Reports From Irak May 20 2007 Summarised from Arabic
The car bomb left in a parking lot in Bab al-Sharji in central Baghdad killed one civilian and wounded five others. (This bomb is very close to Intrerior Ministry offices and probably was targeting civil servants parking before going to work.)
Scenes From An Iraki Childhood - Haifa St Baghdad May 20th 2007.
Iraki children at a rally in Haifa street, Baghdad, Sunday, May 20, 2007. The children are protesting the brutal treatment of people liviing in Haifa street and it’s neighbourhood by American and green zone government troops during the “surge”.
This particular rally is demanding the release of two women from the neighbourhood who were detained and held without charge in a police raid along with their children. The photograph is by Khalid Mohammed
Haifa street is often attacked by green zone forces and the Americans and the methods used cause outrage throughout Irak
See for example Mohammed Ibn Laith’s report of January 24th for a description of what a “crackdown” on Haifa Street consists of.
Iraki journalists have protested the American invaders’ action on Friday during their Al Khayyat raids. The Americans stormed the building while it was empty, vandalised furniture, fittings, and equipment, took away computers and files, and destroyed printing materials. News reports for the day were destroyed during the operation. This is the second time the Americans have targeted this paper the first such raid was on February 22nd.
The mortar attack on the leather factory in Zafaraniyah (south-east of Baghdad) wounded five of the workers and caused several fires which destroyed large amounts of materials and stock.
Seven American soldiers and an Iraki interpeter have been killed in Irak today.
A car booby trapped with a bomb left near the water filtration station in Al-Mansour (west Baghdad),exploded this evening wounding one civilian.
A second car bomb in west Baghdad this evening this time a suicide bomber resulted in the death of one green zome government army soldier and the wounding four others whose patrol was the bomber’s target. - Details are still coming in.
- Six American soldiers of the American invasion forces in Irak together with their Iraki interpreter have been killed in a bomb attack in west Baghdad.
- Another American soldier was killed by a bomb in Diwaniyah.
- These killing brings the number of American soldiers killed in Iraq during the current month of May to 64.
- The total number of American invasion force soldiers killed since the March 2003 American led invasion of Irak is now 3415.
Article 140 - Kirkuk
The Deputy Chairman of the Parliament of Kurdistan Kamal Kerkuki said today that the Kurdistan Parliament would not accept any postponement of the date of application of Article 140 regarding the situation in Kirkuk at the end of this year. (This is despite several calls for this as we repored here on Thursday last week Turkoman and Arab tribes in the region have united in rejecting the application of Article (140) in Kirkuk.
Incident reports from the governorates
In Salah ad Din Governorate nine bodies including that of a twelve year old boy have been recovered:
- Seven bodies were dumped near Samara
- A body belonging to a 12-year old boy who had been shot in the head was found dumped on a main road in Shurqat, (320 km north of Baghdad).
- Another body was found in Touz.
A curfew has been declared in Kut in Wasit until Monday following fighting between Mahdi Army fighers, U.S. army of occupation soldiers and green zone government forces. The fighting started when a bomb destroyed a U.S. hummer southwest of Kut.
Also in Wasit the bodies of three green zone government soldiers have been recovered from the river at Suwayrah. The three originally from Mahaweel in Babil governorate had been tortured before being shot - their bodies have been handed over to their relatives.
The oil protection force was attacked by gunmen near the village of al-Safra on the Kirkuk-Baiji highway, (65 km southwest of Kirkuk) in the early hours of the morning. The oil pipeline north of Kirkuk going to Ceyhan came under attack again last night. One member of the patrol was wounded the pipeline was set on fire.
In Diyala a barrage of 5 mortar shells aimed at the police recruitment centre in central Baqubah wounded 15 people who were there to volunteer. Also gunmen attacked passengers as they were boarding a bus on the main road near al-Mashiti village (8 km south of Khalis) 4 people were killed and 4 wounded in this attack.
Four members of the police were wounded during the clashes that occurred this evening with gunmen north-east of Mosul. (Al-Noor)
The South Koreans In Erbil have announced that an investigative commission will be sent to examine the circumstances in which a 27 year old lieutenant was found shot dead in a barber shop in the camp yesterday there were no signs that the camp had been infiltrated or of a struggle at the scene.
In Anabar Iyad Mohammed Obeid Alaalouani a member of the Islamic Party, was ambushed and shot dead during his visit to Al-Andalus district of central Fallujah.
The power outages in the Central Euphrates provinces, including Karbala continued for a fourth day. A failure in the distribution system has ensured an almost complete disruption of power supply with the number of hours of electricity in the region blackouts as more than 22 hours per day.
The series of raids and other actions in Babil continues, green zone government sources say that 19 suspected fighters were detained, north of HIlla in the latest raids.
In Basrah widespread defrauding of the food ration scheme has been uncovered, more than 20,000 names of deceased persons who were still having rations claimed in their name were discovered, the system provides minimal rations to the poorest. Violent clashes took place at dawn today, and lasted for hours between British forces and gunmen in Basrah The fighting resulted in casualties on both sides among them six British soldiers who were injured, three of them seriously. Fighters detonated two bombs targeting the British during the fighting one near the military hospital and one in the west of the city several British armoured vehicles were severely damaged during the fighting, 4 fighters have been detained . The British bases in Basra International Airport (25 km north-west of Basra) and the British base in the presidential palace in the city have been repeatedly attacked in the last twentyfour hours there are no reports of casualties from these attacks. The outgoing British Prime Minister Tony Blair Saturday paid a farewell visit to troops in Basra.
Indexed under: Al Anbar (Governorate), Al-Qādisiyyah - Governorate, Arbil (Erbil), Babil (Governorate), Baghdad, Baghdad (Governorate), Baghdad Markets, Baqubah, Basrah, bomb, bombing, Bombings, Car bomb, Children, Death Squads, Dhi Qar (Governorate), Disputed Areas, Diwaniyah, Diyala, Fallujah, Follow Up, Hilla, IED, Jaish al-Mahdi, Journalists Attacked, Karbala, Khalis, Kirkuk, Kirkuk (At-Ta'mim) Governorate, Kut, Mahdi, Mahdi Army, Maryam (Market Zafaraniya), Militia, Mosul, Ninawa (Governorate), Ramadi, Salah ad Din (Governorate), Samarra, Tikrit, Wasit, Women and Children