Today in Iraq

WAR NEWS FOR TUESDAY DECEMBER 20, 2005 Bring ‘em on: Women killed, child injured by blast in Kirkuk Bring ‘em on: Two police officers shot in Baqouba, one police officer shot in Baghdad. Fourteen bodies found in the outskirts of Fallujah, some still handcuffed and appearing to have been tortured (from three months ago). A driver for the Jordanian Embassy was kidnapped. Three civilians wounded when a bomb exploded in Baghdad. Bring ‘em on: Gunmen fire on a car in Buhriz, killing four women and wounding five others. Member of the Badr organization shot in Baghdad. Two convoys of trucks carrying goods for US military attacked and set on fire in Baghdad. Bring ‘em on: Three civilians wounded by bomb in eastern Baghdad. Bring ‘em on: Two children wounded when gunmen open fire on the minibus they were traveling in. This happened in Baghdad. Two Iraqi contractors killed by gunfire near US base in Balad. Four civilians wounded by car bomb in Miqdadiya. Three people wounded by bomb in Basra. Gunmen attack the offices of the Turkman Front in Kirkuk. A guard killed and three more wounded. Two civilians killed by suicide car bomber directed at an Iraqi police colonel. Seven more wounded. Three bodyguards of Baghdad deputy governor were killed by gunmen and the governor and his secretary were wounded. Bring ‘em on: Iraqi militant group posted video of the killing of a US security consultant who had been kidnapped. Bring ‘em on: More than 200 foreigners and thousands of Iraqis have been kidnapped since the US led invasion in 2003. 54 foreign hostages are known to have been executed by their captors. Following is a list of foreigners believed to be held hostage in Iraq: HOSTAGE NATIONALITY DATE OF CAPTURE Mohammed Rifat Canada April 8, 2004 Wael Mamduh Jordan April 12 Saad Saadoun Kuwait June 5 Ali Ahmed Mousa Somalia July 29 Unidentified hostage Jordan Sept 1* Four unidentified hostages Jordan Sept 5* Two unidentified hostages East Asian Sept 13* Khalifa al-Breizat Jordan Sept 14* Two unidentified hostages Turkey Sept 14 One unidentified hostage Syria Sept 16 Unidentified hostage Turkey Oct 9 Two unidentified hostages Turkey Oct 14 Unidentified Somalia Oct 30 Noureddin Zakaria Sudan Oct 30 Radim Sadiq U.S. Nov 2 Ghazi Abu Hamzeh Lebanon Nov 13* Two unnamed Turkey Dec 25 Two unidentified South Korea Jan 9, 2005* Unidentified Turkey Jan 13 Sayed Abdel Khalek Egypt Jan 13* Joao Jose Vasconcelos Jr. Brazil Jan 19 Mohammed Haroun Hamad Sudan March 9* Maher Ataya Sudan March 9* Nabil Tawfiq Sulaiman Egypt March 19 Mitwali Mohammed Qassem Egypt March 19 Jeffrey Ake U.S. April 11 Six unidentified Jordan May 6 Ali Abdullah Turkey June 7 Unidentified Turkey June 21* Samuel Edward Egypt Sept 26 Abderrahim Boualam Morocco Oct 20 Abdelkrim El Mouhafidim Morocco Oct 20 Norman Kember Britain Nov 26 James Loney Canada Nov 26 Harmeet Singh Sooden Canada Nov 26 Tom Fox U.S. Nov 26 Bernard Planche France Dec 5 Mahmoud Saedat Jordan Dec 20 2 Ghazi Abu Hamzeh Lebanon Nov 13* Two unnamed Turkey Dec 25 Two unidentified South Korea Jan 9, 2005* Unidentified Turkey Jan 13 Sayed Abdel Khalek Egypt Jan 13* Joao Jose Vasconcelos Jr. Brazil Jan 19 Mohammed Haroun Hamad Sudan March 9* Maher Ataya Sudan March 9* Nabil Tawfiq Sulaiman Egypt March 19 Mitwali Mohammed Qassem Egypt March 19 Jeffrey Ake U.S. April 11 Six unidentified Jordan May 6 Ali Abdullah Turkey June 7 Unidentified Turkey June 21* Samuel Edward Egypt Sept 26 Abderrahim Boualam Morocco Oct 20 Abdelkrim El Mouhafidim Morocco Oct 20 Norman Kember Britain Nov 26 James Loney Canada Nov 26 Harmeet Singh Sooden Canada Nov 26 Tom Fox U.S. Nov 26 Bernard Planche France Dec 5 Mahmoud Saedat Jordan Dec 20 Britain Nov 26 James Loney Canada Nov 26 Harmeet Singh Sooden Canada Nov 26 Tom Fox U.S. Nov 26 Bernard Planche France Dec 5 Mahmoud Saedat Jordan Dec 20 Bring ‘em on: Three bodies of kidnapped policemen found in western Baghdad. According to residents, unknown car threw the bullet-riddled bodies, Abdullah said, adding that the victims' jobs were guarding a facility of a Saudi company working in building barricades for US troops and Iraqi security forces. Bring ‘em on: US Marine killed by small arms fire in Ramadi on December 18. Bring ‘em on: Gunmen attack civil defense members in Baghdad, three wounded. Bring ‘em on: Three policemen killed in Tuz, two employees working in US military base killed in Balad when gunmen opened fired on their car. Bring ‘em on: US air power strikes Iraq targets daily. The airstrikes have been largely in areas of western Iraq and other places where the insurgency is strongest, such as Balad, Ramadi and in the vicinity of Baghdad, according to the U.S. military's Central Command, which is responsible for military operations in Iraq. For example, it said that on Iraq's election day, Dec. 15, an Air Force F-16 fighter fired a precision-guided munition at an access road used by insurgents near Baghdad. The number of U.S. airstrikes increased in the weeks leading up to last Thursday's election, from a monthly average of about 35 last summer to more than 60 in September and 120 or more in October and November. The monthly number of air missions, including refueling and other support flights, grew from 1,111 in September to 1,492 in November, according to figures provided by Central Command Air Force's public affairs office. Those figures pale in comparison to the aerial onslaught that was unleashed at the start of the war in March 2003, when B-2, B-1 and B-52 bombers were part of the offensive. Even so, air might has remained part of the arsenal that U.S. forces routinely use in what is now largely a ground fight against a shadowy insurgency. The insurgents have had little luck defending against air attacks. Yet it is difficult to know how effective the strikes have been in killing them, disrupting their movements or improving security for ordinary Iraqis. (Nor do we know how many innocent civilians were killed. – Susan) According to brief reports provided by Central Command Air Force officials, recent strikes have included a Predator firing a Hellfire missile on Dec. 12 "with successful effects" at an insurgent "improvised explosive device location" near the town of Haditha. An Oct. 7 report said an F-16 expended 1,000 20mm cannon rounds in attacks against insurgents near the town of Haqliniyah. The role of the Air Force Predator is not secret but has been largely lost in the clutter of violence on the ground. At least five times this month an unmanned Predator flown remotely by airmen at flight consoles at an Air Force base in Nevada has struck targets in Iraq, mostly in insurgent strongholds in western Anbar province. Bring ‘em on: Seven Iraqis killed by either gunmen or US troops in separate incidents. Four were killed as they approached US patrols in Balad and three killed by gunmen in Bayji. Police said they arrested two of the gunmen. Bring ‘em on: US soldiers shot a truck driver who got to close to a patrol in Latifiya. He died from his wounds. ELECTIONS IN IRAQ Kurdistan: Voting Irregularities Reported in Kurdish Areas. A number of voters in the northern Kurdish regions were prevented from casting ballots in Iraq's 15 December parliamentary elections due to reported omissions in the official list of voters, officials said on Sunday. "We have proof that thousands of Kurds were kept from the polls because their names weren't included on voter lists," said Fadia Fateh, a senior official in the Arbil electoral commission. "We managed to help some people to vote, but hundreds of others left polling stations without voting," she added. The phenomenon was mostly seen in the majority-Kurdish cities of Kirkuk, Sulaimaniyah and Arbil, and, to a lesser extent, in other isolated areas of the country. Bush calls Talabani and Jaafari and congratulates them on a successful election. McClellan said the President during the two separate calls saluted "the courage and determination of the Iraqi people that demonstrated through the large turnout last week for the election and the broad participation by all communities in Iraq. Baghdad vote fraudulent, Iraqi Sunnis Say. The biggest Sunni Arab political bloc in Iraq said on Tuesday results of the Baghdad vote in last week's national election were fraudulent and the electoral commission should order a new ballot. "They should ... immediately revise the figures," said Tariq al-Hashemi, leader of the Iraqi Islamic Party, speaking a day after the commission (IECI) issued partial results which suggested the ruling Shi'ite coalition had fared very well. "The ball is now in the court of the IECI." Adnan al-Dulaimi, leader of a Sunni umbrella group which stood with Hashemi's party in the election under the name Iraqi Accordance Front, said: "We demand a re-run of the election in Baghdad." Iraq’s Sunni Arabs Demand Election Inquiry. Sunni Arab and a key secular party charged Tuesday that parliamentary elections were tainted by fraud, and demanded an inquiry into preliminary results showing the governing Shiite religious bloc with a comfortable lead. With politicians barely containing their hostility toward each other, the bitter climate raised questions about U.S. hopes that the Dec. 15 vote will lead to a more inclusive government involving Sunni Arabs, the minority group that formed the core of Saddam Hussein's government and is now the backbone of the insurgency. The complaints focused mainly on Baghdad, Iraq's largest electoral district and one that has large numbers of Sunnis and Shiites. With 89 percent of ballot boxes counted, the Shiite bloc United Iraqi Alliance were leading in the province with about 59 percent of the vote, while the Sunni Arab alliance, the Iraqi Accordance Front, trailed with 19 percent. US Official telling them what to do again: Iraq must have an interior minister who rejects sectarianism, the U.S. ambassador said on Tuesday, in an apparent swipe at the current minister, a Shi'ite Islamist facing accusations of allowing mistreatment of Sunnis. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad -- seen as a key mediator in the formation of Iraq's next government -- told a year-end news conference that Iraqis had to cooperate across ethnic and sectarian lines if their country was to succeed. Iraq's Electoral Commission rejected on Tuesday a call from the biggest Sunni Arab bloc to rerun last week's vote in Baghdad after partial results showed the ruling Shi'ite Alliance with a big majority in the capital. "So far there are no objective grounds to order a rerun in any province," Hindawi told Reuters, saying the commission had expected such complaints after Thursday's parliamentary poll. He describing the demand for a repeat vote as "political" and added: "No one is satisfied with the results but those who won are less critical than others of course." REPORTS NEWS: Iraqis protest as government hikes fuel prices. Angry Iraqis staged protests across the country on Monday after the government raised fuel prices as much as threefold in a bid to revive the economy. Hundreds of demonstrators marched through the streets of Najaf, Kerbala, Sulaimaniya and other towns following the decision, which pushed up the price of fuel for cooking and heating as well as petrol. The government defended the move, saying fuel was still cheap in Iraq and the hike in prices was necessary to bolster the flagging economy. Premium gasoline rose by 200 percent while diesel jumped by the same amount. Regular gasoline rose by 150 percent and bottled household gas by 100 percent. NEWS: Three Iraqi Provinces Reject Petrol Price Hikes. Three southern Iraqi provinces have refused to implement a wildly unpopular government increase in petrol prices, despite insistence in Baghdad on Tuesday that the measure would help the poor. In Misan, Dhi Qar and Basra provinces, petrol is still available at the highly subsidized price of 50 dinars (three US cents) per litre rather than the new price of 150 dinars, AFP correspondents reported. "This (rise) risks provoking a widespread increase in other prices that will have direct impact on the lives of citizens," said Fadel Nemaa, president of the provincial economic commission, justifying Misan's decision. On Monday, the government of Dhi Qar province, whose capital is Nasiriyah, asked gas stations to stick with the original price after clashes between angry demonstrators and police. OPINION: Interior Ministry Prisons Overcrowded, Plagued with Problems. Ministry of Human Rights has formed special committees to visit Iraqi-run prisons across the country, the ministry said in a statement. The move comes following reports of abuses and torture of inmates in Iraqi prisons particularly those administered by the Ministry of Interior. The number of prison has grown exponentially in the country following the downfall of the former leader Saddam Hussein. At least two ministers – the interior and defense – run what is described here as “special detention centers”. These jails do not fall under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Social Affairs entrusted with administering prisons for convicted criminals. In addition to these jails, U.S. occupation forces run their own detention camps. The troops have been busy recently building new prisons to accommodate the growing number of Iraqis they arrest during raids. Only inmates in Social Affairs Ministry’s custody have access to lawyers and are only sent to jail following court sentences. The rest – run by the interior and defense ministries as well as U.S. troops – have no legal recourse whatsoever and are incarcerated without court rulings for unspecified periods. Tens of thousands of Iraqis are said to be languishing in these jails. QUOTE OF THE DAY: No army needs to bomb a country they have liberated. Armies only need to bomb countries that seek to be liberated from them. –multisect, in our comments section.