Iraq/Unites States/Terrorism: Iraqi terrorist group says holding two Americans

An Iraqi terrorist group that detained an American man for more than two years announced on Saturday that it had kidnapped another American, a US military contractor for the Defence Department in Baghdad.

"Two Americans are in the hands of the League of the Righteous," a spokesman for the terrorist group stated on an Islamist website on Saturday. "One was taken two years ago and the other some days ago," the spokesman said on condition of anonymity. He added that one of the hostages  was abducted in Karkh, on the west bank of the Tigris River in Baghdad, and the other one was taken in Karrada, a commercial district in the heart of the Iraqi capital.

The Pentagon confirmed on Saturday that Issa Salomi, 60, an American citizen of Iraqi origin employed as a contractor for the US military has been missing since January 23. However, there were no immediate comments from the US embassy in Baghdad about the abduction of Salomi or Ahmed Qusai Taei, an Iraqi American who reportedly was abducted in 2006.

A terrorist group “The League of the Righteous” which already has kidnapped Westerners in Iraq in the past, posted a statement and video on its website on Saturday showing Salomi reads out the group's demands. In the statement they demanded the release of jailed terrorists  and “ to bring the proper justice and the proper punishment to those members of Blackwater company that have committed unjustifiable crimes against innocent Iraqi civilians.”  Blackwater Worldwide — now known as Xe Services — was involved in a shooting incident in Baghdad in 2007 that claimed the lives of 14 Iraqis.

Iraq/Security: security forces lock down parts of Baghdad

Iraqi security officials said Iraqi security forces have locked down parts of Baghdad on Tuesday and were searching for possible car bombs after they received intelligence that terrorists had planned attacks.

Major General Qassim al-Moussawi, Baghdad's chief military spokesman, said “strict security procedures” were in place and “parts of Baghdad neighbourhoods were blocked”. However, al-Moussawi did not elaborate about the search operations. It was also reported that some schools were closed due to the security lockdown.

This security operation comes ahead of parliamentary elections in March as officials fear that insurgents could carry out attacks to disrupt the elections. A series of car bombs that killed more than 120 people in Baghdad last month, showed the ability of the terrorist to execute such attacks.

United States/Security: drones hacked by insurgents

US military official has said militants in Iraq and Afghanistan have been able to use low cost software downloaded from the internet to hack into live video feeds from unmanned US surveillance aircraft. “The fighters could view feeds from Predator drones - the US military's eyes in the sky for intelligence gathering - but could not take control of the aircraft or jam its electronic signals,” a senior US military official said on condition of anonymity.

On Thursday, The Wall Street Journal reported that Shia fighters in Iraq had used software programs such as SkyGrabber, available for as little as $25.95 on the internet, to regularly capture drone video feeds. The newspaper said the issue came to light when the US military in Iraq confiscated a fighter whose laptop contained files of intercepted drone video feeds.

US Department of Defence official said the military has also found evidence of at least one instance where insurgents in Afghanistan monitored drone video and footage shot by a Predator drone which was found on a captured laptop. However, at this stage the Pentagon says there is no evidence that they were able to jam electronic signals from the aircraft or take control of them yet.

Iraq/Justice: 3rd death sentence for 'Chemical Ali'

Judge Mohammed al-Uraibi has condemned on Monday Hassan al-Majid, also known as "Chemical Ali," and two other ex-officers from Saddam Hussein's regime to death for their involvement in murdering and displacing Shi'ite Muslims in 1999. "The court condemns Ali Hassan al-Majeed to death by hanging for jointly committing premeditated killing, as a crime against humanity," said the judge.

It is the third death sentence against Chemical Ali who received the alias after ordering poison gas attacks. The latest sentence occured in 2007 when he was condemded for the killing of thousands of Shi'ites in 1999. His has been also sentenced for orchestrating a genocidal drive against Kurds in the 1980s.

Out of the 14 defendants, two former Saddam officials were given death sentence, while four received life imprisonment. Meanwhile, former Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz was acquitted of his crime. He was accused for involving in executing a number of merchants in 1992. The Iraqi High Tribunal, formed in 2003, also sentenced Saddam Hussein to death following which the dictator was executed in December 2006.

Iraq/Iran/Defence: Iranian artillery hit Northern Iraq

According to the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) media, artillery shots from Iran hit on Friday the border area of nothern Iraq. The report confirmed that the artillery attack hit the areas of Khnera, Lolan, Sarkeo and Malahmala at Said Khan County. It has also been reported that Iranian military helicopters have been hovering the borders of the territory of Kurdistan.

Border areas in northern Iraq are constantly exposed to shelling from Iran and Turkish air raids targeting the Kurdistan workers' party (PKK) hideouts. The PKK is marked a terrorist organization in the list of Ankara, US and European Union.

Iraq/Defense: Muqtada al-Sadr calls for attacks on US troops

(Gellie Yves/Gamma/Photo News)

Muqtada al-Sadr, the anti-US cleric, has called for revenge against the US forces in Iraq on Wednesday to protest against the Israeli operations in the Gaza Strip. After remaining relatively calm for months, a statment from the Mahdi army ruled by Al-Sadr threatened "the possibility of a renewed violence against the US troops".

American troops in Iraq have been a hardcore opponent for the militants of Al-Sadr, who waged fierce battles in 2004 followed by years of sectarian violence. However, the US State Department brushed off the statement, describing them as "outrageous." "Any call for attacks against Americans is outrageous and, frankly, not worthy of much more comment," said Robert Wood, deputy State Department spokesman.

US backed off on Wednesday from supporting an Egyptian-French cease-fire proposal in Gaza. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki expressed "great pain and sorrow" against Israel and accused the international community for turning a blind eye to the troubles Palestinians are facing.

LE PHENOMèNE DES FEMMES KAMIKAZES 

Par Iqbal AL GHARBI, chercheur invité à l’ESISC 

(Ho/Hamas Press Office/Upi/Gamma/Photo News)

La multiplication des attentats suicides, depuis quelques années, suscite bien des interrogations. Est-ce un phénomène nouveau ? Quelles sont les motivations de ceux qui planifient ou commettent de tels actes ? Et lorsque ceux-ci sont perpétrés par des femmes, la stupéfaction est double. En effet, la femme est généralement perçue, d’une part, comme force de vie et d’amour et non comme pulsion de mort et de destruction, et, d’autre part, comme victime et non auteur d’actes de violence. Lire la suite…   

Iraq/Terrorism: US army cracks down arms network

(Ali Jasim/Upi/Photo News)

The US military has cracked down on an arms smuggling network, believed to be distributing Iranian made roadside bombs and rockets in southeastern Iraq. Col. Philip Battaglia told Pentagon reporters that more than 8,000 weapons, including 600 explosives and a number of rockets have been seized. Iranian Revolutionary Guards' elite Qods force has been held responsible for supplying the ammunitions and rockets to Shi'ite militias in Iraq.  Iran has denied the accusations and blames the US forces responsible for the turmoil in Iraq.

Philip Battaglia added the devices were assembled in Al-Amarah and later sent to other parts of the country.  Another US official confirmed the province is free of Shi'ite militias following an Iraqi security attack on militia activities earlier this year.  As a consequence of the weapons network being checked, col. Battaglia said the number of weapons caches found by his troops has considerably declined. Gen. David Petraeus confirms the same phenomenon has been evident elsewhere in the country.

Iraq/Terrorism: death toll rises to 32 in separate bomb blasts
 
At least 32 people have been killed and more than 100 wounded in four bombs blasts on Sunday in the busy districts of Baghdad, as Iraqis shopped and broke their fast for Ramadan. According to the police the first bomb detonated in Baghdad’s Shurta inside a parked car, killing at least 12 people and wounding about 35, at about the same time another bomb attached to a car in the nearby Hay Al Amil killed one person. The third car bomb exploded in a parking lot in central Baghdad’s busy Karrada shopping district, rapidly followed by a roadside bomb nearby. The 2 strikes killed at least 19 people and injured 72.

The Iraqi government's Baghdad security spokesman, Qassim Moussawi, said, “The insurgents ... (want) to show there is no security in Baghdad.” According to US military officials, violence in Iraq is at four-year lows but some militant groups have stepped up attacks for the holy month of Ramadan.

Iraq/Terrorism: at least 23 killed in Baghdad

At least 23 people died and dozens of others were injured in a string of bomb attacks in Baghdad on Sunday. A roadside bomb killed 10 people and wounded 22 in Karrada shopping district at 19h30, just before the evening fast breaking meal of Ramadan.

Twelve people had already been killed tonight when a car bomb exploded in a market near Shurta district’s Shiite Mosque. Another person had been killed in the explosion of another car bomb in Al-Amel Shiite area, in the South-west of Baghdad.

Iraq/Terrorism: 5 killed and several wounded in Mosul

Five children were killed and two other persons wounded in a blast yesterday in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul. The children, aged between seven and nine, were playing near the street stall where the bomb was hidden.The authorities were not clear if the bomb was detonated on purpose or exploded prematurely.

Meanwhile in a separate incident, insurgents have bombed the house of Iraqi Sunni lawmaker Hashem Yahiya al-Tai in Mosul, wounding several civilians.  Tai was in Baghdad when the attack took place yesterday. “The security situation is getting worse in Nineveh. After journalists, it is now parliamentarians who are being targeted” said the Iraqi Islamic Party in a statement.  It said that several civilians were wounded in the bombing adding that Tai's house was badly damaged in the blast.

News reports on increasing violence are common in Mosul area.  Earlier yesterday, the city morgue said it had received two bodies with gunshot wounds. In another incident one person was killed and four wounded when a mortar round apparently aimed at an Iraqi military base missed its target and slammed into a house in northwestern Baghdad. On Sunday, gunmen killed two people when they opened fire in a Mosul market.

South Korea/Iraq: South Korean deployment will be over by year-end

South Korea said it will call back all of its troops from Iraq within schedule, by the end of this year, according to a military officer. Local media had said that South Korea may extend its deployment again as a favour to its major ally, the United States, which is currently re-examining its forces in Iraq after improvements in all levels of security.  Though in a news briefing, the defence ministry spokesperson, Won Tae-jae, said that deployment was extended by one year in December 2007 on the condition that it would end completely by end of 2008.  “There is no change whatsoever to the plan that everyone in the (unit) would withdraw by the year end” He added.

In 2004, South Korea had sent 3,600 soldiers to Iraq, which was the largest foreign military presence, after the US and the UK. Since then has rolled back troop level under public pressure against the mission and is down to fewer than 600 troops stationed in a relatively safe area in the Kurdish, north of Iraq. South Korea once had the third-largest foreign military contingent in Iraq.

Iraq/ Terrorism: 9 killed and  dozens wounded in blasts

9 people have been killed and 25 others wounded in two car blasts in western Baghdad's Harithiya district today. The two car bombs exploded in a short interval of time. In a separate bomb blast, a policeman was also killed in Baghdad's Zayouna neighborhood.

In the last several days, bomb attacks have killed dozens of people in Iraq bucking a trend towards lower violence.According to the US military officials violence in Iraq is at its lowest level in the last four years, but the militants have shown that they are still capable of carrying out large-scale attacks.

Iraq/Terrorism: Separate bombings kill at least 35 

A female suicide bomber on Monday killed at least 22 people and injured 33 when she blew herself up among police officers in the town of Balad Ruz in the Diyala province northeast of Baghdad where Sunni insurgents remain active despite security gains elswhere in the country. 

The female militant targeted the home of a police commissionner who had recently been detained by American troops for allegedly cooperating with the Mahdi Army, the militia led by Shi’ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. U.S. and Iraqi officials confirmed that most of the casualties were police officers. The city’s deputy chief of police is among the fatalities. 

Insurgents are increasingly turning to women for suicide attacks because they can hide explosive belts more easily under long garments and evade searches by male security guards. 

In the meantime, two car bombings were reported in Baghdad. The blasts killed 13 people and wounded 36 in the commercial area of the Karrada district, an Interior Ministry official said. The U.S. blamed Al Qaeda in Iraq for those attacks. 

Those bombings come as U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates arrived in Baghdad on Monday to preside over the handover ceremony Tuesday that marks the transition of command of U.S. forces in Iraq. Gen. Ray Odierno will take over command Tuesday from Gen. David Petraeus, whose 20-month term in Iraq saw a significant decline in violence with the deployment of additional U.S. troops. 

Iraq/Terrorism: bomb blasts kill 12 in Baghdad

A series of bomb attacks in Baghdad in early hours today left 12 people dead and over 34 wounded, according to witnesses and officials. In a deadly attack, a small truck parked near the passport office exploded on Maghreb Street in the north of the city killing 12 people and wounded 23, defence and interior ministry sources said. Several people suffered burns as flames from the powerful blast swept skywards, damaging buildings, they said. Bloodstains were still visible on the busy commercial street as dozens of Iraqi soldiers set about clearing debris as far as 100 metres from the seat of the blast.

According to a US army captain whose platoon was offering support for the Iraqi police, the attack bore the hallmarks of Al-Qaeda. He further added "It was a safe and stable neighborhood." The attack is a typically Al-Qaeda attack and is carried out to destabilise these areas believed to be safe and secure. Meanwhile, on Palestine Street in central Baghdad a roadside bomb targeting a passing police patrol wounded nine people, including six civilians. A third attack thought to have targeted government vehicles wounded two civilians in the south-eastern neighbourhood of Al-Ghadir.

he blasts occurred a few minutes after the arrival of the US Defence Secretary Robert Gates, who in a surprise visit to Iraq today, said the new US commander, Lt. Gen. Ray Odierno, will face a challenge as the US force shrinks and turns over more of the country to Iraqis. His eighth trip to Iraq as defence secretary comes as Washington and Baghdad negotiate a controversial security pact to govern the presence of US-led troops when a UN mandate expires at the end of the year.

United States/Iraq/ Terrorism: secret killing program against Al-Qaeda

A new book by journalist Bob Woodward claims the dramatic drop in violence in Iraq is part of a secret program that the US military has used to kill terrorists. The book titled "The War Within: Secret White House History 2006-2008," came out yesterday. The author discloses the existence of secret operational capabilities developed by the military to locate, target and kill leaders of Al-Qaeda in Iraq and other insurgents.  He compares the programme to the World War II era Manhattan Project that developed the atomic bomb. He said, “The programme must remain secret for now or it would "get people killed." Woodward also said the terrorists who have been targeted were already aware of the capabilities.

"It is a wonderful example of American ingenuity solving a problem in war, as we often have," Woodward added.He wrote that along with the surge and the new covert tactics, two other factors helped reduce the violence, one was the decision of militant cleric Muqtada al-Sadr to order a cease-fire by his Mehdi Army and the other was the "Anbar Awakening" movement that saw Sunni tribes aligning with U.S. troops to battle Al-Qaeda in Iraq. Reacting to Woodward's book, National security adviser Stephen Hadley, in a written statement, acknowledged the new strategy. However he disputed Woodward's conclusion that the "surge" of 30,000 U.S. troops into Iraq was not the primary reason for the decline in violent attacks.

Iran/Terrorism: Al Qaeda video slams Teheran involvement in “Crusader war”

Al Qaeda has issued a 90-minute video marking the September 11 attacks, in which deputy group leader Ayman al-Zawahri accuses Iran of taking part in a Western "Crusade"  against Islam, Al Jazeera television said today. Talking to press, an Al Jazeera editor said that the network received a copy of the 90-minute video, which was a compilation and included new material.

In a segment of the recently released video Ayman al-Zawahri attacked Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, questioning the Islamic Republic's anti-Western stand. "The leader (of Iran) collaborates with the Americans in occupying Iraq and Afghanistan and recognises the puppet regimes in both countries, while he warns of death and destruction anyone who touches an inch of Iranian soil," he said. Al Qaeda, a militant Sunni Islamist group, often criticizes predominantly Shi'ite Iran, which has good relations with Afghanistan's anti-Taliban leaders and Iraq's Shia-led government.

Irak/Terrorism : Anti Al Qaeda fighters to be funded by Baghdad

Demonstrating growing confidence in the ability of the Iraqi government to manage security, the US military will, starting October 1 transfer to it the authority over the Sunni militia battling Al Qaeda. These groups, known as the Awakening Forces or Sahwa, are mainly composed of former 100,000 insurgents sided with the International coalition and paid by the American government. According to US Military sources, Baghdad alone has around 54,000 Sahwa members under contract to the US military. The remaining members of the group are spread across the predominantly Sunni regions of Salaheddin, Diyala, Nineveh and Kirkuk.

The genesis of these groups derives from an agreement between the US military and local Sunni tribes in the Anbar region in September 2006. The effort was spearheaded by Sheikh Abdul Sattar Abu Reesha who brought together nearly 40 Sunni tribes in Anbar and jointly established the first Sahwa council.Within a year, this province which was the most restive in the country had been transformed into one of the safest in Iraq. Whilst the Sahwa expect to be amalgamated into a paramilitary organisation in the future there are a number of concerns which have been voiced by people in the administration who would not favour a parallel entity which would be separate from the national army.

Irak/Etats-Unis: transfert du contrôle de la province d’Al-Anbar

Les forces américaines ont officiellement transféré ce lundi le contrôle de la province sunnite d’Al-Anbar aux autorités irakiennes, au cours d’une cérémonie organisée à Ramadi, la capitale provinciale. Ancien bastion de la branche irakienne d’Al-Qaïda, la province s’est progressivement retournée depuis l’année 2006, grâce à l’appui des « Forces du réveil », milices sunnites qui combattent la nébuleuse terroriste. Ce transfert, reporté à 2 reprises à cause d’attentats contre des chefs de tribus, porte à 11 sur 18 le nombre de provinces passées sous le contrôle de Bagdad.

Cet instant représente une étape importante pour les Etats-Unis, qui ont enregistré plus du quart de leurs pertes en Irak dans la province d’Al-Anbar. « Le nombre de Marines [dans la province] sera rapidement diminué » a ainsi déclaré le major général John Kelly, commandant du corps des Marines dans le pays, ajoutant toutefois que « cela ne se ferait pas du jour au lendemain mais progressivement ». L’armée américaine dispose actuellement de plus de 25 000 hommes à Al-Anbar, contre 38 000 en février dernier. Les effectifs irakiens y ont augmenté en parallèle, pour passer de 5 000 il y a 3 ans à 37 000 à l’heure actuelle.

Irak/Terrorisme : Moqtada al Sadr suspend les actions militaires de l’Armée du Mahdi

L’imam radical chiite Moqtada al Sadr, a appelé ce vendredi sa milice, l’Armée du Mahdi, à arrêter ses opérations militaires en Irak. « La suspension de l’Armée du Mahdi sera valable indéfiniment, et toute personne qui ne respecterait pas cet ordre ne serait plus considéré comme un membre du groupe » précise-t-il dans une déclaration écrite publiée sur son site Internet. Il ajoute que son mouvement se consacrera désormais à des « activités culturelles » non spécifiées. Il n'indique cependant pas si les 60 000 hommes que compterait sa milice rendront leurs armes aux autorités irakiennes.

Cette décision de Moqtada al Sadr intervient alors que le Premier ministre irakien, Nouri al-Maliki, a annoncé lundi la conclusion d’un accord sur un retrait des troupes américaines d’Irak avant la fin de la l’année 2011. Au début du mois d’août, l’Armée du Mahdi avait précisément fait savoir qu’elle envisagerait la fin de ses activités si une telle date de départ était fixée. La Maison Blanche a toutefois minimisé la portée de l’accord, indiquant que tout retrait américain restait lié à l’évolution des conditions sur le terrain. Rappelons que Washington et Bagdad négocient un pacte de sécurité depuis près d’un an pour légaliser la présence américaine après l’expiration du mandat de l’ONU, le 31 décembre 2008.