Military Claims Gains on Iraqi Terrorists

- In the northern city of Kirkuk, a suicide car bomber struck the funeral of a Shiite soldier in the northern city of Kirkuk, killing four people and wounding 27, police and hospital officials said. Police in Kirkuk also found the body of a 15-year-old girl who had been kidnapped five days ago in the oil-rich city.

To read entire article: http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=2137247&page=2

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IRAQ: Concern over reports of child trafficking

BAGHDAD, 29 Jun 2006 (IRIN) - Local officials and aid workers have expressed concern over the alarming rate at which children are disappearing countrywide in Iraq's current unstable environment.“At least five children are disappearing every week,” said Omar Khalif, vice-president of the Iraqi Families Association (IFA), an NGO established in 2004 to register cases of missing children. “And the number could be much higher as we don’t have access to government statistics. In some cases, we’ve received information that they were trafficked to Europe through neighbouring countries.” According to local investigators and the IFA, unconfirmed information suggests that children are being sold to many countries in Europe, particularly the UK and the Netherlands. However, there is no detailed information on who is buying them and for what reason.Officials confirm that there are organised international gangs carrying out the trafficking in collaboration with Iraqis who are arranging the abductions from their own country.Desperate families will often approach the IFA weeks after the disappearance of a child because police – who are usually contacted first – are unable to locate the child in most cases. “My three-year-old daughter was abducted by armed men,” said Baghdad resident Sahar Ibraheem. “We thought it was a kidnapping, but we later received a letter saying that someone had given our child to a rich family in Europe.” Interior Ministry officials said they had also received numerous complaints from local families about missing children. “It’s a very complicated situation,” said Fatah Hussein, a senior ministry official. “False documents are being used, and we know that many families who cannot have children look to Iraq and Afghanistan for children because it’s cheaper. Some children are sold for US$5,000, others for 10 times this.” In some instances, families voluntarily sell their children because they need the money. “Sometimes we receive claims from relatives or friends that children have been sold by their own fathers,” said Hussein. “We can’t do anything in such cases, because it was their decision.”One Baghdad family interviewed by IRIN said that unemployment and poverty had pushed them to sell their child in order to support the rest of the family. “It’s hard to watch your children without anything to eat,” said Abu Karam, a father of nine who sold one of his children for US$60,000. “We sold our child to a foreign family because they paid very well, and he’ll have a good life there. In the meantime, the other children will have some thing to eat.” UNICEF has begun discussions with the ministries of labour and social affairs to address the issue. “The protracted and escalating civil unrest in Iraq is having an extremely adverse impact on Iraqi civilians,” said UNICEF-Iraq Child Protection Officer Patrizia Di Giovanni. “On a daily basis, Iraqi children are directly and indirectly affected by ongoing violence.”

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US military admits killing “non-combatant” in Iraq

-A statement said U.S.-led forces killed the civilian near the violence-racked city of Baquba, 65 km (40 miles) northeast of Baghdad, as troops were securing the house of the alleged militant. The statement said: "Multiple women and children were present at the raid sites. None were harmed and all were returned to their homes once the troops ensured the area was secure."

To read entire article: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IBO849126.htm

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U.S. Says Baghdad Crackdown Moving Slowly

-The Justice Ministry said 453 more detainees were released from U.S. detention centers across Iraq, part of al-Maliki's plan to free 2,500 by the end of June as a goodwill gesture. The ministers said they will allow freed students to return to school and take final exams, and that their absence in the 2005-2006 academic year will not be held against them

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Car bomb kills three in Iraq’s Baquba

-A car bomb killed three men in a group of Iraqis lining up for day labouring jobs in the city of Baquba, northeast of Baghdad, on Wednesday, police said.
A further 12 people, including children, were wounded in the early morning blast. The attack was typical of sectarian attacks common in Diyala province, although the religious identity of the victims was not immediately clear.

To read entire article: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/MAC822601.htm

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Iraq Christians flee Baghdad for peace and hardship in Kurdistan

By Abdel Hamid ZebariJun 26, 2006"We don't have any choice," says a squatter gesturing to the new home he has made for his family in a Christian cemetery in Iraqi Kurdistan, after fleeing violence-plagued Baghdad."We are afraid of the snakes and scorpions, especially with the children, but it's better than sleeping without a roof," says Imad Matti who has just moved his wife and children into the Inkawa necropolis outside the Kurdish regional capital of Arbil.Iraq and the rest of the world are rightly worried about Shiite and Sunni Muslims forced to flee their homes around the country because of raging communal violence.But the exodus of Christians from the capital, which Kurdish officials say has seen 70 families arrive in Inkawa in recent weeks, has not received the same attention.The families cite the same dire situation in Baghdad, where threats from armed groups and attacks on businesses from drinks shops to hairdressing salons are rife.Now Matti lives in a room that used to be the cemetery watchman's hut, while nearby Haval Emmanuel's family has improvised their home in adobe among the tombs."Living in an adobe hut in oil-rich Iraq," says Emmanuel, observing the irony of his family's predicament. "But as difficult as the conditions are we accept them -- because we can't endanger the lives of our loved ones."But Christian leaders are reluctant to speak out about the problems faced by their congregations. The head of the Chaldean Catholic church Emmanuel Dely refused to discuss the issue with AFP.It was the Arab League's representative in the war-torn country, Mokhtar Lamani of Morocco, who drew attention to a problem which he said affected all of Iraq's religious minorities, not just Christians."During a recent visit to Kurdistan, I found out that all members of the Mandaean community in Baghdad... have asked for mass migration to the region," Lamani told AFP.The Mandaeans, followers of a monotheistic religion which reveres John the Baptist but does not recognize Jesus, Mohammed or Moses, once lived mainly in southern Iraq and neighbouring Iran but many fled to Baghdad after Saddam Hussein suppressed a Shiite uprising in the marshlands in the early 1990s.Lamani said that 3,500 Christian families who had received threats had also fled the capital for the relative safety of Kurdistan.The sudden influx of Christians to Inkawa has made it increasingly difficult for families of modest means to rent accommodation. A two-room apartment now costs at least 500 dollars a month, with more spacious properties costing double.Kurdish authorities give some families 100 dollars a month, but that is not enough for Imad Matti to rent a home.Mazen Francis has an apartment, thanks to getting his son to work in the blacksmith's he has just opened rather than sending him to school.Other families share a single apartment, while the demand for even meagre homes from Inkawa estate agents remains high in this town of 30,000, almost all Christians."Three to six heads of families come here every day looking for lodging, and it's more and more difficult to find something for them," says estate agent Kameran Matti.Father Saliwa Hibi of the town's Saint Joseph church says his parish is trying to help those who arrive daily from Baghdad but also increasingly from the main northern city Mosul.There are believed to be around 800,000 Christians still in Iraq. Chaldean Catholics form the largest community. Many of those who could afford to do so have already fled the country since the fall of Saddam's regime in April 2003.

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Violence in Iraq leaves 25 dead

-A bomb strapped to a motorcycle killed at least seven in a village near Baquba, north-east of Baghdad. Hospital sources say many of the dead were children. The mixed Shia and Sunni region is one of the parts of Iraq hit hardest by sectarian violence.

To read entire article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5118932.stm

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Children of a displaced Shi'ite family play outside their tent at a refugee camp in Diwaniya, 180 km (112 miles) south of Baghdad, June 26, 2006. Iraq's sectarian violence of the past four months has pushed the number of displaced people to above 130,000, parliament heard on Monday as members urged ministers to give more aid and security to contain the crisis.

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Iraqi market bombings kill at least 15

-Gunmen abducted 10 young men, all students from Sunni towns near Baghdad, from a building in the capital, police sources said. Sunnis say pro-government Shi'ite militias are targeting the minority Sunni Arab community, once dominant under Saddam.

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Amid Iraqi Chaos, Schools Fill After Long Decline

At Least 25 People Found Executed in Mosul

-225 miles northwest of Baghdad, has a mixed Kurdish and Sunni Arab population and a tradition of bad blood. The Kurds, who are largely Sunni Muslim but not Arab, have formed a prosperous autonomous region nearby after decades of oppression and mass killings under the Sunni Arab minority that ran Iraq until Saddam Hussein was ousted three years ago. Police said they were not sure if the attacks were carried out by the Sunni Arab-led insurgency, common criminals or sectarian death squads. Increasing numbers of Iraqi deaths over the past months have been attributed to revenge killings carried out by Shiite-backed militia organizations or Sunni Arabs who have banded together in retribution. The outburst of killings was first reported Tuesday morning when police found the bodies of a husband and wife both Kurds shot to death in eastern Mosul, according to police Capt. Ahmed Khalil. Before the day was out, 10 people were either killed in shootings or found dead. The killings persisted Wednesday, with eight people including a child and a college student shot to death by nightfall. The violence continued Thursday, said police Brig. Abdel-Hamid Khalf, with a policeman killed in a firefight with gunmen early in the day and six civilians shot to death before sunset.
- The police raid north of Baghdad that freed the 17 captives came a day after the mass kidnapping, believed to have been organized by Sunni extremists at the close of a factory shift. Initial reports said as many as 85 people, including women who had taken their children to work, were initially taken. But Industry Minister Fowzi Hariri told state-run Iraqiya TV on Thursday that 64 people were abducted, two of whom were killed trying to escape. Thirty people, mainly women and children, were freed shortly after the kidnapping, leaving 15 still believed in captivity.

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Suicide blast kills 2 at Iraq elderly home

-Police: U.S. bombing kills 13

The U.S. military bombed a poultry farm early Tuesday 20 miles (32 kilometers) northeast of Baquba, north of the capital, killing 13 people and wounding four, police said. A journalist hired by CNN said at least three children and two elderly men were among the dead. It appeared that those killed were guarding the farm, and some of them were sleeping inside and on top of a chicken house, said the journalist, who was at the scene. The U.S. military did not respond to CNN requests for comment, but did issue a statement about raids in the area early Tuesday. It said coalition forces killed 15 terrorists and captured three other suspects during simultaneous raids north of Baquba.

Read entire article: http://edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/06/20/iraq.main/index.html

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Bodies of 2 Missing GIs Recovered in Iraq

-In the bombing of the home for the elderly, an 18-year-old Sunni wearing an explosives belt blew himself up as senior citizens were lined up to collect monthly pensions. Two elderly women were killed and three people were wounded. Police said the motive was unclear, but sectarian tensions have been worsening in the predominantly Shiite city of Basra.

Read entire article: http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=2100898&page=3

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US says 15 insurgents killed in Iraq firefight

-U.S. forces hunting insurgents linked to al Qaeda in Iraq killed 15 gunmen in raids north of Baghdad on Tuesday, the U.S. military said. Residents of Qaduri Ali al Shahin village 13 km (9 miles) north of Baquba said the men were employees of a nearby poultry farm, not rebels. The Sunni Muslim Scholars Association, which is sharply critical of the U.S. occupation, condemned what it called "this crime". U.S. military spokesman Major General William Caldwell insisted no civilians were killed in what he described as an "extremely long firefight". Reuters footage showed 13 male bodies covered with blankets lying on open trucks. A police source said one was a 12-year-old. Reuters footage showed a bloodied mattress on the floor of one house. Two spent bullet casings lay nearby. Residents said the 12-year-old had been asleep on the mattress when he was shot.

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Americans, Iraqis Push Into Area of Ramadi

The U.S. military fired on suspected militants from an AC-130 gunship above the insurgent stronghold of Ramadi on Monday while hundreds of U.S. and Iraqi troops punched into an eastern section of the violent city. U.S. troops throughout the eastern Ramadi neighborhood peered over rooftop parapets of commandeered homes in temperatures that soared well above 100 degrees, watching for insurgent reconnaissance teams posing as pedestrians. A handful of children rode by on bicycles and a few civilians roamed the largely empty streets. The city was unusually quiet as troops watched out for "peekers," residents who might be peering out of windows as spotters for insurgent gunmen. Residents told U.S. soldiers that they had no electricity for three days and complained that children would miss exams. Loudspeakers on U.S. Humvees instructed residents to stay in their homes. Most people did.

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Young Soldiers Used in Conflicts Around the World

P. W. Singer:
When we think of warfare, children rarely come to mind. But while warfare has long been the domain of adults, juveniles have been present in armies in a number of instances in the past. For example, young pages armed the knights of the Middle Ages and drummer boys marched before Napoleonic armies. Child soldiers even fought in our own civil war, most notably when a unit of 247 Virginia Military Institute cadets fought with the Confederate Army in the battle of New Market (1864). More recently, U.S. forces fought against small numbers of underage Hitler Jugend (Hitler Youth) in the closing weeks of World War II. However, these were the exceptions to what the rule used to be, that children had no place in war. Throughout the last four thousand years of war as we know it, children were never an integral, essential part of any military forces in history. But the rules of war have changed. The participation of children is now not a rarity, but instead a growing feature of war. The practice of child soldiers is far more widespread, and more important, than most realize. There are as many as 300,000 children under the age of 18 presently serving as combatants around the globe. Their average age is just over 12 years old. The youngest ever was an armed 5 year old in Uganda. The youngest ever terrorist bomber a 7 year old in Colombia. Roughly 30% of the armed forces that employ child soldiers also include girl soldiers. Underage girls have been present in armed groups in 55 countries. Children now serve in 40% of the world's armed forces, rebel groups, and terrorist organizations and fight in almost 75% of the world's conflicts; indeed, in the last five years, children have served as soldiers on every continent but Antarctica. An additional half million children serve in armed forces not presently at war. The children are often abducted to fight and participate in all the full horrors of war; indeed they are sometimes forced to carry out atrocities that adults shy away from. The result is that war in the 21st century is not only more prevalent, but more tragic. With children's involvement, warlords, terrorists, and rebel leaders alike are finding that conflicts are easier to start. In turn wars are harder to end, such that the wars drag on, consuming societies and childhood itself for literally hundreds of thousands of children. A particularly troubling aspect then is not only what happens during the fighting, but the legacy it leaves for children after the fighting is done. That is, recovery from the traumas of war is hard enough; it's all the more difficult when the soldier in question is a child.
Washington, D.C.: How many child soldiers are being used currently in Iraq and Afghanistan? P. W. Singer: The overall numbers of Iraqi children involved in the fighting are not yet known. But the indicators are that they do play a significant role in the insurgency. For example, British forces have detained more than 60 juveniles during their operations in Iraq, while U.S. forces captured 107 Iraqi juveniles determined to be "high risk" security threats, holding most at the infamous Abu Ghraib prison. Its important to note that with the global deployment of U.S. force after 9-11, from Afghanistan to the Philippines, child soldiers are present in every conflict zone U.S. forces now operate in. Indeed, the very first U.S. soldier killed in the war on terrorism was a Green Beret killed by a 14 year old sniper in Afghanistan. At least six young boys between the ages of 13 and 16 have been captured by U.S. forces in Afghanistan in the initial fighting and were taken to the detainee facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. They were housed in a special wing entitled "Camp Iguana." As the Pentagon took more than a year to figure out whether to prosecute or rehabilitate them, the kids spent their days in a house on the beach converted into a makeshift prison, watching DVDs (their favorites were Castaway and Call of the Wild) and learning English and math. Under Saddam Hussein, Iraq built up an entire apparatus in the 1990s designed to pull children into the military realm and bolster populace control. This included the Ashbal Saddam ("Saddam's Lion Cubs"), a paramilitary force of boys between the ages of 10-15 that acted as a feeder into the noted Saddam Fedayeen units that proved more aggressive than the Iraqi army during the invasion. During the invasion, American forces engaged with Iraqi child soldiers in fighting in at least three cities (Nasariya, Mosul, and Karbala). This is in addition to the many instances of children being used as human shields by regime loyalists during the fighting. The implications of this training and involvement in military activities by large numbers of Iraqi youth was soon felt in the guerilla war that followed. Beaten on the battlefield, rebel leaders sought to mobilize this cohort of trained and indoctrinated young fighters. A typical incident in the contentious city of Mosul just after the invasion provided a worrisome indicator of the threat to come. Here, in the same week that President Bush's made his infamous aircraft carrier landing proclamation, an Iraqi 12 year old boy fired on U.S. Marines with an AK-47 rifle. Over the next weeks and months, incidents between U.S. forces and armed Iraqi children began to grow, to the extent that U.S. military intelligence briefings began to highlight the role of Iraqi children as both attackers and spotters for ambushes. Incidents with child soldiers ranged from child snipers to a 15 year old that tossed a grenade in an American truck, blowing off the leg of U.S. army trooper. In the summer of 2004, radical cleric Muqtada al Sadr directed a revolt that consumed the primarily Shia south of Iraq, with the fighting in the holy city of Najaf being particularly fierce. Observers noted multiple child soldiers, some as young as 12 years old, serving in Sadr's "Mahdi" Army that fought pitched battles with U.S. and British forces. Indeed, Sheikh Ahmad al-Shebani, al Sadr's spokesman, publicly defended the use of children, stating, "This shows that the Mahdi are a popular resistance movement against the occupiers. The old men and the young men are on the same field of battle." A 12 year old fighter in the group commented, "Last night I fired a rocket-propelled grenade against a tank. The Americans are weak. They fight for money and status and squeal like pigs when they die. But we will kill the unbelievers because faith is the most powerful weapon." Coalition forces also have increasingly faced child soldiers in the Sunni Triangle as well. Marines fighting in the battle to retake Falluja in November 2004 reported numerous instances of being fired upon by "children with assault rifles." So one of the many, many difficulties of Iraq is the presence of children.

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UN official Briefs, United States, Iraq also Address Council; Steps Being Taken to Improve Security, Promote Inclusion Highlighted

-While the United Nations did not have precise information about the numbers and breakdown of the victims of violence and the perpetrators, the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) had concluded, in its latest bimonthly human rights report, that “hundreds of civilians are reported killed or wounded weekly, including women and children, as targeted or unintended victims of violent attacks”.

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Violence Dips as Baghdad Crackdown Begins

-The only reported clash between army troops and gunmen in Baghdad occurred just before noon in the Azamiyah neighborhood, when heavy exchanges of gunfire shattered the late morning quiet and sent residents, including women and children, scurrying for cover.

-Al-Maliki pledged Wednesday not to negotiate with those who had shed innocent blood, the latest in a series of tough statements he has made since American bombs killed al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq. But he said he would be unveiling a new national reconciliation plan in the coming days that could include a pardon for some prisoners. A top al-Maliki adviser told The Washington Post the plan could include pardons for those who had attacked only U.S. troops. Adnan Ali al-Kadhimi told the Post "there is a patriotic feeling among the Iraqi youth and the belief that those attacks are legitimate acts of resistance and defending their homeland. These people will be pardoned definitely, I believe."

Read entire article: http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=2078421

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Iraq launches Baghdad sweep, offers dialogue

-In northern Baghdad, a car bomb targeting a police patrol killed two people and wounded seven. A Reuters photographer who was 10 metres (yards) from the blast saw a man and a teenager burning amid the wreckage after the bomb caused a big fireball.

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Nine killed in US raid near Baquba

-Also on Monday, a member of the Iraqi parliament said he visited an interior ministry prison in Baquba and found inmates, including women and children, had been tortured. "Detainees have been tortured and abused inside to get declaration of guilt by force and to confess crimes they have not committed," said the legislator, Mohamed al-Daini. "Among the prisoners were women and children."

Read entire article: http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/B7143197-A9F9-4692-B9E7-F74103B0AD31.htm

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US forces kill 7 militants in Iraq, 2 children die

-U.S.-led forces in Iraq killed seven militants with links to senior al Qaeda leaders in a raid on Monday near the area where Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed last week, the U.S. military said. Two children were also killed, including a 6-month-old boy, it said, adding there were several women and children at the scene. A senior U.S. military spokesman, Major General William Caldwell, said the gunmen had had the children with them on a roof and described their deaths as "extremely unfortunate". Coalition aircraft supporting the ground force immediately suppressed the enemy fire, killing seven," it added. "Following the assault, coalition troops discovered two children had been killed."

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12-year-old wounded Iraqi girl gets new nose

LOS ANGELES - When 12-year-old Marwa Naim took off the bandage from her nose earlier this month, she smiled in a handheld mirror. Her face, damaged when a missile attack in Iraq caused her to lose part of her nose, was reconstructed. On Monday, Naim showed off her face to others. Dressed in a light green burqa, she hugged and thanked the doctors who performed the operation and said she looked forward to reuniting with her father and three siblings in Iraq when she returns there later this month. “They helped me a lot and they treated me well,” Naim, speaking through an interpreter, said of the doctors. Naim lost a chunk of her nose and her right thumb when a coalition missile struck her home in northern Baghdad in April 2003 in an attack that killed her mother, according to several humanitarian groups that arranged for the girl’s trip to California. This year, Naim was flown to UCLA Medical Center, where plastic surgeons agreed to rebuild her nose without pay. Doctors faced a daunting task: Naim was missing the bulbous tip of her nose and there was a lot of scar tissue from the injury. During four operations, doctors removed a rectangular skin flap from her forehead and rotated it 180 degrees to fashion a new nose. Then they took cartilage from her ear to rebuild the tip and “to give it a shape,” said Dr. Timothy Miller, chief of plastic surgery.
'A great spirit'
Miller showed a video of Naim’s last visit earlier this month in which she took off the bandage from her nose and smiled into a handheld mirror. But she still faces a long recovery. Her face is swollen from surgery and there’s a scar that runs down the middle of her forehead where doctors removed skin for the nose. Although the scarring may never fully heal, it will likely take between six and nine months for the scars to lighten up, doctors said. Miller described the surgery, which costs about $12,000, as cosmetic because Naim was never in danger of dying because of her missing nose. She could still breathe and smell normally, but doctors decided to fix it partly because she was taunted in school for her disfigurement. “She’s got a great spirit,” Miller said. While in the United States, Naim stayed with four Arabic-speaking host families in the Los Angeles area. She started learning English and visited tourists attractions including Universal Studios and SeaWorld. Besides Naim, a handful of other war-wounded children have been flown by various humanitarian organizations to the U.S. for treatment of disfiguring injuries. The nonprofit Palestine Children’s Relief Fund, which paid for Naim’s stay in California, estimated that since 1991, the organization has sought medical care for about 700 Middle Eastern children who suffer from mostly war-related injuries. Plastic surgeon Dr. George Rudkin said he would welcome the chance to help another war victim. “It’ll be an honor to do it again,” he said.

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Link to article: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13290241/

Coalition: Dozens of Afghan insurgents killed

-Taliban militants set fire to a school on June 3, in Uruzgan, the coalition command said, noting that "Taliban extremists have been implicated or have claimed responsibility for damaging more than 45 schools, assassinating teachers and intimidating school aged children in the past year."

Read entire article: http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/asiapcf/06/10/afghan.killings/index.html

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At least 11 dead as Iraqi official expects reduction in US forces soon

-A gun battle erupted as British troops came under fire in a vegetable market in southern Iraq on Sunday, leaving two people dead and a 7-year-old boy wounded, police said.

Read entire article: http://www.albawaba.com/en/news/199252


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Authorities Release 200 Iraqi Prisoners

-The 230 detainees being released Sunday from U.S.-run prisons around the country were among 2,500 detainees that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki had promised to release by June 30. The first batch of 594 was freed Wednesday. Arkan Abdullah, 17, from the strife-prone province of Salahuddin, said he was arrested Feb. 21 and accused of illegally possessing a weapon, but he was willing to give the new government a chance.

Read entire article: http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=2064693&page=3

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IRAQ: The need for public first-aid training as violence continues

-Despite a horrendous deterioration of security, the government has done little to promote first-aid and emergency awareness among the citizenry. “We Iraqis never receive first-aid lessons – not in school or at our jobs,” said Mashhadanny. “For this reason, we’re not prepared for saving lives.” There are no government agencies involved in the dissemination of first-aid information and only very few local NGOs doing it. NGOs, however, tend to focus attention on volunteers and not the general population. “The best way to teach people is by introducing it as a discipline in schools and universities,” said Dr Muhammad Jarnoon, a teacher at Baghdad University’s medical faculty. “This way, children will teach their parents about first aid.” Nevertheless, the ministries of health, education and the interior are taking steps towards introducing first-aid to primary- and secondary-school curricula. “We know that first-aid is essential in a country where security is deeply compromised,” said education ministry official Sharkis Yehia. “But we also need time to introduce it to the school system.”

Read entire article: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=53854&SelectRegion=Middle_East&SelectCountry=IRAQ

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Fourteen killed in Iraq as violence rages on

-Two separate bombings killed at least nine people in downtown Baghdad and wounded more than 40, after the government lifted a daytime traffic ban it imposed on Friday amid fears of al Qaeda reprisals for the Zarqawi killing. "A bomb was left in a plastic bag here and many people were wounded, including a child," said a boy standing near the site.

Read entire article: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IBO031564.htm

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IRAQ: Athletes targeted for sectarian, religious reasons

-There is little doubt that, for 25-year-old footballer Salman Obaid, sport means health, vitality and integration. But for some extremists, sport means disrespect for modesty and the adoption of western values. “My dream since childhood was to be a football player and this dream came true,” said Obaid. “Unfortunately, it hasn’t been easy – I’ve received three threats accusing me of being a betrayer of Muslims.” On 14 May, 19-year-old Mannar Mudhafar, one of the best soccer players on the popular Zawra team, was shot to death in the streets of the capital.

Read entire article: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=53813&SelectRegion=Middle_East&SelectCountry=IRAQ

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IRAQ: Babil residents protest poor services, demand official resignations

-Nearly 1,200 angry residents of Babil province, some 100km south of the capital, Baghdad, took to the streets on Wednesday to protest poor services and demand the resignation of several local officials. Last Saturday, a chlorine gas canister exploded at a water purification station in the Aufi district, poisoning more than 104 Babil residents, according to police Capt Muthana Khalid. Casualties reportedly included children, women and elderly living near the station.

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Zarqawi raids uncover new leads

-Jordanian-born Zarqawi was said to have been in a meeting with associates at the time. At least five other people were killed in the raid, including spiritual adviser Sheikh Abd-al-Rahman and an unidentified woman and child.

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Arabs say insurgency will continue after Zarqawi

-Several ordinary Arabs expressed hostility towards Zarqawi and welcomed his killing. But just as many others said they saw him as a martyr who died fighting for the noble cause of ending the U.S. occupation of a leading Arab and Muslim country. "We should have no regrets over the killing of a terrorist like him. He was mutilating the image of Islam. Hopefully bin Laden is next," said Lebanese Shi'ite student Sana Abdul-Nabi, referring to al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

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U.S. forces show picture of dead Zarqawi

-Iraqi children stand on the rubble after a U.S. raid, which killed Al Qaeda's leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in the town of Hibhib near Baquba, 65 km (40 miles) northeast of Baghdad

--A boy walks through the rubble where Al Qaeda's leader in Iraq Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed after an U.S. raid, in the town of Hibhib near Baquba, 65 km (40 miles) northeast of Baghdad

View pictures and read entire article: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L08252209.htm

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Qaeda’s Iraq leader Zarqawi killed by US forces

-U.S. warplanes killed Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, al Qaeda's Iraq leader who masterminded a campaign of bombings and beheadings, in a strike that President George W. Bush said could help to turn the tide against the insurgency. U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told reporters 10 people, including Zarqawi, had been killed in the strike. Earlier, officials said six people including a woman and a child had been killed. "I think arguably over the last several years no single person on this planet has had the blood of more innocent men, women and children on his hands than Zarqawi," said Rumsfeld.

Read entire article: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L08116964.htm

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Salvaging Iraq

By David Ignatius
The images from Iraq are of hell on earth: On Sunday 12 Iraqi students traveling to Baqubah to take their final exams were dragged from a bus and killed because they practiced the wrong religion. The next day gunmen dressed in police uniforms kidnapped 56 people near the bus station in central...
To view the entire article, go to http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/06/AR2006060601396.html?referrer=emailarticle

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Violent Baghdad deaths top 6,000

-Three British soldiers are cleared at a court martial in London of killing a 15-year-old Iraqi boy who drowned in a canal in Basra three years ago.

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5053134.stm

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PM vows Baghdad security crackdown

-A roadside bomb exploded at Allawi bus station in central Baghdad, killing a woman and wounding a child, Iraqi police said. Police said the blast was targeting a passing U.S. military convoy.

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http://edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/06/06/iraq.main/index.html

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Iraq to free 2,500 but no “Saddam loyalists”

-Bush has said he was troubled by media reports about the Nov. 19 killings of men, women and children in Haditha.

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http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/DAH648228.htm

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Iraq: 50 people kidnapped as US fire kills five civilians

-Also on Monday, gunmen in a car killed two Sunni brothers as they were driving to college in the neighborhood of Sadiyah in southwestern Baghdad, police Lt. Maitham Abdul Razzaq said. The victims, Ahmed and Arkan Sarhan were in their early 20s.

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http://www.albawaba.com/en/news/198962

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Gunmen kidnap 50 Baghdad transport workers

-STUDENTS KILLED
Gunmen dragged 24 people, mostly teenage students, from vehicles and shot them dead in a small town north of Baghdad on Sunday, police said.

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http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/GEO532890.htm

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Gunmen kill 11 Iraqi students, kidnap transport workers

Gunmen killed at least 11 college students after stopping a bus in Baghdad and kidnapped up to 50 transport company employees in the Iraqi capital on Monday, Interior Ministry sources said. The sources said the bus was carrying 20 college students in Baghdad's Dora district. Police had no immediate information on the attack, which took place a day after 24 people, mostly teenage students, were dragged from vehicles in Iraq and killed. Police said the abductions appeared to be a coordinated operation against firms offering transport to Syria and Jordan. "It took them about five minutes to take people away. One, two, three, four -- one after another," said witness Hamza Ali, adding the gunmen were armed with rifles and grenades and had arrived in 10 pick-up trucks.

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http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/GEO565785.htm

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Police imposters kidnap 50 in Baghdad

A Shiite man and his three sons were shot to death Sunday evening while returning home from a doctor's visit in the town of Khan Bani Saad, about 20 miles (32 km) north of Baghdad, an official with Baquba police said. The mother was wounded in the drive-by shooting, he said.

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http://edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/06/05/iraq.main/index.html

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24 Iraqi civilians “executed”

Gunmen in Iraq dragged 24 people, mostly students, from vehicles and shot them dead as violence raged across the country Sunday.

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http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2006/06/05/255.html

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IRAQ: More than 30 dead as PM fails again to name security chiefs

-At least 21 Iraqis were shot dead by gunmen targeting minibus passengers. The gunmen near the village of Ayn Layla northeast of Baghdad stopped vehicles along the road and shot at their occupants, killing 21 people including seven minibus drivers and seven students, police said, according to AFP.

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http://www.albawaba.com/en/news/198909

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IRAQ: Premier declares state of emergency to maintain security in Basra

caption, “Armed guards protect children as they arrive at schools in Basra.” * “Some 1,200 Sunni Muslim families have been forced to leave Basra as a result of threats by militant groups,” said Sheikh Abdul-Razaq al-Dosari, a senior AMS cleric.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=53693&SelectRegion=Middle_East&SelectCountry=IRAQ

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21 Shias and Kurds taken off bus and shot at fake checkpoint

A group of students on their way to end-of-year exams were among 21 people massacred by gunmen at a bogus checkpoint in Iraq's restive Diyala province yesterday, in one of the most shocking sectarian attacks in the country in recent weeks. The 12 students, who were studying at al-Yarmouk University in Baquba, 40 miles north of Baghdad, were among passengers who were hauled by the gunmen from their convoy of three minibuses early yesterday morning.

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,1790426,00.html

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Masked gunmen kills 21 Shiites in Iraq

On Monday, gunmen in a car killed two Sunni brothers as they were driving to college in the religiously mixed neighborhood of Sadiyah in southwestern Baghdad, police Lt. Maitham Abdul Razzaq said. The victims, Ahmed and Arkan Sarhan, were in their early 20s. Two of the victims were high school students, ages 17 and 18, and nine were students at al-Yarmouk University in Baqouba, ages 21-22, said Qara Tappah's mayor, Serwan Shokir. The rest were men in their mid-to-late 30s, who worked as laborers or for the power company, the mayor said.

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http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=2039538

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At least 20 Iraqi motorists killed

Children, students and elderly men were among those shot dead in the volatile Diyala province, north of Baghdad. The violence comes as a parliamentary session, which was due to vote on three crucial cabinet posts, was postponed.

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5045608.stm

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At least 40 killed in Iraq

At least 40 people -- some of them high school students -- were reported killed Sunday across Iraq, as the new government failed to name security ministers to deal with continuing violence. The dead included seven students and five elderly men. Two other people were injured. The victims were Shiites and the incident was thought to be the result of sectarian hostilities.

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http://edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/06/04/iraq.main/index.html

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Iraq gunmen kill 24 civilians at checkpoint

Gunmen dragged 24 civilians out of their cars at a makeshift checkpoint in a town north of Baghdad on Sunday and shot them "execution style", a senior police official said. The victims included students, children and elderly men, said the senior police official in Diyala province.

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http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L04744448.htm

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Students “executed” as Iraq violence rages on

Gunmen in Iraq dragged 24 people, mostly teenage students, from vehicles and shot them dead, police said, as violence raged in the country on Sunday. The victims included youths of around 15-16 years who were on their way to the bigger regional town of Baquba to write end of term exams. "(The attackers) dragged them one by one from their cars and executed them," said a police official. Some tried to flee but were gunned down, a police source said. Reuters photographs showed six men shot in the chest, including one old man and five young men.

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http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/GEO443052.htm

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Iraqi PM says Haditha killings a terrible crime

Many Iraqis believe unjustified killings by U.S. troops are common, but few have been confirmed by investigations. "The crime and misery of Haditha … is a terrible crime where women and children were eliminated," Maliki told a news conference after a cabinet meeting.

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http://www.abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=2029231

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US probes new Iraq massacre claim

According to the Americans, the building collapsed under heavy fire killing four people - a suspect, two women and a child. But a report filed by Iraqi police accused US troops of rounding up and deliberately shooting 11 people in the house, including five children and four women, before blowing up the building. The video tape obtained by the BBC shows a number of dead adults and children at the site with what our world affairs editor John Simpson says were clearly gunshot wounds.

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5039714.stm

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Killings, abductions in Baghdad leave Palestinians in Iraq scared and angry

A total of 212 Palestinians, including children and pregnant women, have fled Baghdad since May 10 and are stranded at the Syria-Iraq border. The UN refugee agency and the Syrian Red Crescent are providing food, basic items and medical care to the group, who are refusing to return to Baghdad.

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http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/UNHCR/5ee73a06c05237206219344a453bfde7.htm

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Bombs kill at least four, wound 50 in Baghdad market

Another witness said: "Many young men were wounded."
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http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L02341940.htm

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Unemployment in Iraq is over 60%

IRAQ: Citizens chafe under rising unemployment

BAGHDAD, 1 June (IRIN) - For Abbas Mohamed al-Sakri, the 20 years he
spent studying Arabic literature was "a big mistake" because he remains
unable to get a job with his degree.

"For the past three years, I sent dozens of job applications to
government ministries," said the 28-year-old al-Sakri. "But all were in
vain. Members of influential political and religious parties are given
preference, even though they aren't qualified."

According to Mohamed Taha al-Mousawi, an adviser at the Ministry of
Labour and Social Affairs, the national unemployment rate surpassed 60
percent last year. "And the rate rose further in the first quarter of
this year, as many policemen and army members quit their jobs due to
threats by militants groups," al-Mousawi said. He added that his
ministry had no plans to promote employment until the security
situation had improved.

Iraq's high unemployment rate was also recently acknowledged by the
First Lady. Speaking at an international conference devoted to women in
business in London on 23 May, the wife of President Jalal Talabani
stressed that high unemployment levels made disaffected youths easy
targets for recruitment by extremists.

Hero Ibrahim Ahmed, a respected businesswoman and founder of the
Kurdistan Women's Union, agreed. She warned that that joblessness could
be expected to increase further, especially in central and southern
Iraq. "Unemployment levels have exceeded all limits," she said.

Locals, meanwhile, especially those with big families, complain
bitterly about job scarcity. "I can work only two or three days a week
due to the huge labour pool," said Ahmed Fiza'a, a 25-year-old day
labourer, as he stood amid a group of about 100 workers in Baghdad's
northern Kazimiyah district. "I earn about US $8 a day, and I'm the
eldest in an eight-member family...I have to feed them all."

Last month, a top US General in Iraq said that the only way to defeat
the insurgency and bring stability to the country was by boosting the
economy and creating hope among disaffected young people. "A prosperous
Iraq will be a peaceful Iraq," said Lt. Gen. Pete Chiarelli, commander
of the Multinational Corps in Iraq. "By creating jobs and opportunity,
the government would take away a major source of support for violent
movements."

In the meantime, 28-year-old Omar Salah Jassim has despaired of
government promises, deciding instead to earn his living selling
cigarettes from a wooden stall in a bustling bus station in Baghdad.
"Earning about US $10 a day this way is better than begging at the
government's door," said Jassim, who holds a degree from Baghdad's
University's education faculty.