[lit-ideas] bringing democracy to Iraq
- From: JimKandJulieB@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 22 Feb 2006 06:24:47 EST
I don't think the term "Civil War" can any longer be ignored. God bless
America.
_http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/02/22/iraq.main/index.html_
(http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/02/22/iraq.main/index.html)
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- An explosion ripped through a Shiite holy site in
Samarra Wednesday, damaging the al Askariya "Golden Mosque," a U.S. military
statement and a local security official said.
Photographs showed the dome on the mosque had been destroyed, with debris
littering the area.
An official with the Salahuldin Joint Coordination Center said a group of
men dressed as Iraqi Police commandos entered the shrine around 7 a.m. (11
p.m.
ET Tuesday) and detonated explosives under the dome, collapsing it and
damaging the entire mosque.
In a phone call to al Iraqiya TV, Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari
urged Iraqis to stay unified, saying the attack was an effort incite sectarian
violence. He called on all Iraqi political parties to condemn it and asked
Sunni and Shia Iraqis to demonstrate in Samarra in protest.
Al-Jaafari declared a week of mourning to commemorate the mosque attack.
Also calling for a period of mourning was Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani,
according to Hamed al-Khafaf, a spokesman for the powerful Shiite cleric.
He said Sistani would call for all businesses to close in protest for three
days and would ask for all Shiite and Sunni Iraqis to express themselves in
peaceful protest, not with violence.
"This is a day of great tragedy for all Iraqis," said Hussein
al-Shihristani, deputy speaker of the National Assembly.
"The crime that has taken place in Samarra is against Iraq, is against one
of the holiest places in the country and the whole population is extremely
hurt by what they have heard."
The site is sacred to Shia, because they believe Iman al Mehdi will appear
at the mosque, bringing them salvation.
The attack on the mosque spurred at least two protests in Samarra, according
to authorities. Several hundred people gathered at the mosque and also at
the mayor's office, denouncing the Iraqi government and the U.S. military.
Thousands of protesters also took to the streets in Najaf, as well as in
several Baghdad neighborhoods, according to Iraqi Emergency Police.
The attack on the al Askariya mosque prompted at least one apparent reprisal
on a Sunni mosque. Police said gunmen fired on a mosque in Baghdad's
Zafaraniya neighborhood, causing light damage.
According to police, security was being beefed up around all mosques in
Baghdad.
Al Mehdi is the 12th and final awaited Iman in Shia Islam. He is the son of
Iman Hasan al Askari, the 11th Iman, buried in the shrine. His grandfather,
the 10th Iman, is also buried there.
Al Mehdi is said to have disappeared in the Eighth Century during the
funeral of his father and is believed by Shia to have been withdrawn by God
from
the eyes of the people. They are waiting for him to reappear as their leader,
believing the event will take place in Samarra.
Samarra is located in southern Salah ad Din province, about 70 miles (110
km) northwest of Baghdad.
On Tuesday, a car bomb detonated in a marketplace in the southern Baghdad
suburb of Dora, killing 20 people and wounding another 25, police said.
The Associated Press reported that the car appeared to be detonated by
remote control and was aimed at a police patrol but missed its intended
target.
The car bomb was parked near a police checkpoint, and an Iraqi suspected of
setting off the blast has been arrested, AP reported.
The explosion left cars burning and nearby stores ablaze, according to AP.
Children screamed while women wailed "Our children have died!" and "The
terrorists, may God punish them!"
Witnesses told AP that at least four passing cars caught fire and some
motorists were killed or seriously wounded in the blast. Ambulances hurried to
the
scene, while motorists helped ferry the injured to hospitals, AP reported.
Earlier Tuesday, a roadside bombing killed a policeman in central Baghdad
and another wounded two civilians, Iraqi police said.
The blasts took place as British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw visited the
region and a day after seven attacks killed 16 people and wounded 56.
Straw held talks Tuesday with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani about formation
of a new Iraqi government, a Talabani spokesman told Reuters.
Tuesday's first Baghdad bombing took place about 8 a.m. (12 a.m. ET) and
targeted a police patrol, taking the life of an officer, Iraqi Emergency
Police
said. No other details of the attack were available.
The second bombing occurred in Tahrir square as a U.S. convoy passed,
according to police. The attack wounded two civilians. No one in the American
convoy was hurt.
Also Tuesday, Iraqi police found an unidentified body in the capital with
its hands tied behind its back and a bullet hole through the head. A note on
the body said, "this is a terrorist who kills innocents."
A U.S. soldier was among those killed in Monday's spate of seven bomb
attacks, officials said.
The day's most deadly attack -- a suicide bombing -- took the lives of 10
people and wounded eight others in Baghdad's mostly Shiite Muslim neighborhood
of Khadmiye, Iraqi Emergency Police said. No other details were available.
(_Full story_ (http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/02/20/iraq.main/) )
U.S.-Iraqi raid nets detainees
U.S. and Iraqi troops found a stash of weapons and arrested suspected
terrorists Tuesday in the village of Owesat southwest of Baghdad, the U.S.
military
said.
A surprise nighttime air assault resulted in the arrest of more than 39
people, including five who are considered high-value targets, the military
said.
The detainees included "men that we were specifically targeting based on a
tip provided from local nationals," U.S. Army Col. Jeffrey Snow said.
"There was evidence that this particular village was used as an insurgent
training base as evidenced by what we believe was [a homemade bomb]-making
factory," Snow said. "And the reason we say that is we found evidence of
gunpowder in the vicinity of a garage with welding instruments and so forth."
The soldiers found several caches in and around the village containing 200
155 mm artillery rounds, a rocket-propelled grenade launcher, 23
rocket-propelled grenade rounds, 17 hand grenades, 200 blasting caps, four
rolls of
detonation cord, a mortar, a heavy machine gun, explosive powder and several
hundred machine gun rounds, the military said.
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