7 injured in bombing in northern Iraq

7 injured in bombing in northern Iraq

Seven people were injured in a roadside bombing in Mosul on the last day of Iraq's bloodiest month since 2008.

A roadside bomb targeting a police convoy was detonated on Saturday in the al-Zinjili area of the northern city of Mosul, the Aswat al-Iraq news agency quoted a local security source as saying.

Seven people, including five policemen, were wounded in the attack in Mosul, the capital of Nineveh province, 405 km (252 miles) north of Baghdad.

Elsewhere, Iraqi security forces discovered four rockets in the al-Ahrar district of the city of Kut in the eastern province of Wasit.

The Katyusha rockets were reportedly ready for firing in the direction of a US military base in western Kut.

According to figures released by the Iraqi government on Saturday, the death toll in bombings and other terrorist attacks for July 2010 was the highest since May 2008.

Data compiled by the health, defense and interior ministries show a total of 535 people were killed in attacks across the country in July. 396 of them were civilians, 89 were policemen, and 50 were soldiers.

MRS/HGL

Iraq's bloodiest month in 2 years ends

Iraq's bloodiest month in 2 years ends

The Iraqi government has announced that July was the deadliest month in the country in more than two years.

Data compiled by the health, defense and interior ministries show a total of 535 people were killed in attacks across the country in July, AFP reported on Saturday.

Some 396 of them were civilians, 89 were policemen, and 50 were soldiers. In addition, over 1,043 people were wounded.

The death toll in bombings and other terrorist attacks for July 2010 was the highest since May 2008.

The government figures indicate a considerable jump in the level of violence months since the March 7 parliamentary elections, which have yet to result in the formation of a new government.

On June 14, Iraq finally held its first parliamentary session since the vote, but the meeting was adjourned after only 20 minutes. The second session, scheduled for July 27, was indefinitely postponed as the country's major political parties failed to agree on a new ruling coalition.

Former premier Iyad Allawi's al-Iraqiya bloc finished in first place in the elections, winning 91 seats in Iraq's 325-member parliament.

Al-Iraqiya was closely followed by incumbent Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's State of Law alliance, which won 89 seats.

The Iraqi National Alliance ended up in the third place with 70 seats.

Analysts warn that the delay in forming a new government gives militant groups the opportunity to further destabilize the country.

Iraq has been racked by violence since the US-led invasion of the country in 2003.

The military action toppled Baathist dictator Saddam Hussein but also opened the gate for al-Qaeda militants and associated extremists to carry out terrorist attacks throughout the country.

There are approximately 65,000 US soldiers currently stationed in Iraq, 15,000 of whom are to leave Iraq by September. A security pact between Baghdad and Washington requires the United States to withdraw all its troops from Iraqi territory by the end of 2011.

MRS/HGL

Qaeda group claims blast at TV offices in Iraq

Qaeda group claims blast at TV offices in Iraq

Updated at: 0555 PST,  Thursday, July 29, 2010
 WASHINGTON: An Al-Qaeda group on Wednesday claimed responsibility for this week's deadly car bomb attack on a television's offices in Baghdad that killed four people, US monitors said.

"The Islamic State of Iraq (ISI), the Al-Qaeda-front in Iraq, claimed responsibility for the July 26th suicide bombing that struck the offices of a television in Baghdad," the SITE monitoring group said, citing a statement seen on jihadist web forums.

"The ISI boasted that despite the enemy allegedly having advance knowledge of the operation, a suicide bomber managed to carry out the attack anyway, inflicting heavy damage on the offices and surrounding buildings," SITE said.

The group further "warned that they will not hesitate to target any media organization that insists on being a tool in the 'war on Allah and His Messenger,'" SITE said.

The suicide car bomber struck at around 9:30 am (0630 GMT) Monday in front of the station's bureau in the city center, leaving a massive crater and sending a plume of smoke into the air that could be seen from several kilometers (miles) away.

The blast, which killed four people, came a month after the Saudi-funded channel was warned of insurgent threats.

12 killed in Karbala, Baghdad attacks

12 killed in Karbala, Baghdad attacks

 A rocket attack has claimed several lives in the Iraqi shrine city of Karbala as the capital Baghdad witnessed more deadly bombings.

"Several mortars landed at 11:00 p.m. (0800 GMT ) on Tuesday, killing seven pilgrims and injuring 46, in a neighborhood a few kilometers northwest of the center of the city," AFP quoted a Karbala police officer as saying on Wednesday.

The shells targeted Shia pilgrims who were coming from around the city to participate in the ceremony marking the birthday of Imam Mahdi -- the 12th Shia imam.

The mortar explosions also ripped through a number of nearby houses in the northwest of Karbala, which hosts the holy shrine of Imam Hossein's shrine -- the third Shia imam.

Meanwhile, a bomb detonated inside a restaurant at around 9:30 a.m. (0630 GMT) on Wednesday in Baghdad's northern neighborhood of Sadr City, killing five people.

A woman was among the victims of the blast which injured 13 more people, said officials from the defense and interior ministries who were speaking on condition of anonymity.

US and Iraqi officials have warned of a surge in violence as protracted negotiations on forming a new ruling coalition have failed to produce any results, more than four months after the March 7 parliamentary elections.

Blast hits al-Arabiya's Baghdad office

Blast hits al-Arabiya's Baghdad office

Four people have been killed and more than a dozen wounded in a bomb attack on the office of the Arabic-language satellite news channel al-Arabiya in Baghdad.

The incident occurred on Monday morning when a bomber detonated his explosive-laden vehicle in front of the Dubai-based channel's office, the Washington Post reported.

Iraqi military spokesman Maj. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi said three guards and a cleaning woman were killed in the blast that left another 10 injured, blaming the terrorist act on al-Qaeda militants.

Quoting anonymous officials in Iraq's interior ministry, a report by AFP, however, put the casualties at three killed and at least 16 wounded.

Moussawi said Iraqi officials had previously discovered al-Qaeda documents indicating militants' plans to attack Arab news channels in the country. He said the channel was informed.

Al-Arabiya correspondent Tarek Maher said he was in the office when the blast occurred, adding the building was heavily damaged and the explosion left a massive crater.

In June, the Saudi-funded al-Arabiya closed its Baghdad office, citing government warnings of a threat of militant attack.

The blast comes a day after a string of bomb attacks across Baghdad and the northern city of Mosul killed nine people and wounded at least 24 others, security officials said.

US and Iraqi officials have warned of a hike in violence as negotiations on forming a new governing coalition have dragged on, giving militants the opportunity to step up their terrorist attacks in the war-torn country.

Four months into the March 7 general elections, which gave no single bloc an outright majority in Iraq's 325-member parliament, major rival blocs are still bickering over who should be the next prime minister.

MRS/MRS

US sought to set up sham state in Iraq

US sought to set up sham state in Iraq

An American war veteran in the US warfare in Iraq says the United States initiated the hostilities as a pretext to establish its dominion over the country.

Speaking in a recent interview with Press TV, Michael Prysner, the US war veteran and peace activist said that the invasion of Iraq in 2003 was "a complete sham" and not meant to liberate the Iraqis as pledged by US authorities.

Prysner, a corporal in the US army at the time of invasion, said he intended to help the Iraqi people but later realized every action by the US military only added to the sufferings of the Iraqi people.

"I joined the army because I wanted to serve my country, because I believed that the US military was a force for good in the world, that we helped those in need, that we freed the oppressed," he noted.

"So, I believed that really in my heart and when the Iraq war started I volunteered to go on the deployment, I wanted to go, and I believed whole-heartedly that we were going to help the Iraqi people, and that's what I wanted to do and I was willing to give my life to that," he added.

He admitted, however, that the war was a means of control of the battle-weary country.

"I saw that it was not for the liberation of the Iraqi people at all. I saw that it wasn't to help the Iraqi people at all, and I saw that I was doing exactly the opposite, that I was just hurting the Iraqi people," said the former US service member.

"Everyday was a catastrophe for them and it was seeing day by day the things that were committed against them, the lives that they had to live under occupation, I realized that it was a complete sham that we were there to help them," he further explained.

"The goal of the US government was to go in and quickly overthrow the government, and then set up a kind of State, I mean this is their fantasy of just easily overthrowing the country and that hasn't happened," added Prysner who is now leader of March Forward, an organization of American veterans from both the Iraq and Afghanistan conflict.

Asked about his duties after the Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's removal from power in April 9 2003, Prysner said," I did a variety of things, everything from prisoner interrogation - -I did that for many months - -I interrogated hundreds and hundreds of detainees, the vast majority of which had done absolutely nothing wrong."

"I operated out of fire bases, I did home raids, I heard people's complaints whose homes had been destroyed, whose family members had been killed, who had mutilated themselves by US bombs."

Referring to the uncontrollable surge in Iraq violence and America's inability to curb the bloodshed, the war veteran said the US was forced to pay the militants in Iraq in order to stop them from killing American soldiers.

"The US soldiers have bogged down in that country, the only way that the violence and resistance were to be quelled was because over a hundred thousand fighters were put on the US payroll, I mean they were paying people not to shoot at the Americans anymore," he said.

He said the US is left in a quagmire in Iraq as it has been unable to make the profit it sought.

"Iraq is still a very volatile state where the US government and the corporate interest, that really are behind all of this, can't operate the way they want to in that country and that's why there's this quagmire that's going on, where the US can't withdraw, because they can't have their economic interest satisfied at this point," noted Prysner.

GHN/HRF

Iraq Soldiers Snipers Images Photos Pictures Clips Videos

Iraq Soldiers Snipers Images Photos Pictures Clips Videos

US soldier killed by IED in Iraq

US soldier killed by IED in Iraq

An improvised explosive device (IED) has killed a US soldier in Diyala province, north of Baghdad.

"A United States Division North soldier died today [Wednesday] in Diyala province when the soldier's vehicle was attacked with an improvised explosive device," a US military statement said.

He was the 4,413th US soldier to die since the US-led war on Iraq began in 2003, AFP reported.

In addition, a car bomb explosion in Baquba at around 6:00 p.m. (1500 GMT) on Wednesday killed 30 people and wounded 46 others near a mosque in a predominantly Shia neighborhood of Abu Sayeeda, north of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, an official from Baquba Operations Command said.

The Iraqi police imposed a curfew in Abu Sayeeda, the official stated, adding later that police had defused two roadside bombs in the area.

FTP/HGL