Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Media: The Associated Press
Byline: By ELENA BECATOROS
Date: 19 September 2006
Body:
BAGHDAD, Iraq_Bombers and gunmen killed at least 41 people and wounded
dozens across Iraq on Monday, while parliament leaders again put off debate
on legislation that some Iraqis fear could threaten the country's unity and
bring even more violence.
On Tuesday, the U.S. military command said that two U.S. soldiers have been
killed in Iraq, one by a roadside bomb and the other after being shot.
Both soldiers died on Sunday afternoon. One was killed by small arms fire in
north-central Baghdad, while the other died after his vehicle was hit by a
roadside bomb in the northeastern part of the capital, the military command
said in a statement.
The identities of the two soldiers were not released while military
authorities contact their families.
Meanwhile, the U.S. military relinquished control of a second Iraqi army
division as Iraqi officials prepared to further tighten security ahead of
the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, when insurgent attacks tend to spike.
In a positive development for Iraq's leaders, predominantly Sunni Arab
tribes in a volatile western province have joined to fight insurgents in the
region and want the government and the U.S.-led coalition to supply them
with weapons, a tribal leader said.
Tribal leaders and clerics in Ramadi, capital of violent Anbar province, met
last week and set up a force of about 20,000 men "ready to purge the city of
these infidels," Sheik Fassal al-Guood, a tribal leader from Ramadi, told
The Associated Press.
"People are fed up with the acts of those criminals who take Islam as a
cover for their crimes," he said. "The situation in the province is
unbearable, the city is abandoned, most of the families have fled the city
and all services are poor."
An indication of the situation came Monday when two suicide car bombers
attacked a police station in Ramadi, killing at least two police officers
and wounding 26 people, the Interior Ministry and U.S. military said.
Al-Arabiya and al-Jazeera television put the death toll much higher, saying
13 people were killed.
A suicide bomber also struck in Tal Afar, a city 260 miles northwest of
Baghdad that has seen much insurgent activity in the past, killing at least
20 people and wounding 17. Bombings and shootings in and around Baqouba, 35
miles northeast of the capital, killed 12 people.
At least six more people died in other incidents around Iraq, and
authorities found at least five bodies, including two women, that probably
were victims of the sectarian reprisal killings being waged between Shiite
and Sunni Arabs.
In Baghdad, political leaders from Shiite, Kurdish and Sunni Arab groups met
to discuss the federalism bill submitted to parliament this month by the
largest Shiite bloc, the United Iraqi Alliance. They canceled a formal
parliament debate scheduled for Tuesday.
The head of the largest Sunni Arab alliance, Adnan al-Dulaimi, said the
faction leaders would meet again to discuss the issue Tuesday, but said the
bill would not be debated until a later _ as yet unspecified _ date.
The legislation calls for setting up a system to allow creation of
autonomous regions in the predominantly Shiite south much like the
self-ruling Kurdish region in northern Iraq. Sunni Arabs fear that would
split Iraq apart and fuel sectarian bloodshed.
The Kurdish north and Shiite south hold Iraq's oil fields, while the
predominantly Sunni Arab areas don't have any.
Sunni Arabs say that before autonomy legislation can be passed, parliament
must name a committee to amend the constitution _ a key demand they made
when they agreed to join Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government.
One of the amendments they seek would weaken the ability to set up
self-ruling cantons.
Al-Dulaimi, as well as Shiite and Kurdish lawmakers, said the Kurds had
proposed setting up the committee simultaneously with submitting the draft
bill for debate sometime in the future.
Monday's violence came as the government prepared to announce new security
measures for Baghdad ahead of Ramadan, which is expected to start Sept. 24.
Defense Ministry spokesman Mohammed al-Askari told the AP the measures would
be adopted two or three days before the holy month begins to "protect
citizens from terrorists attacks."
The Iraqi army's 4th Division also came under Iraqi control in central
Salahuddin province Monday, the government said.
It was the second of Iraq's 10 divisions to be put under direct Iraqi
control since Sept. 7, when coalition forces handed over control of Iraq's
armed forces command to the government.
Byline: By ELENA BECATOROS
Date: 19 September 2006
Body:
BAGHDAD, Iraq_Bombers and gunmen killed at least 41 people and wounded
dozens across Iraq on Monday, while parliament leaders again put off debate
on legislation that some Iraqis fear could threaten the country's unity and
bring even more violence.
On Tuesday, the U.S. military command said that two U.S. soldiers have been
killed in Iraq, one by a roadside bomb and the other after being shot.
Both soldiers died on Sunday afternoon. One was killed by small arms fire in
north-central Baghdad, while the other died after his vehicle was hit by a
roadside bomb in the northeastern part of the capital, the military command
said in a statement.
The identities of the two soldiers were not released while military
authorities contact their families.
Meanwhile, the U.S. military relinquished control of a second Iraqi army
division as Iraqi officials prepared to further tighten security ahead of
the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, when insurgent attacks tend to spike.
In a positive development for Iraq's leaders, predominantly Sunni Arab
tribes in a volatile western province have joined to fight insurgents in the
region and want the government and the U.S.-led coalition to supply them
with weapons, a tribal leader said.
Tribal leaders and clerics in Ramadi, capital of violent Anbar province, met
last week and set up a force of about 20,000 men "ready to purge the city of
these infidels," Sheik Fassal al-Guood, a tribal leader from Ramadi, told
The Associated Press.
"People are fed up with the acts of those criminals who take Islam as a
cover for their crimes," he said. "The situation in the province is
unbearable, the city is abandoned, most of the families have fled the city
and all services are poor."
An indication of the situation came Monday when two suicide car bombers
attacked a police station in Ramadi, killing at least two police officers
and wounding 26 people, the Interior Ministry and U.S. military said.
Al-Arabiya and al-Jazeera television put the death toll much higher, saying
13 people were killed.
A suicide bomber also struck in Tal Afar, a city 260 miles northwest of
Baghdad that has seen much insurgent activity in the past, killing at least
20 people and wounding 17. Bombings and shootings in and around Baqouba, 35
miles northeast of the capital, killed 12 people.
At least six more people died in other incidents around Iraq, and
authorities found at least five bodies, including two women, that probably
were victims of the sectarian reprisal killings being waged between Shiite
and Sunni Arabs.
In Baghdad, political leaders from Shiite, Kurdish and Sunni Arab groups met
to discuss the federalism bill submitted to parliament this month by the
largest Shiite bloc, the United Iraqi Alliance. They canceled a formal
parliament debate scheduled for Tuesday.
The head of the largest Sunni Arab alliance, Adnan al-Dulaimi, said the
faction leaders would meet again to discuss the issue Tuesday, but said the
bill would not be debated until a later _ as yet unspecified _ date.
The legislation calls for setting up a system to allow creation of
autonomous regions in the predominantly Shiite south much like the
self-ruling Kurdish region in northern Iraq. Sunni Arabs fear that would
split Iraq apart and fuel sectarian bloodshed.
The Kurdish north and Shiite south hold Iraq's oil fields, while the
predominantly Sunni Arab areas don't have any.
Sunni Arabs say that before autonomy legislation can be passed, parliament
must name a committee to amend the constitution _ a key demand they made
when they agreed to join Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government.
One of the amendments they seek would weaken the ability to set up
self-ruling cantons.
Al-Dulaimi, as well as Shiite and Kurdish lawmakers, said the Kurds had
proposed setting up the committee simultaneously with submitting the draft
bill for debate sometime in the future.
Monday's violence came as the government prepared to announce new security
measures for Baghdad ahead of Ramadan, which is expected to start Sept. 24.
Defense Ministry spokesman Mohammed al-Askari told the AP the measures would
be adopted two or three days before the holy month begins to "protect
citizens from terrorists attacks."
The Iraqi army's 4th Division also came under Iraqi control in central
Salahuddin province Monday, the government said.
It was the second of Iraq's 10 divisions to be put under direct Iraqi
control since Sept. 7, when coalition forces handed over control of Iraq's
armed forces command to the government.