Gunmen Kidnap Police Officer North Of Baghdad: Eye witnesses said that an armed group kidnapped a traffic police officer in the north of Baghdad. An witness told Voices of Iraq News Agency that they were dressed in civilian clothes and kidnapped him "under the threat of arms" from Aden plaza.
http://www.aswataliraq.info/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=32784
Najaf: Muqtada al-Sadr calls on Iraqis to demand the departure of the occupation from Iraq: Muqtada al-Sadr called on Iraqis to demand the departure of the occupation. Al-Sadr urged that all Iraqis irrespective of sect "unite [and] raise their voices united to tell the occupier 'get out.' " He also said that nobody had the right to extend the occupation that power was vested in the Iraqi people under God.
[see also news from English language sources below -mfi]
http://www.aswataliraq.info/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=32783
Kurdish Film Festival: Passport problems are stopping Kurdish directors and film stars from travelling to the Kurdish Film Festival to being held in London. [See English language item taken from Kurdish Media UK immediately below: - mfi]
http://www.aswataliraq.info/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=32782 The 4th London Kurdish Film Festival - London 8-14 December: The organizing committee for the Kurdish Film Festival is delighted to welcome you to the 4th London Kurdish Film Festival. It features a varied programme of over sixty films: fiction, documentary, animation, features and shorts. The festival was the first – and is now the largest – of all the Kurdish Film Festivals organised worldwide. The event will be enriched by discussions with the directors, filmmakers and actors themselves....... In full:
US Forces Kill Three In Fallujah: The American army said today, Sunday, that their troops killed three people suspected of being militants as they were planting an explosive device in Fallujah west of Baghdad. The army said in a statement that its forces killed three persons and destroyed two vehicles on Friday when members of the Marines saw the three planting a bomb under a tractor and large truck the Marines opened fire with light weapons and killed them. The statement added that members of the Marines destroyed the vehicle through "carefully targeted munitions from the air," which led to several secondary explosions. No reports of civilian casualties or casualties or damage to the American forces during the operation.
http://www.aswataliraq.info/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=32773
Weapons Cache Seized South Baghdad: A statement by the multinational forces today, Sunday, that a joint operation [in Southern Baghdad - mfi] on Friday led police to a cache of weapons. The seizure was based on information from citizens. Several houses and a mosque were searched and a weapons cache consisting of assault rifles and automatic weapons, 42 mortar shells, explosives and bombmaking materials were seized. The statement didn't make clear whether the cache was seized from the Mosque or one or more of the houses searched.
http://www.aswataliraq.info/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=32771
Sadr City Raid: This is a "follow up/summary" story and deals with the arrest of six persons, including the commander of "rogue group" accused of running a punishment squad. It doesn't add any details to the story posted by Laith and his son in their posting Saturday December 9th Iraq News Translated from Arabic yesterday they linked to this story "US, Iraqi forces detain aide of Shiite radical leader" on yahoo news.
http://www.aswataliraq.info/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=32769
Kirkuk. Weapons Cache Seized: Bakery Attacked one Worker Killed : Gunmen attacked a bakery South of Kirkuk and killed one worker.
A weapons cache was seized in Khada Edakouk 30 km south of Kirkuk including; ammunition, 96 anti-tank rockets, 15 mortar shells and 7 mm cannon.
http://www.aswataliraq.info/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=32792
Breaking:Wasit governorate council have suspended all contact and cooperation with the American occupation.
http://www.aswataliraq.info/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=32811
Eye witness reports say that American forces have shelled Dora
http://www.aswataliraq.info/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=32806 News From English Language SourcesReuters AlertNet - FACTBOX-Security developments in Iraq, Dec 10: Dec 10 (Reuters) - Following are security and other developments in Iraq as of 0800 GMT on Sunday:
BAGHDAD - Shi'ite militias attacked Sunni homes in Baghdad's religiously mixed Hurriya district on Saturday, Interior Ministry officials and witnesses said. More than 30 families fled after the militias torched homes and killed at least one person, witnesses and officials said.
BAGHDAD - A total of 40 bodies -- many of them shot and tortured -- were found across Baghdad on Saturday, an Interior Ministry source said.
BAGHDAD - A mortar round landed on Kadhimiya district in northwestern Baghdad, killing two people and wounding two others on Saturday, an Interior Ministry source said.
MOSUL - A hospital source said they received the bodies of two policemen and a soldier with gunshot wounds on Saturday.
BAGHDAD - Clashes erupted between Shi'ite militias and a Sunni tribe in Amil district in southwestern Baghdad on Saturday, an Interior Ministry source said, adding fighting continued on Sunday.
BAGHDAD - Shi'ite militias attacked Sunni families in Adil district, western Baghdad, an Interior Ministry source said.
KIRKUK - Gunmen attacked a hairdresser's shop and killed its owner on Saturday in the ethnically mixed city of Kirkuk, 250 km (155 miles) north of Baghdad, police said. Reuters AlertNet - Gunmen kill two Shi'ite families in Baghdad massacre: (Updates with background)
BAGHDAD, Dec 10 (Reuters) - Gunmen stormed into the homes of two Shi'ite families in a predominantly Sunni Arab district of Baghdad on Sunday, killing nine people, police said.
Police said about 20 gunmen had killed a father and three sons of one family and five brothers of another. No women were hurt in the attack in the southwestern Jihad district.
On Saturday Shi'ite militiamen raided the religiously mixed Hurriya district in western Baghdad, killing two people and forcing dozens of Sunni families to flee, police and witnesses said.
In July, militiamen rampaged through Jihad, shooting at least 42 people. Many of the victims were killed after being pulled from their cars at fake police checkpoints.
U.S. officials have warned that attacks by al Qaeda militants and reprisals by Shi'ite militias have sparked a vicious cycle of revenge killings that threaten to destroy Iraq. U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan has joined some commentators in describing the conflict as a civil war. [As usual the Americans flat out refuse to admit that it they who started the civil and they who are funding the most savagely vicious death squad of all.]
The country has been gripped by rampant violence, which the United Nations estimates kill as many as 120 people a day, since the bombing of an important Shi'ite shrine in February. [See: AFP Report below - As a general rule AFP reports tend to be more accurate and less blatantly biased - mfi ]
Reuters AlertNet - ANALYSIS-Iraq sectarian violence casts shadow over Lebanon: BEIRUT, Dec 10 (Reuters) - Unrelenting violence in Iraq has raised sectarian tensions across the Middle East and is polarising communities in Lebanon, a volatile country peppered with political and religious divisions.
The Lebanese opposition, spearheaded by the Shi'ite Islamist group Hezbollah, has besieged government headquarters in the heart of Beirut since Dec. 1 as part of a campaign to unseat Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, who is a Sunni Muslim.
Some analysts say the power struggle, complicated by conflicting foreign loyalties, could trigger Lebanon's third civil war since it won independence in 1943.
But whereas the last civil war started out in 1975 primarily as a fight between Christian and Muslim militia, the main faultline now lies between the Sunnis and Shi'ites, with the chaos in Iraq exacerbating tensions on the streets of Beirut. Reuters AlertNet - ANALYSIS- In full:
[I disagree strongly with the premise of this analysis that this is primarily a sectarian conflict in Lebanon - Like it or not the Hizb have a significant amount of support amongst the Christian community and is allied to a Christian party. Saniora and the so called "14th march movement" and the so-called "Cedar revolution" represent the pro-American/pro-Saudi wealthy and upper middle class and depend upon their support to remain in power. I don't see this situation lasting or Saniora's government surviving, and it could well lead to civil war. There's a lot of good information there but handle the quotes from the western analysts with care - mfi]
Gunmen kill nine members of two Baghdad Shiite families - Yahoo! News:  Arabic language report of this protest here:
BAGHDAD (AFP) - Some 13 people have been killed in Baghdad, including nine Shiites in a sectarian attack against two families.
Attackers broke into a home in the southwestern Jihad neighbourhood and shot dead five Shiite brothers, one of them a policeman, after separating them from their sisters, the official said. The women were unharmed Sunday.
In another similar attack, gunmen entered a house of another Shiite family in the same area and killed a man and his three sons.
"Both were Shiite families," the official said, suggesting the attack was sectarian in nature and carried out by Sunni extremists.
The two families were unrelated, the official added, and it was not known whether the gunmen were from the same group.
Clashes between Shiite militiamen and members of the Sunni Janabat tribe in the nearby Al-Amil neighbourhood were also reported on Sunday.
Three civilians were wounded in the clashes the official said and added that the area had been secured by Iraqi police.
Southwestern Baghdad is a mixture of affluent Sunnis, poor Shiites and then farther to the south, Sunni tribesmen -- resulting in constant clashes between Sunni and Shiite gunmen.
Meanwhile, police Colonel Yarub Khazal from the security team of former deputy prime minister Ahmed Chalabi was shot dead by gunmen as he was driving his car in west Baghdad's Yarmuk neighbourhood, the security official added.
In the same area a roadside bomb exploded as an Iraqi army patrol passed, wounding three soldiers.
In the central city of Tikrit police said gunmen shot dead a security guard from a local hospital while he was on his way to work, while in the northern oil city of Kirkuk gunmen shot dead a barber.
Police recovered three headless corpses from nothern Baghdad's Al-Hurriyah neighbourhood, the security official said.
The US military said joint US and Iraqi forces launched an operation in Baghdad's restive northern Sunni district of Adhamiyah on Sunday in a bid to "reduce sectarian violence and insurgency activities."
"In a coordinated effort dubbed Operation Cougar Iraqi security forces and coalition forces are conducting a cordon-and-clear operation in Adhamiyah early this morning with Iraqi police forces providing perimeter checkpoint security," the military reported.
It said the operation was part of an ongoing effort by the security ministries to establish "security for the local residents in eastern Baghdad."
Adhamiyah is a regular site of clashes between insurgents and security forces.
Anti-U.S. cleric criticizes Iraqi gov't - Yahoo! News: By ABDUL-HUSSEIN AL-OBEIDI, Associated Press Writer 13 minutes ago
NAJAF, Iraq - Anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr sharply criticized Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government on Sunday and once again demanded that all foreign troops leave the country.
Al-Sadr's criticism comes at a time when relations between his Sadrist movement and al-Maliki's coalition government he supports are at a low ebb, with the prime minister coming under mounting pressure to end his alliance with the radical Shiite cleric.
Thirty lawmakers and five Cabinet ministers loyal to al-Sadr are boycotting the government and parliament to protest al-Maliki's recent summit with
President Bush in neighboring Jordan. They have said they will not lift their boycott until a timetable is announced for the withdrawal of U.S.-led coalition troops from
Iraq.
Al-Maliki, himself a Shiite, criticized the Sadrists for their action, saying it is disloyal to the governing coalition.
Al-Sadr, in a statement issued Sunday in the Shiite holy city of Najaf south of Baghdad, said al-Maliki's government has no right to go it alone. Nor should it have sought the
U.N. Security Council's recent renewal of the mandate of the multinational forces in Iraq. Such a move should have been taken by "the people," a reference to the 275-seat parliament, the cleric said.
Alluding to al-Maliki's summit with Bush, al-Sadr said: "Yesterday's friends are today's enemies, and yesterday's enemies are today's friends." He also criticized the Iraqi government's widely reported contacts with leaders of
Saddam Hussein's outlawed Baath party as part of its efforts to reach national reconciliation.
"Baath has been our enemy. Now it sits to talk with our friends," he said.
Al-Sadr, whose Mahdi Army militia fought American troops for most of 2004, said a report by a bipartisan commission on Iraq was designed to "divide and finish us."
He did not elaborate, but the Iraq Study Group report released Wednesday recommended the disbanding of all militias in Iraq and that the United States should offer financial and technical support to the Iraqi government in implementing a "program to disarm, demobilize and reintegrate militia members."
Afterword:Hey ho here we go again. I routinely get complaints (which I can't be arsed to either respond to or publish from commenters here that I'm Anti-American.) Recently the number of such comments has soared. The commenters making these complaints are either too stupid too lazy (or both) to notice that the postings about which they are complaining the most are written by Iraqis living in Iraq. Tracing these comments IP addresses (yes I can do that) turns up the interesting information that most of them originate from Texas. Mostly coming in from dial-up lines and mostly from Subliterate-Rednecks-On-line.net oops sorry that should have read bellsouth.net. For the record: Yes I AM anti-American. America invaded Iraq illegally for its own selfish purposes based upon a pack of lies. For its own selfish thieving purposes America has conducted a savagely vicious campaign of occupation against the Iraqi people, including routine artillery attacks against civilians including the use of phosphorus rounds in such quantity that the effect is that of using a chemical weapon, routine airstrikes against civilians, taking children hostage to force their families to surrender, denial of food to entire civilian populations, denial of water to entire civilian populations, denial of medicines to entire civilian populations, torture, sexual assault against civilians and I include in that the sexual assault of imprisoned children. For its own selfish thieving purposes America has trained and funded the most savagely vicious of the deathsquads now operating in Iraq. For its own selfish thieving purposes America is trying to divide the country by promoting civil war. It's a tribute to the decency and the courage of most of the Iraqi people that the revoltingly barbaric and viciously racist campaign being waged against them by America for its own selfish thieving purposes has thus far failed to achieve its goals. That courage and decency is shared by those few, those very few, Americans who campaigned against this disgusting and evil American war against the people of Iraq from the start - it's a sad commentary on the State of American society that they're in such a minority. I and the Iraqis who write here are pro-life, anti-rape, anti-torture, anti-theft, anti-sectarian, anti-murder. Because of how your country has behaved and continues to behave in Iraq that means that these days we're Anti-America. Stop whining and get used to it. markfromireland |
