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| Iraq-Jordan | |
| Insurgents Kill at Least 10 People in Iraq | |
| 2005-04-19 | |
| BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Guerrilla attacks killed at least 10 people in Iraq on Tuesday as a resurgence in violence piled pressure on politicians struggling to form a government more than 11 weeks after elections. Insurgents opened fire on members of Iraq's National Guard in Khaldiya, a restive town west of Baghdad, killing five people and wounding four. In Baghdad, a suicide car bomber killed four National Guards in the Athamiya district, the police and hospital officials said. Thirty-eight people were wounded in the blast. Al Qaeda's wing in Iraq, led by Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, said a member of its "martyrs' brigade" carried out the attack, according to a statement posted on the Internet. Insurgent suicide bombings and shootings have killed hundreds of Iraqi security forces and police in recent months, raising concerns that the people who are supposed to protect Iraqis can't even protect themselves. Gunmen also killed Baghdad University professor Fouad al- Bayati on Tuesday, riddling his car with bullets as he drove to work, police said. While insurgents frequently kill members of Iraq's security forces because they see them as cooperating with U.S. troops, there are no clear reasons why dozens of university professors have been gunned down or kidnapped over the past two years. Iraq's new leaders have been confronted with renewed violence over the past week, after signs of a decline in attacks immediately after the Jan. 30 ballot. In a sign of the growing cynicism of Iraqis toward their elected leaders, people accused politicians of fabricating a hostage crisis in a town south of Baghdad for political ends. Suicide bombings have returned to the high levels seen over the past two years at a volatile time, as leaders try to form a government that balances sectarian interests. Majority Shi'ites, who were long oppressed under Saddam Hussein, now have most political power after winning the polls, while once-dominant Sunnis are increasingly marginalised. Because many of their voters boycotted the election, Sunni politicians hold only 17 of the 275 seats in parliament.
The U.S. military said a 51-year-old male detainee held at Camp Bucca in southern Iraq died of what appeared to be natural causes on Tuesday. The military said it was investigating the death as part of a "normal course of action." Such subjects are highly sensitive in Iraq after the prisoner abuse scandal at U.S.-run Abu Ghraib prison. As politicians debated renewed violence, an Iraqi lawmaker accused a U.S. soldier of grabbing him by the throat and shoving him to the ground after he parked his car in Baghdad's Green Zone. Fattah al-Sheikh, an independent politician, said he had parked his car ahead of a session of parliament when U.S. troops approached him and told him he didn't have the right permit. "I don't speak English and so I said to the Iraqi translator with them, 'Tell them that I am a member of parliament', and he replied, 'To hell with you, we are Americans,"' Sheikh told parliament, fighting back tears as he recounted the story. The U.S. military said it was investigating the incident. The speaker of parliament said he would ask the new prime minister, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, to demand a full apology from the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, in what threatened to become an embarrassing political spat. The U.S. embassy said it also was investigating the affair. Shi'ite politicians said Sunni insurgents were holding up to 150 Shi'ites hostage and were threatening to kill them unless Shi'ites left the area. But raids in the town by Iraqi forces failed to produce kidnappers or hostages. | |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #1 As if our boys are supposed to take some stranger's word at face value that he's an MP and not parking a VBIED right outside a session of parliament... Sheikh should suck it up and grow up! F'ing pansy. |
| Posted by: Dar 2005-04-19 10:16:12 AM |