3 US, 1 Polish-- Soldiers Killed
Protests Against Adhamiya Wall
Iraqi guerrillas killed three US soldiers and wounded 6 others on Saturday.
In a separate attack, guerrillas killed a Polish soldier and wounded others. The attack occurred near Diwaniya in Shiite south Iraq. US troops also came under attack in that area.
A city council member in Fallujah was killed by guerrillas on Saturday. He is the fourth member to be assassinated. The mayor of the city of Musayyib was also killed.
Some Iraqis are voicing criticism of the new wall being built by the US military around the Sunni Arab district of Adhamiya.
Al-Hayat reports in Arabic that many Iraqis, including several members of parliament, are worried that the new US military tactic of erecting concrete walls around troubled Baghdad districts will turn the city into a series of isolated cantons and actually reinforce sectarian divisions. An official in the Iraqi Department of Defense told the Saudi-backed London daily, "The districts that will be isolated by barriers after the isolation of Adhamiya and Dura are al-Amiriya, al-Amili, al-`Adl on the Karkh side of the capital, and Sadr City on the Rusafa side."
The article says that the US will deploy sonar bomb detectors at checkpoints in the Iraqi capital.
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said in an interview that he looked with favor on the idea of establishing a separate province for Assyrian Christians in northern Iraq. This statement is controversial, since the way I figure it, it would have to be carved out of Kirkuk province, which is claimed by the Kurds. Assyrians and Kurds generally don't get along, at all.
State Department official David Satterfield, Condi's man in Baghdad, let Massoud Barzani and the Kurds have it in an interview on al-Arabiya on Saturday, over Barzani's inflammatory threats against Turkey and the harboring of 5,000 PKK guerrillas in Iraqi Kurdistan.
Members of the Islamic Virtue Party (Fadhila) staged a small demonstration at the southern Shiite city of Nasiriyah on Saturday to protest the demonstration held last Monday in Basra, sponsored by Muqtada al-Sadr's supporters, that called for the resignation of Virtue Party governor Muhammad al-Wa'ili. The Iranian ambassador to Iraq visited Ayatollah Muhammad Yaqubi, the spiritual leader of the Islamic Virtue Party, on Saturday, in an attempt to mediate the dispute among southern Shiite factions.
Labels: Iraq War
posted by Juan Cole @ 4/22/2007 12:24:00 AM
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8 Comments:
I am curious how this new Berlin/Palestinian Wall solution coincides with the recent destructon of the Sarafiya bridge. Does that bridge's destruction not actually contribute to the USA's new plan of restricting movement around the city?
Based on photos, Larry Johnson described the bridge's demolition as a professional job:
I do not buy the explanation that this was a mere "truck" bomb. I am not familiar with any truck bomb in the world that takes out two ends of a bridge simultaneously. In fact, if it was the result of a truck bomb you would expect a hole in the pavement,i.e. a crater. While it is difficult to tell from the picture it sure looks like the bridge was sheared at two separate points and an entire section of the bridge fell intact into the water.
My first thought was that the USA did it, just like they were behind the Samarra Mosque dome's professional demolition (I am a blogger, not a journo, so I can voice such thoughts).
Further to my comment above, and based on the Google Map Larry provides, and an interactive BBC Map here...
It looks to me like the Sarafiya bridge was very close to the Green Zone and one of only three or four bridges linking a central Baghdad section which is still shared by both Sunnis and Shiites. If the USA could force citizens in this area to literally "choose sides", they would end up with nearly all the Sunnis in the East, and Shia in the West, except (presumably) for a few areas where these huge new walls will do the job the river does elsewhere.
Is this extreme partitioning of Baghdad the new US plan? And if so, did the USA purposefully destroy the Sarafiya bridge before this latest shameful chapter in their long-running (see my mosque comment above) divide-and-conquer plan was made public?
Residents of Adamiya were erecting their own walls around sections of the neighborhood long before we decided to do this.
I was in Iraq in February, and discussed just this point with a soldier who had patrol responsibilities there. This soldier thought it was OK - the locals defending themselves in a way that didn't cause more trouble.
My only point is that we should understand the nature of the criticism in more detail - it may be that those most affected may by and large support this move.
RE: "Residents of Adamiya were erecting their own walls around sections of the neighborhood long before we decided to do this."
This is a ridiculous statement. Residents creating "defensible space" where they control access to their community is completely different than walling off a district and restricting movement in and out through a few checkpoints manned by the US Military. Clearly it will become Gaza-2 with US Soldiers replacing the Israeli Overlords not a "gated-community" where the residents control access. Even if you propose that the US-trained IA/IP eventually man the checkpoints (which they are not now capable of doing) you are still left with the prospect of the Shia sectarianists who comprise the Badr-infested IA/IP becoming the prison guards for the Sunni Adamiya district.
Re: Christian autonomous region
There are a few Christians in Kirkuk, but the area around Kirkuk has no historical Christian community. This proposal for a Christian autonomous region would encompass some of the communities immediately north and east of Mosul, which is an area with an ancient Christian presence. Bashiqah has a monastery that has been in continuous use since the 5th century, one of the oldest in the Middle East. Tel Kayf is famous as a Christian community, and people joke that Dearborn MI is "New Tel Kayf". Al-Qosh is majority Christian. So the proposed "Christian" zone would be a buffer between Mosul and majority Kurdish areas like Shaykhan or Dohuk.
Many Christians dislike the Kurds, but it also has to be said that the KDP counts many Assyrians among its membership. Franzo Harriri, one of the main KDP military commanders, was a Christian. Mullah Mustafa's lover was a female Assyrian peshmerga - her picture is commonly seen in Dohuk. The Christians are well accepted within the KRG - in fact a very large percentage of the displaced persons in the KRG are Christians from Baghdad.
The Kurds have stolen some Christian land near Mangesh, and some Christians from Mosul and Baghdad are as uncomfortable within the KRG as most Arabs are. Many Christians are nationalists and view the Kurds with fear and concern. However, it has to be said that there is a very large and deeply rooted Christian population within the KRG that is not persecuted and many of them actually support the KDP. The situation is more complex than you present.
Anonymous (at 2:41),
Surely if the US occupiers are destroying major resources in the city and then blaming it on terrorists, the US and Iraqi publics have a right to know?
If they want to blow up bridges and then explain it to the people as part of their Cunning New Plan, let them do so.
This could get interesting:
"I oppose the building of the wall and its construction will stop," al-Maliki told reporters during a joint news conference with the Secretary-General of the Arab League Amr Moussa in Cairo, Egypt. "There are other methods to protect neighborhoods."
He did not elaborate but added "this wall reminds us of other walls," in an apparent reference to the wall that divided the German city of Berlin during the Cold War.
from the Associated Press - April 22, 2007:
"Maliki Denies Civil War and Halts Barrier Construction
On Sunday, al-Maliki announced that he had ordered a halt to a barrier being built by the U.S. military that would separate a Sunni enclave from Shiite areas of Baghdad. The wall had drawn sharp criticism from residents and Sunni leaders who complained it would isolate the community."
George W. Bush's right hand does not know what his left hand is doing. There is absolutely no indication that the level of violence in Iraq will decrease as long as American forces occupy Iraq. And the American public is not going to put up with this level of violence much longer - certainly not through the November 2008 election.
Jim King
Harrisburg, PA
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