Sep
15
Bombings Kill at Least 32 in Iraq
http://www.truthout.org/article/bombings-kill-least-32-iraq
Saad Abdul-Kadir and Hamid Ahmed, The Associated Press: “Bombings in Baghdad and northeast of the capital killed at least 32 people Monday, Iraqi officials said, the latest in an apparent bid by insurgents to chip away at growing public confidence in recent security gains.”
Sep
13
We keep being told that the level of violence in Iraq is decreasing, but there are still daily bombings and suicide attacks across the country. In the past 24 hours: On Friday September 12th, at least 30 people were killed and 45 wounded in a suicide bombing in the town of Dujail – where as usual, the bomber targeted innocent people in a market attempting to buy food for their evening meal.
Six more people were killed and 50 wounded in Tal Afar on Saturday, September 13th where a suicide car bomber apparently staged a traffic accident in order to draw more innocent bystanders into the explosion. This is the same city where suicide bombers have attacked the market during the past month.
Also on Saturday, attackers set off bombs near two major shrines in the holy city of Karbala, killing at least three people and wounding 15 others. The bombs went off near the Imam Hussein and Imam Abbas mosques — two of the holiest shrines for Shiite Muslims. The people killed and wounded included women and children making pilgrimages to the shrines.
Sep
9
Female Suicide Bombers increasing in Iraq
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The number of female suicide bombers has more than tripled in Iraq — from 8 in 2007 to 29 so far this year — according to US military officials. This alarming increase is noticeable in northern Iraq, where violence continues at high levels.
Just this week, a female suicide bomber killed six people and wounded 54 in an attack on an outdoor market in Tal Afar, in Turkomen province. This is the second suicide bomb in that market in a month — the first one killed 28 people and injured 72. It goes without saying that most of the people shopping in a market are innocent women trying to buy food ingredients to cook supper.
Meanwhile in Baghdad yesterday, another suicide bomber struck a convoy carrying former deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Chalabi, The bomber missed Chalabi but killed his 6 bodyguards. Before the war, Chalabi was one of the voices who insisted that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, an argument that precipitated the US invasion.
According to the Iraqi police, one of the difficulties they face in maintaining security is the growing number of women who are carrying out suicide missions. Some of these are almost children — Kurdish authorities captured a 17-year old girl wearing an explosives vest in Irbil province. They are being hideously exploited by cowardly extremists.
Sep
7
Since the US invasion of Iraq, the suicide rate among US troops has reached record levels.
There were 67 suicides in 2004, 87 in 2005, 102 in 2006, 115 in 2007. The Army suicide rate per 100,000 population has increased from 9.8 in 2002 to 18.1 in 2007.
By the end of August, 2008, there were already 62 confirmed suicides and 31 apparent suicides among active duty troops and guards. At a Pentagon news conference, Col. Eddie Stephens, deputy director of human resources, said that if all these suicides are confirmed as expected, the total number for 2008 will eclipse the 2007 rate.
The Army has been increasing the number of psychiatric personnel and mental health programs, but so far the situation seems to be getting worse, not better.
Aug
15
Is this any Way to Rebuild Iraq?
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The country has a huge budget surplus. Why isn’t it paying for its own reconstruction?
By Linda J. Bilmes and Joseph E. Stiglitz
August 15 2008
Across the Middle East, from Abu Dhabi to Yemen, the dizzying rise in oil prices has fueled a construction and employment boom. Yet in Iraq, one-quarter of the population remains jobless, and Baghdad gets only 11 hours of electricity a day. Four million Iraqis have been displaced from their homes and are urgently in need of resettlement. After five years of war, the country is still desperately in need of rebuilding.
Read Bilmes and Stiglitz’ full op-ed in the LA Times.