Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
New York Times
November 13, 2008
Pg. 6
By Sam Dagher
BAGHDAD — Two American soldiers were killed and six others were wounded by an Iraqi soldier in an attack in the northern city of Mosul on Wednesday, according to the United States military, Iraqi security officials and witnesses. The shooter was immediately killed by other American soldiers, they added.
In Baghdad, at least 11 Iraqis were killed and 60 others were wounded in a new spate of attacks, witnesses and police officials said. The violence erupted just two days after attacks that killed 28 Iraqis in the capital, in the bloodiest day since June.
While the deaths of the American soldiers were confirmed by the United States military, the circumstances remained in dispute.
Maj. Gen. Mark P. Hertling, commander of American troops in northern Iraq, said it began when two platoons of American soldiers stopped at a combat outpost staffed by Iraqi soldiers. Two American lieutenants went inside to an office to speak with an Iraqi captain while soldiers from both sides waited outside.
Suddenly, General Hertling [FONT=Times New Roman, Times]said[/FONT], an Iraqi soldier with an AK-47 that was equipped with a 70-round drum walked up to the group of soldiers, said something to an Iraqi soldier and then shot one American soldier in the head and another in the stomach. He then began spraying bullets in all directions, the general said, at which point the Americans shot him dead. One American soldier died on the spot, and the other later died from his wounds.
General Hertling said the episode remained under investigation by both sides. He declined to say what the Iraqi assailant had said before he began shooting.
The head of police operations in Mosul, Brig. Gen. Abdul-Karim al-Jubouri, said the episode was set off by a quarrel between an American and an Iraqi soldier. This was confirmed by a senior official in the Ministry of Defense and an officer in the Nineveh Operations Command, which oversees all Iraqi forces operating in Mosul and is advised by the American military.
An Iraqi Army officer and two soldiers who witnessed the attack provided a detailed account on the condition of anonymity, for fear of retribution from their commanders.
They said an American military patrol stopped on Wednesday afternoon to inspect a post staffed by Iraqi soldiers in the predominantly Sunni Arab neighborhood of Zanjili, a notoriously violent part of Mosul.
A heated argument ensued between one of the American soldiers and an Iraqi soldier identified as Barzan Mohammed Abdullah, prompting the American to curse at the Iraqi, spit in his face and slap him, the Iraqis said. The Iraqi soldier then opened fire on the Americans, they said, and other American soldiers responded with a barrage of gunfire at the Iraqi.
This was not the first time that an Iraqi soldier had turned his gun on an American or British soldier. The most recent was last December, also in Mosul, when two American soldiers were killed and three were wounded by an Iraqi soldier who opened fire while on patrol with them.
Mosul and the surrounding Nineveh Province have been the focus of increased attention from the United States and Iraqi military recently. There are about 5,000 American soldiers stationed in the province, and about 600 additional soldiers were recently sent to Mosul from Diyala Province to take part in a new military operation.
Despite the increased military presence, Mosul is home to a mix of Sunni insurgents linked to the former regime of Saddam Hussein and to Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, an insurgent group that American intelligence agencies say is led by foreigners.
Mosul was also the scene of sectarian killings on Wednesday that underscored the serious tensions that continued to plague the city. In that episode, two Iraqi Christian women were killed and their mother was seriously wounded, police and security officials said.
Lamia Subaih Daoud, a local government employee in her 30s, was waiting outside her home in the northern neighborhood of Qahira for a bus to take her to work. Three gunmen in a gray vehicle pulled up and shot her in the head and chest.
They then stormed the house and gunned down Ms. Daoud’s sister, who was 23, in the same fashion. The gunmen made their way to the kitchen and shot the mother of the women.
Ms. Daoud’s three children, ages 2 to 5, were asleep at the time in their room and survived the attack.
The killings come less than two weeks after church leaders and the government of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki urged more than 2,000 refugee Christian families to return to the city under a government guarantee of their safety. The refugees had fled before a wave of attacks against Christians in Mosul in September and October.
It is estimated by church leaders that 400 to 700 families have returned so far from the relative safety of the Nineveh Plain, a predominantly Christian stretch of villages northeast of the city protected by forces from the neighboring Kurdistan region.
Nineveh Province is also the scene of escalating tensions between the central government and the semiautonomous Kurdistan region. In what is viewed by many as a move to hem in Kurdish influence in northern Iraq, Mr. Maliki has been courting Sunni Arab nationalists and tribal leaders in Nineveh and other parts of the north. The nationalists and tribal leaders are traditionally hostile to Kurds and their claims to disputed territories.
In response, the deputy speaker of Iraq’s Parliament, Aref Tayfour, a Kurd, issued a statement objecting to Mr. Maliki’s plans, which involve forming so-called tribal support councils in Mosul and Kirkuk that would answer to the central government. He called them “illegal and unconstitutional” and warned that they would “enflame sectarian and ethnic discord.” The two main Kurdish parties, Mr. Maliki’s coalition partners in government, issued a similar statement on Tuesday.
Mr. Maliki’s office responded with a counterstatement on Wednesday describing the Kurdish position as “regrettable,” insisting that these councils were “vital for the preservation of security and order.”
In attacks on Wednesday in Baghdad, a car bomb exploded in a parking lot in a busy commercial district. Witnesses said a joint American and Iraqi patrol had driven by just minutes before the explosion. Four people were killed in the attack, and 14 were wounded.
In another attack, a bomb in a parked car exploded near a police patrol in eastern Baghdad, and a roadside bomb blew up shortly afterward among the people who had gathered at the scene. That attack killed five people and wounded 29, according to the national police and [FONT=Times New Roman, Times]witnesses[/FONT].
[FONT=Times New Roman, Times]Reporting was contributed by Campbell Robertson, Abeer Mohammed, Tariq Maher and Mudhafer al-Husaini from Baghdad, and an Iraqi employee of The New York Times from Mosul.[/FONT]
November 13, 2008
Pg. 6
By Sam Dagher
BAGHDAD — Two American soldiers were killed and six others were wounded by an Iraqi soldier in an attack in the northern city of Mosul on Wednesday, according to the United States military, Iraqi security officials and witnesses. The shooter was immediately killed by other American soldiers, they added.
In Baghdad, at least 11 Iraqis were killed and 60 others were wounded in a new spate of attacks, witnesses and police officials said. The violence erupted just two days after attacks that killed 28 Iraqis in the capital, in the bloodiest day since June.
While the deaths of the American soldiers were confirmed by the United States military, the circumstances remained in dispute.
Maj. Gen. Mark P. Hertling, commander of American troops in northern Iraq, said it began when two platoons of American soldiers stopped at a combat outpost staffed by Iraqi soldiers. Two American lieutenants went inside to an office to speak with an Iraqi captain while soldiers from both sides waited outside.
Suddenly, General Hertling [FONT=Times New Roman, Times]said[/FONT], an Iraqi soldier with an AK-47 that was equipped with a 70-round drum walked up to the group of soldiers, said something to an Iraqi soldier and then shot one American soldier in the head and another in the stomach. He then began spraying bullets in all directions, the general said, at which point the Americans shot him dead. One American soldier died on the spot, and the other later died from his wounds.
General Hertling said the episode remained under investigation by both sides. He declined to say what the Iraqi assailant had said before he began shooting.
The head of police operations in Mosul, Brig. Gen. Abdul-Karim al-Jubouri, said the episode was set off by a quarrel between an American and an Iraqi soldier. This was confirmed by a senior official in the Ministry of Defense and an officer in the Nineveh Operations Command, which oversees all Iraqi forces operating in Mosul and is advised by the American military.
An Iraqi Army officer and two soldiers who witnessed the attack provided a detailed account on the condition of anonymity, for fear of retribution from their commanders.
They said an American military patrol stopped on Wednesday afternoon to inspect a post staffed by Iraqi soldiers in the predominantly Sunni Arab neighborhood of Zanjili, a notoriously violent part of Mosul.
A heated argument ensued between one of the American soldiers and an Iraqi soldier identified as Barzan Mohammed Abdullah, prompting the American to curse at the Iraqi, spit in his face and slap him, the Iraqis said. The Iraqi soldier then opened fire on the Americans, they said, and other American soldiers responded with a barrage of gunfire at the Iraqi.
This was not the first time that an Iraqi soldier had turned his gun on an American or British soldier. The most recent was last December, also in Mosul, when two American soldiers were killed and three were wounded by an Iraqi soldier who opened fire while on patrol with them.
Mosul and the surrounding Nineveh Province have been the focus of increased attention from the United States and Iraqi military recently. There are about 5,000 American soldiers stationed in the province, and about 600 additional soldiers were recently sent to Mosul from Diyala Province to take part in a new military operation.
Despite the increased military presence, Mosul is home to a mix of Sunni insurgents linked to the former regime of Saddam Hussein and to Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, an insurgent group that American intelligence agencies say is led by foreigners.
Mosul was also the scene of sectarian killings on Wednesday that underscored the serious tensions that continued to plague the city. In that episode, two Iraqi Christian women were killed and their mother was seriously wounded, police and security officials said.
Lamia Subaih Daoud, a local government employee in her 30s, was waiting outside her home in the northern neighborhood of Qahira for a bus to take her to work. Three gunmen in a gray vehicle pulled up and shot her in the head and chest.
They then stormed the house and gunned down Ms. Daoud’s sister, who was 23, in the same fashion. The gunmen made their way to the kitchen and shot the mother of the women.
Ms. Daoud’s three children, ages 2 to 5, were asleep at the time in their room and survived the attack.
The killings come less than two weeks after church leaders and the government of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki urged more than 2,000 refugee Christian families to return to the city under a government guarantee of their safety. The refugees had fled before a wave of attacks against Christians in Mosul in September and October.
It is estimated by church leaders that 400 to 700 families have returned so far from the relative safety of the Nineveh Plain, a predominantly Christian stretch of villages northeast of the city protected by forces from the neighboring Kurdistan region.
Nineveh Province is also the scene of escalating tensions between the central government and the semiautonomous Kurdistan region. In what is viewed by many as a move to hem in Kurdish influence in northern Iraq, Mr. Maliki has been courting Sunni Arab nationalists and tribal leaders in Nineveh and other parts of the north. The nationalists and tribal leaders are traditionally hostile to Kurds and their claims to disputed territories.
In response, the deputy speaker of Iraq’s Parliament, Aref Tayfour, a Kurd, issued a statement objecting to Mr. Maliki’s plans, which involve forming so-called tribal support councils in Mosul and Kirkuk that would answer to the central government. He called them “illegal and unconstitutional” and warned that they would “enflame sectarian and ethnic discord.” The two main Kurdish parties, Mr. Maliki’s coalition partners in government, issued a similar statement on Tuesday.
Mr. Maliki’s office responded with a counterstatement on Wednesday describing the Kurdish position as “regrettable,” insisting that these councils were “vital for the preservation of security and order.”
In attacks on Wednesday in Baghdad, a car bomb exploded in a parking lot in a busy commercial district. Witnesses said a joint American and Iraqi patrol had driven by just minutes before the explosion. Four people were killed in the attack, and 14 were wounded.
In another attack, a bomb in a parked car exploded near a police patrol in eastern Baghdad, and a roadside bomb blew up shortly afterward among the people who had gathered at the scene. That attack killed five people and wounded 29, according to the national police and [FONT=Times New Roman, Times]witnesses[/FONT].
[FONT=Times New Roman, Times]Reporting was contributed by Campbell Robertson, Abeer Mohammed, Tariq Maher and Mudhafer al-Husaini from Baghdad, and an Iraqi employee of The New York Times from Mosul.[/FONT]