Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
New York Times
January 31, 2008 By Alissa J. Rubin
BAGHDAD — The unsettled situation in northern Iraq continued Wednesday as Iraqi troops massed in Mosul to fight Sunni Arab extremists, and a Turkmen political group in Kirkuk threatened to resort to arms in response to the kidnapping and killing of Turkmens by extremists.
A Defense Ministry spokesman, Mohammed al-Askeri, told reporters that the goal of Iraqi military operations in Mosul was to oust Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia from the city and prevent its fighters from returning.
Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia is a predominantly Iraqi group that American intelligence says is led by foreigners.
Also in Mosul on Wednesday, gunmen assassinated Khalil Ibrahim Ahmed, an expert in Shariah law based on the Koran and a member of the city’s Muslim Scholars Association, according to a police commander, Brig. Saed Ahmed al-Jabouri. The shooting occurred outside Mr. Ahmed’s house, Brigadier Jabouri said.
In Kirkuk, the Iraqi Turkmen Front said in a statement issued Wednesday that it was calling for “establishing a Turkmen force to be part of the Iraqi Army that would undertake protection of the Turkmen areas.”
The front, the main Turkmen political group in Iraq, said, “We repeat our call to the Iraqi government to protect the Turkmens who are subjected to genocide in their areas; otherwise the Turkmens will adopt the Koranic verse that says, ‘To those against whom war is made, permission is given’” to fight.
Residents of Kirkuk and the surrounding area have periodically been plagued by attacks by Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia and other extremist groups, in addition to continuing tensions among the Kurdish, Turkmen and Sunni Arab populations.
More recently the city itself has been calmer, but according to security officials, there has been trouble on the outskirts and particularly in areas south of the city, some of which have significant Turkmen populations.
Farther south in Salahuddin, an improvised explosive device killed two people in a car carrying a team of Iraqi journalists as they drove to Samarra to report on the shrine whose bombing in February 2006 set off waves of sectarian violence.
The journalists, who worked for Al Furat, a television station owned by the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, one of the foremost Shiite parties, were on the road between Balad and Samarra when the bomb went off about 6 p.m. on Tuesday, said Asad Khadhim, the chief of correspondents for Al Furat.
Mr. Khadhim said he did not believe that the journalists were the intended targets.
The explosion killed Alaa Abdul Kareem, 27, a cameraman, and a local driver, who was working with the team.
Two other employees of Al Furat were wounded, a correspondent, Fatima al-Hassani, 30, and a bodyguard, Abu Ruqaya, Mr. Khadhim said.
Mr. Kareem was married and had three young daughters. He lived in the large Shiite neighborhood of Sadr City in Baghdad and had worked as a photographer before joining Al Furat.
“He was smiling all the time, God bless him, he was so lovely,” Mr. Khadhim said. “His colleagues cannot work today because he is not there.”
He added, sadly, “When we got the news of his death, we searched for a picture to put it with what we wrote about him, but we could not find any without his smile.”
Mr. Kareem’s body was taken Wednesday to the Shiite holy city of Najaf for burial. He is the first journalist killed this year in Iraq, which ranks as the most dangerous for journalists, according to the Paris-based organization Reporters Without Borders.
Abeer Mohammed contributed reporting from Baghdad, and Iraqi employees of The New York Times from Mosul, Kirkuk, Baghdad and Hilla.
January 31, 2008 By Alissa J. Rubin
BAGHDAD — The unsettled situation in northern Iraq continued Wednesday as Iraqi troops massed in Mosul to fight Sunni Arab extremists, and a Turkmen political group in Kirkuk threatened to resort to arms in response to the kidnapping and killing of Turkmens by extremists.
A Defense Ministry spokesman, Mohammed al-Askeri, told reporters that the goal of Iraqi military operations in Mosul was to oust Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia from the city and prevent its fighters from returning.
Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia is a predominantly Iraqi group that American intelligence says is led by foreigners.
Also in Mosul on Wednesday, gunmen assassinated Khalil Ibrahim Ahmed, an expert in Shariah law based on the Koran and a member of the city’s Muslim Scholars Association, according to a police commander, Brig. Saed Ahmed al-Jabouri. The shooting occurred outside Mr. Ahmed’s house, Brigadier Jabouri said.
In Kirkuk, the Iraqi Turkmen Front said in a statement issued Wednesday that it was calling for “establishing a Turkmen force to be part of the Iraqi Army that would undertake protection of the Turkmen areas.”
The front, the main Turkmen political group in Iraq, said, “We repeat our call to the Iraqi government to protect the Turkmens who are subjected to genocide in their areas; otherwise the Turkmens will adopt the Koranic verse that says, ‘To those against whom war is made, permission is given’” to fight.
Residents of Kirkuk and the surrounding area have periodically been plagued by attacks by Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia and other extremist groups, in addition to continuing tensions among the Kurdish, Turkmen and Sunni Arab populations.
More recently the city itself has been calmer, but according to security officials, there has been trouble on the outskirts and particularly in areas south of the city, some of which have significant Turkmen populations.
Farther south in Salahuddin, an improvised explosive device killed two people in a car carrying a team of Iraqi journalists as they drove to Samarra to report on the shrine whose bombing in February 2006 set off waves of sectarian violence.
The journalists, who worked for Al Furat, a television station owned by the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, one of the foremost Shiite parties, were on the road between Balad and Samarra when the bomb went off about 6 p.m. on Tuesday, said Asad Khadhim, the chief of correspondents for Al Furat.
Mr. Khadhim said he did not believe that the journalists were the intended targets.
The explosion killed Alaa Abdul Kareem, 27, a cameraman, and a local driver, who was working with the team.
Two other employees of Al Furat were wounded, a correspondent, Fatima al-Hassani, 30, and a bodyguard, Abu Ruqaya, Mr. Khadhim said.
Mr. Kareem was married and had three young daughters. He lived in the large Shiite neighborhood of Sadr City in Baghdad and had worked as a photographer before joining Al Furat.
“He was smiling all the time, God bless him, he was so lovely,” Mr. Khadhim said. “His colleagues cannot work today because he is not there.”
He added, sadly, “When we got the news of his death, we searched for a picture to put it with what we wrote about him, but we could not find any without his smile.”
Mr. Kareem’s body was taken Wednesday to the Shiite holy city of Najaf for burial. He is the first journalist killed this year in Iraq, which ranks as the most dangerous for journalists, according to the Paris-based organization Reporters Without Borders.
Abeer Mohammed contributed reporting from Baghdad, and Iraqi employees of The New York Times from Mosul, Kirkuk, Baghdad and Hilla.