Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
New York Times
January 20, 2008
Pg. 9
By Richard A. Oppel Jr. and Qais Mizher
BAGHDAD — A rocket attack and several bombings killed at least 15 people in central and northern Iraq on Saturday, Iraqi officials said.
Sporadic violence continued in the southern cities of Basra and Nasiriya as millions of Shiites turned out for the climax of Ashura, the religious holiday marking the killing 13 centuries ago of Imam Hussein, a grandson of the Prophet Muhammad.
A rocket attack killed seven people and wounded 20 in Tal Afar, a northern city. The attack marred an otherwise uneventful Ashura celebration, said Maj. Gen. Najim Abdullah, the mayor of Tal Afar.
Ramadi, the provincial capital of Anbar Province, suffered some of its worst violence in months when three suicide car bombers attacked a police station just outside the city. Five policemen were killed and seven were wounded, Lt. Col. Thamir Ali Suleiman said.
A Marine Corps spokesman in nearby Falluja said there was a report of a suicide attack late Saturday afternoon about five miles from Ramadi, but further details were not immediately available.
Two Shiites celebrating Ashura were killed in Kirkuk, the northern city where Kurds, Sunni Arabs and Turkmen are vying for control. They were killed by two improvised bombs hidden in trash near a Shiite mosque. Seven others were wounded.
In Baghdad, a bomb exploded in a restaurant in Sadr City, killing one person and wounding 13, an Interior Ministry official said.
Iraqi authorities reported that the Ashura celebration was peaceful in the shrine city of Karbala, where more than two million Shiites converged from across southern and central Iraq. In past years militants have used the celebration to attack vulnerable Shiites marching to Karbala, but this year heavy security appeared to prevent any significant violence near the holy city.
Bitter fighting in the south on Friday left at least 66 dead in Basra and Nasiriya, as heavily armed members of an obscure Shiite religious group attacked Iraqi security forces. Iraqi authorities said both southern cities were calm by late Saturday. In Basra, Iraqi forces shelled a mosque where the cult members had sought refuge, officials said.
The fighting exposed the vulnerability of Iraqi security forces in southern Iraq after the British military’s decision to leave or pull back from patrolling urban areas. Fighting was reported in three-quarters of Basra on Friday; six Iraqi policemen and two Iraqi soldiers were killed. In Nasiriya, six policemen and Iraqi soldiers were killed and 25 were wounded.
Some officials described the fighters as members of a fringe group known as Soldiers From Heaven, who believe that Imam Mahdi, a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad who disappeared in the ninth century, is about to return and save the world from injustice.
But in Nasiriya, the fighters were from a different group that is loyal to a Shiite cleric, Ahmad al-Hassani Al-Yamani, said Lt. Gen. Habib al-Husseini, the commander of the 14th Iraqi Army Division.
Reporting was contributed by Mudhafer al-Husaini and Abeer Mohammed from Baghdad, and Iraqi employees of The New York Times from Hilla, Basra, Kirkuk, Ramadi and Mosul.
January 20, 2008
Pg. 9
By Richard A. Oppel Jr. and Qais Mizher
BAGHDAD — A rocket attack and several bombings killed at least 15 people in central and northern Iraq on Saturday, Iraqi officials said.
Sporadic violence continued in the southern cities of Basra and Nasiriya as millions of Shiites turned out for the climax of Ashura, the religious holiday marking the killing 13 centuries ago of Imam Hussein, a grandson of the Prophet Muhammad.
A rocket attack killed seven people and wounded 20 in Tal Afar, a northern city. The attack marred an otherwise uneventful Ashura celebration, said Maj. Gen. Najim Abdullah, the mayor of Tal Afar.
Ramadi, the provincial capital of Anbar Province, suffered some of its worst violence in months when three suicide car bombers attacked a police station just outside the city. Five policemen were killed and seven were wounded, Lt. Col. Thamir Ali Suleiman said.
A Marine Corps spokesman in nearby Falluja said there was a report of a suicide attack late Saturday afternoon about five miles from Ramadi, but further details were not immediately available.
Two Shiites celebrating Ashura were killed in Kirkuk, the northern city where Kurds, Sunni Arabs and Turkmen are vying for control. They were killed by two improvised bombs hidden in trash near a Shiite mosque. Seven others were wounded.
In Baghdad, a bomb exploded in a restaurant in Sadr City, killing one person and wounding 13, an Interior Ministry official said.
Iraqi authorities reported that the Ashura celebration was peaceful in the shrine city of Karbala, where more than two million Shiites converged from across southern and central Iraq. In past years militants have used the celebration to attack vulnerable Shiites marching to Karbala, but this year heavy security appeared to prevent any significant violence near the holy city.
Bitter fighting in the south on Friday left at least 66 dead in Basra and Nasiriya, as heavily armed members of an obscure Shiite religious group attacked Iraqi security forces. Iraqi authorities said both southern cities were calm by late Saturday. In Basra, Iraqi forces shelled a mosque where the cult members had sought refuge, officials said.
The fighting exposed the vulnerability of Iraqi security forces in southern Iraq after the British military’s decision to leave or pull back from patrolling urban areas. Fighting was reported in three-quarters of Basra on Friday; six Iraqi policemen and two Iraqi soldiers were killed. In Nasiriya, six policemen and Iraqi soldiers were killed and 25 were wounded.
Some officials described the fighters as members of a fringe group known as Soldiers From Heaven, who believe that Imam Mahdi, a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad who disappeared in the ninth century, is about to return and save the world from injustice.
But in Nasiriya, the fighters were from a different group that is loyal to a Shiite cleric, Ahmad al-Hassani Al-Yamani, said Lt. Gen. Habib al-Husseini, the commander of the 14th Iraqi Army Division.
Reporting was contributed by Mudhafer al-Husaini and Abeer Mohammed from Baghdad, and Iraqi employees of The New York Times from Hilla, Basra, Kirkuk, Ramadi and Mosul.