Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
New York Times
June 27, 2008
Pg. 6
By Alissa J. Rubin
BAGHDAD — Two insurgent bomb blasts struck Thursday at pro-American Iraqi targets in Anbar Province just west of Baghdad and in the northern city of Mosul. The police said more than 30 Iraqis were killed and 80 wounded.
An American military spokesman and Iraqi police officials said that three American marines were killed in the Anbar attack and that two interpreters were also among the dead. The American military command was preparing to hand control of the province, once considered the hotbed of the insurgency, to Iraqi forces.
The bombings extended a pattern of multiple-casualty attacks in recent days that are clearly intended to kill local Iraqi leaders, in particular those who are believed to have collaborated with American forces against insurgents. Thursday’s attacks were among a string of deadly episodes in the past week that broke the previous several weeks’ lull in violence.
Most of the episodes have occurred in Sunni or mixed Sunni-Shiite areas where there has been mounting frustration over the lack of a political deal giving power to all of Iraq’s factions. Some were in small neighborhoods like Abu Dshir on the southern edge of Baghdad, and Madaen, which lies just to its southeast. There was also an attack on Tuesday on the Sadr City neighborhood council which killed six Iraqis, four Americans and an Iraqi-Italian interpreter.
Both of Thursday’s attacks raised questions about assertions by the United States military that Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia and other Sunni extremist groups had been largely vanquished. Sheiks who survived the Anbar attack, a suicide bombing, accused Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, a homegrown Sunni extremist group, of responsibility. In Mosul, bodyguards for the governor, the bomb’s likely target, said the same thing.
The marines and two interpreters killed in the suicide bombing had been attending the weekly meeting of the Awakening Council in the city of Garma, according to the American military and an Iraqi police officer. The Awakening groups are pro-American tribal alliances.
In Baghdad and in Anbar Province, there have been substantial American and Iraqi military campaigns to root out the insurgency. In those areas and in Diyala Province, where there was a suicide bombing a week ago, the Shiite-led government in Baghdad has frustrated the efforts of Sunni leaders to find government security jobs for Sunni tribal figures and former insurgents.
Although many of these people joined the Awakening movement and were paid by the Americans to help fight Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, few have been put on the government’s payroll.
“The government didn’t support the Awakening Councils enough,” said Omar Abdul Sattar, a member of Parliament from Ramadi who belongs to the Iraqi Islamic Party, a leading Sunni group.
“The Awakening lacks information, political advisers, arms and security advisers,” said Adnan al-Dulaimi, a leader of Tawafiq, the largest Sunni bloc in Parliament.
There are also allegations that the initial vetting process for the Awakening was flawed and that some people who still backed Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia disguised their views and became part of the security forces or the Awakening groups.
Sheiks in Anbar, who asked not to be quoted by name, said that they knew the man responsible for the Garma bombing. They said he had been a policeman and previously a member of the Anbar Awakening.
The American pacification of Anbar — considered Iraq’s most dangerous province a few years ago — has been seen as so successful that American forces have been preparing to hand control back to the Iraqi government early next month.
However, Garma was the one of the last places in Anbar to reject the insurgency.
The attack there Thursday was clearly aimed at the Awakening Council meeting, the Iraq police said. Fifty people were there, including tribal sheiks, local dignitaries and members of the local Awakening Council.
“As usual we entered the tent at 9 a.m.,” said Hilal Abdullah Ali, a senior sheik from the Albu Alwan tribe. “At around 10:30 there was a big explosion. I heard the person sitting next to me say, ‘He exploded himself on us.’”
Initial reports from the police were that the bomb killed 12 people and wounded 27, but by late Thursday, they said the death toll had reached 20.
The other bombing, in Mosul, was aimed at the provincial governor, Duraid Kashmola, but he was not among the 18 killed and 61 wounded, according to local security forces. The attack, in a busy central area, was the second large bombing in the city in two days. One on Tuesday evening killed two and wounded 73.
The attack came on the heels of an announcement by the American military that its forces had killed Abu Khalaf, the leader in Mosul of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia. Mr. Khalaf was a former associate of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian exile who led the group until he was killed by the Americans in 2006.
“In order to kill one person, they killed all these people,” said Abdullah al-Hasan, 37. He blamed “the politicians and the struggle for power” for the act of carnage.
Athir Dawud, who had fled Baghdad to escape Shiite militias and earned $4 a day in a slaughterhouse, lost his wife, and his 2-year-old and 7-year-old daughters.
“We have escaped from Shiites, but Sunnis killed my family,” he said, distraught. “Where shall I go? Tell me, my God!”
June 27, 2008
Pg. 6
By Alissa J. Rubin
BAGHDAD — Two insurgent bomb blasts struck Thursday at pro-American Iraqi targets in Anbar Province just west of Baghdad and in the northern city of Mosul. The police said more than 30 Iraqis were killed and 80 wounded.
An American military spokesman and Iraqi police officials said that three American marines were killed in the Anbar attack and that two interpreters were also among the dead. The American military command was preparing to hand control of the province, once considered the hotbed of the insurgency, to Iraqi forces.
The bombings extended a pattern of multiple-casualty attacks in recent days that are clearly intended to kill local Iraqi leaders, in particular those who are believed to have collaborated with American forces against insurgents. Thursday’s attacks were among a string of deadly episodes in the past week that broke the previous several weeks’ lull in violence.
Most of the episodes have occurred in Sunni or mixed Sunni-Shiite areas where there has been mounting frustration over the lack of a political deal giving power to all of Iraq’s factions. Some were in small neighborhoods like Abu Dshir on the southern edge of Baghdad, and Madaen, which lies just to its southeast. There was also an attack on Tuesday on the Sadr City neighborhood council which killed six Iraqis, four Americans and an Iraqi-Italian interpreter.
Both of Thursday’s attacks raised questions about assertions by the United States military that Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia and other Sunni extremist groups had been largely vanquished. Sheiks who survived the Anbar attack, a suicide bombing, accused Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, a homegrown Sunni extremist group, of responsibility. In Mosul, bodyguards for the governor, the bomb’s likely target, said the same thing.
The marines and two interpreters killed in the suicide bombing had been attending the weekly meeting of the Awakening Council in the city of Garma, according to the American military and an Iraqi police officer. The Awakening groups are pro-American tribal alliances.
In Baghdad and in Anbar Province, there have been substantial American and Iraqi military campaigns to root out the insurgency. In those areas and in Diyala Province, where there was a suicide bombing a week ago, the Shiite-led government in Baghdad has frustrated the efforts of Sunni leaders to find government security jobs for Sunni tribal figures and former insurgents.
Although many of these people joined the Awakening movement and were paid by the Americans to help fight Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, few have been put on the government’s payroll.
“The government didn’t support the Awakening Councils enough,” said Omar Abdul Sattar, a member of Parliament from Ramadi who belongs to the Iraqi Islamic Party, a leading Sunni group.
“The Awakening lacks information, political advisers, arms and security advisers,” said Adnan al-Dulaimi, a leader of Tawafiq, the largest Sunni bloc in Parliament.
There are also allegations that the initial vetting process for the Awakening was flawed and that some people who still backed Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia disguised their views and became part of the security forces or the Awakening groups.
Sheiks in Anbar, who asked not to be quoted by name, said that they knew the man responsible for the Garma bombing. They said he had been a policeman and previously a member of the Anbar Awakening.
The American pacification of Anbar — considered Iraq’s most dangerous province a few years ago — has been seen as so successful that American forces have been preparing to hand control back to the Iraqi government early next month.
However, Garma was the one of the last places in Anbar to reject the insurgency.
The attack there Thursday was clearly aimed at the Awakening Council meeting, the Iraq police said. Fifty people were there, including tribal sheiks, local dignitaries and members of the local Awakening Council.
“As usual we entered the tent at 9 a.m.,” said Hilal Abdullah Ali, a senior sheik from the Albu Alwan tribe. “At around 10:30 there was a big explosion. I heard the person sitting next to me say, ‘He exploded himself on us.’”
Initial reports from the police were that the bomb killed 12 people and wounded 27, but by late Thursday, they said the death toll had reached 20.
The other bombing, in Mosul, was aimed at the provincial governor, Duraid Kashmola, but he was not among the 18 killed and 61 wounded, according to local security forces. The attack, in a busy central area, was the second large bombing in the city in two days. One on Tuesday evening killed two and wounded 73.
The attack came on the heels of an announcement by the American military that its forces had killed Abu Khalaf, the leader in Mosul of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia. Mr. Khalaf was a former associate of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian exile who led the group until he was killed by the Americans in 2006.
“In order to kill one person, they killed all these people,” said Abdullah al-Hasan, 37. He blamed “the politicians and the struggle for power” for the act of carnage.
Athir Dawud, who had fled Baghdad to escape Shiite militias and earned $4 a day in a slaughterhouse, lost his wife, and his 2-year-old and 7-year-old daughters.
“We have escaped from Shiites, but Sunnis killed my family,” he said, distraught. “Where shall I go? Tell me, my God!”