Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Washington Post
January 19, 2007
Pg. 15
Ohio Woman, 3 Guards Died in Ambush on Convoy in Baghdad
By Ernesto Londono and Joshua Partlow, Washington Post Staff Writers
BAGHDAD, Jan. 18 -- A Sunni insurgent group linked to the group al-Qaeda in Iraq asserted responsibility Thursday for the killing of an Ohio woman working in Baghdad who died Wednesday after her convoy was attacked, according to a posting on a Web site used by some Sunni groups.
Andrea "Andi" Parhamovich, 28, of Perry, Ohio, who worked for the nonprofit National Democratic Institute, was killed along with three non-American security workers, according to a statement released by the institute.
"There is no more sacred roll of honor than those who have given their last full measure in support of freedom," Madeleine K. Albright, the NDI chairman and former secretary of state, said in a statement. "Yesterday, in Iraq, Andrea Parhamovich and our security personnel were enshrined in that list. They were not the enemies of anyone in Iraq. They were there to help."
The authenticity of the assertion of responsibility, signed by a spokesman for a group called the Islamic State in Iraq, could not be independently verified. The group released an 18-minute audiotape last year claiming support from tribal sheiks and previously independent insurgent groups.
Parhamovich is at least the fifth American civilian woman killed in Iraq since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.
She graduated from Marietta College in Ohio and held jobs in the Massachusetts governor's office, that state's Department of Economic Development and Air America Radio before arriving in Baghdad in September. She moved to Iraq to take a job at the International Republican Institute but left last month to join NDI.
"An outgoing woman who made friends quickly, Andi wanted to use her education and skills as a communications specialist to help Iraqi political party leaders and parliamentarians develop strategies to reach out to voters and constituents," the organization said in the statement.
NDI began operating in Baghdad in June 2003. It has worked to promote civic participation and strengthen the country's political parties, legislature and executive branch.
The killing of Parhamovich occurred as Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has been striving to show that his government has taken meaningful steps toward improving security.
In an interview Wednesday, he highlighted what he described as a series of operations carried out in recent days that he said had led to the arrests of 430 fighters of the Mahdi Army militia, which is led by Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, one of Maliki's political supporters.
A spokesman for Sadr acknowledged in an interview Thursday that 425 of his group's fighters had been arrested, but he disputed Maliki's assertion that the arrests occurred in recent days. The spokesman, Abdul Razak al-Nadawi, said the 425 include Mahdi Army members arrested after a fierce battle in August 2004 in Najaf, a city south of Baghdad that has long been a Sadr stronghold. Since the beginning of 2006, the Iraqi government has arrested 96 people, the spokesman said.
"These are exact numbers," he said. "We have a record because every one of those detainees there has a monthly salary" that goes to their families.
Also Thursday, Iraqi and Iranian officials criticized the arrest of five men by U.S. forces last week at an Iranian facility in the northern Iraqi city of Irbil. Iraqi officials said the facility was in the process of becoming an accredited consular mission.
Hassan Kazemi Qomi, Iran's ambassador to Iraq, said he had been told the five Iranian officials would be released in "coming days" and condemned the United States for arresting them. "There is a sovereign government in Iraq. Why are the Americans violating the sovereignty of Iraq?" asked Qomi, making his first public comments on the incident during a news conference.
Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari has said the Iranians were not accredited diplomats but worked in a liaison office performing consular services under the approval of the Kurdish regional government.
Lou Fintor, a spokesman at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, said the arrests came after U.S. officials gathered intelligence linking the occupants of the facility to Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, which U.S. officials say targets coalition forces and incites sectarian violence.
"We believe many of the activities taking place in this facility were not consistent with normal diplomatic or consular functions," Fintor said. U.S. officials have not identified the men, disclosed whether they have been charged or revealed where they are being held.
Also Thursday, the U.S. military confirmed that it searched the Sudanese Embassy in Baghdad on Saturday. In a brief statement, the military said the search was part of an operation targeting havens for insurgents. Sudanese Embassy officials were not present during the search, and soldiers did not remove anything from the facility, according to a statement.
A variety of violent acts in the capital were reported by the Iraqi Interior Ministry, including a car bomb that detonated Thursday morning in central Baghdad near a police patrol station, killing two policemen and four other people; the assassination of two university professors; and the explosion of three car bombs in a market in southern Baghdad, which killed three policemen and four other people.
Staff researchers Meg Smith, Julie Tate and Robert E. Thomason in Washington and special correspondents Saad Sarhan and Naseer Nouri in Baghdad contributed to this report.
January 19, 2007
Pg. 15
Ohio Woman, 3 Guards Died in Ambush on Convoy in Baghdad
By Ernesto Londono and Joshua Partlow, Washington Post Staff Writers
BAGHDAD, Jan. 18 -- A Sunni insurgent group linked to the group al-Qaeda in Iraq asserted responsibility Thursday for the killing of an Ohio woman working in Baghdad who died Wednesday after her convoy was attacked, according to a posting on a Web site used by some Sunni groups.
Andrea "Andi" Parhamovich, 28, of Perry, Ohio, who worked for the nonprofit National Democratic Institute, was killed along with three non-American security workers, according to a statement released by the institute.
"There is no more sacred roll of honor than those who have given their last full measure in support of freedom," Madeleine K. Albright, the NDI chairman and former secretary of state, said in a statement. "Yesterday, in Iraq, Andrea Parhamovich and our security personnel were enshrined in that list. They were not the enemies of anyone in Iraq. They were there to help."
The authenticity of the assertion of responsibility, signed by a spokesman for a group called the Islamic State in Iraq, could not be independently verified. The group released an 18-minute audiotape last year claiming support from tribal sheiks and previously independent insurgent groups.
Parhamovich is at least the fifth American civilian woman killed in Iraq since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.
She graduated from Marietta College in Ohio and held jobs in the Massachusetts governor's office, that state's Department of Economic Development and Air America Radio before arriving in Baghdad in September. She moved to Iraq to take a job at the International Republican Institute but left last month to join NDI.
"An outgoing woman who made friends quickly, Andi wanted to use her education and skills as a communications specialist to help Iraqi political party leaders and parliamentarians develop strategies to reach out to voters and constituents," the organization said in the statement.
NDI began operating in Baghdad in June 2003. It has worked to promote civic participation and strengthen the country's political parties, legislature and executive branch.
The killing of Parhamovich occurred as Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has been striving to show that his government has taken meaningful steps toward improving security.
In an interview Wednesday, he highlighted what he described as a series of operations carried out in recent days that he said had led to the arrests of 430 fighters of the Mahdi Army militia, which is led by Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, one of Maliki's political supporters.
A spokesman for Sadr acknowledged in an interview Thursday that 425 of his group's fighters had been arrested, but he disputed Maliki's assertion that the arrests occurred in recent days. The spokesman, Abdul Razak al-Nadawi, said the 425 include Mahdi Army members arrested after a fierce battle in August 2004 in Najaf, a city south of Baghdad that has long been a Sadr stronghold. Since the beginning of 2006, the Iraqi government has arrested 96 people, the spokesman said.
"These are exact numbers," he said. "We have a record because every one of those detainees there has a monthly salary" that goes to their families.
Also Thursday, Iraqi and Iranian officials criticized the arrest of five men by U.S. forces last week at an Iranian facility in the northern Iraqi city of Irbil. Iraqi officials said the facility was in the process of becoming an accredited consular mission.
Hassan Kazemi Qomi, Iran's ambassador to Iraq, said he had been told the five Iranian officials would be released in "coming days" and condemned the United States for arresting them. "There is a sovereign government in Iraq. Why are the Americans violating the sovereignty of Iraq?" asked Qomi, making his first public comments on the incident during a news conference.
Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari has said the Iranians were not accredited diplomats but worked in a liaison office performing consular services under the approval of the Kurdish regional government.
Lou Fintor, a spokesman at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, said the arrests came after U.S. officials gathered intelligence linking the occupants of the facility to Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, which U.S. officials say targets coalition forces and incites sectarian violence.
"We believe many of the activities taking place in this facility were not consistent with normal diplomatic or consular functions," Fintor said. U.S. officials have not identified the men, disclosed whether they have been charged or revealed where they are being held.
Also Thursday, the U.S. military confirmed that it searched the Sudanese Embassy in Baghdad on Saturday. In a brief statement, the military said the search was part of an operation targeting havens for insurgents. Sudanese Embassy officials were not present during the search, and soldiers did not remove anything from the facility, according to a statement.
A variety of violent acts in the capital were reported by the Iraqi Interior Ministry, including a car bomb that detonated Thursday morning in central Baghdad near a police patrol station, killing two policemen and four other people; the assassination of two university professors; and the explosion of three car bombs in a market in southern Baghdad, which killed three policemen and four other people.
Staff researchers Meg Smith, Julie Tate and Robert E. Thomason in Washington and special correspondents Saad Sarhan and Naseer Nouri in Baghdad contributed to this report.
