Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
New York Times
July 21, 2008
Pg. 10
By Richard A. Oppel Jr. and Ali Hameed
BAGHDAD — American Special Operations forces shot to death the son and nephew of the governor of Salahuddin Province during a raid on Sunday in the northern city of Bayji, the latest in a series of operations that have resulted in the deaths of civilians or close associates of Iraqi government officials.
The governor, Hamed al-Qaisi, threatened to resign in protest and said he would suspend cooperation with American officials.
The shootings come at a delicate time in negotiations between United States and Iraqi officials over the terms of a new security agreement. The most contentious sticking point has been an Iraqi demand that American troops no longer be immune from Iraqi criminal laws, an ultimatum that Iraqi officials say has been spurred by unwarranted attacks on civilians. A new agreement is needed for American troops to remain in Iraq after a United Nations mandate expires at the end of the year.
Also on Sunday, Iraq’s Independent Electoral Commission said provincial elections planned for October needed to be delayed by several months. “The original date of Oct. 1 has become a fantasy, because the Parliament hasn’t passed an election law yet,” a senior election official said Sunday night. “We still hope to have elections by the end of the year.”
The provincial elections have long been seen as a way to rectify electoral distortions that have left Kurds and Shiites with vastly disproportionate power over Sunni Arabs in many parts of the country. But lawmakers have not been able to agree on an election law because of feuding over the future control of Kirkuk, a multiethnic city, and other issues.
Once a law is passed, elections officials want one month to review and complete voter registration rolls. Then three months will be needed “for campaigning and for getting information to people to educate them,” Faraj al-Haideri, the head of the election commission, said last week.
“We have not yet received the election law,” Mr. Haideri said. “There are some parties who want to delay the election.”
Iraqi fury over civilian deaths peaked in late June when American troops shot to death three bank employees on their way to work at Baghdad’s airport. The Americans called the three workers — two women and a man — criminals, and said they had fired on troops. But in a rare rebuke of the American military, the Iraqi Armed Forces general command called the shootings cold-blooded murder.
Iraqi and American officials offered sharply different accounts of the attack on Sunday in Bayji, 120 miles north of Baghdad, though the deputy provincial governor said American officials had already apologized to both him and Governor Qaisi, who was traveling in Turkey. Aides to the governor said American Special Operations forces broke into a house at 3 a.m. and fatally shot the governor’s 17-year-old son, Hussam. Maj. Muthanna Ibrahim, a spokesman for the governor, said Hussam was shot in his head, stomach and shoulder while he slept.
Hussam’s 23-year-old cousin, Uday Khalaf, awoke and tried to push open the door to Hussam’s room, but he was also shot and killed by the American troops, Major Ibrahim said. The house is owned by Hussam’s aunt, who is the mother of one of Hussam’s female cousins; Hussam and the female cousin had planned to marry soon, Major Ibrahim said.
The deputy governor of Salahuddin, Abdullah Jabarah, said there had been at least two similar attacks in the area by American troops. “These troops usually use excessive force when they conduct operations,” he said. The Salahuddin Provincial Council issued a statement saying the attack was an indication of “how the American forces disregard the souls of Iraqi citizens.”
The governor’s son and nephew appeared not to have been the targets of the raid. The American military command in Baghdad said that the house had been raided to capture a “suspected Al Qaeda in Iraq operative” and that a man “identified as the targeted individual charged coalition forces and was injured during the operation.” That suspect, who was not identified, was taken to a military hospital, and another “suspected terrorist” was arrested, according to a military statement.
In a separate statement responding to specific questions about the attack, the military said one of the men who was killed had been armed with an AK-47 automatic rifle and the other had had a pistol.
“Both gunmen were armed and presented hostile intent,” the military said in the statement.
But the military also acknowledged that “there are no indications at this time” that the governor’s son and nephew were members of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, the name for a homegrown Sunni insurgent group that often serves as a catch-all description that the military uses for Sunni gunmen who attack American forces. “Coalition leaders will offer our condolences,” the statement added.
The raid followed a military operation south of Karbala last month that resulted in the death of a man identified in some reports as a cousin of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki; he was described by other officials as a close friend and associate of Mr. Maliki’s family, which is from the area.
American officials said troops acted in self-defense when they killed the man, a security guard who they said had been holding an automatic rifle as if he was preparing to fire. But the attack was condemned by the Iraqi Armed Forces general command, which described both it and the airport road shootings as “a violation of the law and an encroachment on Iraqi sovereignty.”
Alissa J. Rubin and Mohammed Hussein contributed reporting from Baghdad, and an Iraqi employee of The New York Times from Salahuddin Province.
July 21, 2008
Pg. 10
By Richard A. Oppel Jr. and Ali Hameed
BAGHDAD — American Special Operations forces shot to death the son and nephew of the governor of Salahuddin Province during a raid on Sunday in the northern city of Bayji, the latest in a series of operations that have resulted in the deaths of civilians or close associates of Iraqi government officials.
The governor, Hamed al-Qaisi, threatened to resign in protest and said he would suspend cooperation with American officials.
The shootings come at a delicate time in negotiations between United States and Iraqi officials over the terms of a new security agreement. The most contentious sticking point has been an Iraqi demand that American troops no longer be immune from Iraqi criminal laws, an ultimatum that Iraqi officials say has been spurred by unwarranted attacks on civilians. A new agreement is needed for American troops to remain in Iraq after a United Nations mandate expires at the end of the year.
Also on Sunday, Iraq’s Independent Electoral Commission said provincial elections planned for October needed to be delayed by several months. “The original date of Oct. 1 has become a fantasy, because the Parliament hasn’t passed an election law yet,” a senior election official said Sunday night. “We still hope to have elections by the end of the year.”
The provincial elections have long been seen as a way to rectify electoral distortions that have left Kurds and Shiites with vastly disproportionate power over Sunni Arabs in many parts of the country. But lawmakers have not been able to agree on an election law because of feuding over the future control of Kirkuk, a multiethnic city, and other issues.
Once a law is passed, elections officials want one month to review and complete voter registration rolls. Then three months will be needed “for campaigning and for getting information to people to educate them,” Faraj al-Haideri, the head of the election commission, said last week.
“We have not yet received the election law,” Mr. Haideri said. “There are some parties who want to delay the election.”
Iraqi fury over civilian deaths peaked in late June when American troops shot to death three bank employees on their way to work at Baghdad’s airport. The Americans called the three workers — two women and a man — criminals, and said they had fired on troops. But in a rare rebuke of the American military, the Iraqi Armed Forces general command called the shootings cold-blooded murder.
Iraqi and American officials offered sharply different accounts of the attack on Sunday in Bayji, 120 miles north of Baghdad, though the deputy provincial governor said American officials had already apologized to both him and Governor Qaisi, who was traveling in Turkey. Aides to the governor said American Special Operations forces broke into a house at 3 a.m. and fatally shot the governor’s 17-year-old son, Hussam. Maj. Muthanna Ibrahim, a spokesman for the governor, said Hussam was shot in his head, stomach and shoulder while he slept.
Hussam’s 23-year-old cousin, Uday Khalaf, awoke and tried to push open the door to Hussam’s room, but he was also shot and killed by the American troops, Major Ibrahim said. The house is owned by Hussam’s aunt, who is the mother of one of Hussam’s female cousins; Hussam and the female cousin had planned to marry soon, Major Ibrahim said.
The deputy governor of Salahuddin, Abdullah Jabarah, said there had been at least two similar attacks in the area by American troops. “These troops usually use excessive force when they conduct operations,” he said. The Salahuddin Provincial Council issued a statement saying the attack was an indication of “how the American forces disregard the souls of Iraqi citizens.”
The governor’s son and nephew appeared not to have been the targets of the raid. The American military command in Baghdad said that the house had been raided to capture a “suspected Al Qaeda in Iraq operative” and that a man “identified as the targeted individual charged coalition forces and was injured during the operation.” That suspect, who was not identified, was taken to a military hospital, and another “suspected terrorist” was arrested, according to a military statement.
In a separate statement responding to specific questions about the attack, the military said one of the men who was killed had been armed with an AK-47 automatic rifle and the other had had a pistol.
“Both gunmen were armed and presented hostile intent,” the military said in the statement.
But the military also acknowledged that “there are no indications at this time” that the governor’s son and nephew were members of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, the name for a homegrown Sunni insurgent group that often serves as a catch-all description that the military uses for Sunni gunmen who attack American forces. “Coalition leaders will offer our condolences,” the statement added.
The raid followed a military operation south of Karbala last month that resulted in the death of a man identified in some reports as a cousin of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki; he was described by other officials as a close friend and associate of Mr. Maliki’s family, which is from the area.
American officials said troops acted in self-defense when they killed the man, a security guard who they said had been holding an automatic rifle as if he was preparing to fire. But the attack was condemned by the Iraqi Armed Forces general command, which described both it and the airport road shootings as “a violation of the law and an encroachment on Iraqi sovereignty.”
Alissa J. Rubin and Mohammed Hussein contributed reporting from Baghdad, and an Iraqi employee of The New York Times from Salahuddin Province.