President Obama said relatively little about Iraq in his address to the Muslim world, and the US mass media have ceased covering it much (CBS has even closed its Baghdad bureau). Despite plans for a US withdrawal from Iraq and the fall in monthly civilian casualty rates, however, American troops are still fighting and dying there. On Thursday, a grenade attack in the vicinity of Kirkuk killed a US soldier.
Also yesterday, guerrillas in Mosul attacked the offices of a civilian security contractor, killing 3 contractors and wounding several more with a suicide car bombing.
On late Wednesday evening, guerrillas left a bomb in a plastic bag, at a cafe in Baghdad. The explosion wounded 9.
First, Iraqi parliamentarians called for an end to long-term Iraqi payment of reparations to Kuwait for damage done during the Iraqi invasion and occupation of that country, 1990-1991. Then Kuwait parliament members urged their government to recall its ambassador from Baghdad in protest.
Ayad al-Samarra’i, the new speaker of the Iraqi parliament, is said to be more efficient in shepherding legislation through than was his predecessor. As a member of the Iraqi Islamic Party, he is now in a position to shape the Iraqi government and to put up a strong showing in the Jan. 2010 parliamentary government.
Meanwhile, Iraqi Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi, also an IIP Sunni, called for an investigation into a rash of arbitrary arrests in Dora and al-Amil in Baghdad.
McClatchy revealed that the real reason Obama switched positions on the release of the remaining Abu Ghraib torture photos was that Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki became extremely alarmed at the prospect, convinced that they might be a potent recruitment tool for extremists and might throw Iraq back into instability, thus interfering with the US military withdrawal timetable.
Dick Cheney admitted this week that there never had been operational cooperation between Baathist Iraq and al-Qaeda. He blamed the CIA. Is he suggesting that the CIA lied to him? If so, isn’t that what nancy Pelosi got into such trouble for saying? In fact, we know that Cheney’s own torture program backfired on him, since the al-Qaeda operatives he had tortured lied about an Iraq connection in order to escape further torture.
McClatchy reports political violence in Iraq on Wednesday and Thursday:
‘ Baghdad
Two roadside bombs targeted a U.S. military convoy in Yarmouk neighbourhood, western Baghdad at 1 a.m. Thursday destroying one military vehicle. No casualties were reported.
A roadside bomb targeted a National Police patrol near the Assyrian market in Doura, south Baghdad at 7 a.m. Thursday injuring one policeman and causing damages to one police car.
A roadside bomb targeted civilians in Tu’ma neighbourhood, Doura in southern Baghdad injuring five young men.
Nineveh
A suicide car bomb targeted a motorcade of a foreign private security company (formed of several SUVs with shaded windows) in Dawasa neighbourhood, central Mosul at 11 a.m. Thursday killing one civilian and injuring six others.
Kirkuk
– A roadside bomb targeted an American army patrol in Muqdad town (west of Kirkuk), Iraqi police said with no further information. The coalition forces confirmed an incident in Kirkuk ,but with a grenade attack having one American soldier killed “North Soldier died from injuries received during a grenade attack on a patrol in the Kirkuk province of northern Iraq, June 4” the statement said.’
and Wednesday:
‘ Baghdad
Nine civilians were killed and 31 others were wounded when a bomb detonated inside a café in Shurta alRabi’a (Shurta 4th ) in west Baghdad around 9 p.m.
Three civilians were injured by a roadside bomb in Doura area south Baghdad around 8:30 p.m.
Nineveh
Gunmen driving motorcycles opened fire upon police checkpoint in Zinjili area in west Mosul on Wednesday afternoon killing one policeman and injuring another. ‘
End/ (Not Continued)
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