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/ 10 October 2007
Iraqi authorities on Wednesday condemned the killing in Baghdad of two women by foreign security guards, as the firm which hired the contractors defended its action. Tuesday’s bloodbath comes just days after Iraq vowed to punish United States security firm Blackwater after a probe found that its guards opened "deliberate" fire in Baghdad three weeks ago.
Two suicide car bombs killed at least 22 people in northern Iraq on Tuesday in attacks targeting a police chief and a Sunni Arab tribal leader working with United States forces to fight al-Qaeda, police said. ”Look at this. Is this acceptable? Does God accept this?” said a youth hold ing torn, blood-splattered pages of the Qu’ran.
Iraq has vowed to punish United States security firm Blackwater after a probe found that its guards were not provoked when they opened ”deliberate” fire in Baghdad three weeks ago, killing 17 civilians. The US embassy was tight-lipped on Monday on whether those involved in the September 16 killings would be handed over for prosecution.
A United States air strike killed about 25 suspected Iraqi militants linked to Iranian-backed Shi’ite militias on Friday and another 12 al-Qaeda fighters were killed in separate raids, the US military said. US troops said they were engaged in a heavy firefight west of Baquba, capital of volatile Diyala province north of Baghdad, during a dawn raid.
Poland’s ambassador to Iraq was wounded in an explosion targeting a Polish embassy convoy in Baghdad on Wednesday, a diplomatic source in the Iraqi capital said. Poland backed the United States-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 which toppled Saddam Hussein and currently has around 1 000 troops in the country.
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/ 25 September 2007
A suicide car bomber struck the police headquarters in Basra on Tuesday, killing at least three officers and wounding 20 people amid fears over the southern city’s deteriorating security situation. In Baghdad, meanwhile, at least seven people were killed — six in a car bombing on a shopping street.
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/ 25 September 2007
An Iraqi man stands with his hands up in surrender, surrounded by an American soldier, Iraqi security forces, a militiaman, an al-Qaeda fighter and a faceless thug. ”Hands up! Legs up! Head down!” they all bark at him as the cartoon takes a satirical swipe at how poorly ordinary Iraqis are treated.
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/ 24 September 2007
Saddam Hussein’s notorious hatchet man ”Chemical Ali” was accused on Monday of ordering villagers executed in batches of 25 at a time as he brutally crushed a Shi’ite rebellion in Iraq in 1991. Ali Hassan al-Majid and 14 others returned to the dock for their trial on charges of crimes against humanity after a month-long break.
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/ 14 September 2007
The killing of one of his key Iraqi allies on the day he announced a troop pull-out from Iraq came as a stark reminder to United States President George Bush of just how precarious the situation still is in Iraq. Political analysts believe the country will unravel even further, hastened by Bush’s decision to withdraw 21 500 combat troops by next July.
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/ 14 September 2007
A Sunni Arab tribal leader instrumental in driving al-Qaeda out of Iraq’s Anbar province was killed by a bomb on Thursday, hours before United States President George Bush endorsed limited US troop cuts in Iraq. Abdul Sattar Abu Risha died in an attack on his car near his home in Ramadi, capital of Anbar.
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/ 10 September 2007
Iraq’s embattled Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki gave an upbeat assessment of the situation in his country on Monday, saying civil war had been prevented and boasting that violence had dropped 75% in the restive provinces of Baghdad and Anbar.
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/ 9 September 2007
Iraq’s Shi’ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said on Sunday his government had made progress on all fronts and urged neighbouring countries to work together to stop what he called ”evil” from destabilising the region. Senior Democrats in the United States have slammed Maliki’s performance, with some even calling for his replacement.
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/ 6 September 2007
United States combat helicopters and tanks bombarded a Baghdad neighbourhood in pre-dawn strikes on Thursday, killing 14 sleeping civilians and destroying houses, angry residents and Iraqi officials said. The US military said the operation was aimed at Shi’ite extremists and the houses destroyed were ”enemy strongholds”.
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/ 4 September 2007
An Iraqi appeals court on Tuesday upheld the death sentence against Saddam Hussein’s cousin, widely known as Chemical Ali, for masterminding a genocide campaign against Iraq’s Kurds in the 1980s. ”The nine appeal judges have upheld the death sentence against Ali Hassan al-Majeed,” the chief prosecutor in the trial, Munkith al-Fatlawi, said.
The Iraqi government has called on armed groups to follow the lead of the biggest Shi’ite militia and freeze their operations, even as the United States military on Friday reported the deaths of two more American service members in fighting against Sunni insurgents.
Constantine Rodriguez had just fetched chilli peppers and was going out to get some onions when he heard the siren for an incoming rocket. All he remembers was a door blasting open and a loud explosion. He is lucky to be alive, said Lieutenant Colonel Matthew Martin, the surgeon who treated him earlier this month at the 28th Combat Support Hospital in Baghdad.
A series of United States-led air and ground assaults in Iraqi flashpoints has killed at least 41 suspected rebels, the American military said on Tuesday. Eight militants were killed and 11 detained in separate ground and air assaults in Iraq’s northern province of Kirkuk and central province of Salaheddin, it said, adding that both operations were aimed at al-Qaeda.
An indefinite vehicle curfew was imposed on Baghdad from 6pm local time on Saturday to maintain security for an upcoming Shi’ite religious event, an Iraqi military spokesperson said. Brigadier General Qassim al-Moussawi said the curfew was put in place to protect citizens ahead of a pilgrimage to mark the birth of Imam Muhammad al-Mahdi, which falls early next week.
A former Iraqi lawmaker gave chilling testimony of torture and beatings at the trial on Wednesday of 15 aides of executed dictator Saddam Hussein, including the notorious ”Chemical Ali”, who are accused of crimes against humanity. ”I heard screams of pain as prisoners were beaten and tortured,” the witness said.
A helicopter went down in northern Iraq on Wednesday, killing all 14 United States soldiers aboard, the military said, the deadliest crash since January 2005. Iraqi security forces also faced more violence in northern Iraq, with a roadside bomb targeting a police patrol in the centre of Tikrit.
United States troops in Iraq launched a major assault against al-Qaeda-linked militants and alleged Iranian-aided extremist groups on Monday as a Sunni leader accused Iran of plotting genocide against his people. Operation Phantom Strike, the military announced, was being waged nationwide to disrupt Shi’ite extremist networks and insurgents affiliated to al-Qaeda.
Tens of thousands of Shi’ite pilgrims made their way on foot to a shrine in the north of Baghdad on Thursday, hoping for safety at an annual ritual marred by violence in the past two years. Two years ago, nearly 1Â 000 pilgrims were killed in a stampede on a bridge near the shrine, sparked by rumours of a suicide bomber.
United States forces said they killed 30 people in an air strike in Baghdad’s crowded Shi’ite slum of Sadr City on Wednesday, describing those killed as militants linked to Iran. Hospital officials put the death toll at at least 13. Hundreds of angry mourners later marched chanting through the streets of the slum after the raid on the eve of a major Shi’ite holy day.
As Iraqis queue forlornly for food and water, or swelter in homes and hospitals without electricity, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s coalition government is collapsing around him. The latest boycott brought to 17 the number of members of the Shi’ite-led coalition to have walked out, tendered their resignations or withdrawn from Cabinet meetings.
All six ministers from Iraq’s largest Sunni bloc tendered their resignation from Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s coalition government on Wednesday following a month-long spat. The decision by the National Concord Front effectively ends any claim by the Shi’ite-dominated coalition to be a government of national unity.
The death toll from an attack by a suicide bomber driving a fuel truck packed with explosives in western Baghdad on Wednesday rose to 50 people, police said. Another 60 were wounded in the attack in the Mansour district. Police said the bomber lured motorists queueing for petrol to his truck.
Car bombs killed 35 people across Baghdad on Wednesday, including one attack in which a suicide bomber killed 20 people and set a score of vehicles ablaze, police said. The spate of bombings followed a relative lull in violence in the capital that some have attributed to the increased presence of United States and Iraqi troops on the streets.
Militia crews firing mortars and rockets have been hitting Baghdad’s heavily protected Green Zone with more accuracy in the past three months because of training from Iran, a top United States general said on Thursday. The prize targets in the sprawling zone are the US embassy and Iraqi government buildings.
A parked car bomb killed 25 people and wounded 115 when it exploded near an intersection in central Baghdad on Thursday and police said the toll was likely to rise as many bodies were still buried under rubble. Bodies lay strewn around the street after the blast, which smashed three buildings into piles of masonry and concrete.
Gunfire erupted across Baghdad and Iraqis danced in the streets on Wednesday after their soccer team’s historic Asian Cup win, but two suicide car bombs marred the war-ravaged nation’s rare moment of unity. Police said a suicide car bomb exploded near a crowd of jubilant Iraqis, killing 30 and wounding 75 in Baghdad’s Mansour area.
At least 10 people were killed, including two Iraqi policemen, and 15 wounded in two separate car bombings in different areas of Baghdad’s central Karrada district on Monday, police said. Television pictures showed a line of burning cars in a narrow street as residents and shoppers ran for cover.
Sunni lawmakers ended their five-week boycott of Parliament on Thursday, raising hopes the factious Assembly can make progress on benchmark legislation demanded by Washington. Meanwhile, the United States announced that two American soldiers have been charged with killing an Iraqi.