2 GIs Killed, 4 Wounded on Memorial Day;
Bike Bomber kills 6, wounds 18;
In a grim Memorial Day reminder of the risks facing US troops in Iraq, two sets of guerrillas used roadside bombs to kill and wound GIs on Monday. Sunni Arab guerrillas hit a US convoy in Salahuddin Province, killing one and wounding 2. Then in southern Iraq, a dissident Shiite group blew up a US vehicle in Qadisiya province southeast of the holy city of Najaf, also killing one and wounding 2.
In Baghdad, , "A suicide bomber on a motorcycle killed at least six members of a U.S.-backed neighbourhood patrol and wounded 18 others on Monday, police said. The attack took place at a checkpoint in Tarmiya, a town just north of Baghdad."
Al-Zaman reports in Arabic that differences over Kirkuk between the United Iraqi Alliance and the Kurdistan Alliance may delay the holding of the provincial elections.
McClatchy reports that some educational institutions in Baghdad are still closed because of sectarian violence, leaving students high and dry.
Amit Paley profiles Sayyid Muqtada al-Sadr's attempt to gain respectability. It seems a little unlikely that he will ever be thought a great scholar. But since he is clearly a talented sectarian leader, he may go on to great things. The word for trained religious jurisprudent, by the way is 'mujtahid', meaning to exert oneself, i.e. in deciding what the law is based on scripture and other sources.
The USG Open Source Center translates a transcript of a news broadcast in Iraq:
' During its evening bulletins on 25 May, Al-Sharqiyah Television highlighted the lack of services in Baghdad and Mosul, Al-Sadr Trend's position on latest government measures pertaining to Friday prayers in Basra, and various security developments.
Within its 1300 gmt newscast, the station reported the following: . . .
"The Al-Sadr Trend has threatened to quiz the Iraqi prime minister in the Iraqi Council of Representatives against the backdrop of what he termed as his ongoing violations of the constitution and for not allowing the supporters of the trend to perform their religious rituals, including Friday prayers in Basra, southern Iraq. In press statements, Al-Sadr Trend Deputy Aqil Abd-al-Hasan said that the fact that trucks - with the support of security agencies - demolished the fence of one of the squares designated for hosting Friday prayers in the Kamsah Mil area in the Basra Governorate is considered a clear message to the Al-Sadr Trend that it will not be allowed to perform Friday prayers from now on, noting that this will make the trend pursue all peaceful and legal means to stop these violations against its supporters." '
The same Sharqiya broadcast included these reports:
-"Citizens in Baghdad and other cities complained of the decline in water and electricity services, especially in the previous week. Citizens in Baghdad said to Al-Sharqiyah that there has been a power outage in some areas on the Al-Karkh side for more than five days. In the meantime, citizens in Al-Rusafah side said that the power is on for only one hour everyday. The residents of Baghdad are now facing a new problem represented by the sudden cut off of potable water to all areas that lasted throughout yesterday, without knowing the reasons. The Baghdad Mayoralty did not outline the reason for the water cut off. "
And with regard to Mosul, a city of 1.7 million hundreds of miles north of Baghdad:
-"The residents of Mosul have appealed to the Trade Ministry's officials to make available the items of the ration card, stressing the scarcity of the items that are received, not to mention that many of the items are received after months of delay, noting that the validity date of some items expired. They also indicated that living conditions have deteriorated, and that unemployment and prices have sharply risen." -" Mosul Governor Durayd Khashmulah strongly attacked those who criticized him, in a reference to the deputies who accused him of distancing himself from the city, terming them as insignificant. Kashmulah stressed that he deals in a very impartial manner with all of the people's problems and concerns. "
McClatchy reports political violence in Iraq for Monday:
' Baghdad
Five civilians were injured when a bomb exploded inside a park near Abbas Ebin Firnas intersection in west Baghdad around 10:00 a.m.
Five people were killed (3 Sahwa council members and 2 policemen) and eleven others were injured (5 police and 6 Sahwa council members) when a suicide motorcycle bomb targeted a Sahwa checkpoint near the supporting forces headquarters in Tarmiyah district in north Baghdad around 10:30 a.m.
Two civilians were injured when a roadside bomb exploded near a moving bus in Shaab neighborhood in north Baghdad around 11:00 a.m. some commercial shops and private cars were damaged by the explosion.
Around 4:00 p.m. a mortar shell hit al Muthanna airport in west Baghdad. No news about casualties.
An Iraqi soldier was killed and eight others were wounded in a parked car bomb in the entrance of Hurriyah neighborhood in west Baghdad around 6:00 p.m.
Police found two unidentified bodies in Baghdad. The first body was found in Shaab neighborhood while the second body was found in Amil neighborhood.
Kirkuk
A driver of an ambulance and a civilian were injured when a roadside bomb exploded in Tuz Khurmatu town south of Kirkuk on Monday morning.
A source in the Kurdish security forces (Asayish) said that a bomb exploded near the house of a Turkmen teacher in al Askari neighborhood in downtown Tuz Khurmatu south of Kirkuk city on Monday morning.
A source in the Iraqi army said that a force of the Iraqi army raided on Monday morning al Rashad area west Kirkuk city and arrested a person that is called the prince of the Iraqi Islamic state in that area.
Najaf
A roadside bomb exploded in the al Shamiyah area south of Najaf at around 9 p.m. on Sunday. A source from the Iraqi army has told us that an American humvee was destroyed, a soldier was killed and two others were injured. US military said in an emailed reply that they confirm the new of the death of a coalition soldier.
Nineveh
A source in the Iraqi army said that an insurgent attacked a patrol that was joining the director of the tribes affairs in the ministry of interior affairs Major General Marid abdul Hussein. The source said that the insurgent attacked the patrol with the grenades in Sarj Khana area in downtown Mosul city north Iraq. Seven people were injured in the attack including one of the guards of the director.
Police forces arrested six young boys who were accused of being suicide bombers. The boys were arrested in one of the houses in Sumer neighborhood in west Mosul.
Diyala
Gunmen from al Qaida attacked Mohammed Taha , a village east of Baquba city on Monday morning. A member of Sahwa councils was killed and two others were wounded.
A policeman was killed and two others were injured when gunmen attacked Abi Saida village east of Baquba city
A policeman was killed and his six years old son was injured when a bomb exploded near the policeman’s house in Bani Saad district south of Baquba.'
Labels: Iraq
posted by Juan Cole @ 5/27/2008 12:38:00 AM
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3 Comments:
The word for trained religious jurisprudent, by the way is 'mujtahid', meaning to exert oneself, i.e. in deciding what the law is based on scripture and other sources.
Sadr has said that he is at the third level of clerical study, known as EXTERNAL research, [1] which precedes becoming a mushtahid, a cleric who can issue fatwas, or religious edicts, on his own authority. Achieving this status normally takes many years of study, but several of Sadr's followers, including Nidawi, said they believe that Sadr will be certified as a mushtahid within the next year.
Mlle. (Mme.? M.?) Amit R. Paley has more ignorance to impart to customers of the Washington Post Company than just mushtahid. They also get (1) ‘hawza’ with no capital letter, and (2) a fictious character named "Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Bakr al-Sadr." Ms. Paley does not even have to muck about with Arabic to be dangerous, because (3) ‘external’ in the above passage is bound to be meaningless to, or misunderstood by, pretty well everybody. Prof. Cole and I know what is external to what at Level Three, but not many others will. It is not clear that A. R. Paley and her editors actually comprehend anything more than the term ‘external’ is used in conjunction with Level Three. The Washington Posties themselves may not have a clue why it is used.
The probability of anybody ignorant guessing the riddle right from the WaPo newsbabe’s (newsguy’s?) account is zero. One might conceivably guess, in this context, that ‘external’ has something to do with the Rev. Sadr going abroad to study, or perhaps that the Hawza at Qom resembles the Fletcher School at Medford MA 02155. Both plausible conjectures; both entirely wrong.
Far be it from me ever to give away who killed Roger Ackroyd. Should anybody care enough to look it up, the correct answer is probably to be found somewhere in Mr. Cockburn’s MUQTADA : Muqtada al-Sadr, the Shia Revival, and the Struggle for Iraq , which is, however, not indexed well enough to allow indication of a specific page. I've been reading the book backwards from recent times, myself, and have not yet finished, so I am not absolutely certain that the answer is there at all.
Oh well, who could want the quest for knowledge to be a cakewalk, after all?
Happy days.
I remain confused by Paley's piece in a number of ways.
1) Is not Sadr on the record as being against Khomenei's notion of wilayat al-faqih? Don't the Sadrists subscribe to clerical involvement in political affairs, but in a much more limited way?
2) Sadr has been studying under Shahroudi for the last year? Was this done remotely?
3) Shahroudi is a moderate? Sure he got rid of stoning, and might be slightly less hard core than Yazdi, but a moderate?
4) Has not Iran been backing Maliki in the confrontation with Sadr?
This is a factual error in the Washington Post article: "As the government has stepped up its campaign against the Sadrists, pressure has mounted from his followers to end the freeze." To publish that the Iraqi government is pressuring all Sadrists is clearly a figment of someone's wild imagination. Nether Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, nor US military commanders, have said they are targeting moderate Sadrists who respect the rule of Iraqi law. The point is to separate the moderate Sadrists from the extremists, and then suppress the extremists.
The problem seems to be Muqtada al-Sadr swings back and forth unpredictably between supporting the Sadrist extremists and the moderates. The question is then what will it take for Sadrists moderate to renounce Muqtada and form their own political party in order to participate in the provincial elections? Possibly the moderates will demand no "Status of Force" agreement for example, as Ayatollah Sistani has clearly suggested.
Also there is this recent fatwa by Ayatollah Sistani concerning not selling food to occupation forces, which Juan calls "no soup for you". Also Maliki may be seeking a way to align himself philosophically with Sadrist moderates, the true Shiite nationalists, but not with Muqtada al-Sadr. Reidar Visser (historiae.org) argues that al-Maliki and ISCI have major policy differences, and he says ISCI also lacks the popular political support that al-Maliki needs as Prime Minister. For more on al-Maliki, ISCI and the importance of moderate Sadrists see the last page of "The Sadrists of Basra and the Far South of Iraq": http://historiae.org/Sadrists_Basra.asp
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