44 Killed in Baghdad Bombings

The left panel in the graphic above shows the scene of the today's bombing in Sadr city. Most people in Sadr city are poor. Most cook using parafin (kerosene) stoves. If you have ever seen the queues for parafin in Sadr city you know that they consist almost entirely of women and children. Women and children were the targets for this bombing. Tallying the various reports I get a total of 35 confirmed killed and 38 confirmed seriously wounded in this attack. The child in the second panel is eight year old Abbas Abid, he was wounded by a mortar attack on the apartment block in which he lives this morning. Also in Baghdad a second bombing this time a motorbike bombing took place targetting a restauruant. That attack killed at least nine and injured eight others three of whom are not expected to survive. A group of eight people were shot as they put up posters near the Othman mosque in Neayriya. The mosque was later shelled with mortars. Du

Another Reason To Like Penguins

Because one of them has saved me the trouble of saying this: "Israel currently uses more water per household than ten households in the surrounding countries use. They are the Americans of the Middle East, gluttons who are addicted to an unsustainable lifestyle that can be maintained only via theft and force of arms. If the U.S. went into Iraq for the oil (even just to keep said oil off the market to insure higher prices for U.S. oil companies), it is clear that Israel went into Lebanon for more reasons than just a couple of captured Israeli soldiers (soldiers captured, I might add, in the midst of constant Israeli incursions into Lebanon that had resulted in the deaths of multiple Lebanese citizens guilty of nothing except being in the wrong place at the wrong time -- over a dozen Israeli violations of Lebanese territory had been protested to the United Nations over the six months prior to the capture of the Israeli soldiers). The fact that they failed to attain the Litani River, their clear and obvious goal (in order to divert its waters to Israel) must rankle them greatly, but they're stealing whatever water they can from places they did attain" … … In the end, they are bad neighbors, and for the most part bad people. I'm sorry, but if you are selfish, small-minded, oblivious, and willfully ignorant of the world outside your own immediate surroundings, you are a bad person, period -- no matter how often you go to church or how kind you are to children in your own neighborhood." -- Badtux the Opinionated Penguin Du

A Christian's Memorys of Ramadan

This year Ramadan starts on September 24th. Some people think of it as being similar to Lent. Not so! It's a time of joy and celebration for Muslims. Except for Saudi Arabia I've never once heard a Muslim ever say or behave as though it were an onerous and reluctantly undertaken duty. Whereas I - like any Catholic child I suppose, thought that Lent was a pain and coudn't wait for it to be over. Lent in Lebanon was terrible all those sweets I couldn't eat, and all those pesky Muslim friends who (very nicely but very firmly) helped me keep my lenten vow. I especially didn't like it that the old gentleman who stood outside the school selling sweets used to wave me away whenever I approached. I was the only Christian in that school so playbreaks during lent really taught me the meaning of the word "temptation." There's a huge range of dishes that are traditionally eaten during Ramadan. The photograph to the left shows some sweets. My childhood memorys of Ramadan are very happy ones. Children before the age of puberty are of course exempt from fasting. And in any case as a foreigner, and a Christian, living in Lebanon I was even more exempt. But it was considered polite not to stuff your face in public during the fast. In the evening I got lots of chances to eat my self silly and did. I don't think there was ever a Ramadan evening that we ate at home. We lived in a mostly Muslim area, we were the only Christians in two blocks. All our neighbours used to invite us to come and share their evening meal with us after the first year they worked out a rota of who would invite us on which evening so that nobody felt left out. The Lebanese are very hospitable anyway but we were made to feel even more welcome than usual. For me the main meal would usually end with me being brought from one house to another so that I could sample the various desserts. I quickly learnt that it was a good idea to fast a bit during the day anyway or else my stomach would run out of space long before I'd had a chance to try everything. The procedings usually ended with either dad or the one of the men of the family we'd being eating with having to carry to me home. Often it was a question of me waking up at home the next morning and ..... "Oh,I must have gone to sleep." Very luxurious :-) "Ramadan Chicken" Here's a main meal that "maman" used to cook for Dad and myself often at Ramadan. It will serve four adults. The Ingredients 12 chicken thighs 2 lemons, 4 table spoons of dark brown sugar 4 table spoons white vinegar - Note to readers in the UK "white vinegar" does NOT mean that disgusting malt vinegar stuff. Save that for stripping paint. 4 table spoons of water 500 grams grammes of dried figs (that is a little more than a 8 0unces) A little salt. 1 teaspoon dried parsley 1 tablespoon fresh parsley A little oil. I like to use grapeseed oil. "Maman" regards grapeseed oil as an abomination and uses Lebanese olive oil. The Recipe Soak the figs overnight so that they become plump. Discard the soaking water pat the figs dry. Brush the chicken thighs with the oil. Heat an oven to 200° centigrade (400° Fahrenheit) Put the chicken thighs into a medium size roasting dish and put them in the oven to start them cooking. Take a small mixing bowl. Cut one of the lemons in half and squeeze it completely dry into the bowl. Add the sugar vinegar and water and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Slice the other lemon very very thinly. After 15 minutes take the chicken out of the oven and put the thighs on a plate. Put the figs and the sliced lemom into the roasting dish and mix them up. Then pat them down so that they cover the base of the dish evenly. Put the thighs on top. Pour the lemon/vinegar/sugar mix over the chicken thighs and figs. Sprinkle the dried parsley over the thighs. Put the roasting dish back into the oven. Baste frequently Turn the dish around after 25 minutes. After about 40 minutes check the dish - if the figs are starting to go brown turn them over. The dish is usually ready after 50 minutes but that depends on your particular oven. When the thighs are cooked remove them and the figs from the dish using a slotted spoon and put them onto a warmed plate. Skim the fat from juices in the roasting dish and pour it over the the thighs. Serve with the chopped parsley sprinkled over it. Rice cooked however you like it is a good accompanyment to this. How I like it is with cold rice that has raisins and almond flakes added and that is how I am going to serve it to Mrs. Dubhaltach and our guests tomorrow evening. I've also had chicken cooked this way with dried apricots which are sometimes easier to get than dried figs depending on where you live. I won't be online on Sunday so I will take this chance to say "Ramadan Kareem" to all our Muslim readers. Du

Burns

Two civilians were killed and 11 wounded this morning in a car bomb attack in Hurriyah northern Baghdad. AP are reporting that the target was an electricity office. I doubt this, there's a fairly large market in Hurriyah beside where the bombing took place I think that was the more likely target. I'm sometimes asked why I chose to be a felix. My reply is that anyone who lived as a child in Lebanon and had Lebanese friends saw at first hand how being injured in a bombing could cause you pain and grief for the rest of your life. Bombs don't just inflict blast and shrapnel wounds upon their victims. If you're unlucky enough to be close to the blast they also burn you. In the photogaph to the left a medic is checking the hand of a man unfortunate enough to have been in precisely this situation in the Hurriyah bombing today. Dubhaltach

Stop Killing Journalists

markfromireland

Parental Discipline

I see Juan Cole has mentioned this AP article - go read the whole thing first: Young children fight U.S. troops in Iraq By ANTONIO CASTANEDA ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Shiite militias are encouraging children - some as young as 6 or 7 - to hurl stones and gasoline bombs at U.S. convoys, hoping to lure American troops into ambushes or provoke them into shooting back, U.S. soldiers say. Gangs of up to 100 children assemble in Sadr City, stronghold of radical anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and his Mahdi Army militia, and in nearby neighborhoods, U.S. officers said in interviews this week. Full text of AP article on Yahoo News. Full text of AP article on Seattle PI Intelligencer. Here's what Juan has to say about the story: "Speaking of the Mahdi Army militia, AP says that it is now using children against US troops in Sadr City." I'd love to know what the hell AP thought they were doing circulating this piece of codswallop and I'm astonished that Juan gives it face value. The kindest explanation is that it was written by a reporter who has spent very little time in Iraq and who has never been to al-Thawra before. There's nothing even remotely new about Iraqi kids throwing stones - sometimes quite large stones - at American occupying troops. Talk to anybody who has been part of the occupying forces in any large Iraqi town let alone somewhere the size of Sadr city and they'll tell you that Iraqi kids throw stones at them. Every trip I've taken to Iraq since the Americans invaded I've seen kids, sometimes very young kids, throwing stones at Americans. What the hell do you expect? Treating people who have already suffered apallingly as a result of how your country has behaved as inferior beings is not going to make them like you. I don't doubt for a moment that older boys and adults are encouraging the kids in Sadr city to stone the American troops. Americans are hated in Iraq and are going to continue to hated for a very long time. As to this: "Other Iraqi adults have been more helpful. After several rocks were thrown at passing U.S. vehicles in Shaab, soldiers followed one child home. When soldiers told his mother what had happened, she slapped her son across the face in front of them." Excuse me a moment I need to roll around on the floor for a few minutes … … … bwaaaahahahahahaha … … … phew I needed that. Antonio old chum you're an eedjit. I couldn't resist sending the complete text of your article to every single Iraqi I know this morning with that paragraph bolded and increased in size: like this Their unanimous reaction was the same as mine. She slapped his face for being thick witted enough to get caught not for chucking stones at your troops. Three of them reminded me of what I said back in March when discussing al-Amarah: "Actually the stone throwing mob consisted almost entirely of children. Did I mention that Al Amarah's kind of an old-fashioned place and that adults there have kind of old-fashioned ideas about parental discipline? Al Amarah's kind of an old-fashioned place, adults there have kind of old-fashioned ideas about parental discipline - you can take it that those children's parents were considerably less than disapproving of their children being part of that stone throwing mob. "Al Amarah, on the river Tigris, south of Baghdad, has been the scene of trouble before, with both local rioting and insurgent attacks. The fact is that from the shortly after the British arrived to "take control of Al Amarah there's been repeated rioting, shooting at troops, attempts to bomb British convoys, and attacks on their compound at Camp Abu Naji* outside the town. The invaders aren't popular, invaders rarely are. " markfromireland

Diwaniya Peace Agreement

منع المظاهر المسلحة ومحاسبة مثيري الفتنة - التيار الصدري يوافق علي خطة المالكي لاستعادة أمن الديوانية الديوانية ــ الزمان وافق التيار الصدري الذي يترأسه مقتدي الصدر علي مبادرة رئيس الوزراء العراقي نوري المالكي لانهاء العنف في الديوانية، فيما وقع ممثلون عن القوي والاحزاب في المدينة علي خطة انهاء العنف التي اقترحتها لجنة شكلها المالكي لوضع حد نهائي للأوضاع المتدهورة في المدينة. وتقضي الخطة بمنع المظاهر المسلحة في المدينة ومحاسبة المقصرين الذين أثاروا الفتنة. واكدت انه لا توجد خطوط حمراء للاجهزة الامنية وبامكانها اعتقال المشتبهين في المدينة وعدم استقدام اي جهة سياسية او دينية الا عن طريق الدولة واجهزتها ووقف الهجمات علي القوات الامريكية في الاحياء السكنية وعدم قصف مواقعها لعدم اعطائها المبرر لاجتياح المدينة كما نصت الخطة علي ايقاف الاغتيالات. وكان قد عقد في الديوانية التي شهدت اعمال عنف واشتباكات بين جيش المهدي وقوات مشتركة عراقية امريكية اجتماع أمني ضم مستشاري رئيس الوزراء لشؤون العشائر وعشائر المحافظة وممثلين عن الاحزاب للتوصل الي حل للازمة الامنية في المدينة. من جانبه طالب الشيخ عبد الرزاق النداوي مدير مكتب الصدر في الديوانية بتعويض المتضررين جراء الاشتباكات ونقل القاعدة العسكرية التابعة للقوات المتعددة الجنسية الي خارج الديوانية، ووقف مداهمة اعضاء التيار الصدري في المدن. وكانت قوات امريكية داهمت في النهضة الواقعة شمال شرق الديوانية واجرت عمليات تفتيش كما استمرت هذه القوات في تسير دوريات في شوارع المدينة خاصة منطقتي العروبة والجزائر. وكانت عشائر الديوانية استنجدت بالحكومة العراقية لتخليص المدينة من سيطرة المليشيات واتهمتها في رسالة الي رئيس الوزراء بالقيام باعمال القتل والاختطاف والسرقة. وسبق لوزير الدفاع العراقي عبد القادر جاسم ان اعلن ان ثلاثة عشر من جنود الجيش العراقي الجديد قتلوا علي ايدي المليشيات بعد اسرهم اثر نفاذ ذخائرهم خلال معارك جرت قبل اسبوعين. واتفقت عشائر الديوانية علي رفض استخدام العنف واعتماد مشروع المصالحة وايقاف عمليات التهجير القسري التي شهدتها خلال الاشهر الستة الماضية واضطرت فيها عشرات الآلاف من السكان لمغادرة المحافظة الي اماكن اخري في العراق. Azzaman International Newspaper - Issue 2505 - Date 19/9/2006 جريدة »الزمان« الدولية - العدد 2505 - التاريخ 19/8/2006 Main Points: No further armed demonstrations in the town. No "red lines" for the security services - who are to be permitted to arrest suspects. Only the state organs may conduct arrests. Attacks against American forces in residential neighborhoods and shelling their positions to cease. markfromireland

Committees of Public Safety

Back on July 25th in "It's Election Season In America" I made a passing reference to Al-Hakim's proposals to set up neighbourhood watch committees: Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, had urged the creation of "people's committees." - If you think this sounds suspiciously like "Committee of Public Safety" you'd be right. SCIRI have been quietly pushing this ever since. Today's London Times has a report on their progress to date. Shia community watchdogs 'will spy for death squads' From Hassan Jarah in Najaf and Ned Parker in Baghdad A POWERFUL Iraqi Shia political party has set up neighbourhood watch groups, which Sunni politicians fear will feed intelligence to death squads. The "popular committees" have been established in Najaf by the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (Sciri) without the Government's permission. It has ignored the commitment of Nouri al-Maliki, the Prime Minister, to dismantle the country's militias, which have infiltrated security forces and helped to push Iraq to the brink of civil war. The Sciri has its own 15,000-man militia, the Badr Corps, which Sunnis blame, along with the radical Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army, for much of Iraq's sectarian violence. Sunnis are threatening to form their own citizen groups. "Sciri's proposal aims to bring new militias into communities. This is unacceptable," said the MP Ayad al- Samarrai, who belongs to Iraq's largest Sunni political group, the Islamic Party. [snip] In the Shia holy city of Najaf, the council has not waited for the Government's reply. The party has already sent the committees out on to the streets. Committee members told The Times that more than 150 people had enlisted. They said that the groups were divided into 10-man squads, including a cell leader. Members receive a $50 (£26) monthly salary and the squad leader receives $100. The groups hold weekly meetings with the Badr Corps and relay intelligence about suspicious visitors to neighbourhoods, they said. The committees started work 20 days ago for the Muslim holiday, Isra and Miraj, which commemorates the Muslim prophet Mohammed's ascension to heaven. The Sciri is apparently using the committees to make inroads into the territory of its Shia political rival, Moqtada al-Sadr, whose Madhi Army has thousands of recruits. It has established a popular committee in the al-Sadr stronghold of Kufa, which neighbours Najaf. Falah Abdul Majid Qassim, a Sciri committee member in Kufa, said: "Our tasks will be to observe the performance of the police and the security services and also to provide basic services for locals." Some Najaf and Kufar residents are worried that the new watchdog groups will only make their lives more dangerous. Hider Mohammed Jasim, a 30-year-old labourer, said: "It may have its positive impact but its negative ones will be much bigger. It might help in securing some areas but if the situation remained unstable then we will have dangerous clashes between these different groups like these public committees and Mahdi Army. " Link to article. (Emphasis mine - mfi) Where these committees are operating is important. The three holy cities of Karbala, Najaf, and Kufa are in close proximity to one another, it's impossible to overstate their significance to the Shia - a quick reminder. Karbala is dedicated to Ḥusayn ibn 'Alī ibn Abī Ṭālib (Imam Husayn). Najaf is dedicated to Alī ibn Abī Tālib (Imam Ali) and is the centre of Shia political power in Iraq. Kufa was founded by Sa'ad ibn Abi Waqqas (one of the companions of the prophet) and was Imam Ali's capital. Imam Ali was murdered there by Kharajites while he was performing morning prayers in the mosque. Of the three Kufa is the poorest and Muqdata al-Sadr who often preaches there has a considerable presence in the town. It's been the scene of several bombing attacks. The attack on Iranian Pilgrims on July 6th, and the attack on labourers gathering to seek jobs on July 18th were the two most serious and (as with the attacks on Sadr city,) both attacks were aimed at undermining Al-Sadr's movement. There's an intense struggle going on between al-Hakim who is backed by the "old guard" establishment and the American occupiers and al-Sadr. Al-Sadr's movement speaks to, and for, the poor and disenfranchised Shia who believe that only the Sadrists have an agenda to alleviate their economic and social plight. That's why Falah Abdul Majid Qassim made that point about providing basic services for the locals in Kufa. Al-Hakim has fairly solid support in both Najaf and Karbala. Both of those cities are very prosperous largely because so many pilgrims go there. His support in Kufa is lot shakier, he's taking a leaf out of al-Sadr's book and creating a movement that supplies "cradle to grave" services. What the Times is reporting is the opening move in that strategy. markfromireland

What We Did There Was Crazy And Monstrous

Deadly harvest: The Lebanese fields sown with cluster bombs Lebanese villagers must risk death in fields 'flooded' with more than a million Israeli cluster bombs - or leave crops to rot By Patrick Cockburn in Nabatiyeh Published: 18 September 2006 The war in Lebanon has not ended. Every day, some of the million bomblets which were fired by Israeli artillery during the last three days of the conflict kill four people in southern Lebanon and wound many more. The casualty figures will rise sharply in the next month as villagers begin the harvest, picking olives from trees whose leaves and branches hide bombs that explode at the smallest movement. Lebanon's farmers are caught in a deadly dilemma: to risk the harvest, or to leave the produce on which they depend to rot in the fields. [snip] Some Israeli officers are protesting at the use of cluster bombs, each containing 644 small but lethal bomblets, against civilian targets in Lebanon. A commander in the MLRS (multiple launch rocket systems) unit told the Israeli daily Haaretz that the army had fired 1,800 cluster rockets, spraying 1.2 million bomblets over houses and fields. "In Lebanon, we covered entire villages with cluster bombs," he said. "What we did there was crazy and monstrous." What makes the cluster bombs so dangerous is that 30 per cent of the bomblets do not detonate on impact. They can lie for years - often difficult to see because of their small size, on roofs, in gardens, in trees, beside roads or in rubbish - waiting to explode when disturbed. [snip] "For us, the war is still going on, though there was a cease-fire on 14 August," said Dr Hassan Wazni, the director of the hospital. "If the cluster bombs had all exploded at the time they landed, it would not be so bad, but they are still killing and maiming people." The bomblets may be small, but they explode with devastating force. On the morning of the ceasefire, Hadi Hatab, an 11-year old boy, was brought dying to the hospital. "He must have been holding the bomb close to him," Dr Wazni said. "It took off his hands and legs and the lower part of his body." [snip] Israeli bombs and shells have turned about a third of the houses in Yohmor into concrete sandwiches, one floor falling on top of another under the impact of explosions. Some families camp in the ruins. Villagers said that they were most worried by the cluster bombs still infesting their gardens, roofs and fruit trees. In the village street, were the white vehicles of the Manchester-based Mines Advisory Group (MAG), whose teams are trying to clear the bomblets. It is not an easy job. Whenever members of one of the MAG teams finds and removes a bomblet, they put a stick, painted red on top and then yellow, in the ground. There are so many of these sticks that it looks as if some sinister plant had taken root and is flourishing in the village. [snip] Frederic Gras, a de-mining expert formerly in the French navy, who is leading the MAG teams in Yohmor, says: "In the area north of the Litani river, you have three or four people being killed every day by cluster bombs. The Israeli army knows that 30 per cent of them do not explode at the time they are fired so they become anti-personnel mines." Why did the Israeli army do it? The number of cluster bombs fired must have been greater than 1.2 million because, in addition to those fired in rockets, many more were fired in 155mm artillery shells. One Israeli gunner said he had been told to "flood" the area at which they were firing but was given no specific targets. M. Gras, who personally defuses 160 to 180 bomblets a day, says this is the first time he seen cluster bombs used against heavily populated villages. An editorial in Haaretz said that the mass use of this weapon by the Israeli Defence Forces was a desperate last-minute attempt to stop Hizbollah's rocket fire into northern Israel. Whatever the reason for the bombardment, the villagers in south Lebanon will suffer death and injury from cluster bombs as they pick their olives and oranges for years to come. markfromireland

It's Time To Outlaw These Ruthless Killers

Thomas Nash: It's time to outlaw these ruthless killers Published: 18 September 2006 I was in Lebanon in July 2005 on a trip to document the residual problem from cluster bombs used in 1978 and 1982. Unexploded cluster munitions were still claiming lives more than two decades after that conflict. I recently returned from another trip to Lebanon where I saw that a whole new wave of devastation from cluster bombs is beginning. The use of cluster munitions in Lebanon was an outrage. It was known before they were used that they would kill and injure civilians in populated areas because of their inaccurate dispersal pattern. It was known that cluster munitions would leave hundreds of their submunitions unexploded to terrorise civilians returning to rebuild their lives. With a ceasefire in sight, Israel launched millions of cluster bomblets throughout towns and villages in the last 72 hours of the war. The mounting toll of civilian deaths and injuries and the deadly unexploded ordnance contamination that will blight Lebanon for years to come were all predictable, foreseeable and preventable. Most of the submunitions used in Lebanon look like torch batteries with ribbons and others look like tennis balls. They are a deadly attraction for children who make up about 30 per cent of the casualties. [snip] This year, even before the tragedies in Lebanon, Belgium banned the weapon and Norway declared a moratorium on its use. Austria, Denmark, Ireland, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland are all calling for an international instrument, such as a convention on cluster munitions. Other user states, such as the UK, refuse even to discuss cluster munitions in international forums. [snip] The massacre at My Lai spurred the public conscience to put an end not only to the Vietnam War, but also to the use of napalm, the incendiary weapon. The toll from landmines in Cambodia, Angola and Afghanistan prompted some countries to embark on a new process that banned landmines. The civilian toll from cluster munitions in Lebanon may turn out to be a similar turning point. Thomas Nash is the co-ordinator at Cluster Munition Coalition, stopclustermunitions.org markfromireland

Dancing For Joy

The captions supplied with these two photographs are very revealing: An Iraqi boy reacts in front of a burning vehicle, in Baghdad, Iraq, Monday Sept. 18, 2006. A roadside bomb targeting a convoy of foreign private security guards, exploded late Sunday, damaging one of their vehicles and injuring two occupants, police said. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban) Iraqis dance in front a burnt vehicle, in Baghdad, Iraq, Monday Sept. 18, 2006. A roadside bomb targeting a convoy of foreign private security guards, exploded late on Sunday evening damaging one of their vehicles and injuring two occupants, police said. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban) Yes it's ugly. Don't even think of criticising them. Their home has been brutalised for years, their families starved, their loved ones slaughtered, they've been treated with brutality and contempt by America and her allies all their lives. Did you expect them to love you? It will be generations before the evil unleashed by decades of Western racist corrupt thieving brutality dies down - and that's an optimistic estimate. Me? My attitude to mercenaries is well known. There's no difference between a mercenary and a mafia hitman. I shed no tears when a mercenary meets their fate. markfromireland Update: Doing a bit of reading around it appears that the attack on the mercenary convoy was in Ad-Dora as I keep on pointing out that's the same Ad-Dora that's been "pacified" repeatedly and is under "special protection." -mfi

Helping Fill In The Gaps

Via a comment of his on Juan Cole's place I've just discovered Badger's new blog "Missing Links" which Badger describes as; "News items from the Arabic-language press to help fill in the gaps." I'm impressed. The articles he's selected are well worth reading both in their own right and as indicators of what's drawing attention in the Arabic language media - and his analysis is well argued. In short "Missing Links" is a resource for people who want to be able to make up their minds on the basis of information. Here's what he's posted thus far: Strongman Al-Hayat focuses on the question who is feeding the flames of Sunni-Shiite antagonism US Media waiting for the authorized spin on this one High- and Low-Tension Versions of a Border Incident The Peace Process Parallel Universes Parallel Universes, part II What's the Policy? James Baker offers assurances; Rumsfeld says "No appeasement" Head on over and start reading. markfromireland

Diwaniya Update

On Thursday I wrote about the situation in Diwaniya ( See: "If fighting erupts again, and this is very likely, we will have a very bad situation" ) according to this report from Al-Sabah Al-Jadeed the situation there at present is as follows: The city is under a renewed curfew since yesterday. American and Iraqi forces have blocked access to the city. American and Iraqi forces are now engaged in house to house searches. Apparently concentrating upon the districts of Askri, Jumhori, and Nahdha. According to the paper several people have been arrested during the operation, several "personal weapons" have been confiscated, and the searchers are being backed up tanks and armoured cars on the streets and both helicopters and warplanes flying at low altitude over the city. Other News: According to Aswat al Iraq there has been a bomb attack on one Grand Ayatollah Sistani's representatives in Basrah according to the report Ali Abdul Hakim's* convoy was targeted by a bombing - there are no reports of any casualties. markfromireland Notes: * The name given in this AP report is Ali al-Safi