Gorilla’s Guides

January

January 03, 2007:

• Sheik Hamed Mohammed Suhail al-Tamimi kidnapped while attending a funeral near Abu Ghraib taken to al-Shula and thrown from the top of a building-

January 06, 2007:

• Baghdad’s police chief Major General Ali al-Yasseri survived an attempted assassination attempt by car bomb in Karrada  one civilian killed six people wounded, including three members of the police chief protection force.
• Maliki announces “Fard Qanoon”
• Battle of Haifa Street begins – 30 fighters killed in pitched battle with green zone government troops, in the first day of fighting, 4 times that number were killed over the course of the fighting which lasted 4 days.
• 27 corpses found in near the Sheikh Maarouf cemetery in the central Baghdad area of al-Allawi.
• Iraqi journalist’s body found in Baghdad.

January 08, 2007:

• Green Zone Government Deny That Badr Brigade And Peshmerga Will Take Part In Forthcoming Attack On Baghdad.
• Displaced families in the capital, Baghdad, pleaded with the Iraki Red Crescent Society to continue supporting people displaced as a result of violence. The Red Crescent suspended its activities in Baghdad after 36 people were abducted, 30 of them Red Crescent staff members, on 17 December, 2006.
• IOM Iraq estimates that more than 250,000 people have been displaced in central and southern Iraq since 22 February, with about 1,000 people being displaced on a daily basis over the past few months.

January 09, 2007:

• The United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) warns that the scale of internal displacement in Iraq was beyond the capacity of humanitarian agencies, including UNHCR.
• Death In A Garbage Dump.

January 10 2007:

• A plane carrying 35 people crashed during landing at Balad airstrip near Baghdad yesterday, killing 32 and injuring one, with the remaining passengers missing.
  The plane was trying to land at a US military base 80 kilometers north of Baghdad when it crashed. The Moldova-registered Antonov-26 plane had taken off from an airport in Turkey’s southern city of Adana and was carrying construction workers from the Kulak construction company. Adana Governor Cahit Kirac said preliminary reports suggested that the crash was due to bad weather.
• 11 pilgrims returning from the haj ambushed and murdered by gunmen who ambushed the convoy of pilgrims on a desert road 120 km west of Karbala.
• U.S. forces took over a residential complex in Rawa town, Anbar province, as a new base.
• Jaffari gave the game away.
• Bush announces new strategy, the “surge”, that includes an additional 20,000 troops.

January 13 2007:

• Al-Shorja arson attack.
• Al Anbar : Al Qaim : Communications Centre Taken Over And Blown Up – Fighters took over the communications centre in Al Qaim they took the guards prisoner placed explosives and blew it up.

January 14 2007

• A Very Surprising Story On Aswat Al Iraq

January 15 2007:

• 80 unidentified murder victims whose bodies were found in Baghdad buried in Karbala.
• The botched hanging of Barzan al-Tikriti  by the green zone government who used the western method of hanging resulting in his decapitation caused disgust even among those with reason to hate him.
• Baghdad municipal council reports that more 600 Baghdad municipal employees have been killed and a far larger number wounded. Street cleaners are particular targets.

January 16 2007:

• At least 15 civilians were killed and 33 others wounded on Wednesday afternoon when a car bomb was detonated in Sadr city.
• Sixty-five people are killed in car bombing of Al-Mustansiriya University.
• At least two policemen were killed and 39 others were wounded on Wednesday when a suicide bomber detonated an explosives-rigged car outside a police station in central Kirkuk.
• An armed group on Wednesday kidnapped the municipality chief of Baghdad’s district of al-Mansour and killed four bodyguards.

January 18 2007:

• Students and lecturers at Mustansiriyah University in Baghdad have formed a task force to clean up the damage caused by the bombing in which at least 60 students and staff lost their lives and 132 were wounded. Also in Baghdad the casualty toll from the bombing of the bus station at mid morning is now risen to 3 known dead and 17 known injured – all civilians. In Baghdad the green zone government announced that they would install 4 check points with surveillance cameras to control monitor main entrances to the capital for traffic from the provinces.
• First Chlorine bomb.

January 20 2007:

• Interview With Moqtada Al Sadr – Translated by Parvati Roma of DarkMirror
• 13 American troops killed in helicopter downing.
• Five U.S. soldiers were killed and three others wounded in an attack on the Karbala Provincial Joint Coordination Center (PJCC)

January 22 2007:

Massive series of bombings on markets in Baghdad.

The massive bombings in central Baghdad are the main story of the day. So far there have been three updates posted, mostly of increases to the toll of dead and wounded. At the time of writing the toll from these two bombings alone was:

1. At least 115 dead.
2. At least 170 wounded

The bombs at Saadoun St. in al-Bab al-Sharqi exploded in sequence at 12:30 and 12:32 and were cascaded – timed to cause panic, maximum devastation, and casualties amongst those present. The location in one of the busiest parts of central Baghdad is important to understand not only the scale of devastation but the purpose of the attacks:

• There are two markets involved, the area is predominantly Shia but what is important is that the markets involved are so important that their customers come from all over Baghdad and are a mix of both Sunni and Shia.
  1. al-Haraj.
  2. al-Sanak
• Both markets are close to al-Tahrir Square and Tayaran squares.
• The al-Haraj bomb was in a parked car it exploded at 12:30.
• The al-Sanak bomb exploded two minutes later as the driver drove into the milling crowd .

January 25, 2007:

• Rape As A Weapon Of War

 January 28 2007:

• Battle of Najaf.
  • The spokesman said “Iraqi security forces clashed on Sunday at dawn with followers of an armed group called “Supporters of Ahmed al-Hassan” just outside Najaf.”
    The fierce clashes erupted, the spokesman pointed out, when the security forces raided al-Zarga area to arrest Ahmed al-Hassan.
    “The area is now under siege by the Iraqi forces backed by U.S. troops,” Deiabil added.
    Earlier, a security said Iraqi security forces clashed on Sunday at dawn with followers of an armed group called “Supporters of Ahmed al-Hassan” in the Shiite sacred city of Najaf.
    The security source added “the assault was to arrest the group leader Ahmed al-Hassan but the strong resistance led the Iraqi forces to ask for support from the U.S. troops.”
    According to the agreement that transferred the security responsibility to the Iraqi army in Najaf on December 25, the Iraqi security forces may ask for support from the U.S. forces.
    He added “the U.S. forces immediately took part in the offensive while U.S. choppers and warplanes bombed the resistance pockets in the area.”
    “The clashes left casualties from the two sides (the forces and the followers),” said the source but declined to give a specific figure.
    “Ahmed al-Hassan Supporters” is an extremist Shiite armed group that sought leadership over other Shiite groups after its leader claimed to be a deputy of the Shiite twelfth Imam, the Awaited Mahdi.
    Al-Zarga area, the stronghold of Ahmed al-Hassan Supporters, is a rural area that is located outside the Shiite sacred city of Najaf.
    Only last week, Iraqi security forces launched a wide-scale campaign to stem this extremist group
• Six mortar rounds landed shortly before noon on al-Khulood secondary school for girls in al-Adel neighborhood, killing five students and wounding over 20.
• al-Qahira bombing.

February

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This was first published by T.E. Lawrence (”Lawrence of Arabia” ) in the Army Journal and Defence Quarterly, October 1920.

It seemed that rebellion must have an unassailable base, something guarded not merely from attack, but from the fear of it: such a base as we had in the Red Sea Parts, the desert, or in the minds of the men we converted to our creed. It must have a sophisticated alien enemy, in the form of a disciplined army of occupation too small to fulfil the doctrine of acreage: too few to adjust number to space, in order to dominate the whole area effectively from fortified posts. It must have a friendly population, not actively friendly, but sympathetic to the point of not betraying rebel movements to the enemy. Rebellions can be made by 2 per cent. active in a striking force, and 98 per cent. passively sympathetic. The few active rebels must have the qualities of speed and endurance, ubiquity and independence of arteries of supply. They must have the technical equipment to destroy or paralyse the enemy’s organized communications, for irregular war is fairly Willisen’s definition of strategy, “the study of communication” in its extreme degree, of attack where the enemy is not. In fifty words: Granted mobility, security (in the form of denying targets to the enemy), time, and doctrine (the idea to convert every subject to friendliness), victory will rest with the insurgents, for the algebraical factors are in the end decisive, and against them perfections of means and spirit struggle quite in vain.

Source: “THE EVOLUTION OF A REVOLT” BY T. E. LAWRENCE (LATE LIEUT.-COLONEL GENERAL STAFF, E.E.F.)

“Don’t blame me if I got mad at my wife for she gave birth to a daughter,” said Sajid , a street cleaner who previously lived in the countryside adding, “in our village a female is looked upon scornfully and often regarded as a creature that might bring shame to the family!”

The once disappeared idea of “shame” to have a female child among the family seemed nowadays back to the Iraqi society due, among other things, to the high rate of sprinters among women in Iraq.

Mrs. Lamees Omar, a retired teacher, struck a comparison between the Iraqi society’s view to women in 1960s and at present.

“When I was at college some 45 years ago, the society used to advocate the emancipation of women and to back the idea of women sharing men work, but now I see the opposite,” the old teacher said.

The return of belittling women role is partly attributed to the economic hardships the father would be afraid of facing in the future and partly to the social factors including the fears of mothers to have their daughters swarm in spinsterhood.

Abdul Imam Saleem, a sociologist, told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI) “A typical Iraqi father, sometimes, looks at the female from the economic viewpoint (he compares her to a male who would help him in living earning), or from a moral point of view as a woman might bring shame to the family more than a man would do.”
“The mother, on her side, fears that her daughter might become spinster,” the Iraqi sociologist added.

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WASHINGTON, Dec 29 (IPS) – Despite all the claims of improvements, 2007 has been the worst year yet in Iraq.

One of the first big moves this year was the launch of a troop “surge” by the U.S. government in mid-February. The goal was to improve security in Baghdad and the western al-Anbar province, the two most violent areas. By June, an additional 28,000 troops had been deployed to Iraq, bringing the total number up to more than 160,000.

By autumn, there were over 175,000 U.S. military personnel in Iraq. This is the highest number of U.S. troops deployed yet, and while the U.S. government continues to talk of withdrawing some, the numbers on the ground appear to contradict these promises.

The Bush administration said the “surge” was also aimed at curbing sectarian killings, and to gain time for political reform for the government of U.S.-backed Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

During the surge, the number of Iraqis displaced from their homes quadrupled, according to the Iraqi Red Crescent. By the end of 2007, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimated that there are over 2.3 million internally displaced persons within Iraq, and over 2.3 million Iraqis who have fled the country.

Iraq has a population around 25 million.

The non-governmental organisation Refugees International describes Iraq’s refugee problem as “the world’s fastest growing refugee crisis.”

In October the Syrian government began requiring visas for Iraqis. Until then it was the only country to allow Iraqis in without visas. The new restrictions have led some Iraqis to return to Baghdad, but that number is well below 50,000.

A recent UNHCR survey of families returning found that less than 18 percent did so by choice. Most came back because they lacked a visa, had run out of money abroad, or were deported.

Sectarian killings have decreased in recent months, but still continue. Bodies continue to be dumped on the streets of Baghdad daily.

One reason for a decrease in the level of violence is that most of Baghdad has essentially been divided along sectarian lines. Entire neighbourhoods are now surrounded by concrete blast walls several metres high, with strict security checkpoints. Normal life has all but vanished.

The Iraqi Red Crescent estimates that eight out of ten refugees are from Baghdad.

By the end of 2007, attacks against occupation forces decreased substantially, but still number more than 2,000 monthly. Iraqi infrastructure, like supply of potable water and electricity are improving, but remain below pre-invasion levels. Similarly with jobs and oil exports. Unemployment, according to the Iraqi government, ranges between 60-70 percent.

An Oxfam International report released in July says 70 percent of Iraqis lack access to safe drinking water, and 43 percent live on less than a dollar a day. The report also states that eight million Iraqis are in need of emergency assistance.

“Iraqis are suffering from a growing lack of food, shelter, water and sanitation, healthcare, education, and employment,” the report says. “Of the four million Iraqis who are dependent on food assistance, only 60 percent currently have access to rations through the government-run Public Distribution System (PDS), down from 96 percent in 2004.”

Nearly 10 million people depend on the fragile rationing system. In December, the Iraqi government announced it would cut the number of items in the food ration from ten to five due to “insufficient funds and spiralling inflation.” The inflation rate is officially said to be around 70 percent.

The cuts are to be introduced in the beginning of 2008, and have led to warnings of social unrest if measures are not taken to address rising poverty and unemployment.

Iraq’s children continue to suffer most. Child malnutrition rates have increased from 19 percent during the economic sanctions period prior to the invasion, to 28 percent today.

This year has also been one of the bloodiest of the entire occupation. The group Just Foreign Policy, “an independent and non-partisan mass membership organisation dedicated to reforming U.S. foreign policy,” estimates the total number of Iraqis killed so far due to the U.S.-led invasion and occupation to be 1,139,602.

This year 894 U.S. soldiers have been killed in Iraq, making 2007 the deadliest year of the entire occupation for the U.S. military, according to ICasualties.org.

To date, at least 3,896 U.S. troops have been killed in Iraq, according to the U.S. Department of Defence.

A part of the U.S. military’s effort to reduce violence has been to pay former resistance fighters. Late in 2007, the U.S. military began paying monthly wages of 300 dollars to former militants, calling them now “concerned local citizens.”

While this policy has cut violence in al-Anbar, it has also increased political divisions between the dominant Shia political party and the Sunnis – the majority of these “concerned citizens” being paid are Sunni Muslims. Prime Minister Maliki has said these “concerned local citizens” will never be part of the government’s security apparatus, which is predominantly composed of members of various Shia militias.

Underscoring another failure of the so-called surge is the fact that the U.S.-backed government in Baghdad remains more divided than ever, and hopes of reconciliation have vanished.

CHALLENGES 2007-2008: Iraq Progresses To Some Of Its Worst

BAGHDAD (AFP) — Even as defeat stared him in the face, Saddam Hussein stood on a pick-up truck outside Baghdad’s Abu Hanifa mosque and waved to the crowd of 200 people, promising them a glorious future.

“His last words to us were ‘I promise the people of Adhamiyah golden monuments once we defeat the Americans’,” remembered Abu Rima one year after the deposed dictator was hanged in the Iraqi capital.

“The image flashes in front of my eyes even now like a scene from a film. It was April 9 and a Wednesday. That date is in my blood. Saddam is in my blood,” Rima said, his voice choking with emotion.

Rima lives in the notorious Sunni bastion of Adhamiyah in north Baghdad where Saddam made his last public appearance on April 9, 2003.

Sitting on the lawn of a one-storey home, the bald 65-year-old former teacher recalled his memories of that day.

“Just hours before the American tanks rolled into Firdoos Square and pulled down his statue he was here with us in Adhamiyah and they couldn’t find him,” Rima told AFP.

US marines in central Baghdad hauled down the giant statue of Saddam, before an Iraqi crowd beat the head of the fallen figure with their shoes in an act considered the ultimate insult in Arab culture.

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Three part series of video reports on the Iraki resistance group the “Islamic Front for Iraqi Resistance” (JAMI) by Hoda Abdel Hamid for Al Jazeera.

Iraq’s resistance fighters: part 1.

Iraq’s resistance fighters pt. 2: Weapons

Iraqi resistance fighters pt. 3: Women fighters

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