Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Media: AP
Byline: Hamza Hendawi
Date: 14 October 2006
Gunmen attacked Shiite women picking vegetables in a field outside the
capital Friday, killing six adults and two young girls and kidnapping two
teenagers. It was one of the deadliest assaults specifically targeting women
in Iraq's monthslong wave of sectarian violence.
Police said they suspected the gunmen were Sunnis seeking to intimidate
Shiites into fleeing the area south of Baghdad. Previous major attacks in
Iraq have killed many women and men together, and at times individual women
have been shot or kidnapped. But rarely have large groups of women been
attacked.
In another sign of sectarian bloodshed, police in Duluiyah north of Baghdad
found 14 beheaded bodies thought to be from a group of 17 workers kidnapped
by gunmen Thursday while traveling home to the mostly Shiite town of Balad.
There was no word on the other abductees.
The attack on the farm field took place outside Saifiya, an ethnically mixed
village south of Baghdad. Most residents already fled to escape violence,
Sunnis going to the nearby town of Madain, Shiites to neighboring Suwayrah.
The women were gathering vegetables when gunmen pulled up in two cars around
8 a.m. and surrounded the field. They opened fire, killing six women and two
girls about 4 or 5 years old, Lt. Mohammed al-Shammari said. The attackers
forced two teenage girls into the cars and escaped, he said.
Al-Shammari said the gunmen may have come from the nearby Baghdad district
of Dora, a mixed neighborhood long torn by bloodshed inflicted by both Sunni
insurgents and Shiite militiamen.
Baghdad has been the epicenter of violence for months. The city has averaged
36 attacks a day the past three weeks, an increase of nearly 30 percent over
the preceding seven weeks and 60 percent higher than from mid-March to
mid-June, according to U.S. military figures.
The U.S. military spokesman, Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, attributed the rise
to the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, when he said attacks ``historically''
have increased. Some Islamic militants believe that dying in combat during
Ramadan brings extra blessings in paradise.
U.S. officials warned weeks ago that killings by Shiite and Sunni death
squads have become the greatest threat in Iraq, although the Sunni-dominated
insurgency continues bombing and shooting attacks on U.S. and Iraqi troops
as well as civilians.
Besides the attack on the women, at least 10 other Iraqi civilians died in
violence Friday. A U.S. soldier was killed by a roadside bomb in northern
Iraq, the 45th American death this month.
Bloodshed in Baghdad itself was tamped down by a curfew - imposed every
Friday, banning vehicle traffic to prevent car bomb attacks on weekly Muslim
prayers.
The northern city of Mosul was also under curfew after U.S. and Iraqi troops
fought with gunmen Thursday night. The fight was sparked by a mortar barrage
on a U.S. base that wounded 12 American soldiers. At least 12 suspected
insurgents were reported killed in ensuing gunbattles.
The head of Iraq's most feared Shiite militia, the Mahdi Army, issued a
statement late Thursday disavowing violence committed against Iraqis in the
name of his group. But it was unclear whether he referred to slayings of
Sunnis or minor clashes with other Shiite militias.
In pamphlets distributed in his hometown of Najaf, 100 miles south of
Baghdad, radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr - whose party is also a
powerful member of the government - said members of his militia had not been
involved in any ``unlawful attacks'' on Iraqis.
``This has not been proven, but if it is shown to be true I will publicize
their names and disavow them,'' al-Sadr said.
``They should make use of the holy month of Ramadan and repent,'' he added.
Meanwhile, a new video on the Internet hinted at possible splits between
Iraqi Sunni insurgents and al-Qaida in Iraq, the group behind many of the
country's worst bombings and whose fighters are thought to be mostly foreign
Arabs.
A man claiming to be an Iraqi Sunni insurgent appears on the video urging
Osama bin Laden to replace the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq because of its
attacks on Sunni clerics.
``They planted explosives in the houses, the hospitals and the schools and
even the electric transformers,'' the man, who called himself Abu Osama
al-Iraq, said in the video.
He warned that if insurgents lose Sunni support, ``we will be an easy hunt
for the crusaders, the occupiers and their agents the Shiites.'' He asked
bin Laden to name an Iraqi to replace Abu Ayyub al-Masri as leader of
al-Qaida in Iraq.
Al-Masri - whose pseudonym means ``the Egyptian'' - took over the leadership
after Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed by a U.S. airstrike in June. Other
Sunni insurgents had criticized al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian, for turning Sunni
Iraqis against the movement by killing civilians.
The authenticity of the video, posted on a Web forum often used by Islamic
militants, could not be confirmed. But it was the first report of dissent
toward al-Masri.
________________________________________________
Byline: Hamza Hendawi
Date: 14 October 2006
Gunmen attacked Shiite women picking vegetables in a field outside the
capital Friday, killing six adults and two young girls and kidnapping two
teenagers. It was one of the deadliest assaults specifically targeting women
in Iraq's monthslong wave of sectarian violence.
Police said they suspected the gunmen were Sunnis seeking to intimidate
Shiites into fleeing the area south of Baghdad. Previous major attacks in
Iraq have killed many women and men together, and at times individual women
have been shot or kidnapped. But rarely have large groups of women been
attacked.
In another sign of sectarian bloodshed, police in Duluiyah north of Baghdad
found 14 beheaded bodies thought to be from a group of 17 workers kidnapped
by gunmen Thursday while traveling home to the mostly Shiite town of Balad.
There was no word on the other abductees.
The attack on the farm field took place outside Saifiya, an ethnically mixed
village south of Baghdad. Most residents already fled to escape violence,
Sunnis going to the nearby town of Madain, Shiites to neighboring Suwayrah.
The women were gathering vegetables when gunmen pulled up in two cars around
8 a.m. and surrounded the field. They opened fire, killing six women and two
girls about 4 or 5 years old, Lt. Mohammed al-Shammari said. The attackers
forced two teenage girls into the cars and escaped, he said.
Al-Shammari said the gunmen may have come from the nearby Baghdad district
of Dora, a mixed neighborhood long torn by bloodshed inflicted by both Sunni
insurgents and Shiite militiamen.
Baghdad has been the epicenter of violence for months. The city has averaged
36 attacks a day the past three weeks, an increase of nearly 30 percent over
the preceding seven weeks and 60 percent higher than from mid-March to
mid-June, according to U.S. military figures.
The U.S. military spokesman, Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, attributed the rise
to the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, when he said attacks ``historically''
have increased. Some Islamic militants believe that dying in combat during
Ramadan brings extra blessings in paradise.
U.S. officials warned weeks ago that killings by Shiite and Sunni death
squads have become the greatest threat in Iraq, although the Sunni-dominated
insurgency continues bombing and shooting attacks on U.S. and Iraqi troops
as well as civilians.
Besides the attack on the women, at least 10 other Iraqi civilians died in
violence Friday. A U.S. soldier was killed by a roadside bomb in northern
Iraq, the 45th American death this month.
Bloodshed in Baghdad itself was tamped down by a curfew - imposed every
Friday, banning vehicle traffic to prevent car bomb attacks on weekly Muslim
prayers.
The northern city of Mosul was also under curfew after U.S. and Iraqi troops
fought with gunmen Thursday night. The fight was sparked by a mortar barrage
on a U.S. base that wounded 12 American soldiers. At least 12 suspected
insurgents were reported killed in ensuing gunbattles.
The head of Iraq's most feared Shiite militia, the Mahdi Army, issued a
statement late Thursday disavowing violence committed against Iraqis in the
name of his group. But it was unclear whether he referred to slayings of
Sunnis or minor clashes with other Shiite militias.
In pamphlets distributed in his hometown of Najaf, 100 miles south of
Baghdad, radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr - whose party is also a
powerful member of the government - said members of his militia had not been
involved in any ``unlawful attacks'' on Iraqis.
``This has not been proven, but if it is shown to be true I will publicize
their names and disavow them,'' al-Sadr said.
``They should make use of the holy month of Ramadan and repent,'' he added.
Meanwhile, a new video on the Internet hinted at possible splits between
Iraqi Sunni insurgents and al-Qaida in Iraq, the group behind many of the
country's worst bombings and whose fighters are thought to be mostly foreign
Arabs.
A man claiming to be an Iraqi Sunni insurgent appears on the video urging
Osama bin Laden to replace the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq because of its
attacks on Sunni clerics.
``They planted explosives in the houses, the hospitals and the schools and
even the electric transformers,'' the man, who called himself Abu Osama
al-Iraq, said in the video.
He warned that if insurgents lose Sunni support, ``we will be an easy hunt
for the crusaders, the occupiers and their agents the Shiites.'' He asked
bin Laden to name an Iraqi to replace Abu Ayyub al-Masri as leader of
al-Qaida in Iraq.
Al-Masri - whose pseudonym means ``the Egyptian'' - took over the leadership
after Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed by a U.S. airstrike in June. Other
Sunni insurgents had criticized al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian, for turning Sunni
Iraqis against the movement by killing civilians.
The authenticity of the video, posted on a Web forum often used by Islamic
militants, could not be confirmed. But it was the first report of dissent
toward al-Masri.
________________________________________________