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January 2nd 2007 Early Evening News From Iraq Translated and Summarised from Arabic

Posted by markfromireland on January 2, 2007 – 7:55 pm

These are the main reports on the independent Iraqi news agency Aswat Al Iraq (Voices of Iraq) together with a selection of reports from other agencies.

  1. Baaquba - Ali Majeed Salboukh of the United Iraqi Alliance, a member of Diyala provincial council his son and two of his brothers was shot dead in his car near Baaquba. URL
  2. Baghdad - An American army of occupation soldier was killed in roadside bomb attack southwest of Baghdad on Monday. the first U.S. casualty in 2007, a U.S. army statement said. This raises the number of American casualties in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003 to 3,003 killed and more than 22,000 wounded according to U.S. data.

    The article gives these statistics for the worst months for American invader deaths:

    • November 2004 = 137
    • April 2004 = 135
    • January 2005 = 107
    • October 2006 = 106
    • December 2006 = 113

URL

  1. Baghdad - 22 unidentified bodies have been found. 17 in al-Aazamiya (north Baghdad,) and 5 in Nahrawan (south Baghdad.) All had been shot, most had been tortured. On Monday, police patrols found 32 bodies were scattered in various parts of Baghdad. URL
  2. Baghdad - Seven Iraqi civilians were wounded in a bombing in Kemp Sara (southeast of Baghdad). URL
  3. Baghdad - American Army of Occupation forces killed the coach of Iraq’s basketball team for the disabled in front of his house in in al-Mansour, western Baghdad, according to an official in Iraq’s Paralympics Committee.

    “U.S. troops killed Ibrahim Abdullah on Monday after he was seen carrying a gun in front of his house,” Paralympics Committee Secretary General Fakher al-Jamali told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI).

    “The Americans, thinking that Abdullah was carrying a gun to attack them, opened a volley of fire at his direction, instantly killing him ,” said Jamali, adding that Abdullah had “stepped out of his house with his gun after he was told that an armed group was attacking the neighbourhood where he lived.”

    Abdullah, the coach for the national team in 1995, led the Iraqi team to qualify to the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games.

    Several Iraqi athletes have been targets for killings and kidnappings, the most recent of which was the killing of a former wrestling coach last week in a car bombing in the Baghdad’s al-Aazamiya neighbourhood.

    The fate of Ahmad al-Hijiya, the head of the Iraqi Olympic Committee, and several members of the Committee’s executive bureau, who had been kidnapped by an unidentified armed group mid-2006, is still unknown. URL

    [Still also unknown is the fate of the schoolboys in the TaeKwon Do team - markromireland]

  4. Baghdad - U.S. Army of ocupation forces raided the Imam al-Muntazhir mosque al-Hurriya district early this morning. They ransacked the Mossque and cordoned several streets in the area eyewitnesses said.

    [Al-Hurriya was the scene of several suicide bombings on the first day of Eid al-Adha, more than 50 people were killed and 150 others wounded, mostly women and children who were shopping for the festival - markfromireland.]   URL

  5. Baghdad - Four members of the same family were dragged from their car in al-Madain, (southeast of Baghdad,) and shot. Accoding to eyewitnesses the gunmen stopped their car forced them out and shot them. It’s not immediately clear if this killing was directly linked to the execution of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein on Saturday. URL

    [Hint: Read between the lines - markfromireland]

  6. Fallujah - An American Army of Occupation patrol was attacked by a bomber using a roadside bomb in Saqlawiya (15 Km North of Fallujah -mfi.) A Humvee was destroyed but it was not clear if there were casualties among troops. URL

Other Summary Reports:

Below are some of the main reports from Western Agencies. As always don’t forget to checkout Today In Iraq for extended reporting and analysis:

Reuters (Alertnet)

McClatchy

  • U.S. announces death of 3,000th American soldier - 12/31/2006 05:29 PM EST
    By Nancy A. Youssef, McClatchy Newspapers
    The death of Spc. Dustin Donica, 22, of Spring, Texas, by small arms fire in Baghdad, brought the December toll to 111, the deadliest month of the year for U.S. troops. The milestone was reached at a time when President Bush is considering an overhaul of American policy in Iraq - a review that could result in tens of thousands more U.S. troops serving in this strife-torn country.
  • Roundup of violence in Iraq - 31 December - 12/31/2006 10:29 PM EST
    By Mohammed al Awsy, McClatchy Newspapers
    The daily Iraq violence roundup is compiled by McClatchy Newspapers correspondents in Baghdad from police, military and medical reports.

AFP (on Yahoo News)

  • Iraq probes grisly Saddam death video 
    BAGHDAD (AFP) - Iraq has launched a probe into a grisly video of Saddam Hussein’s execution that has triggered angry protests from the country’s Sunni minority three days after the hanging of the former dictator.
  • Iran warns West of ‘historic slap’ over nuclear drive Tue Jan 2, 7:16 AM ET TEHRAN (AFP) - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has kept up his defiance over Iran’s nuclear programme, saying Tehran would deal an “historic slap” to Western nations if they launched military action.
  • Search continues for abducted AFP photographer 1 hour, 41 minutes ago
    GAZA CITY (AFP) - Palestinian security forces in Gaza are searching for AFP photographer Jaime Razuri, a day after his abduction, with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas saying he expected a prompt release.
  • Close aide to Israeli PM under investigation Tue Jan 2, 5:55 AM ET  
    JERUSALEM (AFP) - The director of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s cabinet, Shula Zaken, is being investigated for suspected corruption, along with a number of senior public officials.
  • Bush weighs Iraq options 43 minutes ago
    WASHINGTON (AFP) - US President George W. Bush grappled with ways to fix his Iraq strategy, amid warnings even among his Republican congressional allies that they oppose escalating the unpopular war.

Selected Articles

I have selected two three articles that came online as I was preparing this posting.

Financial Times

Iraqi civilian deaths hit new monthly high

By Steve Negus, Iraq Correspondent

Published: January 2 2007 17:46 | Last updated: January 2 2007 17:46

The tally of civilian deaths in Iraq hit a new high of 1,930 in December, suggesting sectarian violence that surged in the summer remains at peak levels.

The figures, which were reported by Reuters news agency, are the highest yet released by the Iraqi interior ministry but may be a significant underestimate as many deaths go unreported. 

[snip]

The interior ministry figures showed 12,320 civilians were killed in 2006 in what officials classified as “terrorist” violence, half of them in the past four months. The figure of 1,930 civilians killed in December compared with 1,850 violent deaths in the previous month and 1,289 in October.

All Iraqi death toll figures are controversial and are often difficult to reconcile with one another. Ministries, depending on who controls them, often have an incentive either to reduce or to inflate figures. Official figures are also almost certainly incomplete, as many deaths probably go unreported. The United Nations has estimated that about 100 people are killed every day. A UN report in November stated that 3,709 had been killed in the previous month.

Finally an article from Iran Daily.

Iran Daily

US Complicity In Crimes Buried With Saddam

 Iraq used chemical weapons on Iranian troops and 067053.jpgagainst civilian Kurdish village of Halabjeh in northern Iraq. (IRNA File Photo)

We’ve shut him up. The moment Saddam’s hooded executioner pulled the lever of the trapdoor in Baghdad Saturday morning, Washington’s secrets were safe. The shameless, outrageous, covert military support which the United States gave to Saddam for more than a decade remains the one terrible story which our presidents and prime ministers do not want the world to remember. And now Saddam, who knew the full extent of that Western support–given to him while he was perpetrating some of the worst atrocities since World War II–is dead.
There is growing evidence across the Arab world that Saddam held a series of meetings with senior American officials prior to his invasion of Iran in 1980–both he and the US administration believed that the Islamic Republic would collapse if Saddam sent his legions across the border–and the Pentagon was instructed to assist Iraq’s military machine by providing intelligence on the Iranian order of battle. One frosty day in 1987, not far from Cologne, I met the German arms dealer who initiated those first direct contacts between Washington and Baghdad–at America’s request. Full article

AFP (Main Site)

Siemens probed over Iraq food-for-oil programme

02/01/2007 17h48

BERLIN (AFP) - German industrial group Siemens is being investigated on suspicion of corruption in the oil-for-food programme in Iraq, a report claimed.

The Financial Times Deutschland paper, which released an advance extract of its Wednesday edition, quoted a spokesman for the state prosecutor in Nuremberg as saying: “The prosecutor is investigating whether Siemens contravened the law on foreign trade.”

The spokesman said the allegations against Siemens concerned mainly its energy and medical equipment operations and involved a six-figure sum, meaning at least 100,000 euros (133,000 dollars).

[snip]

Siemens is also facing an investigation by German prosecutors over alleged embezzlement, bribery and tax evasion.

Some employees are suspected of collaborating in opening slush fund accounts abroad, which are used for making illicit payments, and of operating a system to embezzle company money.

Seven former and current employees were arrested late last year but freed before Christmas after they made statements to prosecutors. Full article

 

 

markfromireland


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