The winter 'celebrations' of Muharram and Christmas have arrived in Iraq. The former celebrates a month in which fighting is forbidden (haram), and the latter celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace. 14 explosions and a spate of assassinations mark the holidays.
Ah, Baghdad, the City of Peace.
Ah, well, sometimes things don't go the way they should. The violence is once again on the rise and the innocent Iraqis continue to pay the price of the destabilization that the U.S. brought to their nation.
[photo from timesonline]
Now the killing is as complicated as ever.
Factions loyal to the Maliki government point to the violence as a reason maintain a U.S. presence, which coincidentally props up their regime.
Forces opposed to the Maliki government use the violence as proof that the current regime is unfit to protect the people.
Iran loves an unstable Iraqe because it is no longer a containment to Iranian influence in the region.
Al Qaida, remnants of Baathist cells, disaffected disbanded militiamen, gangs of unemployed, gangs of hopeless...pick and choose.
And the criminals? They are ecstatic. Kidnappings, especially of children, are on the rise with prices of $100,000 common for the return of a beloved child. There's no politics here, only the ease with which criminals can avoid arrest because of the general chaos. Ditto smuggling, child prostitution, theft, and other lucrative activities that at least have the ability of providing sustenance to the masses of unemployed who see no other viable alternatives. Starvation is a real threat in these days of hopelessness. Don't underestimate the effect of rising crime organizations on the reconstruction efforts. Iraq is not the first nation to watch as criminals fill the security void left by departing occupiers.
And how will it sort itself out? We wont know until the invader leaves and the Iraqis settle their own business. The U.S. government has pressured Maliki to build a unity body to rule the nation, but his willingness to let go of power that way seems nonexistent.
Leave? [URUKNET]The recently passed 636 billion military spending
bill (395 members voted for it, 34 against it) only
covers operations through September
30, 2010, and doesn't include the monies US President Obama will
need for his Afghanistan 'surge.' Much of it is for high-tech apparatus that is absolutely useless in the war against small terrorist actions.
The fledgling peace movements within Iraq receive no support from the Obama's administration, and the paltry support that NGO's are able to funnel to the pacifists, reconcilliation movements, etc. is not enough to make a difference.
The solution will probably be bloody but it will be their own solution and they will learn to live with it.
Reported security incidents Dec 25, 2009
Baghdad:
#1: Five people
were killed and 22 others wounded when an improvised explosive device
(IED) went off in the eastern Baghdad district of Sadr City on
Thursday, a local security source said. “The IED went off near a
funerary gathering in Sector 42, Sadr City district, eastern Baghdad,
leaving five people killed and 22 others wounded,” the source told
Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
#2: Three people
were killed and eight others wounded on Thursday when an improvised
explosive device (IED) went off in al-Zaafaraniya, southeastern
Baghdad, a local security source said. “An IED went off near a Shiite
funerary gathering in the area of Sa’eeda, al-Zaafaraniya neighborhood,
southeastern Baghdad, killing three and wounding eight others,” the
source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
#3: One civilian
was killed and four others were wounded in a roadside bomb explosion in
eastern Baghdad on Friday, a police source said. “The bomb, planted by
gunmen in al-Shamaiya region in eastern Baghdad, went off, killing a
civilian and injuring four,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
Diyala Prv:
#1: Unknown gunmen
slew on Thursday a prominent figure in Jalawlaa, said a local security
source in Diala province. “The victim is Shokor Tayyeb. His daughter,
Amal, is a candidate of the Kurdistan Alliance List participating in
the upcoming parliamentary election,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq
news agency. He said that the armed men stabbed Tayyeb with knives
before slitting his throat.
Karbala:
#1: An improvised
explosive device went off near a Shiite procession of pilgrims visiting
the holy city of Karbala for the Ashuraa but nothing was said about
possible casualties, according to eyewitnesses on Thursday. “A blast
targeted a Husseini procession in the area of Bab Baghdad on Maytham
al-Timar street in Karbala city. The blast, based on initial
information, was the result of an IED,” the Aswat al-Iraq news agency
correspondent reported.
Twenty-two
Shiite pilgrims were killed or wounded when three gas cylinders
exploded in the holy Shiite city of Karbala on Thursday, a security
source said. “Three gas cylinders that were used to prepare dinner
meals for the pilgrims reviving the Muharram 10th anniversary, or
Ashuraa, exploded near a Husseini procession, leaving a number of them
killed or wounded,” the security source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
#2: A roadside bomb wounded four civilians in Kerbala, 80 km (50 miles) southwest of Baghdad on Thursday night, police said
Shirqat:
#1: Gunmen
opened fire on a local pro-government militia checkpoint on Thursday
night, killing one and wounding two others in Shirqat, 300 km (190
miles) north of Baghdad, police said.
Kirkuk:
#1: Unidentified
gunmen opened fire southwest of Kirkuk city, killing a civil servant of
the electricity department in al-Rashad district, a senior security
source in Kirkuk said on Thursday. “Gunmen in a vehicle opened drive-by
fire on the civilian who was also in his car,” Brig. Sarhad Qader, the
chief of the Kirkuk Districts’ Police Department (KDPD), told Aswat
al-Iraq news agency.
Sinjar:
#1: Three Peshmerga
forces were killed on Friday and ten were wounded in a car bomb
explosion in Sinjar, according to a security source. “A car rigged with
explosives went off on Friday (Dec. 25) targeting A Peshmerga forces
vehicle patrol between al-Rabieaya and Sinjar districts, western
Talafar, killing three and injuring ten,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq
news agency.
A suicide bomber
detonated a car laden with explosives and killed one soldier from the
minority Kurds' Peshmerga military and wounded 14 others near Iraq's
border with Syria in northern Nineveh province, said Khaled Abdala, a
local leader from the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP). A different
source from the KDP said the explosion was not a suicide attack, but a
remotely detonated car bomb, and put the toll at one killed and 10
wounded.
Mosul:
#1: A high-ranking
member of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein's Baath Party was on
Friday fatally shot in a suburb of the northern Iraqi town of Mosul,
witnesses said. Ahmed Kamel al-Badrani, a former officer in Hussein's
feared military intelligence apparatus, was gunned down in front of his
home in the western Mosul district of Amil, witnesses told the German
Press Agency dpa.
#2: Update Two people died
late Thursday of wounds sustained in the suicide explosion that
targeted chairman of the Talafar council, raising the fatalities to
four, a medical source said on Friday. “The two bodyguards were
seriously wounded in the explosion that took place last Monday (Dec.
21),” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
#3: US forces
killed an insane man in west of Mosul city, a security source said on
Friday. “The forces killed an insane man late Thursday (Dec. 24) in Tal
Abta district, west of Mosul,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news
agency. “The 17-year-old young man appeared in front of the US patrol
holding a plastic gun,” he said, noting that the forces thought he is a
gunman and killed him.
#4: Update The final toll of
the double explosions in the city of Hilla on Thursday rose to 25 dead
and 105 wounded, a police source said on Friday. “A police force
managed to defuse a number of bombs in the same area on Thursday (Dec.
24),” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. “The explosions killed
25, including 14 policemen, and wounded 105, including 35 cops,” he
added. A police source had said yesterday (Dec.24) that 12 persons were
killed, including member of the Babel council Neaamat al-Bakri, and 50
others were wounded, including Commander of anti-explosive department
Colonel Taleb al-Shemri and two of his aides, when a car bomb and an
improvised explosive device went off in central Hilla.
#5: Three employees
were killed on Friday by unknown gunmen in western Mosul, a police
source said. “Unknown gunmen opened fire on a number of the census
employees in al-Hay al-Senaai region, western Mosul, killing three of
them,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
#6: Police found the body of a woman who had been suffocated to death in western Mosul, police said.
#7: An attacker threw an explosive at an Iraqi police patrol, killing one civilian and wounding another in central Mosul, police said.
Al Anbar Prv:
#1: Two gunmen
were arrested while attempting to plant an improvised explosive device
(IED) in central al-Falluja city on Thursday, a local security source
said. “The Falluja police forces, acting upon intelligence tip-offs,
arrested two gunmen while emplacing an IED near a checkpoint in
al-Andalus neighborhood, central Falluja,” the source told Aswat
al-Iraq news agency.
#2: A sticky bomb
exploded on Friday inside a car in eastern Falluja, without leaving
casualties, a police source said. “The bomb, stuck to a civilian
vehicle, went off on Friday morning (Dec. 25) on a road in al-Karma
district, eastern Falluja, without causing casualties,” the source told
Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
#3: Anbar
emergency police chief survived an attempt on his life on Friday
morning in southern Falluja, according to a police source. “Unknown
gunmen on Friday morning (De. 25) opened fire on the motorcade of
Colonel Ghazi al-Dulaimi using light weapons in al-Aameriya district in
southern Falluja,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
“Policemen clashed with the attackers and managed to injure and arrest
one of them,” he added. “The colonel was not hurt, while the gunmen
fled to unknown place,” he said.