December 4th 2006 Evening Round-Up Translated From Arabic

This Evening's Headlines On Aswat al Iraq and brief summaries of the stories translated from Arabic: Kut: Bomb attack former official in the Al-Salam district no casualties. Hit: American forces HQ west of the city of Hit in Anbar subjected to mortar fire. (That's the rail terminal west of the city - mfi) Basra The Director of cultivation in Basra called on the government to provide the funding to implement it's desertification rehabilitation project. Hilla 14 men were arrested in armed raids carried out this afternoon. Weaponry seized included machine guns , mortars and hand grenades, wires and bombs primed to explode. Basra A 3 day training course on human rights in Basra began today. Constitutional Commission They've postponed the consultative meeting on political aspects of the constitution (again! - mfi) until after the 20th of this month. Fallujah American troops opened fire indiscriminately after a patrol was attacked. A man and a child died as a result. Erbil The Korean troops have opened a tae kwan do training centre. (Before anyone asks no the kidnapped team still haven't been found. At this point we can assume those kids are dead. - mfi) Hilla Two green zone government policemen killed and a third wounded in a roadside bombing. Baghdad (Water) The first of the (al-Rasafa) three reservoirs originally planned for 1982 but postponed because of wars and sanctions are now authorised to be built. The plan is that in all the capacity will be increased by: 175,000 cubic meters. 120,000 cubic meters. 110,000 cubic meters. Hit 7 shop owners arrested in what appears to have been part of a concerted campaign by green zone government police. Mosul Two policemen shot. A woman active in Kurdish separatist politics shot dead in her home. Police Medals Baghdad Brigadier General Abdul Karim Khalaf dished out medals to the police team who rescued the University Associate Dean of the Faculty of Information (Dr. Khalaf - mfi) killing four of the kidnappers as they did so. Anfal Case A witness testified to the killing of 25 of his family in Sulamiyah by chemical weaponry. Falluja Haji Abdul Fayyad Halabusi together with foru of his sons and guests has been arrested. [I emailed Abbas who moderates here about this - His reply consisted of 2 words: "What again??" - mfi] 6 others arrested in another raid. As usual no statement from the Americans. Other coverage: Iraq unrest worse than civil war: Annan - PakTribune: LONDON: The unrest in Iraq is “much worse” than a civil war, United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan told the BBC in an interview to be broadcast on Monday (today). He said some Iraqis were right to think that they were worse off than under dictator Saddam Hussein, ousted from power after US-led forces invaded in March 2003. In full: PakTribune Hürriyet - Turkish official hit by bullet in garden of Baghdad embassy: Turkish official hit by bullet in garden of Baghdad embassy An official working in the Turkish Embassy in the Iraqi capital Baghdad was shot but not killed by a bullet on Saturday afternoon, according to a statement issued today by the Turkish Foreign Ministry in Ankara. Ozcan Sahin, the embassy official, was hit in the waist by a bullet while in the garden of the embassy on December 2. Brought to Ankara for surgery, Sahin's health condition was described now as "good" by the Foreign Ministry. Reuters AlertNet - CHRONOLOGY-Journalists killed in Iraq: CHRONOLOGY-Journalists killed in Iraq 04 Dec 2006 13:32:19 GMT Source: Reuters Dec 4 (Reuters) - Gunmen shot dead on Monday an Iraqi journalist working for a local radio station, an official at Dijla station said. Since the start of the March 2003 U.S.-led invasion, more than 100 reporters and media assistants, such as drivers and translators, have been killed in Iraq, most of them Iraqis. Following is a chronology of those reported killed in 2006: -- Jan. 24, 2006 - Mahmoud Za'al, who worked for Baghdad TV, is killed while filming an attack by U.S. forces in Ramadi. -- Feb. 22 - Gunmen kill Atwar Bahjat, a correspondent for Al Arabiya television, her cameraman, Khaled Al Falahi, and her soundman, Adnan Khairallah, as they filmed in Samarra. -- March 7 - Munsuf Abdallahal-Khaldi, a presenter with Baghdad TV, is shot dead as he was driving from the Iraqi capital to interview poets in the northern city of Mosul. -- March 11 - Gunmen kill Amjad Hameed, a senior editor for Iraqiya television, in central Baghdad. The military wing of the Mujahideen Council claims responsibility. -- March 13 - Muhsin Khudhair, editor of news magazine Alef Ba, is gunned down in Baghdad. -- May 29 - Cameraman Paul Douglas and soundman James Brolan, two British members of a CBS news crew are killed in a bomb attack on a U.S. military patrol in Baghdad. U.S. correspondent Kimberly Dozier is in critical condition. -- May 31 - Gunmen kill Ali Jaafar, a sports anchorman for Iraqiya television station, in Baghdad. -- July 30 - Riyad Muhammad Ali, a reporter for the local weekly Tal Afar al-Yawm, is shot dead in Mosul. -- Aug 1 - Adel al-Mansouri, a correspondent for al-Alam television station, an Iranian Arabic channel, is found dead in Baghdad. His body bore bullet wounds. -- Aug 7 - Mohammad Abbas Mohammad, editor for the Shiite-owned newspaper Al-Bayinnah Al-Jadida, is shot as he was leaving his home in the Adil section of western Baghdad. -- Aug 7 - The body of freelance journalist Ismail Amin Ali is discovered in Sadr city in Baghdad. -- Sept 12 - Hadi Anawi al-Joubouri, a journalist and representative of the Iraqi Journalists Syndicate for the eastern province of Diyala, is killed north of Baghdad. -- Sept 13 - Iraqi police report they have found the body of Safaa Ismail Inad, a journalist at al-Watan newspaper, near Sadr city in eastern Baghdad. -- Sept 18 - In Ramadi, gunmen kill Ahmed Riyadh al-Karbuli who worked for Baghdad TV, a satellite channel owned by the Sunni Iraqi Islamic Party. -- Nov 3 - Police in Baghdad find the body of freelance journalist Abdul Majeed Ismael Khalil. He was abducted in eastern Baghdad on Oct. 18. -- Nov 3 - Television journalist Ahmed Rasheed is killed in the Sunni district of Adamiya in Baghdad -- Nov 13 - Gunmen in Mosul kill Mohammed al-Ban, a cameraman for the TV station al-Sharqiya who also worked for local newspaper Al Masar. -- Nov 15 - Gunmen kill journalist Fadia Mohammed Ali and her driver on her way to the Al Masar newspaper in Mosul. -- Dec 4 - Gunmen shoot dead Iraqi journalist Nabil al Dulaimi working for a local radio station, Sources: Reuters, RSF: www.rsf.org/, CPJ: www.cpj.org World Crises | Reuters.co.uk: CHRONOLOGY-U.S. helicopter crashes in Iraq Mon 4 Dec 2006 13:28:39 GMT Dec 4 (Reuters) - One Marine was killed and three servicemen were missing after a U.S. helicopter with 16 people on board made an emergency landing in water in western Iraq on Sunday, the U.S. military said on Monday. Following is a list of some of the incidents involving U.S. helicopters in Iraq since 2005, when 30 U.S. Marines were killed. Jan. 26, 2005 - A U.S. CH53E transport helicopter crashes close to the Jordanian border in Anbar province, western Iraq, killing 30 Marines and one sailor. -- April 28 - Iraqi insurgents shoot down a Bulgarian Russian-built Mi-8 commercial helicopter with 11 people on board, including six Americans. The sole survivor, a Bulgarian crew member, is captured. -- Nov. 2 - A Super Cobra helicopter is shot down, killing the two Marine crewmen. Al Qaeda claim responsibility the next day. Jan. 8, 2006 - A UH-60 Black Hawk crashes near Mosul killing all 12 aboard which included eight service personnel and four civilians. -- Jan. 13 - Insurgents shoot down a U.S. military helicopter near the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, killing its two pilots. -- Jan. 16 - Both crew members are killed when their Apache attack helicopter comes down in swampland near Taji, north of Baghdad -- apparently brought down by a missile. -- April 1 - Two pilots are killed after their AH-64D Apache Longbow helicopter went down due to possible hostile fire west of Yusifiya 15 km (9 miles) south of Baghdad. -- May 14 - A U.S. helicopter is shot down during clashes near Yusifiya. Two soldiers are killed. -- Aug 8 - A U.S. Marine helicopter carrying a crew of six crashes in Anbar, west of Baghdad. Two crew are missing. -- Dec 4 - A twin-rotor Sea Knight carrying 16 people makes emergency landing on water in western Iraq, U.S. military says. One Marine is killed and three servicemen are missing. NOTES: Further details of U.S. military helicopters: Apache - Two crew; missile-firing main attack helicopter. Black Hawk - At least three crew; frontline helicopter, carries 11 combat troops into action; also medical evacuation. Chinook - Two crew; can carry up to 55 passengers or cargo; twin-engine, tandem-rotor, heavy-lift transport helicopter. Kiowa - Two crew; armed reconnaissance helicopter. Super Stallion - A Sikorsky CH53E Super Stallion is a three-engine, heavy-lift helicopter and has a crew of three and can carry up to 55 troops. markfromireland