Islamic State claims huge truck bomb attack in Baghdad's Sadr City

Islamic State claims huge truck bomb attack in Baghdad's Sadr City Thu, Aug 13 07:59 AM EDT image 1 of 2 By Ahmed Rasheed BAGHDAD (Reuters) - At least 76 people were killed and 212 wounded on Thursday in a blast claimed by Islamic State in Baghdad's Sadr City, police and medical sources said, one of the biggest attacks on the capital since Haider al-Abadi became prime minister a year ago. "A refrigerator truck packed with explosives blew up inside Jamila market at around 6 a.m. (0300 GMT)," police officer Muhsin al-Saedi said. "Many people were killed and body parts were thrown on top of nearby buildings." A statement circulated online by supporters of Islamic State said the blast had targeted what it called a stronghold of the "charlatan army" and Shi'ite Muslim militias. The market in the Shi'ite neighborhood is one of the biggest in Baghdad selling wholesale food items. A Reuters witness at the site saw fruit and vegetables mixed with shrapnel littering the blood-soaked blast crater. Smoke rose from charcoaled debris. Rescuers pulling bodies from the rubble stumbled over sheet metal that had formed the walls and roofs of vendors' stands. People gathering at the scene cried and shouted the names of missing relatives; others cursed the government. "We hold the government responsible, fully responsible," witness Ahmed Ali Ahmed said, calling on the authorities to dispatch the army and Shi'ite militias to man checkpoints in the capital. Abadi took office last summer following the army's collapse in the face of Islamic State's takeover of the northern city of Mosul that left the Baghdad government dependent on militias, many funded and assisted by neighboring Iran, to defend the capital and recapture lost ground. Security forces and militia groups are fighting Islamic State in Anbar province, the sprawling Sunni heartland in western Iraq. In Baghdad, Abadi has proposed sweeping reforms aimed at reducing corruption and patronage, the biggest changes to the political system since the end of U.S. military occupation. (Additional reporting by Saif Hameed and Reuters TV in Baghdad and Omar Fahmy in Cairo; Writing by Stephen Kalin; Editing by Louise Ireland and Robin Pomeroy)

71 dead in Iraq attacks including wedding bombing

Suicide bomber targets busy Baghdad cafe, killing 25 Fri, Aug 23 18:36 PM EDT By Kareem Raheem BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A suicide bomber killed 25 people and wounded more than 50 in Baghdad on Friday when he detonated his explosives inside a busy cafe near a park popular with families, police and medical sources said. It was one of the worst attacks in Iraq since suicide bombers hit the same district two months ago, targeting a Shi'ite mosque and killing 29 worshippers during noon prayers. Friday's bombing took place in al-Qahira, a northern district of the capital that is home to mainly Shi'ite Muslims. Children were among the casualties at the site, which is in an area with cafes and restaurants. The wounded had been taken to four different hospitals, the sources said. "There was a crowd of people, and the suicide bomber detonated himself right inside it. Most of the people were killed or injured by ball bearings from the device," police officer Ahmed Jassim said. His patrol heard the blast and arrived at the site to find people lying dead or injured on the ground in pools of blood. Police hesitated to help the wounded because they feared a second bomb, he said. In a separate attack in central Baghdad, gunmen on motorcycles shot dead four people who were in a car, police and health sources said. Iraqis have suffered extreme violence for years, but since the start of 2013 the intensity of attacks on civilians has dramatically increased. More than 1,000 Iraqis were killed in attacks in July, the worst monthly toll since 2008. Since the start of 2013, bomb attacks by mainly Sunni Muslim insurgents have increasingly targeted cafes and other places where families gather, as well as the usual targets of military facilities and checkpoints. Eighteen months since U.S. troops withdrew, deep-rooted sectarian tensions have been aggravated by the civil war in neighboring Syria and growing political divisions between Shi'ite, Sunni and ethnic Kurdish factions. (Additional reporting by Raheem Salman, Writing by Sylvia Westall; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall and Ken Wills) =================== August 22, 2013 09:41 PM An Iraqi policeman inspects the remains of a car bomb that exploded outside the ministry of education in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk on August 22, 2013. AFP PHOTO MARWAN IBRAHIM BAGHDAD: Attacks killed 18 people in Iraq Thursday, including six who died in a bombing against a wedding party, the latest in spiralling violence that comes despite wide-ranging operations targeting militants. Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has vowed to press on with the anti-insurgent campaign, which is among the biggest since US forces withdrew in December 2011, but analysts and diplomats say authorities have failed to tackle the root causes of the violence. In Thursday's deadliest attack, a roadside bomb struck a wedding party in Dujail, north of Baghdad, killing six people and wounding 22 others, officials said. The blast went off near the musicians who typically accompany wedding convoys in Iraq, but the bride and groom were unharmed. Dujail is a predominantly Shiite Muslim town, and while no group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, Sunni militant groups linked to Al-Qaeda frequently target Shiites, whom they regard as apostates. The rest of Thursday's bloodshed, however, was largely concentrated in mostly Sunni Arab towns and cities to the north and west of Baghdad, areas that have been roiled in recent months by angry anti-government protests and are among Iraq's least stable. A suicide bomber detonated a tanker truck rigged with explosives at an army checkpoint along a highway in the western province of Anbar, killing four people, according to security and medical sources. The attack, which struck close to provincial capital Ramadi along the route connecting the city to the Syrian border, killed three soldiers and a civilian and wounded 14 others. Elsewhere, several gun and bomb attacks killed five people in the northern province of Nineveh, including three soldiers, and a bomb targeting a Sunni mosque in the restive city of Baquba killed two others. In the disputed city of Kirkuk, meanwhile, gunmen kidnapped and executed a lawyer. Violence has surged in Iraq this year to levels not seen since 2008 when the country was emerging from a brutal Sunni-Shiite sectarian conflict that claimed tens of thousands of lives. Attacks have killed at least 3,570 people since the beginning of 2013, according to figures compiled by AFP. Analysts and diplomats link the increased bloodshed to anger among Iraq's Sunni Arab minority over their alleged ill-treatment at the hands of the Shiite-led government. But the prime minister has vowed to press on with the security force operations, insisting they are producing results, pointing to the arrest of hundreds of alleged militants and the killing of dozens of others. Read more: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2013/Aug-22/228344-18-dead-in-iraq-attacks-including-wedding-bombing.ashx#ixzz2cp94Gp00 (The Daily Star :: Lebanon News :: http://www.dailystar.com.lb) =================== Bombs, shootings kill at least 47 across Iraq: police Sun, Aug 25 15:57 PM EDT image BAQUBA, Iraq (Reuters) - Car bombs, roadside bombs and shootings killed at least 47 people in Iraq on Sunday, police and medical sources said, as tensions intensify between Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims across the Middle East. Sunni Muslim insurgents and the al Qaeda-affiliated Islamic State of Iraq have significantly increased their attacks this year. More than 1,000 Iraqis were killed in July, the highest monthly death toll since 2008, according to the United Nations. More than two years of civil war in neighboring Syria have aggravated deep-rooted sectarian divisions and shaken Iraq's fragile coalition of Shi'ite, Kurdish and Sunni factions. The renewed violence, eighteen months after the last U.S. troops withdrew from Iraq, has sparked fears of a return to the scale sectarian slaughter in 2006 and 2007. Iraqis have suffered extreme violence for years, but since the start of 2013 the intensity of attacks on civilians has dramatically increased. Bomb attacks have increasingly targeted cafes and other places where families gather, as well as the usual targets of military facilities and checkpoints. The biggest of Sunday's attacks took place in central Baquba, 65 km (40 miles) northeast of Baghdad when a car bomb blew up near a housing complex, killing at least 11 people and wounding 34, police said. Earlier attacks included the killing of five soldiers in Qiyara town, some 290 km (180 miles) north of the Iraqi capital, when suspected militants ambushed two taxis taking soldiers from Baghdad to join their units in Mosul, military sources said. "One of the cars escaped the ambush but the second one could not and the militants shot dead five soldiers and burned their bodies after they killed them," a senior intelligence military officer, who declined to be named, said. A medical source at the morgue in Mosul confirmed the soldiers' bodies had been burned. Police said that seven people were also killed and 30 others were injured in two separate explosions in Madaen, about 30 km (20 miles) southeast of Baghdad. Another two explosions took place in commercial areas in western and northern Baghdad, killing 12 people and wounding 45, police and medical sources said. A bomb stuck to a car killed three people and wounded four in eastern Baghdad, police and medical sources said. Earlier on Sunday, police said three people were killed and 15 wounded when a car bomb exploded in Balad, 80 km (50 miles) north of Baghdad. Two people were shot dead near their homes in eastern Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, police said. Roadside bombs also killed two members of a displaced Shi'ite family who had recently returned to their home. The attack wounded nine others in central Baquba, police said. No group immediately claimed responsibility for Sunday's attacks but Sunni Islamist militants have been regaining momentum in their insurgency against the Shi'ite-led government in recent months, emboldened by the civil war in Syria. On Friday, a suicide bomber killed 25 people and wounded more than 50 in Baghdad when he detonated his explosives inside a busy cafe near a park. (Reporting by Ziad al-Sanjary in Mosul, Ghazwan Hassan in Tikrit and a Reuters reporter in Baquba; Writing by Suadad al-Salhy; Editing by Louise Ireland) ============= Series of attacks kill 51 across Baghdad: police, medics Wed, Aug 28 05:40 AM EDT 1 of 6 BAGHDAD (Reuters) - At least 51 people were killed and dozens wounded in a series of bombings and attacks across Baghdad on Wednesday, police and medical sources said, extending the worst wave of violence in Iraq in at least five years. In one of the worst incidents a car bomb killed seven people and wounded 23 in Jisr Diyala in southeastern Baghdad, police and medics said. A restaurant owner in Sadr City, a mostly Shi'ite district of Baghdad, described how a militant detonated a car bomb. "A man parked his car in front of the restaurant. He got breakfast and drank his tea. (Then) I heard a huge explosion when I was inside the kitchen," the owner, who requested anonymity, told Reuters. "When I went outside, I saw his car completely damaged and he had disappeared. Many people were hurt," he said. Sunni Muslim insurgents and the al Qaeda-affiliated Islamic State of Iraq have significantly increased their attacks this year. More than 1,000 Iraqis were killed in July, the highest monthly death toll since 2008, according to the United Nations. More than two years of civil war in neighboring Syria have aggravated deep-rooted sectarian divisions and shaken Iraq's fragile coalition of Shi'ite, Kurdish and Sunni factions. The renewed violence, 18 months after U.S. troops withdrew from Iraq, has sparked fears of a return to the scale of sectarian slaughter in 2006 and 2007. In Latifiya, gunmen opened fire on six members of al-Sahwa - former Sunni insurgents who rebelled against al Qaeda - manning a checkpoint south of Baghdad. Gunmen also stormed a Shi'ite home in the same area, killing six family members, police and medical sources said. In Kadhimiya, a district in northwestern Baghdad, two roadside bombs and one car bomb killed five people and wounded nearly 30, the sources said. Four soldiers were killed and five were wounded in Madaen, southeast of Baghdad, by a roadside bomb targeted an Iraqi army patrol, police and medics said. Iraqis have suffered extreme violence for years, but since the start of 2013 the intensity of attacks on civilians has dramatically increased. Bomb attacks have increasingly targeted cafes and other places where families gather, as well as the usual targets of military facilities and checkpoints. (Reporting by Kareem Raheem and Raheem Salman, writing by Sylvia Westall/Yara Bayoumy; editing by Sami Aboudi and Jon Boyle) ===================== Iraq bloodshed leaves 59 dead Iraqi civilians check the site of an explosion in Baghdad on August 28, 2013 .View gallery . . AFP Al-Nasir Bellah 31 minutes ago More than a dozen bombings ripped through Shiite neighbourhoods in and around Baghdad, the bloodiest in a wave of attacks Wednesday that killed 59 people across Iraq amid spiralling violence. The worst of the bloodshed struck the capital and surrounding areas in the form of a spate of apparently coordinated car bombs and suicide attacks targeting morning rush hour. Residents in one neighbourhood angrily reacted to one blast by chasing down a suspected attacker and killing him before setting his corpse ablaze. The unrest came despite widely publicised security operations targeting militants in Baghdad and to the north and west, though the government has faced criticism it is not dealing with the root causes of Iraq's worst violence since 2008. The spike in violence since the beginning of the year, with more than 3,700 people killed in 2013, has sparked concerns the country is teetering on the edge of a return to the brutal all-out sectarian war that plagued it in 2006 and 2007. Overall, violence in Baghdad and towns just south of the capital left 57 dead, while two others were killed in attacks in the northern cities of Kirkuk and Mosul. More than 190 people were wounded nationwide. "We are poor people, and all of our things have been burned, and our home has fallen to the ground," said Marwa, an 18-year-old resident of Shaab, a predominantly Shiite north Baghdad neighbourhood where four people were killed, and cars and nearby buildings were damaged by two car bombs. "The politicians are fighting over positions and not looking after us," she continued, crying as she spoke. "The people are homeless because of these explosions. Who is going to compensate us? Who is going to compensate the youth?" View gallery. "Iraqi civilians check the site of an explosion in Baghdad … Iraqi civilians check the site of an explosion in Baghdad on August 28, 2013. More than a dozen bomb …The deadliest attack, though, struck in the Jisr al-Diyala neighbourhood of southeast Baghdad, with at least nine people killed and 27 others wounded in twin bombings. After the blast, local residents ran down a man suspected of planting the second car bomb, stabbed him to death, set his corpse on fire and hung it from a lamppost, according to a police officer. Security forces later lowered it and carried it away, witnesses told AFP journalists at the scene. Another car bomb in the Baghdad Jadidah area, which left three dead, also badly damaged nearby cars and shopfronts, an AFP journalist said. Blasts also went off in other major Shiite neighbourhoods including Kadhimiyah and Sadr City, while five members of a Shiite family were shot dead in their home south of the capital. Officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, gave varying tolls, which is common in the chaotic aftermath of bombings in Baghdad. The interior ministry, whose public casualty counts are typically markedly lower than those reported by hospital and security officials, said 20 people had died and more than 200 were wounded across the capital. Iraqi lawmakers and the UN mission to Baghdad, meanwhile, condemned the violence, with the UN's deputy special envoy noting that a "relentless wave of senseless killing has left thousands dead since April". No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks, but Sunni militants linked to Al-Qaeda frequently carry out such coordinated attacks targeting Shiite Muslims, whom they regard as apostates. View gallery. "Iraqi security forces and civilians check the site … Iraqi security forces and civilians check the site of an explosion in Baghdad on August 28, 2013. Mo …Wednesday's attacks were the latest wave of coordinated bombings to hit Baghdad this month. On August 6, at least eight car bombs and several roadside blasts killed 31 people, while 47 people died in a spate of explosions and gun attacks in the capital on August 10. Five days later, 24 people died in nine bombings in Baghdad. Iraq has seen a marked rise in the level of violence since the beginning of the year, coinciding with demonstrations by the country's Sunni Arab minority against alleged ill treatment at the hands of the Shiite-led government and security forces. More than 600 people have already been killed so far this month, according to an AFP tally. Though diplomats and analysts have urged broad-reaching moves to tackle Sunni frustrations, which they say give militant groups room to recruit and carry out attacks, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has vowed to press on with an anti-militant campaign led by security forces. In recent weeks, officials say security forces have dismantled militant training camps and bomb-making sites, arrested hundreds of alleged insurgents and killed dozens of others. In addition to persistent security problems, though, the government has also failed to provide adequate basic services such as electricity and clean water, and corruption is widespread. Political squabbling has also paralysed the government, which has passed almost no major legislation in years. ==================== Car bombs across Iraqi capital kill nearly 60 people Tue, Sep 03 17:27 PM EDT image By Kareem Raheem BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A series of car bombs exploded across the Iraqi capital on Tuesday, killing nearly 60 people in predominantly Shi'ite districts, police and medics said. It was not immediately clear who had carried out the attacks, which appeared coordinated, but Sunni Islamist militants, including an al Qaeda affiliate, have been striking with a ferocity not seen in years. More than two years of civil war in neighboring Syria have aggravated deep-rooted sectarian divisions in Iraq, fraying an uneasy government coalition of Shi'ite, Sunni and ethnic Kurdish factions. Tuesday's deadliest single blast took place in Baghdad's northern Talbiya neighborhood, where a car bomb in a busy street killed nine people. In the Hussainiya district on the northern outskirts of the capital, two car bombs exploded in quick succession, killing ten. "I saw a fireball and a huge cloud of smoke. We couldn't approach immediately fearing a second bomb, but we could hear the screams of people asking for help," said Ali Jameel, a policeman in a patrol stationed in Hussainiya. "A minute later a second blast happened nearby. Bodies were lying on the ground and some of the wounded were crawling to distance themselves from the blaze, leaving a trail of blood behind them". About 800 Iraqis were killed in August, according to the United Nations, with more than a third of the deadly attacks happening in Baghdad. The bloodshed, 18 months after U.S. troops withdrew from Iraq, has stirred concerns about a return to the sectarian slaughter of 2006-07, when the monthly death toll sometimes topped 3,000. Earlier on Tuesday, gunmen stormed the house of a Sunni, pro-government militia member in southern Baghdad and beheaded him, along with his wife and three children, police and medics said. Separately, four unidentified bodies were found in different places in Baghdad. All of the victims had been handcuffed, blindfolded and killed. (Additional reporting by Ahmed Rasheed in Baghdad; Writing by Isabel Coles; Editing by Robin Pomeroy and Jim Loney)

Gunmen attack Baghdad liquor stores, 12 killed

Gunmen attack Baghdad liquor stores, 12 killed Tue, May 14 15:25 PM EDT BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Gunmen using silenced weapons attacked at least nine liquor stores in Baghdad on Tuesday, killing 12 people, police and medical sources said. Police sources said the attack targeted a row of stores selling alcohol in Zayona district of eastern Baghdad, which has a majority Shi'ite population. Even though most people shun alcohol, forbidden under Islamic law, Iraq is a generally less conservative Muslim society than neighbors such as Saudi Arabia and Iran, thanks to its mix of Shi'ites, Sunnis, ethnic Kurds and Christians. But Islamist parties have risen to the fore since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003 after the U.S.-led invasion and many fear they could encourage hardline Islamists to exert more influence over aspects of Iraqi life. Saddam legally allowed shops to sell alcohol, although bars and nightclubs were banned towards the end of his rule. "Gunmen in four SUV vehicles stopped near the liquor stores and gunmen equipped with silenced weapons started shooting at everybody near the stores," Furat Ahmed, a policeman at the scene, said. Police and medical sources said at least nine customers and three liquor store owners were killed, and three others were seriously wounded. Violence is still well below its height in 2006-7, but provisional figures from rights group Iraq Body Count put violent deaths in April at more than 400 - the highest monthly toll since 2009. About 1,500 people have been killed this year. (Reporting by Kareem Raheem; Wriring by Ahmed Rasheed; Editing by) ========================= Car bombs target Iraq Shi'ites, killing 43 Mon, May 20 09:04 AM EDT 1 of 5 By Kareem Raheem BAGHDAD (Reuters) - At least 43 people were killed in car bomb explosions targeting Shi'ite Muslims in the Iraqi capital and the southern oil hub of Basra on Monday, police and medics said. The attacks brought the number of people killed in sectarian violence in the past week to almost 200. Tensions between Shi'ites, who now lead Iraq, and minority Sunni Muslims have reached their highest level since U.S. troops pulled out in December 2011. No group claimed responsibility for the bombings. Iraq is home to a number of Sunni Islamist insurgent groups, including the al Qaeda-affiliated Islamic State of Iraq, which has previously targeted Shi'ites in a bid to provoke a wider sectarian confrontation. Nine people were killed in one of two car bomb explosions in Basra, a predominantly Shi'ite city 420 km (260 miles) southeast of Baghdad, police and medics said. "I was on duty when a powerful blast shook the ground," said a police officer near the site of that attack in the Hayaniya neighborhood. "The blast hit a group of day laborers gathering near a sandwich kiosk," he told Reuters, describing corpses littering the ground. "One of the dead bodies was still grabbing a blood-soaked sandwich in his hand." Five other people were killed in a second blast inside a bus terminal in Saad Square, also in Basra, police and medics said. In Baghdad, a parked car exploded in a busy market in the mainly Shi'ite eastern district of Kamaliya, killing seven people, police said. A further 22 people were killed in blasts in Ilaam, Diyala Bridge, al-Shurta, Shula, Zaafaraniya and Sadr City - all areas with a high concentration of Shi'ites. CORPSES FOUND In the western province of Anbar, the bodies of 14 people kidnapped on Saturday, including six policemen, were found dumped in the desert with bullet wounds to the head and chest, police and security sources said. When Sunni-Shi'ite bloodshed was at its height in 2006-07, Anbar was in the grip of al Qaeda's Iraqi wing, which has regained strength in recent months. In 2007, Anbar's Sunni tribes banded together with U.S. troops and helped subdue al Qaeda. Known as the "Sahwa" or Awakening militia, they are now on the government payroll and are often targeted by Sunni militants as punishment for co-operating with the Shi'ite-led government. Three Sahwa members were killed in a car bomb explosion as they collected their salaries in the city of Samarra, north of Baghdad, police said. Iraq's delicate intercommunal fabric is under increasing strain from the conflict in neighboring Syria, which has drawn Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims from across the region into a proxy war. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's main regional ally is Shi'ite Iran, while the rebels fighting to overthrow him are supported by Sunni Gulf powers Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Iraq says it takes no sides in the conflict, but leaders in Tehran and Baghdad fear Assad's demise would make way for a hostile Sunni Islamist government in Syria, weakening Shi'ite influence in the Middle East. The prospect of a shift in the sectarian balance of power has emboldened Iraq's Sunni minority, embittered by Shi'ite dominance since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein by U.S.-led forces in 2003. Thousands of Sunnis began staging street protests last December against Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, whom they accuse of marginalizing their sect. A raid by the Iraqi army on a protest camp in the town of Hawija last month ignited a bout of violence that left more than 700 people dead in April, according to a U.N. count, the highest monthly toll in almost five years. At the height of sectarian violence in 2006-07, the monthly death toll sometimes topped 3,000. (Additional reporting by Kamal Naama in Ramadi and Ahmed Rasheed in Baghdad; Writing by Isabel Coles; Editing by Angus MacSwan) ============== Bomb attacks kill more than 70 Shi'ites across Iraq Mon, May 20 14:15 PM EDT 1 of 7 By Kareem Raheem BAGHDAD (Reuters) - More than 70 people were killed in a series of car bombings and suicide attacks targeting Shi'ite Muslims across Iraq on Monday, police and medics said, extending the worst sectarian violence since U.S. troops withdrew in December 2011. The attacks increased the number killed in sectarian clashes in the past week to more than 200. Tensions between Shi'ites, who now lead Iraq, and minority Sunni Muslims have reached a point where some fear a return to all-out civil conflict. No group claimed responsibility for the bombings. Iraq has a number of Sunni Islamist insurgent groups, including the al Qaeda-affiliated Islamic State of Iraq, which has targeted Shi'ites in a bid to kindle a wider sectarian conflagration. Nine people were killed in one of two car bombings in Basra, a predominantly Shi'ite city 420 km (260 miles) southeast of Baghdad, police and medics said. "I was on duty when a powerful blast shook the ground," said a police officer near the site of that attack in the Hayaniya neighborhood. "The blast hit a group of day laborers gathering near a sandwich kiosk," he said, describing corpses littering the ground. "One of the dead bodies was still grabbing a blood-soaked sandwich in his hand." Five other people were killed in a second blast inside a bus terminal in Saad Square in Basra, police and medics said. In Baghdad, at least 30 people were killed by car bombs in Kamaliya, Ilaam, Diyala Bridge, al-Shurta, Shula, Zaafaraniya and Sadr City - all areas with a high concentration of Shi'ites. A parked car bomb also exploded in the mainly Shi'ite district of Shaab in northern Baghdad, killing 12 people and wounding 26 others, police and hospital sources said. In Balad, 80 km (50 miles) north of Baghdad, a parked car blew up near a bus carrying Shi'ite pilgrims from Iran, killing five Iranian pilgrims and two Iraqis who were travelling to the Shi'ite holy city of Samarra, police said. Eleven people were killed by a car bomb and a suicide bomber in Hilla, 100 km (60 miles) south of Baghdad, police and medics said. Both attacks occurred near a Shi'ite place of worship and an outdoor market. CORPSES FOUND In the western province of Anbar, the bodies of 14 people kidnapped on Saturday, including six policemen, were found dumped in the desert with bullet wounds to the head and chest, police and security sources said. When Sunni-Shi'ite bloodshed was at its height in 2006-07, Anbar was in the grip of al Qaeda's Iraqi wing, which has regained strength in recent months. In 2007, Anbar's Sunni tribes banded together with U.S. troops and helped subdue al Qaeda. Known as the "Sahwa" or Awakening militia, they are now on the government payroll and are often targeted by Sunni militants as punishment for co-operating with the Shi'ite-led government. Three Sahwa members were killed in a car bomb explosion as they collected their salaries in the city of Samarra, north of Baghdad, police said. And a suicide bomber wearing an explosive belt detonated himself at a Sahwa checkpoint, killing two fighters and wounded another seven in Baiji, 180 km (112 miles) north of Baghdad. Iraq's fragile intercommunal fabric is under increasing strain from the conflict in nearby Syria, which has drawn Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims from across the region into a proxy war. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's main regional ally is Shi'ite Iran, while the rebels fighting to overthrow him are supported by Sunni Gulf powers Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Iraq says it takes no sides in the conflict, but leaders in Tehran and Baghdad fear Assad's demise would make way for a hostile Sunni Islamist government in Syria, weakening Shi'ite influence in the Middle East. The prospect of a shift in the sectarian balance of power has emboldened Iraq's Sunni minority, which is embittered by Shi'ite dominance since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein by U.S.-led forces in 2003. Thousands of Sunnis began staging street protests last December against Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, whom they accuse of marginalizing their sect. A raid by the Iraqi army on a protest camp in the town of Hawija last month ignited a spate of violence that left more than 700 people dead in April, according to a U.N. count, the highest monthly toll in almost five years. At the height of sectarian violence in 2006-07, the monthly death toll sometimes topped 3,000. (This story has been corrected to show that not all those killed in the attacks were Shi'ites) (Additional reporting by Aref Mohammed in Basra, Kamal Naama in Ramadi, Ghazwan Hassan in Tikrit, Ahmed Rasheed in Baghdad and Ali al-Rubaie in Hilla; Writing by Isabel Coles; Editing by Mark ================= Attacks in Iraq kill over 40, sectarian tensions high Tue, May 21 17:21 PM EDT 1 of 4 By Kareem Raheem BAGHDAD, Iraq (Reuters) - A series of bomb and gun attacks across Iraq killed more than 40 people on Tuesday, a day after over 70 died in violence targeting majority Shi'ites that has stoked fears of all-out sectarian war with minority Sunnis. Nearly 300 people have been killed in the past week as sectarian tensions, fuelled by the civil war in neighboring Syria, threaten to plunge Iraq back into communal bloodletting. Ten years after the U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein, Iraq's Sunnis, Shi'ites and Kurds have yet to find a stable power-sharing deal and violence is again on the upswing. In the biggest single incident on Tuesday, a car bomb exploded near a Sunni mosque in the Abu Ghraib area of western Baghdad killing 11 people and wounding 21, police and medics said. "I heard a powerful bang and a fireball near the main gate of the mosque," said Uday Raheem, a policeman whose patrol was stationed near the mosque. "We held back a while fearing a second explosion and then rushed to the blast location. The bodies of worshippers were scattered and some were shouting for help. bleeding to death." Another bomb outside a cafe in the Doura district of southern Baghdad killed six more and wounded 18. In Diyala province northeast of the capital, at least eight people, including two policemen, were killed in bombs and shootings, and in Kanaan, also to the northeast, two roadside bombs detonated in quick succession claiming three lives. In the north of the country, three roadside bombs exploded near a livestock market in the ethnically-mixed city of Kirkuk, killing six people and shredding the bodies of humans and animals alike. Mahmoud Jumaa, whose cousin was killed in the multiple bombings, appeared bewildered by their random nature. "I heard the explosions, but never thought this place would be targeted since these animals have nothing to do with politics, nothing to do with sect, nothing to do with ethnicity or religion," he said. Kirkuk is in a disputed oil-rich swathe of Iraq claimed both by the Shi'ite-dominated government in Baghdad and ethnic Kurds who run their own autonomous administration in the north. Two car bomb blasts killed three people in a residential part of the town of Tuz Khurmato, also in the disputed area. North of Baghdad, a suicide bomber killed three soldiers at a checkpoint in Tarmiya, police and medics said, and in Khalis gunmen broke into a house and killed and man and his wife, both of them Sunni Muslims. The conflict in Syria, where mostly Sunni rebels are fighting to topple President Bashar al-Assad, is turning in part into a regional proxy war between Sunni and Shi'ite powers. Lebanon's Iranian-backed Shi'ite Hezbollah group is now openly fighting alongside Assad's forces, which are dominated by members of his minority Shi'ite-linked Alawite sect. Iraq's Sunnis who resent their treatment by Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's government have staged mass protests since December. Sunni militants, some of them linked to al Qaeda, have exploited the unrest, urging Sunnis to take up arms. More than 700 people died violently in April, according to the United Nations, the highest monthly figure in almost five years. Iraq suffered a frenzy of Sunni-Shi'ite violence in 2006-07, when monthly death tolls sometimes topped 3,000. (Reporting by Mustafa Mahmoud; Writing by Isabel Coles; Editing by Mike Collett-White) ============== Bombs, kidnappings, mistrust shake fragile nation Mourners in Najaf pray over the coffin of a victim killed in a May 20 bomb attack. (AHMAD MOUSA/Reuters) By Staff of Iraq Oil Report Published Tuesday, May 21st, 2013 Iraq's capital and major cities suffered a bloody day of bombings and assassinations Monday, as sectarian conflict and political dysfunction continued to feed a vicious cycle of violence.At least 65 people were killed and 227 injured by the attacks, which targeted predominately Shiite areas around Iraq. The bombings followed a violent weekend in Anbar province, where Iraqi police were kidnapped and murdered and the government attempted to arrest a powerful sheik. Persistent attacks agai... In Syria's shadow, Iraq violence presents new test for U.S. Sat, May 25 01:05 AM EDT By Warren Strobel WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Saddled with Middle East problems ranging from Iran to Syria and beyond, President Barack Obama now faces one that is both old and new: Iraq. Unresolved sectarian tensions, inflamed by the raging civil war in neighboring Syria, have combined to send violence in Iraq to its highest level since Obama withdrew the last U.S. troops in December 2011, U.S. officials and Middle East analysts say. A Sunni Muslim insurgency against the Shi'ite-led Baghdad government has also been reawakened. The insurgents' defeat had been a major outcome of then-President George W. Bush's troop "surge" in 2007. The deteriorating situation - largely overshadowed by a Syrian civil war that has killed 80,000 people - has prompted what U.S. officials describe as an intense, mostly behind-the-scenes effort to curb the violence and get Iraqis back to political negotiations. The United States spent hundreds of billions of dollars and lost nearly 4,500 soldiers during an eight-year war to try to bring a semblance of democracy to strategically placed, energy-rich Iraq. But Iraqis have failed to agree on a permanent power-sharing agreement, threatening the country's long-term stability. Vice President Joe Biden, who has been Obama's point man on Iraq, called Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, Iraqi Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani and Osama Nujayfi, the head of Iraq's parliament, in a round of calls on Thursday and Friday, the White House said. To Maliki, the vice president "expressed concern about the security situation" and "spoke about the importance of outreach to leaders across the political spectrum," Biden's office said in a statement on Friday. U.S. diplomacy is aimed in part at persuading Maliki, a Shi'ite, and his security forces not to overreact to provocations. Maliki's opponents accuse him of advancing a sectarian agenda aimed at marginalizing Iraq's minorities and cementing Shi'ite rule. The latest uptick in violence began in late April at a Sunni protest camp in Hawija, near the disputed city of Kirkuk, where a clash between gunmen and Iraqi security forces killed more than 40 people. A U.S. official said the Obama administration was "very actively engaged" after the Hawija clash in preventing a further escalation, when Iraqi forces surrounded insurgents who had seized control of a nearby town. Washington urged the Iraqi forces not to go in with massive firepower, and the stand-off was settled through a deal with local tribal leaders. "I don't want to exaggerate our influence, but this is the kind of stuff we do behind the scenes," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "When there is a real crisis, they all run to us. ... We're a neutral party." Others say Washington's influence in Iraq, which began waning even when U.S. troops were still there, has plummeted. "What is lacking is the lack of confidence of trust among the politicians," Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari told CNN on Tuesday. "And we have lost the service of an honest broker. Before, it used to be the United States." 'ZOMBIE INSURGENCY' Most worrying to U.S. officials and analysts who follow Iraq closely is the rebirth of the Sunni insurgency and of groups such as al Qaeda in Iraq, thought to be behind lethal suicide bombings aimed at reigniting civil conflict. "What you're really looking at here is a kind of zombie insurgency - it's been brought back to life," said Michael Knights of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, who has studied Iraq for years and travels there frequently. By his count, violent incidents have escalated to about 1,100 a month from 300 monthly at the end of 2010. After the Hawija clashes, the U.S. official said, "For the first time really in a few years, we saw people with their faces covered and RPGs (rocket-propelled grenades) and heavy weapons, coming into the streets in a very visible way." The official called the increase in suicide bombings by al Qaeda in Iraq "very concerning," adding that such sophisticated insurgent groups could "wreak havoc" on political efforts to solve the conflict. "I wouldn't call it a strategically significant increase, yet," the official said of the violence. "We're in this post-civil war, pre-reconciliation interregnum, gap, period, in which Iraq can tilt either way." The setbacks in Iraq have revived criticism from those who opposed Obama's decision to withdraw all U.S. troops from the country, rather than leave behind a residual force. The White House has said it could not secure political agreement from Iraq's Sunni, Shia and Kurds for a law allowing a continued troop presence. At a Senate hearing last month, Senator John McCain, who opposed the troop withdrawal, asked Assistant Secretary of Defense Derek Chollet how things turned out in Iraq. McCain, an Arizona Republican, cited Obama's dictum that "the tide of war is receding." "I think Iraq is more stable today than many thought several years ago," Chollet replied. "Really? You really think that?" McCain pressed. When Chollet said he did, the senator shot back, "Then you're uninformed." The violence, which includes confrontations stemming from the Sunni protest movement, near-daily car bombings and attacks on mosques, is nowhere near the level of Iraq's 2006-2008 civil war. Still, Kenneth Pollack, a former CIA and White House official now at the Brookings Institution's Saban Center for Middle East Policy said: "I think we're going to see great sectarian violence. The question is, how bad does it get?" SYRIA IS 'AN ACCELERANT' Syria's increasingly sectarian civil war, pitting mostly Sunni rebels against the government of President Bashar al-Assad, is not the prime cause of Iraq's troubles, officials and analysts said. Iraq's failure to find a stable power-sharing deal among the country's ethnic and sectarian groups is to blame, they said. Iraq's Sunnis, ascendant during dictator Saddam Hussein's rule, feel excluded and threatened, and started staging protests in December. But Syria's war "is an accelerant" in Iraq, Pollack said. "We're seeing both Shia and Sunnis going over to fight" in Syria, the U.S. official said. "It's kind of encouraging this sectarian polarization in a way." Iraqis often experience the Syrian conflict via YouTube video clips, he said. Sunnis see the violence perpetrated by Assad's government, dominated by members of the Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shia Islam, he said. Iraq's Shia see often gruesome excesses perpetrated by the rebels. "They're seeing two entirely different parallel universes," the official said. (Additional reporting by Phil Stewart; Editing by Alistair Bell and Peter Cooney) =========================== Baghdad bombs kill 25 in Sunni-Shi'te bloodletting Thu, May 30 12:29 PM EDT 1 of 8 By Kareem Raheem BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A series of bombs battered Shi'ite and Sunni Muslim neighborhoods across Baghdad on Thursday, killing at least 25 people in the worst wave of sectarian violence since civil war five years ago. The bloodletting reflects increasing conflict between Iraq's majority Shi'ite leadership and the Sunni minority, many of whom feel unfairly marginalized since the 2003 fall of strongman Saddam Hussein, a Sunni. The latest surge in violence began in April when Iraqi forces raided a Sunni protest camp in the northern town of Hawija, angering Sunni leaders and triggering clashes that spread across the country. Civil war in Syria between Sunni rebels and President Bashar al-Assad, whose Alawite sect derives from Shi'ite Islam, has aggravated the strife in Iraq. Sunni and Shi'ite Iraqis have been crossing the border to fight on opposing sides in Syria. No group claimed responsibility for Thursday's attacks, but Sunni Islamist insurgents and al Qaeda's Iraqi wing have increased their operations since the beginning of the year as part of a campaign to exacerbate inter-communal tensions. The violence prompted the United Nations envoy in Baghdad to warn about the risk of a broader confrontation if the country's political leadership does not negotiate to ease sectarian tensions at the heart of the crisis. "Systemic violence is ready to explode at any moment if all Iraqi leaders do not engage immediately to pull the country out of this mayhem," United Nations representative Martin Kobler said. Early on Thursday, a car bomb exploded in the mainly Sunni district of Binoog in north Baghdad, killing at least four people. Throughout the day, at least six more bombs killed another 20 people in mainly Shi'ite and Sunni districts across the capital, police said. Most of the victims were civilians, but soldiers and police were also targeted in the car bomb and roadside bomb attacks that hit north, south and central Baghdad. A further seven people, including three policemen, were killed in clashes between gunmen and security forces in the northern city of Mosul, and two bombs killed four more in the town of Tal Afar. SUNNIS DIVIDED The Sunni governors of Anbar and Salahuddin provinces escaped assassination attempts unhurt on Thursday when their convoys were attacked with car bombs. The two men have been cooperating with Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki in an effort to defuse Sunni discontent. More than 1,100 people have been killed since April, raising the risk of a relapse into outright sectarian warfare of the kind that killed thousands of people in 2006-2007. Attempts to ease the political crisis have been hampered by deep divisions among Sunni leaders. Moderates who favor negotiations have sometimes been attacked by hardliners and insurgents who oppose Maliki. Security officials blame Sunni Islamists and al Qaeda's local wing, the Islamic State of Iraq, for most of the violence. Thousands of Sunnis have protested weekly in the streets in western provinces since December, and the country's government - split among Shi'ite, Sunni and ethnic Kurds - is locked in disputes over how to share power. Many Sunnis feel sidelined since the Shi'ite majority rose to power through elections, and say their sect has been mistreated by Shi'ite-dominated security forces who use tough anti-terrorism laws unfairly against them. (Additional reporting by Suadad al-Salhy in Baghdad and a reporter in Mosul; Writing by Patrick Markey; Editing by Michael Roddy) ===================

Mahdi Army fighters grateful for sand storm standstills in Sadr City

Hooded Mahdi Army fighters loyal to cleric Moqtada al-Sadr hold their weapons as they take up position in a street in Basra
Image :1 of 5

Hala Jaber
On a bare patch of ground outside the entrance to Sadr general hospital, 15 women clad from head to foot in black squatted in a sandstorm, wailing and waiting for their dead.

Lightning flashed, thunder rolled and the women’s robes were spattered with mud falling from a sky filled with rain and sand, but they did not notice.

“Ya’mma, Ya’ba” (“Oh mother, oh father”), cried Amira Zaydan, a 45-year-old spinster, slapping her face and chest as she grieved for her parents Jaleel, 65, and Hanounah, 60, whose house had exploded after apparently being hit by an American rocket.

“Where are you, my brothers?” she sobbed, lamenting Samir, 32, and Amir, 29, who had also perished along with their wives, one of whom was nine months pregnant.


“What wrong have you done, my children?” she howled to the spirits of four nephews and nieces who completed a toll of 10 family members in the disaster that struck last Tuesday. “Mothers, children, babies; all obliterated for nothing.”

The keening of Zaydan and her distraught circle of friends was drowned out briefly by sirens shrieking as ambulances sped through the hospital gateway with the latest consignment of casualties from a brutal battle that has been raging for the past month in Sadr City, a slum of more than 2m souls on the eastern side of Baghdad.

Doctors and nurses with pinched faces darted out of the dilapidated hospital to greet the wounded and dying, while administrators stared at the weeping women and saw that they were beyond comforting.

Zaydan had hardly moved from the hospital for 24 hours since her family’s home was demolished as she and her sister Samira, 43, prepared lunch. Neighbours were trying to dig bodies out of the debris when another rocket landed, killing at least six rescuers.

Apart from the two sisters, the family’s only survivor was their brother Ahmad, 25, who arrived at the hospital with leg injuries and shock. “I lost everybody,” was all he could say.

On Wednesday afternoon, Zaydan was still waiting for seven family members to be disinterred from the rubble and delivered to Sadr general. The other three were in the morgue, among them a nephew, aged three, lying on a trolley in a puddle of blood from a head wound.

The child was another helpless victim of a clash between titanic powers which has killed 935 people and wounded 2,605. Even by the callous standards of Iraq’s cruel war, this is a ruthless struggle. Most of the dead and injured have been civilians.

On one side is the Iranian-backed Mahdi Army of the radical Shi’ite cleric, Moqtada al-Sadr, which is defending Sadr City, its biggest stronghold, with a resilience it failed to show when it ceded parts of the southern port of Basra last month.

On the other is the American-backed Iraqi army of the prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, which launched an offensive on March 30 with the aim of seizing control of the city but which took only one southern district before its advance was halted.

The fight between Sadr and Maliki, between the dirt-poor who look to the firebrand cleric for inspiration and the relatively secure who support the prime minister, is one that neither side can afford to lose.

Last week the Mahdi fighters took advantage of the sandstorms, which grounded US helicopters, to blast the Iraqi army’s front line positions with roadside bombs, mortar rounds, rocket-propelled grenades and machinegun fire.

Embedded with them for four days and three nights, I witnessed the fighting at close quarters, learnt of preparations being made by Mahdi special forces to spread the violence to other parts of Baghdad and heard their commanders swear to paralyse the government and destroy Maliki if their own leader authorises all-out war.

The battle of Sadr City, with all the human misery it entails, is in danger of spilling out across the capital, reversing the security gains that followed last summer’s American troop surge.

It is little wonder that US commanders say the Shi’ite militias backed by Iran now pose a greater threat than the Sunni insurgents who were their deadliest enemies when Al-Qaeda in Iraq was at its peak.

“We can bring Baghdad to a standstill,” boasted one Mahdi commander. “Be assured that when all-out war is eventually declared, we will be able to take over the city.”

No sooner had I arrived in Sadr City than my escorts received word that an attack was about to be launched on Al-Quds Road, the dividing line between the Mahdi forces to the north and the Iraqi army to the south.

Sand was swirling through the air as a fresh storm stirred and the men knew this presented them with an opportunity.

“Allah is on our side,” said one. “They bombard us with artillery, war planes and helicopters at will. Maliki has the entire US air force behind his army and all we need is a bit of sand to bring it to a standstill.”

As we reached the narrow streets that ran down to Al-Quds Road, nothing appeared to be out of the ordinary at first. But one by one, young men in western jeans and T-shirts appeared from the alleyways with machineguns or rifles slung across their shoulders. They grinned, patted each other’s backs and uttered the greeting “Peace be with you”, before getting down to the business of war.

Two snipers had already entered shattered buildings overlooking the highway beyond which the Iraqi army was hunkered down. The dozen or so gunmen who had congregated in front of me ran forwards 50 yards to take up their positions. Then one of them briefly broke cover to open fire with his AK47 assault rifle. Another stepped round a corner and unleashed a volley of bullets from a heavy-calibre machinegun, followed by another and another.

As the Mahdi positions came under equally heavy machinegun fire in turn, the noise reached a crescendo with an exchange of mortar rounds that smashed shops on either side of Al-Quds Road, showering the whole area with shards of debris. The cacophony(The use of harsh or discordant sounds in literary composition, as for poetic effect.) faded, only to be replaced by the whizz of snipers’ bullets shooting up the street. It was time to take cover.

My escort hammered on the gates of the nearest house and a woman ushered me into her courtyard, introducing herself as Salma Jamila, an unmarried teacher aged 40 who lived with her elderly parents. When she heard that I had come to report on the fighting, she fetched a small plastic chair and propped it against the yard wall so that I could peep over it to see what was happening.

Evidently a cool hostess in a crisis, she disappeared into her kitchen and returned beaming with bottles of orange juice on a tray as mortar rounds crashed on to the road less than 100 yards away.

Stranger still, another guest arrived, a cousin and Mahdi Army commander named Abu Ali who was enjoying a day off. He hugged Jamila, explained that he had come to visit her father and chatted away about how he had been arrested a few days earlier.

“One of the officers with the Iraqi army is a Mahdi sympathiser and he arranged for me to be released within two hours,” he said with a smile. “We have quite a number of Mahdi people in the army and they tip us off about certain movements.”

The violence died down as suddenly as it had flared up and some of the fighters shouted that it was all over. A man with a relaxed manner and a Russian rifle on his back sauntered (A leisurely walk or stroll.) past. I asked him how old he was.

“Twenty-three,” he answered. “Young for a sniper,” I said. He shrugged.

“I killed two Iraqi soldiers,” he replied, and strolled away.

Another passing fighter, a well-built man with fair skin, said he had set fire to an Iraqi tank with a rocket. There was no way to verify either account.

The men exchanged information for a few moments before walking off in different directions. Some were collected by cars as they approached neighbouring streets incongruously thronged with shoppers inured to shooting and buying food for the evening meal.

It was around 6pm, as we were driving towards the centre of Sadr City, that another call came through and we headed back to the front line. This time Mahdi fighters were trying to push back Iraqi army and American forces.

Several people were said to be buried under collapsed buildings and the Mahdi Army – which, like Hezbollah in Lebanon, has made itself popular by providing welfare services to local people – had decided to take responsibility for rescuing them, even if that meant fighting its way to the scene.

Driving along roads lined with open sewers, past children playing football in winding alleys and old women peering out from their doorways, we reached a point where men on street corners were handing cold water to fighters taking a break from the front line.

We parked and moved forwards through ranks of Mahdi Army fighters who had lined an alleyway with rocket-launchers, rifles and machineguns. The sound of sniper fire intensified but the hardened militiamen who were accompanying me paid no attention.

The regular thud of mortars and the relentless clatter of machineguns indicated that the fighting here was far more intense than it had been earlier on Al-Quds Road.

As we rounded a corner, I noticed a school 100 yards ahead on the right-hand side. I was wondering how long it would be before the pupils could return when an explosion almost knocked us off our feet. An artillery shell had landed in the playground and the classrooms were shattered by shrapnel.

I froze with fear. For the second time that day, a fighter rapped on the nearest house gate and I was beckoned into a secluded courtyard. So shaken was I that my legs barely carried me into the house. I squatted on the floor to catch my breath.

Three spinsters produced a large bottle of fizzy drink from a shop they ran from their house. As before, the fighting subsided after about half an hour and we returned to our vehicle.

The inconclusive nature of both confrontations witnessed suggested that neither side could be confident of gaining the upper hand.

The Iraqi army may have the superior fire-power but Mahdi commanders were eager to show off their own arsenal. Seven of them gathered in a single-storey concrete house to display weapons ranging from mainly American-made guns, including M16 and M18 rifles, to homemade roadside bombs known as raaed, or thunder.

“Our bombs are not Iranian-made – they are produced locally,” said one commander. “Any Mahdi fighter can put one together.”

The plastic cylinders packed with gunpowder, TNT and C4 explosives came in four sizes, he explained: 5kg and 15kg for use against small military vehicles, and 25kg and 50kg against armoured personnel carriers.

Another commander, who gave his name as Abu Ahmad, was limping from an injury sustained one week into the battle when his unit set an American tank on fire, only to be wiped out by a helicopter gunship.

He spoke softly as he described seeing his best friend, Uday al-Dulemi, killed in front of him. Dulemi’s father refused to accept condolences and insisted that his “martyred” son’s burial be treated as his wedding day. He said that if his three other sons in the Mahdi Army were killed too, he would volunteer himself.

The Mahdi Army also claims to have a secret weapon at its disposal. Its elite special forces, called “The Nerves of the Righteous – the Islamic Resistance in Iraq”, are said to be lying in wait in sleeper cells across the country, ready to carry out unspecified “spectacular” attacks against coalition forces.

Many of the members, known as “shadows”, have been trained in Iran.

According to a senior aide to Moqtada al-Sadr, they are capable of raining down missiles on the heavily protected Green Zone where the Iraqi government and US military are based, causing disarray among Iraq’s security forces and halting the work of ministries.

They have also created a potential “ring of fire” around Sadr City that could be ignited in the event of a full-scale offensive by Maliki.

Whether Sadr or Maliki will order an escalation of the conflict in the days ahead depends on efforts to secure a resolution.

Sadr is understood to believe that his rival has set out to destroy his power bases in Baghdad and Basra to ensure that he is a spent force before local elections in the autumn. He is resisting demands by Maliki for 500 named Mahdi “criminals” to be handed over. In turn, Sadr is demanding that the Iraqi army stay out of Sadr City indefinitely.

The negotiations hang in the balance but one thing is certain: if the two Shi’ite leaders fail to resolve their differences, it is the civilians of Sadr City who will suffer for it.

At Sadr general hospital last week, Amira Zaydan was by no means the only woman mourning her family. Beside her sat her neighbour Um Aseel Ali, who had lost her husband and three boys, aged six, four and two, when their house was blown up by a rocket.

“As I ran to them, the second rocket dropped,” she cried. “I started shouting their names. I looked for them and tried to dig through the rubble. What fault did we commit for this? What wrong have we done to Maliki?”

While she spoke, another woman, Um Marwa Muntasser, wept softly. Her pregnant daughter Marwa survived the same attack but was being kept under sedation, unaware that her husband Samir, her four-year-old boy, Sajad, and her two-year-old girl, Ayat, had all been killed.

“Was my daughter a fighter?” asked Muntasser. “My daughter was not a fighter. She and her family were innocent civilians minding their own business and now they are dead.” The toll in the row of six houses inhabited by these families climbed to 25.

A spokesman for the US military, which has lost at least nine men in Sadr City, said a vehicle carrying an injured soldier had been hit by two roadside bombs, gunfire and rocket-propelled grenades, and at least 28 “extremists” had died in subsequent fighting. He said there had been no American air strikes that day but US ground forces had fired rockets at “militants firing from buildings, alleyways and roof-tops”. “We have every right to defend ourselves,” he added.

Witnesses in Sadr City, however, told of a second multiple rocket attack on four houses on the same afternoon in which at least five civilians died.

I found Lina Mohsen, 24, walking in a daze at the hospital, her face covered in brown dust. One minute she had been watching her 18-month-old toddler Ali play in the courtyard of their home, she said; the next, a rocket had struck.

“I began screaming for him, shouting his name, trying to find him, but I couldn’t see him for dust and smoke,” she said. Eventually, she saw that he was dead.

“I blame Maliki and his government and all those who are sitting in power and letting this happen,” she said. Then she burst into tears and walked away.

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The Hand of Allah plucks Iranian Special Groups

Remember the recent post on rocket artillery? It's back in the news. Bill Roggio reports that Special Group targets have been hit by GMLRS in Sadr City.

The US army targeted and destroyed a Special Groups command and control center with Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System in Sadr City at 10 a.m. Saturday morning, Multinational Forces Iraq reported. "There were six GMLRS rocket strikes on these Special Groups criminal command and control nodes," Lieutenant Colonel Steven Stover, the chief Public Affairs Officer for Multinational Division Baghdad, told The Long War Journal while refuting claims that the US used aircraft to attack. "We conducted a precision strike, hopefully got a few leaders, and sent a very strong message."

The Special Groups have been using the location near the hospital for an extended period of time and US intelligence has followed the activities at this site. "We had been tracking it for some time," Stover said. "Operations made the call to hit it. There may have been damages to the hospital - broken glass. There was likely ambulances damaged; however, it was the Special Groups criminal leadership that purposely put their command and control node there."

The arrival of a GMLRS rocket so suddenly that no one has time to even react has given it a psychological -- even a theological potency -- and militants call it the "the Hand of Allah". A registered trademark of General Dynamics.

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"Ring of Fire" Viewed in Sky’s across Asia

Millions of people across Asia were watching the sky on Monday, as a rare "ring of fire" eclipse crossed their skies.
The annular solar eclipse, in which the moon passes in front of the sun, leaving only a golden ring around its edges, was visible across wide areas of the continent on Monday morning. It will move across the Pacific and also be seen in parts of the western United States.
In Tokyo, about 200 people gathered on the rooftop of a skyscraper in central Tokyo to watch the eclipse.
At its peak a golden ring of light was seen around the moon's silhouette for a few minutes.
10-year-old Maika Morioka was relieved to see the eclipse despite the threat of clouds obscuring the spectacle.
The last annular solar eclipse visible from Japan was seen in the southern Okinawa islands 25 years ago.
The next visible annular eclipse will be in Hokkaido, northern Japan in 2030.
In Seoul, people also turned out to watch the eclipse. But in Hong Kong, hundreds of people who had crowded a stretch of Victoria Harbour before daybreak on Monday were left disappointed.
The day started overcast and at the main moment of eclipse there was no sign of the sun or moon in the cloudy, grey sky.
Later a brief break in the clouds brought cheers from the crowd but the eclipse still wasn't visible.
The last time such an eclipse was visible in Hong Kong was in 1958 and there will be a three hundred year wait for the next opportunity, according to the Hong Kong Observatory. Sky-gazers in northern Australia are in awe as the clouds part to allow them to witness one of nature's greatest phenomena -- a total eclipse of the sun. Duration: 01:26

A Storm of Sand became a Shelling day on Green Zone

Iraqi troops confront a sandstorm in Najaf, south of Baghdad. Similar conditions in the capital hindered U.S. efforts against fighters targeting the Green Zone. (By Alaa Al-marjani -- Associated Press)
By Sholnn Freeman
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, April 28, 2008; Page A10

BAGHDAD, April 27 -- Shelling rocked the Green Zone as a sandstorm blanketed Baghdad on Sunday, days after U.S. commanders said they had nearly eliminated deadly rocket and mortar attacks on the heavily fortified government zone through a security crackdown in the eastern slum of Sadr City.

Clashes continued over the weekend in Sadr City, where U.S. and Iraqi forces have confronted fighters tied to the Mahdi Army, the Shiite militia loyal to anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. The U.S. military said drones fired Hellfire missiles, killing at least three men believed to be engaging in bomb attacks.

Abu Ammar al-Mayahi, a Mahdi Army fighter, said that U.S. and Iraqi forces continued to press into Sadr City on Sunday but that the dust storm curtailed U.S. use of air power.

Ground forces had been limited to city blocks at the edge of the district where authorities are building a security wall, he said. "The situation is intense," he added. "The weather is dusty. They are trying to get further inside."

Civilians living in the Green Zone said the rocket and mortar attacks Sunday were in double digits. A U.S. Embassy spokesman said there were no reports of casualties in the zone. A military spokesman said he knew of at least two Iraqi civilians killed and one wounded in the shelling, which often falls short of the compound.

The continuing violence has dimmed hopes that a cease-fire order issued by Sadr in August and reaffirmed on Friday would ease tensions in the city. Sadr said Friday that his threat this month of an "open war until liberation" did not mean a fight against Iraq's government, but rather "the occupier," meaning U.S. and allied foreign troops.

The move was seen as an attempt to lower tensions between Sadr's political movement and the Shiite-led government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Maliki initiated an offensive against Shiite militiamen last month in the southern city of Basra, and it quickly spread to Baghdad. Iraqi commanders have described Sadr City, where the Mahdi Army holds much control, as a foothold for armed outlaws.

The neighborhood was the scene of a sit-in protest Sunday led by members of the Sadr bloc in parliament, demanding an end to a three-week-old blockade of Sadr City and an end to military operations there.

Falah Hasan Shanshal, a parliament member who is a Sadr City resident, was among the protesters. He called for "dialogue and understanding" in place of the fighting, which he said was killing innocent women and children. He also called for a second sit-in on Monday.

On a satellite television program, Yaseen Majeed, a media adviser for the prime minister, called the sit-in a "cover for the outlaws."

Also Sunday, President Jalal Talabani met with parliament Speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani to discuss ways to end the Sadr City fighting, which he described in a statement as a "crisis between the government and the Sadr trend."

Lt. Col. Steve Stover, a spokesman for U.S. forces in Baghdad, said late Sunday that U.S. soldiers were tracking several engagements in eastern Baghdad, which he said amounted to "un-aimed harassment fire." Stover said the attacks involved small-arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades.

"We are not the aggressor," he said. "We went into south Sadr City to stop the rocket and mortar attacks."


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U.S. army says kills 38 fighters in Baghdad attack

28 Apr 2008 04:55:45 GMT
Source: Reuters
BAGHDAD, April 28 (Reuters) - The U.S. military said on Monday it had killed 22 fighters who attacked an Iraqi checkpoint in northeastern Baghdad.

The military said in a statement the fighters had attacked the Iraqi Security Force checkpoint on Sunday.

It said U.S. soldiers had killed "the 22 criminals, forcing remaining enemy forces present to retreat.

"The criminals' small-arms fire was ineffective and there were no U.S. or ISF casualties in the attack," the military added.

Militants bombarded Baghdad's Green Zone with rockets on Sunday, taking advantage of the cover of a blinding dust storm to launch one of the heaviest strikes in weeks on the fortified compound.

The strikes appeared to defy a renewed call for a ceasefire by Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, which has seen many of his masked gunmen leave the streets of the Sadr City slum where they hold sway in eastern Baghdad.

Reuters correspondents heard the missiles whistling overhead and exploding inside the heavily fortified government and diplomatic compound on the west side of the Tigris River in Baghdad. Sirens wailed, ordering people to take cover.

Iraqi police said eight missiles or mortars had hit the Green Zone and another 14 fell in other parts of the Iraqi capital before nightfall in several quick bursts, killing two people and wounding 20.

"The Green Zone has received several rounds of IDF (indirect fire) but I can't say more than that," U.S. embassy spokesman Armand Cucciniello said. "The duck and cover alarm sounded and people ran out for cover."

Several more missiles were fired late on Sunday evening but it was unclear if there were any casualties.

The United States blames rogue elements of Sadr's Mehdi Army militia for firing the rockets. It accuses neighbouring Shi'ite Iran of supplying the weapons and says some were made as recently as last year. Iran denies the accusations.

Militiamen have fired 700 missiles and mortars over the past month in Baghdad, but U.S. forces had said they believed they had reduced the fighters' ability to strike the Green Zone by occupying the part of the Sadr City slum closest to it.