Gorilla’s Guides

Akeel Faisal Ghazi was two years old. He was one of the people killed in the al-Hurriyah market bombing yesterday. The man holding his body in his arms is his father.

The US has accepted that foreign contractors in Iraq will no longer have immunity from Iraqi law under a new security agreement now under negotiation, says the Iraqi Foreign Minister, Hoshyar Zebari.

Mr Zebari, speaking to The Independent in Washington, said that if there was a further incident like the one in which 17 Iraqis were killed by workers from the Blackwater security company in Baghdad last September, the Iraqis would arrest and punish the contractors held responsible.

The American concession would have a serious effect in Iraq, where there are an estimated 160,000 foreign contractors, many of them heavily armed security personnel. The contractors, who outnumber the 145,000-strong US Army in the country, have become a vital if much-resented part of the military machine in Iraq.

ends

Cameraman Alaa Uldeen Aziz, 33, and soundman Laith Yousuf Saif, 26, were killed by unknown assailants who ambushed there car as they were returning home from work at the ABC News Baghdad bureau yesterday afternoon. The ambush took place in Saydia. Aziz is survived by his wife, two daughters and mother, and Yousuf by his fiancee, mother and brothers and sisters. 

After the bomb attack this morning which resulted in the destruction of an American tankr, which was part of the military force patrolling the distict of Al-Hurriya (north west Baghdad)  American troops opened fire indiscriminately killing one civilian and wounding four.

The American army announced today, Friday, that five of its soldiers were killed and a dozen others were injured in attacks. During this month 50 American soldiers have been killed in Irak. Since the American led assault on Irak in March 2003 March 3401 Americans have been killed in Irak.

A suicide bomber crashed his payload into a green zone government police checkpoint in al-Musayab, (70Km south of Baghdad), 3 dead, 4 wounded.

Incidents Outside Baghdad

In Kirkuk a policeman was killed and his brother wounded when the car in which they were driving was attacked by gunmen 5km north of the city. A first lieutenant in the al-Sulatminiyah brigade was ambushed and died of gunshots to his chest and head on the Chuan road  (35 km north of Kirkuk).

Two bombings in the Kirkuk region continued the campaign against petroleum workers.  An engineer in the Northern Oil Co. was wounded along with two other civilians in a bombing targeting a residence in Kirkuk, the roadiside bomb in al-Huwija wounded four civilians who were driving past as it detonated.

A convoy of three trucks carrying foodstuffs from Mosul to Kirkuk was ambushed by gunmen, the drivers shot, and the trucks set on fire near near the Kharabat Root, (55 km west of Kirkuk), thebombing of the police rapid resonse unit in Qada Sahat al-Ihtifalat wounded one civilian.

In Diyala 4 gunmen were killed as they set up a fake checkpoint on the Baghdad - Kirkuk highway in al-Adhim area, north of Khalis.

The body of Colonel Adnan Mohammad Ibrahim al-Mashhadani, cousin of the Speaker of the parliament who was kidnapped last Monday while returning to his army unit stationed in Diyala was found last Wednesday in Baqubah. Another body. that  of Mohammad Ali Ahmed, one of al-Mashhadni’s bodyguards, was also found on Wednesday . He had kidnapped while returning to his home in the al-Toubji district of Baqubah.

In Anbar a suicide bomber attacked an American armoured convoy near the centre of Fallujah. Eyewitnesses said the explosion was violent and destroyed several vehicles in the convoy.

In Diwaniyah the truce is mostly holding.  Three green zone government soldiers were wounded in the gunfight that lasted from 20:00 hours to 02:00 hours to the north. A civilian was shot dead on the western road. There has been sporadic gunfire in the north of the city.

In Wasit 5 bodies, including one of a 12-year-old child, were salvaged from the rivers Tigris and al-Dujaila Three were taken from the river north of al-Suweira, a fourth from near near  al-Aziziya - all had been tortured before being shot. The child had been kidnapped some days earlier his body was removed from the Dujaila river in Kut.

Late breaking news:

• Baghdad -Two people were killed and 5 wounded in a bombing in al Karkh this evening - no details yet.
• 25 bodies were recovered in different areas of Baghdad.
• A suicide bomber detonated a car bomb this afternoon near an American military convoy in al-Dubbat in central Fallujah- one vehicle destroyed, casualties unknown.

Other:

• Abdel-Aziz al-Hakim, has left Irak for medical tests and treatment related to hypertension in the U.S.
• Abbas al-Bayati from the Unified Iraqi Coalition (UIC) on Friday denied the green zone government planned to set up a new national intelligence agency. (- A report to that effect was made on Wednesday in USA today.)

Hussein Al-Bayati

Khaled

Five people were killed and thirteen wounded in three early morning bombings in Baghdad. 4 of  the deaths, of whom one was a seven year old boy, and seven of the wounded were caused when a booby trapped car exploded near the central market in Karadah. A bomb at al-Muaazam petrol station in central Baghdad killed one person and wounded 4. A police patrol in South Baghdad was bombed accounting for the remainder of the casualties. The market bombing in central Baghdad shortly after noon today killed two people and wounded ten others.

The 25 heads of people murdered by decapitation found in or near Mada’in (37 km south-east of Baghdad) have been buried in Najaf many have now been identified, many were from  Mada’in. Only their heads have been found not their bodies. Parrticipants in the funeral bitterly criticised the plan for Baghdad announced by the American occupation and green zone government. Aswat al Iraq have published an English translation of this report. There are no significant differences between the English and Arabic versions. (See also: What Is In The Banana Box? )

The helicopter “crash” in al-Fadil is reported here. The helicopter is of the type used by mercenaries. A shorter version of the report in English is on the English language section of Aswat al Iraq here. Earlier in this morning gunmen in the area opened fire indiscriminately on civilians one person killed 4 wounded. “Security forces” have put the area in curfew.