of U.S. soldiers were killed and wounded by explosive devices on Saturday night when their convoy of tanks and Hummer vehicles was attacked east of the city of al-Rutba, Anbar province, eyewitnesses said. "Unidentified gunmen lurking in 4WD vehicles with mounted machine-guns ambushed the U.S. convoy after the explosive devices went off," eyewitnesses driving on the international highway linking Iraq to Syria and Jordan told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI). Civilians, who were driving nearly 200 meters behind the U.S. convoy, told VOI that a number of U.S. soldiers were killed and wounded, adding that the explosive charges destroyed several U.S. military vehicles.

Thanks to whisker for the links above.

REPORTS – LIFE IN IRAQ

VIDEO: Abdullah Leaves

In a city with no future, friendships survive on borrowed time.

VIDEO: Source Code

In this 10 minute piece, Dahr Jamail gives an Iraq update with exclusive video from Iraq. He describes some of the origins of the "sectarianism" that the US corporate media is so apt to point to when discussing Iraq, and shows how the US has been involved in fueling the sectarian tensions.

VIDEO: Four Years Later, Speaking to Americans

Sunni Baghdad Becomes Land of Silent Ruins

The cityscape of Iraq’s capital tells a stark story of the toll the past four years have taken on Iraq’s once powerful Sunni Arabs. Theirs is a world of ruined buildings, damaged mosques, streets pitted by mortar shells, uncollected trash and so little electricity that many people have abandoned using refrigerators altogether. The contrast with Shiite neighborhoods is sharp. Markets there are in full swing, community projects are under way, and while electricity is scarce throughout the city, there is less trouble finding fuel for generators in those areas. When the government cannot provide services, civilian arms of the Shiite militias step in to try to fill the gap. But in Adhamiya, a community with a Sunni majority, any semblance of normal life vanished more than a year ago. Its only hospital, Al Numan, is so short of basic items like gauze and cotton pads that when mortar attacks hit the community last fall, the doctors broadcast appeals for supplies over local mosque loudspeakers. Here, as in so much of Baghdad, the sectarian divide makes itself felt in its own deadly and destructive ways. Far more than in Shiite areas, sectarian hatred has shredded whatever remained of community life and created a cycle of violence that pits Sunni against Sunni as well as Sunni against Shiite.

War of Words Over Kirkuk Intensifies

Fiery rhetoric over who will eventually control the oil-rich city of Kirkuk has intensified recently, signaling that the opposite sides are not willing to compromise. A statement by Nejirvan Barzani, the prime minister of the Kurdish regional government, has illustrated once again that the Kurds will never give up their claim to the city. Barzani warned that the Kurds patience over the fate of the disputed city was wearing thin and that they could not wait indefinitely. He was referring to an article in the Iraqi Constitution which stipulates the holding of a referendum in the city which the Kurds believe will show that they are the majority. Arabs and Turkmen who oppose the referendum and the transferring of Kirkuk’s administration to Kurds were furious over the remarks. “Giving up Kirkuk (to Kurds) means undermining the country’s future,” said Saad al-Janabi who, with other Iraqi politicians, leads the opposition to Kurdish moves to annex the city. Arabs and Turkmen have formed a joint front to oppose any Kurdish attempt to spread control over Kirkuk.

A New Shiite-Sunni Radio Station Offers Hope in Northern Iraq

In one of the most violent provinces in Iraq, two Shiites and two Sunnis kicked off their first broadcast of a new radio and television station on Sunday. Their message is one of peace, and they hope it will help quiet the sectarian violence that has shattered their lives in the bloody province of Diyala, which has a Sunni majority. Inside a U.S. army outpost southeast of Baquba, cut off from the outside world with Iraqi and U.S. soldiers surrounding them, with U.S. help the three men and one woman restarted the station, which once operated under Saddam Hussein’s rule and, later, as part of the Iraqi Media Network. “I feel we are standing on the pages of the history books. It is time to make our mark. I am carrying the most effective weapon in this war. It is my microphone and it will carry my voice,” said Samir Khamies, 28, a Sunni from Baquba and co-founder of the Independent Radio and Television Station. They’re funding comes from advertising revenue bought by the U.S. 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division in Diyala to send out coalition messages. The brigade invested $36,000 to start the station. A Global Outreach Team from the U.S. Embassy was commissioned to help. They used jumper cables and a 12-volt battery to restart the radio transmitter, and they use a tower built for Saddam to preach a message of unity. But the price is dear.

COMMENTARY

Call for Aid as Iraqi Refugees’ Misery Compounds

Life for Ahlam al-Mulla, her husband and three children was meant to get easier after they fled their home outside Baghdad for the safety of Syria. In July 2004, the 42-year-old Sunni was kidnapped on her way to work for the Iraqi Help Centre - a US-sponsored welfare organisation. The militia men who took her accused her of being an agent of the US occupation. They beat her for eight days, she said. “My husband had to pay US $50,000 to get me released, otherwise I would have been killed,” Ahlam told IRIN in her bare living room in Damascus. “I was absolutely terrified.” The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) estimates that there are more than one million Iraqi refugees living in Syria. With new visa restrictions in place, soaring inflation, dwindling resources and no prospect of legal work, daily life for them has become increasingly unsustainable. Unable to obtain official work permits in Syria, many Iraqi families, such as the Mullas, have spent the meagre resources they brought with them from Iraq and now rely on donations from relatives. ……… According to a study by the National Organisation for Human Rights in Syria (NOHR) on the effect of Iraqi refugees on inflation, an average two-bedroom apartment in a suburb of Damascus two years ago could be rented monthly for 8,000 Syrian pounds (US $160) but now costs 20,000 Syrian pounds (US $400) - a 250 percent increase. “Syrians believe the Iraqi refugees are the main reason for inflation,” said Ammar Qurabi, NOHR Chairman. “In addition to the prices, Iraqis have brought with them many other problems, one of them being prostitution.” For the Mulla family, who live in Damascus’ majority Shia suburb of Sayyeda Zeinab, it was the overburden on Syria’s healthcare system that was to have tragic consequences. Delayed in admitting their 12-year-old son Anas to private healthcare in Sayyeda Zeinab after he fell sick, the parents watched in agony as doctors were unable to save their child, who died from internal bleeding.

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.