Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
New York Times
June 25, 2008 By Alissa J. Rubin and Mudhafer Al-Husaini
BAGHDAD — American soldiers and civilians had a surprise for the Sadr City District Council on Tuesday, and gathered in the office of its acting chairman to make the presentation just before the weekly meeting.
As one of the soldiers unfurled photographs of the council members, an explosion ripped through the room, knocking one member, Qasim Abdul Zahra, to the floor. As he looked up, he could just make out the forms of bloodied Americans through the smoke, he said. Unwittingly, they had become human shields, he said.
“The explosion happened just outside the room, near the Americans,” who were standing by the door, he said. “They were the ones that received the most shrapnel, and that’s why we are still alive,” he said of himself and the three other council members who were present.
While the four Iraqi council members in the room survived, four Americans, an Italian interpreter and six Iraqis, who were outside the room, were killed.
Two of the dead Americans were soldiers. The other two were a civilian contract worker for the Defense Department and a State Department employee who worked for Sadr City’s provincial reconstruction team. The interpreter, who was born in Iraq, was working under a Defense Department contract.
“This is a tragic loss and one we all mourn,” Ryan C. Crocker, the United States ambassador, said in a statement. “We and all who believe in a brighter future for Iraq condemn this heinous attack in the strongest possible terms.”
The State Department worker, Steven L. Farley, a native of Guthrie, Okla., served for several years in the Navy Reserve and volunteered to join the State Department in April 2007, according to a statement by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. He was at least the fourth State Department employee to die in Iraq.
Tuesday was the second consecutive day that Americans who met with local leaders in Iraq were killed. In Madaen, southeast of Baghdad, two American soldiers died shortly after leaving a meeting at the local council building on Monday.
The military blamed “special groups,” the term used to describe militias backed and trained by Iran or its surrogates. “Special groups are afraid of progress and afraid of empowering the people,” said Lt. Col. John Digiambatista, an operations officer with the Third Brigade Combat Team, Fourth Infantry Division.
This “will only harden the determination of this council, the citizens of Sadr City, the Iraqi Army and coalition forces,” he said.
Despite a six-week truce in Sadr City, power struggles have emerged over who will represent its two million to three million mostly impoverished residents in elections in November. Many factions are involved, some allied with the rebel Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr and some with his opponents.
Disputes are also occurring about whether to allow the American-financed neighborhood guards, known elsewhere as Awakening Councils, to assume responsibility for security in some parts of Sadr City. The District Council where the bombing occurred opposed the Awakening Councils.
Mr. Sadr has said he continues to support attacks on American forces, but he has asked his followers to refrain from attacking other Iraqis.
It was unclear if the attack on Tuesday was intended to kill the Americans, the Iraqis on the District Council or the acting council chairman.
“The American forces don’t attend regularly every Tuesday, and that’s why we were surprised this morning because they paid an unexpected visit to the council at 9 a.m.,” Ahmed Hasan, a council spokesman, said.
The bomb exploded 20 minutes later. Windows shattered, and smoke and dust poured from the large building. Its facade bears a huge picture of the turban-covered head of Ayatollah Muhammad Sadiq al-Sadr, the father of Moktada al-Sadr.
Council members blamed the Iraqi security forces, the Facility Protection Services and American soldiers, some of whom were nearby at the time, for allowing a bomb to be smuggled into the building. But others said it was an inside job aimed at killing council members.
“There’s infiltration inside the local council,” said Mr. Zahra, whose legs were broken in the bombing. “I don’t want to accuse anyone, but this was a conspiracy. We put good security inside the local council. I don’t know how a bomb hidden in a bag could get inside.”
American military officials said that they had caught a suspect near the site of the bombing who had tested positive for explosive residue.
In Mosul, a northern city, a bomb exploded Tuesday at a police station, killing a police officer and a boy and wounding 70 people, a security official said.
On the southern outskirts of Baghdad, the leader of the security committee of Abu Dshir, a majority Shiite district, confirmed that the chairman of the local council was killed Monday.
“Unknown gunmen knocked on the door of Mahdi Atwan, the chairman of the local council in Abu Dshir,” said Sayyid Malik Hussein, the leader of the security committee.
“The gunmen shot him dead with nine bullets in his chest as soon as he opened the door,” Mr. Hussein said. “The local councils are being targeted these days because they are working very well and they represent the government.”
Mohamed Hussein contributed reporting from Baghdad, and Iraqi employees of The New York Times from Baghdad and Mosul.
June 25, 2008 By Alissa J. Rubin and Mudhafer Al-Husaini
BAGHDAD — American soldiers and civilians had a surprise for the Sadr City District Council on Tuesday, and gathered in the office of its acting chairman to make the presentation just before the weekly meeting.
As one of the soldiers unfurled photographs of the council members, an explosion ripped through the room, knocking one member, Qasim Abdul Zahra, to the floor. As he looked up, he could just make out the forms of bloodied Americans through the smoke, he said. Unwittingly, they had become human shields, he said.
“The explosion happened just outside the room, near the Americans,” who were standing by the door, he said. “They were the ones that received the most shrapnel, and that’s why we are still alive,” he said of himself and the three other council members who were present.
While the four Iraqi council members in the room survived, four Americans, an Italian interpreter and six Iraqis, who were outside the room, were killed.
Two of the dead Americans were soldiers. The other two were a civilian contract worker for the Defense Department and a State Department employee who worked for Sadr City’s provincial reconstruction team. The interpreter, who was born in Iraq, was working under a Defense Department contract.
“This is a tragic loss and one we all mourn,” Ryan C. Crocker, the United States ambassador, said in a statement. “We and all who believe in a brighter future for Iraq condemn this heinous attack in the strongest possible terms.”
The State Department worker, Steven L. Farley, a native of Guthrie, Okla., served for several years in the Navy Reserve and volunteered to join the State Department in April 2007, according to a statement by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. He was at least the fourth State Department employee to die in Iraq.
Tuesday was the second consecutive day that Americans who met with local leaders in Iraq were killed. In Madaen, southeast of Baghdad, two American soldiers died shortly after leaving a meeting at the local council building on Monday.
The military blamed “special groups,” the term used to describe militias backed and trained by Iran or its surrogates. “Special groups are afraid of progress and afraid of empowering the people,” said Lt. Col. John Digiambatista, an operations officer with the Third Brigade Combat Team, Fourth Infantry Division.
This “will only harden the determination of this council, the citizens of Sadr City, the Iraqi Army and coalition forces,” he said.
Despite a six-week truce in Sadr City, power struggles have emerged over who will represent its two million to three million mostly impoverished residents in elections in November. Many factions are involved, some allied with the rebel Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr and some with his opponents.
Disputes are also occurring about whether to allow the American-financed neighborhood guards, known elsewhere as Awakening Councils, to assume responsibility for security in some parts of Sadr City. The District Council where the bombing occurred opposed the Awakening Councils.
Mr. Sadr has said he continues to support attacks on American forces, but he has asked his followers to refrain from attacking other Iraqis.
It was unclear if the attack on Tuesday was intended to kill the Americans, the Iraqis on the District Council or the acting council chairman.
“The American forces don’t attend regularly every Tuesday, and that’s why we were surprised this morning because they paid an unexpected visit to the council at 9 a.m.,” Ahmed Hasan, a council spokesman, said.
The bomb exploded 20 minutes later. Windows shattered, and smoke and dust poured from the large building. Its facade bears a huge picture of the turban-covered head of Ayatollah Muhammad Sadiq al-Sadr, the father of Moktada al-Sadr.
Council members blamed the Iraqi security forces, the Facility Protection Services and American soldiers, some of whom were nearby at the time, for allowing a bomb to be smuggled into the building. But others said it was an inside job aimed at killing council members.
“There’s infiltration inside the local council,” said Mr. Zahra, whose legs were broken in the bombing. “I don’t want to accuse anyone, but this was a conspiracy. We put good security inside the local council. I don’t know how a bomb hidden in a bag could get inside.”
American military officials said that they had caught a suspect near the site of the bombing who had tested positive for explosive residue.
In Mosul, a northern city, a bomb exploded Tuesday at a police station, killing a police officer and a boy and wounding 70 people, a security official said.
On the southern outskirts of Baghdad, the leader of the security committee of Abu Dshir, a majority Shiite district, confirmed that the chairman of the local council was killed Monday.
“Unknown gunmen knocked on the door of Mahdi Atwan, the chairman of the local council in Abu Dshir,” said Sayyid Malik Hussein, the leader of the security committee.
“The gunmen shot him dead with nine bullets in his chest as soon as he opened the door,” Mr. Hussein said. “The local councils are being targeted these days because they are working very well and they represent the government.”
Mohamed Hussein contributed reporting from Baghdad, and Iraqi employees of The New York Times from Baghdad and Mosul.