Tue, Mar 20 14:23 PM EDT
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By Kareem Raheem and Aseel Kami
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - More than 30 bombs struck cities and towns across Iraq on Tuesday, killing at least 52 people and wounding about 250, despite a massive security clampdown ahead of next week's Arab League summit in Baghdad.
It was Iraq's bloodiest day in nearly a month, and the scale of the coordinated explosions in more than a dozen cities showed an apparent determination by insurgents to prove that the government cannot keep the country safe ahead of the summit.
Iraq is due to host the meeting for the first time in 20 years and the government is anxious to show it can maintain security following the withdrawal of U.S. troops in December.
"The goal of today's attacks was to present a negative image of the security situation in Iraq," government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh told Reuters.
"Security efforts will be escalated to counteract terrorist groups' attacks and to fill loopholes used by them to infiltrate security, whether in Baghdad or other provinces."
Tuesday's deadliest incident occurred in the southern Shi'ite Muslim holy city of Kerbala, where twin explosions killed 13 people and wounded 48 during the morning rush hour, according to Jamal Mahdi, a Kerbala health department spokesman.
"The second explosion caused the biggest destruction. I saw body parts, fingers, hands thrown on the road," 23-year-old shop owner Murtadha Ali Kadhim told Reuters.
"The security forces are stupid because they always gather at the site of an explosion and then a second explosion occurs. They become a target."
Blasts also struck in the capital, in Baiji, Baquba, Daquq, Dibis, Dhuluiya, Kirkuk, Mosul, Samarra, Tuz Khurmato, Khalis and Dujail to the north, in Falluja and Ramadi to the west, and Hilla, Latifiya, Mahmudiya and Mussayab to the south. Police defused bombs in Baquba, Falluja and Mosul.
Most of the blasts targeted police checkpoints and patrols.
"This latest spate of attacks is very likely to have been co-ordinated by a large and well-organized group. It is likely an attempt to show the authorities that their security measures are insignificant," said John Drake, a senior risk consultant at AKE Group, which studies security in Iraq for corporate clients.
Army and police forces are frequently targeted in Iraq, where bombings and shootings still occur almost daily.
Al Qaeda's Iraq wing and allied Sunni Muslim insurgent groups say that despite the withdrawal of U.S. forces they will not lay down arms and will continue to battle the Shi'ite-led government.
They have claimed responsibility for nearly all the major attacks so far this year, mounting days of coordinated bombings across the country about once a month since the Americans left.
Although overall violence has declined since the height of sectarian fighting in 2006 and 2007, Iraqis fear their government lacks the wherewithal to impose security nine years after the U.S.-led invasion that overthrew Saddam Hussein.
Tuesday's attacks were the biggest since February 23 when dozens of explosions across the country killed at least 60 people.
A White House spokesman called the attacks "reprehensible acts".
"Despite these efforts by extremists, violence in Iraq remains at near historic lows," he said.
"Iraqi forces have demonstrated their capacity to deal with the security challenges that exist in that country again and again in recent years, and we do have faith in their ability."
EXTRA SECURITY
The Arab League summit on March 27-29 will be the first held in Baghdad since Saddam's invasion of Kuwait in 1990, and Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's government considers it the most important diplomatic event yet for post-Saddam Iraq.
Tuesday was also the day after the ninth anniversary of the start of the U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam.
Security has been ratcheted up across Baghdad in the run-up to the summit. Since Monday, intensive searches at checkpoints have ground the city of 7 million people to a halt.
In the northern city of Kirkuk, two car bombs exploded near a police headquarters, killing nine people and wounding 42, police and health sources said. In Baghdad, two bombs killed nine people and wounded 28.
Police in the northeastern city of Baquba said they had found and defused nine bombs, including one in a booby-trapped car which was parked on the road with a decapitated body in the driver's seat and the man's head in his lap.
Five other bombs exploded in the town, the capital of Diyala province north of Baghdad, which also saw a smaller string of deadly explosions on Monday night.
By evening, Reuters had recorded 32 separate explosions on Tuesday. The toll of the blasts, as provided by police and medical sources, was at least 52 killed and 249 wounded.
The government says it will be deploying up to 100,000 additional troops and police in Baghdad to impose extra security measures for the summit and will close Baghdad's airport. Hundreds of millions of dollars are being spent on preparations, including renovating hotels, planting trees and paving roads.
(Reporting by Kareem Raheem, Aseel Kami and Ahmed Rasheed in Baghdad, Mustafa Mahmoud in Kirkuk, Imad al-Khuzaie in Diwaniya and Habib al-Zubaidi and Ali al-Rubaie in Hilla; Writing by Serena Chaudhry; Editing by Peter Graff and Andrew Roche)
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Tue, Mar 20 06:16 AM EDT
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By Kareem Raheem and Aseel Kami
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - At least 16 near-simultaneous explosions struck cities and towns across Iraq on Tuesday, killing at least 43 people and wounding more than 200, despite a massive security clampdown ahead of next week's Arab League summit.
It was Iraq's deadliest day in nearly a month, and the breadth of coordinated bombs in more than a dozen cities showed an apparent determination by insurgents to prove that the government cannot keep the country safe ahead of the summit.
Iraq is due to host the meeting for the first time in 20 years and the government is determined to show it can maintain security following the withdrawal of U.S. troops in December.
Tuesday's deadliest incident occurred in the southern Shi'ite Muslim holy city of Kerbala, where twin explosions killed 13 people and wounded 48 during the morning rush hour, according to Jamal Mahdi, a Kerbala health department spokesman.
"The second explosion caused the biggest destruction. I saw body parts, fingers, hands thrown on the road," 23-year-old shop owner Murtadha Ali Kadhim told Reuters.
"The security forces are stupid because they always gather at the site of an explosion and then a second explosion occurs. They become a target."
Within about two hours blasts also struck in the capital, in Kirkuk, Baiji, Samarra, Tuz Khurmato, Daquq and Dhuluiya to the north, in Ramadi in the west, and Hilla, Latifiya and Mahmudiya in the south. Police defused bombs in Baquba and Falluja.
Most of the blasts targeted police checkpoints and patrols.
"This latest spate of attacks is very likely to have been co-ordinated by a large and well-organized group. It is likely an attempt to show the authorities that their security measures are insignificant," said John Drake, a senior risk consultant at AKE Group, which studies security in Iraq for corporate clients.
Army and police forces are frequently targeted in Iraq, where bombings and shootings still occur on a daily basis. Sunni Muslim insurgent groups say that despite the withdrawal of U.S. forces, they will not lay down arms and will continue to battle the Shi'ite-led government.
Although overall violence has declined since the height of sectarian fighting in 2006 and 2007, many Iraqis worry whether their government has the wherewithal to impose security nine years after the U.S.-led invasion that overthrew Saddam Hussein.
Tuesday's attacks were the biggest since February 23 when dozens of explosions across the country killed at least 60 people in one of the bloodiest days of violence this year.
EXTRA SECURITY
The Arab League summit is due to be held in Baghdad on March 27-29 and security has been stepped up across the city's checkpoints, where thorough searches have backed up traffic for hours this week.
In the northern city of Kirkuk, two car bombs exploded near a police headquarters, killing nine people and wounding 42, police and health sources said. In Baghdad, a car bomb near the provincial council building killed four and wounded 11.
Police in the northeastern city of Baquba said they had found and defused eight bombs and police in Falluja in the west said they had defused a roadside bomb.
By midday, the toll from all the bombings compiled by Reuters from police and hospital sources stood at 43 killed and 233 wounded.
On Monday evening, bombers struck five times in the northern province of Diyala, killing at least three people and wounding more than 30, police said.
(Reporting by Kareem Raheem and Aseel Kami in Baghdad, Mustafa Mahmoud in Kirkuk, Imad al-Khuzaie in Diwaniya and Habib al-Zubaidi and Ali al-Rubaie in Hilla; Writing by Serena Chaudhry; Editing by Peter Graff and Andrew Heavens)
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Kirkuk bombings toll rises to 63 dead and injured, mostly police
Editor: NK | HL
Tuesday 20 March 2012 08:12 GMT
Detonate a car bomb south of Kirkuk today
Alsumaria News / Kcoq
Said a police source in Kirkuk province, Tuesday, that the proceeds of the blasts targeted the city of Kirkuk, who have risen to 63 dead and wounded, while pointing out that most of them police officers.
The source said in an interview for "Alsumaria News", "The outcome of the explosion of the car bomb that targeted a police department for help south of the province rose to twelve people, seven of them police officers," he said, adding that the outcome of people wounded by the explosion "has risen to 42, mostly police officers" .
The initial information received for the bombing of the Directorate of Police in Kirkuk may help reported the fall of at least 45 people dead and injured.
The source, who asked not to be named, that "the outcome of the village in the district of brick Zawh Daquq south of Kirkuk remained at nine people," pointing out that "the security authorities imposed strict security measures following the bombings."
Iraq has seen today a series of coordinated attacks hit more than 13 attacks have been used in car bombs and automatic weapons and targeting different areas of the governorates of Baghdad, Karbala, Babil and Salaheddin, Anbar and Kirkuk and Nineveh, and resulted in the attacks in the outcome is final in the death and wounding at least 200 people.
The province of Kirkuk, 250 km north of Baghdad, is one of the disputed territories, and witnessing acts of violence aimed at semi-continuous elements of the security services and civilians, in addition to recording many of the deaths that fall mostly in the context of tribal conflicts or personal differences.
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Explosions across Iraq kill at least 29 -sources
20 Mar 2012 06:48
Source: reuters // Reuters
(Updates toll, adds details, background)
BAGHDAD, March 20 (Reuters) - Car and roadside bombs exploded in cities and towns across Iraq on Tuesday, killing at least 29 people, police and hospital sources said, the latest in a spate of violence ahead of next week's Arab League summit in Baghdad.
The summit is seen as the country's debut on the regional stage following the withdrawal of U.S. troops in December and Iraq's government is anxious to show it can reinforce security to host its neighbours.
The deadliest attack on Tuesday occurred in the southern holy Shi'ite city of Kerbala, where twin explosions killed at least 13 people and wounded 48, the sources said.
In the northern city of Kirkuk, a car bomb exploded near a police headquarters, killing seven and wounding 30.
In central Baghdad, a suicide car bomber killed three people and wounded 21.
Blasts also occurred in Baiji, Samarra, Tuz Khurmato, Daquq and Dhuluiya, all north of Baghdad, and Hilla and Latifiya in the south.
Although violence in Iraq has declined since the height of sectarian fighting in 2006 and 2007, bombings and shootings still occur on a daily basis nine years after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.
On Monday evening, bombers struck five times in the northern Diyala province, killing at least three people and wounding more than 30, police said.
The Arab League summit is due to be held in Baghdad on March 27-29. (Reporting by Kareem Raheem and Aseel Kami in Baghdad, Mustafa Mahmoud in Kirkuk, Imad al-Khuzaie in Diwaniya and Habib al-Zubaidi in Hilla; Writing by Serena Chaudhry; Editing by Louise Ireland)
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Sadrists flood Basra in million-strong demo on war anniversary
* Protesters decry poor services and rampant graft
* Iraq due to host first Arab League summit since Saddam
*S Arabia, Iraq sign deal to repatriate prisoners
BASRA: Around a million loyalists of cleric Moqtada al-Sadr rallied in south Iraq on Monday decrying poor services and rampant graft on the ninth anniversary of the US-led invasion against Saddam Hussein.
Protesters flooded the centre of the southern port city of Basra for the rally, with demonstrators waving Iraqi flags and portraits of the anti-US Shia cleric and his father, Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Mohammed Sadiq al-Sadr, killed in 1999 by assailants thought to have been sent by Saddam.
The demonstration came just days before Iraq is due to host an Arab League summit, the first meeting of the 22-nation body since Saddam’s 1990 invasion of neighbouring Kuwait. Reading remarks composed by Sadr, currently in Iran, Sadrist religious leader Sheikh Assad al-Nassari told the crowd: “We cannot rest when there is injustice against us.” “Demand your rights, I will support you, and with our unity we will be strong. You must fight for a stable nation.”
Two officers in the police and army in Basra put the number of protesters at one million, while Sadrist officials claimed 1.5 million attended. An AFP journalist put the number of protesters at several hundred thousand. Demonstrators, many of whom came from different provinces to take part in what was dubbed the “Day to Support Oppressed Iraqis”, shouted: “Yes to rights! Yes to humanity! No to injustice! No to poverty! No to corruption!”
Some protesters held aloft electrical cables, water canisters and shovels to symbolise the poor services that plague Iraq. Others carried empty coffins with words plastered on them such as ‘democracy’, ‘electricity’, ‘education’ and ‘services’. Despite increasing oil production, Iraq suffers from electricity shortages, with power cuts multiplying during the boiling summer, poor clean water provision, widespread corruption and high unemployment.
Sadr’s movement, which counts around 40 MPs and several ministers as part of its political bloc, organised the demonstration to coincide with the ninth anniversary of the US-led invasion that overthrew Saddam.
The rally had no widespread anti-American message, though some protesters held aloft placards that read “No to America” and “No to Israel”. US forces, who numbered nearly 170,000 at their peak in Iraq, withdrew from the country in December, and now just 157 soldiers remain under the charge of the US embassy in addition to a marine detachment responsible for the diplomatic mission’s security. In recent years, the Sadrist movement had organised demonstrations on April 9, to coincide with the day the US officially ousted Saddam.
Meanwhile, Iraq has agreed to repatriate Saudi prisoners who fought alongside insurgents against US-led forces under a deal that signals further improvement of relations between the two major Arab countries.
The prisoner exchange deal comes less than a month after Saudi Arabia named an ambassador to Baghdad for the first time since Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990. It also comes ahead of an Arab summit in Baghdad on March 29 which has been delayed twice by regional turmoil and acrimony between Baghdad and some Sunni Muslim Gulf Arab states over a crackdown by Bahrain’s Sunni rulers on Shia protesters.
“The agreement emanates from the strong relations between the two brotherly people and in the interest of strengthening friendship and cooperation between them,” the Saudi Justice Ministry said in a statement. It was issued after the accord was signed in Riyadh by Justice Minister Muhammad al-Eissa and his Iraqi counterpart Hassan al-Shimari.
An Iraqi Justice Ministry spokesman said the deal was part of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s efforts to strengthen ties with Saudi Arabia. “The two sides agreed that this will be effective as soon as possible,” spokesman Haider Al-Saadi said. agencies
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الجعفري يقدم "درع الانتفاضة" الى مقتدى الصدر و بهاء الأعرجي
التاريخ : الثلاثاء 20-03-2012 02:42 صباحا
قدم رئيس التحالف الوطني ابراهيم الجعفري درع الانتفاضة الشعبانية إلى زعيم التيار الصدري مقتدى الصدر والنائب بهاء الاعرجي .
وقال الاعرجي خلال مهرجان الانتفاضة الشعبانية اليوم ان الانتفاضة يجب ان تبقى ذكرى بحياة كل العراقيين من أجل عدم السماح لأزلام البعث بالعودة مرة أخر.
وشدد الاعرجي" بضرورة عدم السماح برجوع البعث ألصدامي إلى الحياة السياسية لأنهم مشاركون في تلك المأساة
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Iraq Kurdish leader accuses PM of monopolising power
(AFP) – 38 minutes ago
BAGHDAD — Kurdish leader Massud Barzani sharply criticised Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki in a speech on Tuesday, alleging he was monopolising power and building an army loyal only to him.
Barzani said the partnership that built a national unity government formed at a meeting he had hosted was now "completely non-existent and has become meaningless."
"There is an attempt to establish a one-million strong army whose loyalty is only to a single person," Barzani, president of Kurdistan, said in Arbil, according to an English transcript of the speech.
"Where in the world can the same person be the prime minister, the chief of staff of the armed forces, the minister of defence, the minister of interior, the chief of intelligence and the head of the national security council?"
Barzani said that, while he was committed to an alliance with Iraq's majority Shi-ites, he was not committed to one with Maliki.
His remarks have dramatically raised the rhetoric between Barzani's autonomous regional government in Arbil and the central government in Baghdad, with several key disputes festering between the two sides.
Maliki has yet to appoint permanent ministers of defence and interior, more than two years after parliamentary elections.
Kurdish MPs form nearly a fifth of the seats in Iraq's parliament, and Barzani's Kurdish Alliance bloc holds five cabinet posts in the national unity government formed in November 2010
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gi_JYTwOIjKedN1RuZDVcB-FfM7A?docId=C
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