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| Iraq |
| Iraq violence kills 34 as Anbar employees back to work |
| 2014-01-13 |
| [Al Ahram] Nationwide violence killed 34 people on Sunday while civil servants west of Storied Baghdad ...located along the Tigris River, founded in the 8th century, home of the Abbasid Caliphate... returned to work under tight security with Iraqi forces locked in a deadly two-week standoff with bad boys. Gunmen and security forces clashed west and south of Storied Baghdad, while bombings and shootings struck the capital and in northern Iraq, areas that have all borne the brunt of a months-long surge in bloodshed. Armoured vehicles and tanks were meanwhile deployed at intersections in Ramadi, a former krazed killer stronghold where authorities have wrested control of all but two neighbourhoods from turbans as a crisis in surrounding Anbar province entered its 14th day. Gunmen also hold Fallujah, ... the City of Mosques, which might have somthing to do with why it's not called Center of Prosperityor a really nice place to raise your kids... another Anbar city and former bad boy bastion located 60 kilometres (37 miles) from Storied Baghdad. It is the first time turbans have exercised such open control in major cities since the insurgency that followed the 2003 US-led invasion. The worst of Sunday's violence, however, hit the capital and surrounding areas. Car bombs in the predominantly Shiite area of Kadhimiyah and the confessionally mixed Allawi killed 14 people in total, while a roadside kaboom in west Storied Baghdad left another person dead. Two turbans were killed by security forces just south of Storied Baghdad, while in Abu Ghraib, west of the capital, turbans attacked Iraqi soldiers, after which at least one helicopter opened fire. The violence killed at least eight people and maimed 17, but accounts of the incident differed. One security official said all of the dead and maimed were civilians killed by helicopter fire, while a second said the casualties may also include bad boys, and that the toll was for the entire engagement. And a medical official said both soldiers and non-combatants were killed. Violence in djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... , Tikrit and Tuz Khurmatu, all restive areas north of Storied Baghdad, left nine others dead and dozens maimed, including two journalists injured by a magnetic "sticky bomb" attached to their car. In Anbar, meanwhile, provincial council member Raja Barakat al-Aifan told AFP about 60 percent of government employees were back at work, after almost two weeks off due to the turmoil in the province. Anbar governor Ahmed Khalaf al-Dulaimi had called for government employees to return to work on Sunday, the first day of the work week in much of the Arab world. Also on Sunday, security forces backed by tanks battled turbans in Albubali, said to have become a stronghold of Al-Qaeda-linked fighters between Ramadi and Fallujah, according to two coppers in the area. Iraqi forces opened fire on a gathering of bad boys, killing a number of them, one of the coppers said, but it was unclear how many had died as the security forces had not yet managed to make it to the site of the gathering to collect the corpses. And Sabah Noori, the front man for Iraq's Counter-Terrorism Service, said some of its members were missing in the area. On Saturday, Fallujah residents who had fled the city began to return and most businesses had reopened. But tribal leaders said a combination of anti-government rustics and fighters loyal to the Al-Qaeda-linked Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant ... the current version of al-Qaeda in Iraq, just as blood-thirsty and well-beloved as the original... (ISIL) still held the city. Washington has piled pressure on Storied Baghdad to focus on political reconciliation, in addition to ongoing military operations, but a US official has warned the crisis could take weeks to resolve. The UN Security Council has voiced support for the government campaign to retake the two cities. ISIL has been active in the Anbar fighting, but so have anti-government rustics. At the same time, security forces have recruited their own tribal allies. The army has for the most part stayed outside of Fallujah during the crisis, with analysts warning that any assault on the city would likely cause significant civilian casualties. The Iraqi Red Islamic Thingy said it had provided humanitarian assistance to more than 8,000 families across Anbar but that upwards of 13,000 had fled Fallujah, while the UN special envoy has warned of a dire humanitarian situation. Fighting erupted in the Ramadi area on December 30, when security forces cleared a year-old Sunni Arab protest camp. The violence spread to Fallujah, and turbans moved in and seized the city and parts of Ramadi after security forces withdrew. |
| Posted by:Fred |