Gorilla’s Guides

Incidents and Reports Irak June 6th 2007 From Arabic

Summary:

• Sheikh Raheem al-Hesnawi, a senior Shiite cleric with a large following in the al-Meshkhab region of southern Najaf was murdered in Najaf.
• Eyewitnesses said that Turkish forces entered Iraqi territory on Wednesday afternoon for striking elements of the PKK - A Kurdish peshmerga official has denied the reports.
• Update The incursion included straffing  from the air.  Source: اصوات العراق - شهود: طائرات عسكرية تركية حلقت قرب الحدود العراقية
• The coordinated bombing attack in Kazhimiyah northern Baghdad killed seven civilians and injured 25 others.
• Two civilians were killed and eight others wounded in this afternoon’s market bombing in al Mansour
• The American are building a dirt wall barricade 1½ metres high around  Kubaisa in al Anbar.
• Postal workers in Kut have held their second strike this week. The petroleum distriibution strike continues.
• The body of an employee in the South Oil Company was found in Latif 20 Km north of the city of Basrah - he had been active in organising the oil workers strike in the city.

Baghdad

The coordinated bombing attack in Kazhimiyah northern Baghdad killed seven civilians and injured 25 others. Many of the wounded were women and chldren. The first bomb exploded in Zahra near the intersection the second near the women’s prison.  [This is where two shrines are that of the seventh Shiite Imam Mousa al-Kadhim sometimes referred to as “the enduring” and his grandson Mohammed al-Jawad. The district is named Kadhimiya/Kazhimiya after the seventh Siha Imam . It is a major place of pilgrimage and attacks there are nakedly sectarian attempts to inflame reprisals - Saba] Source: اصوات العراق - ارتفاع حصيلة انفجار مفخختي الكاظمية الى 32 قتيلا وجريحا

Baghdad Bodies

34 unidentified bodies were found in Baghdad today. Thus, the total number unidentified corpses that were found in Baghdad since the start of June until now is 153 corpses that was found. Last month the month May 2007 were found a total of 750 unidentified bodies in Baghdad alone.

Al Kharkh

23 bodies were found Al Kharkh (Western side of the river) as follows:

• 8 in Baia’a
• 4 in Amil
• 3 in Dora
• 2 in Al Hurriya
• 2 in Jamiyah
• 2 in Ma’amoon
• 2 in Taji.

Al Rasafa

11 bodies were found in Rasafa, (Western side of the river) as follows:

• 3 in Al Shaab
• 3 in Bab Al-Sheikh
• 3 in Sadr city
• 1 in Jamila
• 1 in Shamaiyah.

Our thanks to our colleague Zeynab for compiling the figures from radio reports.

Mohammed & Saba Ali

Baghdad Security Incidents (Continued)

Two civilians were killed and eight others wounded in this afternoon’s market bombing in al Mansour. Source: اصوات العراق - مقتل وإصابة عشرة مدنيين بإنفجار عبوة في المنصور

The MSA [Association of Muslim Scholars] issued a statement accusing American forces of deliberately executing a 45 year old man and his 75 year old father in the University district (west Baghdad). According to the statement while the Americans were conducting a raid late last night looking for the son they father tried to prevent his arrest and was shhot in his home. They then shot the son according to the statement.  [The remainder of the article is a summary of the denunciation and pointing out that American soldiers have done this sort of thing before. - Saba]

Source: اصوات العراق - هيئة العلماء: قوات أمريكية أعدمت شابا ووالده غربي بغداد

The green zone parliament is scheduled to vote on the set of laws on its agenda, including the draft Code of Criminal Procedure military proposal Act to amend the Supreme Iraki Criminal Court No. (10) of 2005  Source: اصوات العراق - مجلس النواب يبدأ جلسته الخامسة والثلاثين

Reports From The Governorates

The main incidents reported from the governorates are reported below the jump:

Al Anbar Governorate

The American attempts to subjugate Al Anbar by turning all of its towns into gigantic open air prisons continue. The latest enclsoure attempt is to build a dirt wall barricade 1½ metres high around  Kubaisa (198 kilometers west of Baghdad) in the Western Desert. [The town is an oasis and is famous as a smuggler’s stronghold - Saba.]  Source: اصوات العراق - القوات الأمريكية تبني سورا ترابيا حول مدينة كبيسة

Fallujah: Ambulance Incidents

1. An ambulance driver and the two patients he was transporting to hospital were seriously wounded by a bomb. targeting an ambulance in in the western neighborhood of Al Andalus in Fallujah.

   The three are “in serious condition,” a medical source said. The ambulance is a writeoff.

2. In the Golan district at 10:30 this morning a gang of AK47 armed men intercepted an ambulance, dragged its driver from his seat, beat him severely, and drove the ambulance away.

   The ambulance has not been found. [Which means we can expect to read of it being used for a bombing or other attack sometime in the future - Saba.]

Source: اصوات العراق - اصابة ثلاثة مدنيين بانفجار عبوة ناسفة استهدفت سيارة اسعاف في الفلوجة

Fallujah Security Situation - Mini Surge Continues:

1. Green zone government forces are continuing their “mini surge” started two weeks ago. Work to wall off Fallujah’s neighbourhoods into 4 zones with access controlled by checkpoints is continuing.
2. The same source said that so far the campaign to attract recruits to the green zone government police has resulted in 800 applicants for training. The recruits are to receive “special training.”  The source who made these comments said that they were interested in Fallujah city residents and that “the door to volunteering is still open.”

Source: اصوات العراق - اصابة ثلاثة مدنيين بانفجار عبوة ناسفة استهدفت سيارة اسعاف في الفلوجة

Basra Governorate

The British have denied they are going to leave Basrah calling media reports to that effect “baseless” [which now that I think of it is a good description for what is happening to their forces in Irak - Saba ] Source: اصوات العراق - المتعددة: سياستنا لم تتغير وانسحابنا يعتمد على الظروف الأمنية

• The body of an employee in the South Oil Company was found in Latif 20 Km north of the city [probably an attempt to intimidate strikers according to local sources - Saba]
• Two gunmen were wounded by return fire as they attacked the Joint Coordination Centre in Basrah city centre. The attack included RPG fire and the building sustained damage.
• The British bases came under their usual nightly bombardment [Truly I do not know why I include that - it happens everynight the goal of mortaring somewhere is to act as an area denial weapon and keep those in the area pinned rather than to cause casualties (although of course that is considered desirable by the attackers) Saba]

Source: اصوات العراق - العثور على جثة موظف واصابة مسلحين اثنين في البصرة

Dahuk Governorate

Reports that Turkish troops crossed into Irak have been denied.

Eyewitnesses Say The Crossed Peshmerga Official Says They Didn’t 

[Believe the eyewitnesses - Saba.]

Eyewitnesses said that Turkish forces entered Iraqi territory on Wednesday afternoon for striking elements of the PKK. These reports have been denied both  Source: اصوات العراق - أنباء عن دخول قوات تركية إلى الأراضي العراقية لضرب حزب العمال

“There is no Turkish incursion inside the Iraqi territories as mentioned by media reports,” the Kurdish official told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI).

Lieutenant Colonel Tamr added “what occurred was only a limited combing operation and artillery shelling in the Turkish Shamzi Nan area opposite to Mirga Sur region inside the Iraqi territories.”

Earlier on Wednesday, media reports said that Turkish forces had crossed the borders into the Iraqi territories to chase the Turkish Kurdish Workers’ party (PKK) fighters.

Arabic Source: اصوات العراق - مدير قوات حماية الحدود في دهوك ينفي التوغل التركي  English Source: Aswat Aliraq 

Karbala Governorate

The mayor of Al-Hindiya [which is where green zone government “prime minister” Nouri Al Maliki attended school as a schoolbooy] has resigned in protest against what he described as “rampant corruption and administrative red tape” Hussein Kazem al-Mousawi is a member of the same political party as Maliki. He complained that:

“administrative corruption has exacerbated successive crises of fuels, electricity, unemployment, and [casues] the faltering [of] reconstruction projects.”

He didn’t say whether the local council had accepted or rejected his resignation.

[Important Note: this is the second such resignation by a senior Islamic Daawa Party politician in the governorate in the month - and for the same stated reasons. ]  Source: اصوات العراق - قائممقام الهندية بكربلاء يقدم استقالته احتجاجا على ماوصفه بالفساد

 

Maysan Governorate

The commemoration and eulogy for the murdered AswatAlIraq journalist Nizar Abd El Radi was held in Maysan. He was murdered last Wednesday in Amarah while with a group of journalists preparing to attend a workshop for journalists in the city.  Today’s ceremony was well attended by journalists and various notables.  Source: اصوات العراق - حفل تأبيني في ميسان لشهيد الصحافة العراقية نزار الراضى

Najaf Governorate

Gunmen assassinate one of the agents of al-Sistani in Najaf

Sheikh Raheem al-Hesnawi, a senior Shiite cleric with a large following in the al-Meshkhab region of southern Najaf was murdered by a group of 3 gunmen at approximately 11 in the morning close to his home in the al-Jazeera district of the north of the city of Najaf.

 He had moved to al-Jazeera  earlier this year from  al-Meshkhab to take up an appointment in Grand Ayatollah al-Sistani’s office. Source: اصوات العراق - مسلحون يغتالون احد وكلاء السيستاني في النجف

Briefing & Analysis

He was one of Grand Ayatollah al-Sistani’s oldest colleagues and his death will be considered a major provocation - particularly by his followers in the rural south of the province. His murder also highlights the continuing problems of inefectiveness of security in the Holy City where many of the senior security officers are political appointees granted their jobs as a sinecure for polical loyalty in times past to the Shia political establishment.

I checked the URI above a few minutes ago before translating its contents it had by that time received 687 hits. That is a remarkably high number.

Saba

Article 240 (a) Arrests - Najaf

A gang have been arrested and charged under Article 240 (a) of the Penal Code. Seven people were detained in a raid 10 Km north Najaf. The raid uncovered a cache of of 45 barrels of 220 litres capacity of kerosine. Source: اصوات العراق - القبض على عصابة تتاجر بالمشتقات النفطية في النجف

Salah ad Din Governorate

• A raid by green zone government forces in Sharqat led to the detention of 8 citizens suspected of being fighters resisiting the American invasion and continued attempts to subjugate Irak.
• The Americans opened fire on a number of civilian cars in the district of Qadisiya north of Tikrit, wounding four civilians including a woman.

  According to witnesses the civilians were wounded when the Americans opened fire indiscriminately following a bombing attempt on their patrol on the main road.

Source: اصوات العراق - إعتقال ثمانية مشتبه بهم وإصابة أربعة مدنيين فى صلاح الدين

Wasit Governorate

[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]

Postal workers in Wassit province organized a strike on Wednesday, protesting unpaid salaries, and prevented employees from performing their work.

The strike is the second this week.

“We have decided to paralyze work in Wassit’s Postal and Communications Department where we work in protest against the non-payment of our salaries by the ministry for four months,” Hassan Zidan, a postal worker, told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI).

“We fulfill our duties all day long and face many threats, but we do not receive our salaries for no reason,” Zidan explained, adding “Our number exceeds 300, which means than over 300 families had to survive without supplies during the past four months.”

After several failed attempts to convince the ministry to pay the workers their overdue salaries, Zidan said that a ministry official, whom he did not name, suggested that the ministry would pay them one month’s salary. “We refused this unfair offer and went on a strike on Wednesday morning,” Zidan explained.

“A similar strike was staged on Monday. We received many promises from an official in the municipal council, but none were fulfilled,” Zidan added.

Arabic: Source: اصوات العراق - اضراب لمنتسبي حماية المنشآت البريدية في الكوت  :English language report is here

Saba Ali & Mohammed Ibn Laith.

Indexed under: Al Anbar (Governorate), Baghdad, Basrah, Death Squads, Disputed Areas, Fallujah, Hit, Kirkuk, Kirkuk (At-Ta'mim) Governorate, Kut, Mosul, Najaf, Ninawa (Governorate), Salah ad Din (Governorate), Sulaymaniyah, Tikrit, Wasit