Gorilla’s Guides

Two journalists were murdered in Irak one in al-Anbar and one in Maysan. 4 senior customs officials were abducted in a part of Salah Ad Din governorate that has not had any green zone government security presence for five months. The pay of an army unit was stolen in Karbala. 23 unidentified bodies were found in various parts of Baghdad. There have been numerous incidents in Diyala including one in Al Khalis when gunmen “dressed in police uniforms” then stormed the hospital and shot four brothers dead. And in Arbil the American invaders transferred “responsibility” for security in Irak’s Kurdistan region to the Kurdish Peshmerga during a ceremony at which Najirfan Barzani, prime minister in the government of Iraq’s Kurdistan region said

“We thank and appreciate the coalition forces for liberating the people of Iraq.

and expressed his appreciaton of coalition “sacrifices” he also expressed support for the Maliki regime.

Suheila.

Baghdad

Sadr City: May 30, 2007
A boy walks through the rubble of a damaged
house after a raid by U.S. soldiers in  Sadr City
During the raid 2 civilians killed and 4 others
wounded as they slept on the roofs of their
houses the green zone government police said.

The American campaign campaign of raids and searches in Sadr City continues and has intensifeid following the abduction of a British consultant and his mercenary bodyguards from the Finance ministry. 

On Tuesday evening two people were killed as a result of missile launches by American military vehicles which had encircled the city entrances. Two greenzone government police were detained during the raids ( مقتل مدنيين واعتقال اثنين اخرين جراء حملة مداهمات في مدينة الصدر )

Gunmen assassinated three green zone government police officers in South Baghdad on Wednesday evening. The gunmen riding in a civilian vehicle opened fire on the three officers as they stood at a checkpoint dressed in civilian clothes. ( مسلحون يغتالون ثلاثة من ضباط الشرطة جنوبي بغداد  )

The car bomb that exploded in sector 15 of Sadr city around 20:00 hours this evening killed one civilian and wounded five others according to first reports. The toll is expected to rise.

Sadr City was raided by American armored vehicles and patrols, a day after the abduction of five Britons on Tuesday. Palestine Street in particular adjacent to Sadr City. ( مقتل وإصابة ستة مدنيين بإنفجار سيارة في مدينة الصدر  )

23 unidentified bodies were found in various parts of Baghdad most had been shot in the head.

• 10 bodies in Amil
• 3 bodies in Dora,
• 3 bodies in Bayaa,
• 2 bodies in Mansour
• 2 bodies in Sadr city
• 1 body in Kadhimiyah
• 1 body in Shalchiyah
• 1 body in Ali Al Salih

( العثور على 23 جثة مجهولة الهوية في بغداد )

Incident Reports from the governorates are below the fold:

Al Anbar Governorate

Following the discovery by green zone government police of three car bombs ready to go off while conducting searches in the industrial complex in the Golan neighborhood north of Fallujah Wednesday afternoon.The curfew in Fallujah has been extended it is now from 18:00hours to 06:00hours, addditionally there is now a ban vehicular traffic in the city, three of the access gates to city are closed, there are increased troop patrols in the city (  ضبط ثلاث سيارات مفخخة وفرض حظر مفتوح لتجوال المركبات في الفلوجة  ) Green zone government police forces in Fallujah conducted a series of searches in:

• al-Dubbat
• al-Wahda
• al-Jolan

dozens of suspects have been detained. ( الشرطة العراقية تعتقل عشرات المواطنين في الفلوجة )

Journalist Murdered:

Abul Rahman al-Essawi, a freelance journalist from Abu Saleh town in Ameriyah Falluja district, south of Falluja was shot dead on Tuesday night by armed men who burst into his home and shot him together with six of family including his father and brothers.(  مسلحون يقتلون صحفيا وعائلته جنوب الفلوجة )

Six people were killed and 23 injured in two separate mortar attacks in Fallujah. A mortar attack on Fallujah court in in al-Jumhouria neighborhood this morning killed five and wounded 20 people. The second attack on the al-Baath neighbourhood of central Falluja hit a private house killing one civilian and wounding three others from the same family. A third attack on the American base in the centre of the town is not known whether it caused casualties. Mosques in the town have been broadcasting urgent appeals for blood donors to come forward. ( مقتل واصابة 29 مدنيا بسقوط قذيفتي هاون بالفلوجة )

 

At-Ta’mim (Kirkuk) Governorate

Four attackers, and one bodyguard and killed during an attack by gunmen on a convoy of the administrator of al-Hawija district near the city of Kirkuk two protection personnel were injured  in the  attack. ( مقتل أربعة مسلحين واحد افراد حماية رئيس مجلس قضاء الحويجة قرب كركوك  )

Two green zone government troops and three green zone government police in two separate explosions in Kirkuk. The police patrol was bombed near Taza (25 km south of Kirkuk) the army patrol was bombed on the road to Huwayjah (اصابة خمسة من الجيش والشرطة في انفجارين منفصلين بكركوك )

 

Arbil Governorate

The American invaders transferred responsibility for security in Irak’s Kurdistan region to the Kurdish Peshmerga during a ceremony held in Arbil. Muaffiq al-Rubaie, who attended the ceremony as representative of Nouri Al Maliki said that “Kurdistan is an example to imitate in other parts of Iraq, in terms of security, democracy and reconstruction.” The Kurdish separatist politician Najirfan Barzani, prime minister in the government of Iraq’s Kurdistan region said

“We thank and appreciate the coalition forces for liberating the people of Iraq.

and expressed his appreciaton of coalition “sacrifices” he also expressed support for the Maliki regime. (المتعددة تسلم الملف الأمني لقوات البيشمركة شمال العراق )  

Diyala Governorate

Seven people, four of them brothers, two green zone government soldiers, and a greenzone government policeman were killed during clashes in the market and a hospital in Al Khalis. It seems that fighting broke out when greenzone government forces tried to detain the brothers who they suspected of being fighters resisting the American invasion and the greenzone government. The gunfight that followed led to the death of the two soldiers and the policeman and the wounding of the four brothers. Gunmen “dressed in police uniforms” then stormed the hospital and shot the four brothers dead. There has been no comment by the army and police on the incident.( مقتل سبعة من المسلحين والجيش والشرطة في اشتباكات بالخالص )

Also in Diyala governorate gunmen shot dead two greenzone government soldiers who were making their way to their unit at a fake checkpoint in Khalis. (مقتل جنديين من قبل مسلحين في مدينة الخالص  )

Four civilians were killed and seven wounded in a mortar on a village near Muqdadiya. Among the wounded were three women and a child. (Muqdadiya is 45 km northeast of the city of Baquba, the capital of Diyala).(  مقتل وإصابة 11مدنيا بقصف على قرية قرب المقدادية  )

Karbala Governorate

A gang of armed men in three civilian cars ambushed two greenzone government army vehicles in which greenzone government army accountants and their escort were riding and captured the salaries of an Iraqi army unit. (350 million Iraqi dinars).

“The gunmen stopped two cars containing the six officers from a military unit in the Al-Nasr district (3 km south west of Karbala), took off their weapons and fled to an unknown destination.”

The greenzone government police have arrested the officers and their escort suspecting them of collusion in the robbery. ( مسلحون يستولون على رواتب إحدى وحدات الجيش في كربلاء )

Maysan Governorate

Journalist Murdered

Aswat al Iraq have published an English translation of this report. There are no significant differences between the English and Arabic versions. The text below is from the English version:

A correspondent working for the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI) was killed in Ammara, Missan province, on Wednesday morning, during his participation in a workshop for journalists in the city.

“An armed group consisting of three gunmen opened fire against Nezar Abdul Wahid al-Radi and five other journalists at 11:00 am near al-Arousa Hotel in central Ammara, killing him on the spot. The other journalists survived,” an eyewitness said.

“The correspondent and his colleagues were on their way to participate in a workshop in al-Arousa Hotel,” another eyewitness added.

“Four bullets tore through al-Radi’s body and he died immediately,” he also said.
“Scores of Missan’s journalists and intellectuals headed to the forensic medical department to see off the body,” the witness noted.

The correspondent was born in Missan on February 29, 1969 and had a bachelor’s degree in literature. He is survived by his wife and three children.

Al-Radi joined the VOI on May 1, 2005.

He headed the Young Journalists’ League in Missan

Source: Aswat Aliraq See Also:  (اصوات العراق تفقد واحدا من ابرز مراسليها )

Ninawa Governorate

A bomb in al-Maaridh (East Mosul), wounded two policemen. Two bodies that had been booby trapped with explosives were found In al-Thawrah district. (West Mosul).A patrol of American forces cordoned off the place and defused the explosives that were planted in the two bodies(  اصابة شرطيين اثنين في انفجار سيارة مفخخة بالموصل ). 

A woman was killed and two greenzone government policemen were injured in a gun attack that  took place on Wednesday morning between gunmen and a police patrol in the north of Mosul. (  مقتل إمرأة وجرح شرطيين فى إشتباكات بالموصل )

A 50 year old civilian old was killed and a number of  homes demolished in a Katyusha attack in Tal Afar. 3 shells landed. ( مقتل مدني بسقوط صواريخ كاتيوشا على تلعفر  )

A civilian was shot and killed this afternoon, following an explosion that was targeting an Iraqi police patrol. The police opened fire at random according to the director of the operations room Nineveh Police Command, Brigadier Abdul Karim al-Jabouri.

In another bombing an American patrol was bombed in the south-east of Mosul - there as yet no reports of casualty levels. ( مقتل و إصابة ثلاثة مدنيين بحادثين منفصلين في الموصل )

Salah ad Din Governorate

On Tuesday night a twin bombing attack in the al-Qadissiyah neighborhood of Balad city targeting a U.S. patrol destroyed a hummer. The U.S. forces cordoned off the neighborhood.

Today a coordinated bombing attack on an American patrol in Yethrib district, (east of Balad) destroyed a minesweeper. After the explosions the patrol came under heavy attack by gunmen. According to greenzone government police two civilians were killed as a result of indiscriminate frie from the Americans. Also a greenzone government soldier, Mohammad Ibrahim Jasem, was ambushed and soht dead in al-Mazaree.  ( تدمير همر وكاسحة الغام أمريكيتين في انفجارين منفصلين بصلاح الدين )

In a fourth day of a spate of kidnappings and murders by armed groups in the Al-Ishaki and southern Samarra regions the chief of the 2nd Customs Police Department Brigadier Khedr Mahdi, two colonels and a fourth officer have vanished on the road Baghdad-Tikrit bteween al-Dujail and Samarra. They were on their way from Baghdad to Tikrit. Sources quoted by Aswat Al Iraq consider their most likely fate is that they have been kidnapped. The report points out that that part of country has not had a greenzone government security presence for more than five months. ( اختفاء أربعة ضباط من جمارك صلاح الدين )

Attacks on Journalists

The killings have been denounced by the Culture Minister in the government of Kurdistan region who pointed out that “during the month of May in Kirkuk current five journalists, were martyred at the hands of unidentified armed groups.”   (  وزير الثقافة في حكومة اقليم كردستان يستنكر اغتيال الصحفيين )

 

The Iraqi Society for Defending Journalists’ Rights and the Journalistic Freedoms Observatory (JFO) on Wednesday called on Missan’s authorities to reveal the circumstances surrounding the assassination of Nezar al-Radi, a correspondent for the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI) in Amara, who was shot dead this morning by unknown gunmen.
“In a series of continuous attacks against journalists all over Iraq, which aim to silence the word of truth and prevent the Fourth Estate from fulfilling its role in uncovering the truth, unidentified gunmen attacked on Wednesday morning a vehicle carrying a number of Iraqi journalists near al-Arousa Hotel in Missan province. The attackers opened fire on the journalists, who had been assigned to cover a journalism workshop in the province, killing our colleague Nezar Abdul Wahed,” read a statement released by the society, which VOI obtained a copy of.

The statement indicated that the attack took place near a number of Iraqi policemen, whom it said did not take any action to prevent it. “The Iraqi Society for Defending Journalists’ Rights calls on Missan province to investigate this heinous crime and make the policemen, who were close to the location of the attack, answerable for their actions,” the statement indicated.

Moreover, the society urged international and regional organizations to stand by journalists in Iraq, noting that statements of condemnation are not enough.

“Our colleague Nezar al-Radi, who headed the Young Journalists’ League in Amara, phoned me on Tuesday night and expressed his willingness to provide any form of help to journalists,” the head of the society, Ibrahim al-Siraji, told VOI.

“Our late colleague has always asserted that journalism will continue with our efforts,” al-Siraji added.

The Iraqi Society for Defending Journalists’ Rights is a non-governmental body. Established in 2004 in Baghdad with 10 branches in Iraqi provinces, the society’s main objectives are to protect freedom of the press and expression, to provide legal assistance to journalists and to monitor transgressions committed against journalists in Iraq.
Meanwhile, the JFO condemned the attack that targeted al-Radi, calling on the authorities to investigate the incident.

“We will follow up the findings of the investigation in the coming few days,” the observatory, which is a Baghdad-based independent organization that aims to protect journalists and journalistic freedoms, said in a statement made shortly after the attack.

(منظمات صحفية تطالب بكشف ملابسات اغتيال الصحفي نزار الراضي )