Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Washington Post
February 25, 2008
Pg. 8
Fighting in North Intensifies; Turkish Soldiers, Kurdish Guerrillas Clash for Fourth Day
By Amit R. Paley and Joshua Partlow, Washington Post Foreign Service
BAGHDAD, Feb. 24 -- A suicide bomber killed at least 40 people Sunday in southern Iraq when he attacked a crowd of pilgrims marching to commemorate one of Shiite Islam's holiest days, U.S. and Iraqi officials said.
In northern Iraq, Turkish soldiers and Kurdish guerrillas clashed for a fourth straight day, with scores reported killed. The guerrillas, who are seeking greater autonomy for Turkish Kurds, use the area as a base for attacks in Turkey.
The fighting has strained ties between the United States and Iraqi Kurds, who have pleaded with Washington to pressure the Turkish military to end its incursion.
The suicide attack occurred near the town of Iskandariyah at a tent set aside for pilgrims belonging to the movement of anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, police said. The Sadrists were among hundreds of thousands of pilgrims marching to the holy city of Karbala for the holiday of Arbaeen on Thursday, the end of a 40-day commemorative period of mourning for Imam Hussein, the prophet Muhammad's grandson who died in battle in 680.
Iraqi police said the attack was carried out by the Sunni insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq as part of a campaign meant to provoke the Sadrist movement into ending a cease-fire credited with reducing violence in Iraq, police spokesman Capt. Muthanna Ahmed said.
Pilgrims were eating lunch when a man detonated an explosive vest filled with ball bearings. Ahmed said the blast killed 45 people and wounded 68. U.S. officials put the death toll at 40.
One of the wounded, Ahmed Ali, a 12-year-old from Iskandariyah, was serving tea to pilgrims despite his mother's instructions that he go to school instead. Doctors were forced to amputate his left leg below the knee.
"What is his guilt?" his mother wailed. "He is just a little kid who should have been in school."
Iraqi police said the bomber appeared to have come from a nearby orchard and was able to enter the area because of tensions between Iraqi security forces and the Mahdi Army, the powerful militia of the Sadrist movement. Ahmed, the police spokesman, said the Mahdi Army had forced Iraqi forces to leave the area.
"We always told them that you do not have the capability to secure the area," he said. "But they would simply tell us that we should pack and leave."
In northern Iraq, the fighting has continued to escalate since hundreds of Turkish troops crossed into northern Iraq on Thursday in pursuit of guerrillas from the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK.
The Turkish military said a total of 112 guerrillas and 15 Turkish troops had been killed in the four days of fighting.
"Terrorist infrastructure in the region is being destroyed in a way that cannot be repaired in a short time," the military said in a statement.
A PKK spokesman, Ahmed Denize, said the guerrillas had killed 48 Turkish soldiers and that four PKK soldiers had been killed.
Denize also said the group had shot down a Turkish helicopter with a rocket-propelled grenade Saturday afternoon near a village on the Iraq-Turkey border. The Turkish military said the helicopter failed "for unknown reasons."
"We have given them a strong smack," said Denize, who added that more Turkish soldiers were coming across the border every day. "And if the Turkish street knows what is really going on, they will ask for this war to be over, because of what they are losing every day."
The prime minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government, Nechirvan Barzani, expressed concern that the Turkish operation had gone beyond targeting the PKK and was harming civilians and the economy of northern Iraq. He said he was particularly concerned that Turkey had destroyed at least three bridges near the border.
Barzani also criticized the U.S. government for allowing Turkish aircraft to enter Iraqi airspace, and he said the Iraqi central government was not taking a sufficiently firm stand against the incursion. He said the region's president, Massoud Barzani -- his father -- had sent an urgent message to President Bush requesting that he intervene to urge Turkey to leave Iraq.
"The operations, if they continue, they will lead to instability in Iraq," he said.
Partlow reported from Irbil. Correspondent Ellen Knickmeyer in Istanbul and special correspondents Saad Sarhan in Najaf and Saad al-Izzi in Baghdad contributed to this report.
February 25, 2008
Pg. 8
Fighting in North Intensifies; Turkish Soldiers, Kurdish Guerrillas Clash for Fourth Day
By Amit R. Paley and Joshua Partlow, Washington Post Foreign Service
BAGHDAD, Feb. 24 -- A suicide bomber killed at least 40 people Sunday in southern Iraq when he attacked a crowd of pilgrims marching to commemorate one of Shiite Islam's holiest days, U.S. and Iraqi officials said.
In northern Iraq, Turkish soldiers and Kurdish guerrillas clashed for a fourth straight day, with scores reported killed. The guerrillas, who are seeking greater autonomy for Turkish Kurds, use the area as a base for attacks in Turkey.
The fighting has strained ties between the United States and Iraqi Kurds, who have pleaded with Washington to pressure the Turkish military to end its incursion.
The suicide attack occurred near the town of Iskandariyah at a tent set aside for pilgrims belonging to the movement of anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, police said. The Sadrists were among hundreds of thousands of pilgrims marching to the holy city of Karbala for the holiday of Arbaeen on Thursday, the end of a 40-day commemorative period of mourning for Imam Hussein, the prophet Muhammad's grandson who died in battle in 680.
Iraqi police said the attack was carried out by the Sunni insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq as part of a campaign meant to provoke the Sadrist movement into ending a cease-fire credited with reducing violence in Iraq, police spokesman Capt. Muthanna Ahmed said.
Pilgrims were eating lunch when a man detonated an explosive vest filled with ball bearings. Ahmed said the blast killed 45 people and wounded 68. U.S. officials put the death toll at 40.
One of the wounded, Ahmed Ali, a 12-year-old from Iskandariyah, was serving tea to pilgrims despite his mother's instructions that he go to school instead. Doctors were forced to amputate his left leg below the knee.
"What is his guilt?" his mother wailed. "He is just a little kid who should have been in school."
Iraqi police said the bomber appeared to have come from a nearby orchard and was able to enter the area because of tensions between Iraqi security forces and the Mahdi Army, the powerful militia of the Sadrist movement. Ahmed, the police spokesman, said the Mahdi Army had forced Iraqi forces to leave the area.
"We always told them that you do not have the capability to secure the area," he said. "But they would simply tell us that we should pack and leave."
In northern Iraq, the fighting has continued to escalate since hundreds of Turkish troops crossed into northern Iraq on Thursday in pursuit of guerrillas from the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK.
The Turkish military said a total of 112 guerrillas and 15 Turkish troops had been killed in the four days of fighting.
"Terrorist infrastructure in the region is being destroyed in a way that cannot be repaired in a short time," the military said in a statement.
A PKK spokesman, Ahmed Denize, said the guerrillas had killed 48 Turkish soldiers and that four PKK soldiers had been killed.
Denize also said the group had shot down a Turkish helicopter with a rocket-propelled grenade Saturday afternoon near a village on the Iraq-Turkey border. The Turkish military said the helicopter failed "for unknown reasons."
"We have given them a strong smack," said Denize, who added that more Turkish soldiers were coming across the border every day. "And if the Turkish street knows what is really going on, they will ask for this war to be over, because of what they are losing every day."
The prime minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government, Nechirvan Barzani, expressed concern that the Turkish operation had gone beyond targeting the PKK and was harming civilians and the economy of northern Iraq. He said he was particularly concerned that Turkey had destroyed at least three bridges near the border.
Barzani also criticized the U.S. government for allowing Turkish aircraft to enter Iraqi airspace, and he said the Iraqi central government was not taking a sufficiently firm stand against the incursion. He said the region's president, Massoud Barzani -- his father -- had sent an urgent message to President Bush requesting that he intervene to urge Turkey to leave Iraq.
"The operations, if they continue, they will lead to instability in Iraq," he said.
Partlow reported from Irbil. Correspondent Ellen Knickmeyer in Istanbul and special correspondents Saad Sarhan in Najaf and Saad al-Izzi in Baghdad contributed to this report.