Deadly anti-government violence grips Iraq
SHAFAQNA Sectarian tensions have escalated in Iraq, where the death toll from a wave of violence has passed 200, officials and reports have said.
On Saturday, the fifth day of protests, gunmen killed five army intelligence soldiers in two attacks west of Baghdad.
"Five soldiers in civilians clothes have been killed near a protest site in Ramadi," Al Jazeera's Omar Al Saleh, reporting from Baghdad.
"The men were stopped by gunmen protecting the protest. It's not clear how things developed and what led to the killing. Some say they were intelligence agents, others say they were soldiers on leave and were stopped," he said.
Thousands of protesters have gathered in cities across the country this week to voice their anger at the government of Nouri al-Maliki, calling on the prime minister to step down and an end to the discrimination against Sunnis.
Martin Kobler, a UN envoy, warned on Friday that Iraq was at "crossroads" and called for restraint as violence continues.
The comments came as bombings at four Sunni mosques in and around Baghdad killed four people and wounded 50 on Friday, according to an interior ministry official and medics.
The violence was the latest in a wave of violence that erupted on Tuesday when security forces moved in against anti-government protesters near the Sunni northern town of Hawijah. The ensuing clashes left 53 people dead.
Sunni gunmen were also battling government forces on Friday after they took over Suleiman Beg, a town in Salahuddin province north of Baghdad, in response to a deadly raid in the town of Hawija on Wednesday.
Conflicting reports
Our correspondent said on Friday that there were conflicting reports as to whether the armed groups or government were in control of the town.
Ahmed Aziz, the town's municipal council deputy chief, said the armed men had pulled out of Suleiman Beg under a deal worked out by tribal leaders and government officials.
The men had swarmed into the predominantly Sunni Turkmen town on Wednesday after deadly clashes with security forces, who pulled back as residents fled.
Abdul Baban, a local official, said helicopter fire wounded six people on the roof of a house in Suleiman Beg early on Friday.
The seizure of the town by the armed men came amid a surge of violence which began on Tuesday when security forces moved in against anti-government protesters near Hawijah.
"The situation is really escalating," our correspondent said.
He said that community leaders had called on Sunni soldiers in the Iraq army to leave their posts if the government ordered them to attack Sunni areas.
"I've been covering this story for more than four months; this is the first time I've seen armed men protecting the protests," our correspondent said.
"I saw people with rocket-propelled grenades.I saw people carrying sniper rifles and, very interestingly, the speaker who was addressing the crowd asked them if they were willing to die, and everybody rose in anger and they were shouting 'Allah Akbar [God is great]'."
'Willing to die'
The protest-related violence is the deadliest so far linked to demonstrations that broke out in Sunni areas of the Shia-majority country more than four months ago.
Thousands of protesters have called for the resignation of Maliki, a Shia, and railed against authorities for allegedly targeting their community.
Abdulghafur al-Samarraie and Saleh al-Haidari, leading clerics who respectively head the Sunni and Shia religious endowments, held a joint news conference on Wednesday in which they warned against sectarian strife and called for top politicians to meet at a Baghdad mosque.
Maliki himself warned of a return to "sectarian civil war" in remarks broadcast on state television on Thursday.
Iraq PM calls for unity, says violence comes from outside country
SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) –Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has called for national unity in the Muslim nation, saying the recent wave of the sectarian strife comes from outside the country.
Maliki made the remarks while addressing the Islamic International Conference for the Convergence and Dialogue in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, on Saturday.
The new wave of violence in Iraq, which started on Tuesday, has so far led to the death of more than 200 people.
The Iraqi Prime Minister called on the participants to try to find a solution for the current wave of violence in Iraq, warning about the outbreak of sectarian war in all Arab countries.
Earlier in the day, gunmen killed 10 Iraqi security forces in attacks near Ramadi and Tikrit cities.
Meanwhile, the head of an anti-al-Qaeda group in Iraq threatened the militants with war, if those who killed the soldiers are not turned over to the authorities in the country.
There has been a surge of violence in Iraq since Tuesday when security forces clashed with militants and anti-government protesters in several towns and cities, including Ramadi and Hawija near Kirkuk.
Several demonstrations have been held in Iraq over the past few months, and protesters accused the government of discrimination against Sunni Muslims. Maliki, however, blames regional countries such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey for fueling the tensions. -www.shafaqna.com/English
Source:Press TV
Deadly anti-government violence grips Iraq
SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) – Sectarian tensions have escalated in Iraq, where the death toll from a four-day wave of violence has passed 190, officials have said.
Thousands of protesters gathered in cities across the country this week to voice their anger at the government of Nouri al-Maliki, calling on the prime minister to step down and an end to the discrimination against Sunnis.
Martin Kobler, a UN envoy, warned on Friday that Iraq was at "crossroads" and called for restraint as violence continues.
The comments came as bombings at four Sunni mosques in and around Baghdad killed four people and wounded 50 on Friday, according to an interior ministry official and medics.
The violence was the latest in a wave of violence that erupted on Tuesday when security forces moved in against anti-government protesters near the Sunni northern town of Hawijah. The ensuing clashes left 53 people dead.
Sunni gunmen were also battling government forces on Friday after they took over Suleiman Beg, a town in Salahuddin province north of Baghdad, in response to a deadly raid in the town of Hawija on Wednesday.
Conflicting reports
Al Jazeera's Omar Al Saleh, reporting from Baghdad, said on Friday there were conflicting reports as to whether the armed groups or government were in control of the town.
Ahmed Aziz, the town's municipal council deputy chief, said the armed men had pulled out of Suleiman Beg under a deal worked out by tribal leaders and government officials.
The men had swarmed into the predominantly Sunni Turkmen town on Wednesday after deadly clashes with security forces, who pulled back as residents fled.
Abdul Baban, a local official, said helicopter fire wounded six people on the roof of a house in Suleiman Beg early on Friday.
The seizure of the town by the armed men came amid a surge of violence which began on Tuesday when security forces moved in against anti-government protesters near Hawijah.
"The situation is really escalating," our correspondent said.
He said that community leaders had called on Sunni soldiers in the Iraq army to leave their posts if the government ordered them to attack Sunni areas.
"I've been covering this story for more than four months; this is the first time I've seen armed men protecting the protests," our correspondent said.
"I saw people with rocket-propelled grenades.I saw people carrying sniper rifles and, very interestingly, the speaker who was addressing the crowd asked them if they were willing to die, and everybody rose in anger and they were shouting 'Allah Akbar [God is great]'."
'Willing to die'
The protest-related violence is the deadliest so far linked to demonstrations that broke out in Sunni areas of the Shia-majority country more than four months ago.
Thousands of protesters have called for the resignation of Maliki, a Shia, and railed against authorities for allegedly targeting their community.
Abdulghafur al-Samarraie and Saleh al-Haidari, leading clerics who respectively head the Sunni and Shia religious endowments, held a joint news conference on Wednesday in which they warned against sectarian strife and called for top politicians to meet at a Baghdad mosque on Friday.
Maliki himself warned of a return to "sectarian civil war" in remarks broadcast on state television on Thursday.
The meeting at the Umm al-Qura mosque was scheduled for 5pm (14:00 GMT) on Friday, but it was unclear who would attend.-www.shafaqna.com/English
Source: Al Jazeera
Iraqi PM warns against 'sectarian war'
SHAFAQNA-- Nouri al-Maliki, the Iraqi prime minister, has blamed "remnants of Baath Party for creating rift" in the country and said he would not listen to those who spread sectarianism, as a wave of violence killed more than 100 people over three days.
Maliki called on everyone worried about Iraq's future "to take the initiative, and not be silent about those who want to take the country back to sectarian civil war", in remarks broadcast on state television on Thursday.
The Iraqi prime minister said dialogue and not terrorism and hatred was the way to answer legitimate demands. "If rift spreads, we will all lose."
Al Jazeera's Omar al-Saleh, reporting from the capital Baghdad, said, "In his speech he [Maliki] tried to reach out to his opponents and protesters in different towns and cities."
Our correspondent said Maliki had in the past called the protesters' demands as "stinking and sectarian"... But in his speech he took a detour from his earlier position saying, their [protesters] "demands were legitimate".
The violence began on Tuesday when security forces moved in against anti-government protesters near the northern town of Hawijah, sparking clashes that left 53 people dead.
A wave of subsequent unrest, much of it apparently revenge attacks for the Hawijah clashes, killed dozens more people.
In the northern city of Mosul, at least 40 people were killed. Mehdi Algarawi, the city's police chief, said 31 armed men were killed. Police sources say that at least 10 policemen were killed.
The violent episodes are the deadliest so far linked to demonstrations that erupted in Sunni Arab areas of the Shia-majority country more than four months ago.
The Sunni protesters have called for the resignation of Maliki, a Shia, and railed against the alleged targeting of their community by the authorities.
Iraqi troops regain control of seized town north of Baghdad
SHAFAQNA-- Iraqi security forces have regained control of a town north of the capital Baghdad after gunmen who had seized the town agreed to withdraw without resistance.
Iraqi authorities say soldiers backed by tanks entered the town of Sulaiman Bek in Salahuddin Province early on Friday after gunmen retreated under a deal mediated by tribal chiefs and government officials.
The gunmen were given forty-eight hours to withdraw or face an attack by the army.
Gunmen seized the town on Wednesday after deadly clashes with the security forces. Suleiman Bek lies on the road that connects Baghdad to Kirkuk.
A high-ranking military officer said that the army made a tactical withdrawal from the town "so we can work on clearing the area completely, after we knew that the residents had left," AFP reported.
The gunmen's seizure of Suleiman Bek came amid a surge of violence in Iraq which began on Tuesday when security forces clashed with militants and anti-government protesters in several towns and cities, including Ramadi and Hawija near Kirkuk.
At least 180 people have been killed in Iraq in a bloody wave of violence over the past four days.
Iraq has been the scene of anti-government demonstrations since December 23, 2012, when bodyguards of former finance minister, Rafie al-Issawi, were arrested on terrorism-related charges.
The demonstrators accuse Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki of discrimination against Sunni Muslims. Maliki, however, has denied accusations, saying regional countries such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey are fueling sectarian tensions in Iraq.
Saudi Religious Scholar Calls for Savage Killing of Shia Iraqi Women and Children
SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) –The Saudi Wahhabi cleric and the faculty member at the Islamic University of Imam Muhammad bin Saud, Dr. Saad al-Durihim, called Iraqi Mujahideen (al Qaeda terrorist groups) to kill Shia women and children in order to cause more terror and fear among Iraqi people.
Dr. Saad al-Durihim, in his Twitter called Mujahideen to increase cruelty and murder or even captive women and children to scare more people.
Following the publication of these writings by the Saudi Wahhabi cleric in Twitter, the flood of criticism followed and some even called him a criminal.
In response to these extremist and sectarian expressions, the writer of al-Medina newspaper wrote, I take Allah as witness that really those who insult Islam are not Christians, Jews or Zarathustras but like these extremists who invite to killing and bloodsheds.
The writer in Akkaz newspaer, Abdullah Bin Bakhit, criticized al-Durihim and wrote: "When this person go free without any trial, we should not be surprise that terrorists live in Saudi Arabia.
A Saudi writer, Muhammad al Omar said in his twitter that "Offender Saad al-Durihim ordered to kill Shia women and children but we had never seen in the commandments of the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him".
Halima Muzzafar from Alwatan Newspaper asked for trial and the expulsion of Saad al-Durihim from university. She also asked the Saudi Interior Ministry to put al-Durihim on trial and said these extremist thoughts will lead to terrorism and murders in the name of Islam. She also wrote that Mohammad bin Saud is a criminal and must be expelled from the Sharia University. -www.shafaqna.com/English
Source:abna
Al Jazeera: Scores killed in two days of Iraq clashes
SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) – More than 100 people have been killed in two days of violence across Iraq after a raid on a camp of mostly Sunni Muslim protesters on Tuesday ignited the fiercest clashes since US troops left.
On Wednesday, fighting broke out for a second day between government troops and protesters in the country's north, after the deaths of at least 56 people at a protest camp in Kirkuk province on Tuesday.
Troops stormed the camp where Sunni Muslims have protested for months against what they see as their marginalisation under the Shia-led government, a raid that prompted Sunni tribal leaders to call for revolt.
Many of the victims were killed in ensuing clashes, which spread beyond the town of Hawija near Kirkuk, 170km north of Baghdad, to other areas, reviving worries of a return to widespread intercommunal violence.
Al Jazeera's Omar Al Saleh, reporting from Baghdad, said clashes between fighters and the army were ongoing on Wednesday evening.
"The army is using helicopters. We also heard that gunmen are in charge of at least one police station and that hundreds of people have fled the area."
Fighters also took over an army base and burned a small Shia mosque in Sulaiman Pek, 160km north of Baghdad, before the army helicopters drove the fighters out of the town.
At least 18 were killed, including 10 fighters and five soldiers, officials said. An ambush on an army convoy near Tikrit with roadside bombs and rocket-propelled grenades killed three more soldiers.
In a separate development, at least eight people were killed and 23 more wounded when a car bomb exploded in eastern Baghdad, police and medical sources said on Wednesday. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the blast.
Sectarian clashes
A surge in unrest has accompanied growing turmoil among the Shia, Sunni and Kurdish parties that make up Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's power-sharing government.
A decade after the US-led invasion, sectarian wounds are still raw in Iraq, where just a few a years ago violence between Shia armed groups and Sunni fighters killed tens of thousands of people.
Iraq last descended into widespread sectarian bloodshed in 2006-2007 after al-Qaeda bombed the Shia Askari shrine in Samarra, triggering a cycle of retaliation.
Thousands of Sunnis have been protesting since December, venting frustrations building up since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein and the empowerment of Iraq's Shia majority through the ballot box.
"We are staying restrained so far, but if government forces keep targeting us, no one can know what will happen in the future, and things could spin out of control," said Abdul Aziz al-Faris, a tribal leader in Hawija.
The two main Shia groups, Asaib al-Haq and Kataeb Hizbullah, appear to have stayed out of the latest violence. But former fighters said they could take up arms again if needed.
The Iraqi government said it was setting up a commission to investigate the string of attacks that erupted on Tuesday.
Al-Maliki has offered some concessions to Sunni protesters, including proposed reforms to tough anti-terrorism laws, but most Sunni leaders say they will not be enough to appease the demonstrators.-www.shafaqna.com/English
Anti-government clashes continue across Iraq
SHAFAQNA-- Fresh violence in Iraq has killed at least 50 people, including 12 security force personnel and gunmen who died in attacks apparently launched in revenge for deadly clashes at a protest, officials have said.
Wednesday's fighting came a day after security forces stormed a Sunni protest camp in the town of Hawija, sparking deadly clashes and a spate of other attacks, mostly targeting Sunni mosques, that killed at least 56 people.
The revenge attacks continued on Wednesday, leaving nine security forces members and three gunmen dead.
Also on Wednesday a car bomb exploded in a market in the al-Husseiniya neighbourhood, northeast of the capital. Police said at least seven people were killed in the blast and another 17 wounded.
In the deadliest fighting, gunmen killed five soldiers and wounded five more in the Suleiman Bek, north of Baghdad, a high-ranking army officer and an administrative official said.
Gunmen also attacked a Sahwa militia checkpoint in Khales, northeast of Baghdad, killing four of the militiamen and wounding a fifth, a police lieutenant colonel and a doctor said.
Al Jazeera correspondent Jane Arraf, reporting near the disputed city of Kirkuk, said the Iraqi government said earlier on Wednesday that it is setting up a commission to investigate the string of attacks that erupted the day before.
Soldiers released
Also on Wednesday, a-government protesters released two Iraqi soldiers they had seized near Ramadi, west of Baghdad, a protest organiser said.
Abdulrazzaq al-Shammari, one of the organisers of the protests near Ramadi, said on Wednesday the two soldiers were turned over to a hospital in the city on Tuesday.
The soldiers were taken after deadly clashes between security forces and demonstrators in north Iraq left dozens dead and sparked a wave of revenge attacks.
He also said the demonstrators were demanding that Iraqi soldiers withdraw from all cities in Anbar province, where Ramadi is located, and remain in their main bases.
Dr Ahmed al-Ani, the director of the emergency department at the Ramadi hospital, said the facility had received two soldiers. One was wounded and still in hospital, while the second was released.
Police first lieutenant Ibrahim Faraj said on Tuesday that armed protesters killed six Iraqi soldiers near Ramadi and burned two armoured personnel carriers, but put the number of kidnapped soldiers at one instead of two.
Protesters have taken to the streets in Sunni-majority areas of Iraq for more than four months, calling for the resignation of Maliki and decrying the alleged targeting of their minority community by the Shiite-led authorities.
Clashes and attacks involving security forces, protesters and their supporters left 54 people dead across the country in the worst day of violence since the demonstrations began.
Deadly clashes break out in northern Iraq
SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) Clashes between security forces and anti-government protesters in northern Iraq have left at least 20 people dead and dozens injured, officials said.
The clashes broke out early on Tuesday morning when security forces entered an open area in Hawijah, west of Kirkuk, where demonstrations have been held since January.
Iraq's ministry of defence said, in a statement, that 20 armed men were killed along with three army personnel - one officer and two soldiers - in the blasts.
The statement also said that the armed men used protesters as cover, and that the army has arrested 75 "fighters" and seized 40 rifles, plus grenades.
Sheikh Abdullah Sami al-Asi, a Sunni provincial official, said the fighting began when security forces entered the protest area in the town and tried to make arrests.
Protests started in December
The operation was reportedly aimed at Sunni rebels from a group known as the Naqshbandiya Army, and officials said that security forces only opened fire gunmen fired at them.
Al Jazeera's Jane Arraf, reporting from Baghdad, said the protests "started in December sparked by the arrest of a major Sunni politician."
The demonstrations are because "a lot of people are being arrested under a very vague and sweeping anti-terrorist law; a lot of these sweeps are happening in Sunni areas," she added. "They are also upset they have no jobs; a lot of Iraqis here were stripped of their jobs because they were affiliated with the former Ba'ath Party."
A United Nations spokeswoman in Iraq, Eliana Nabaa, confirmed that there were multiple casualties. She urged both sides to immediately lay down their weapons.
A second officer said that 34 Kalashnikov assault rifles and four PKM machineguns were recovered at the scene.
Two soldiers were killed and seven wounded in the operation, they said.
Protesters have taken to the streets in Sunni-majority areas for more than four months, calling for the resignation of prime minister Nouri al-Maliki and decrying the alleged targeting of their minority community by the Shia-led authorities.
Army officials accuse the protesters of attacking several checkpoints in the area.
Iraqis go to polls to choose provincial council members
SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) –Iraqi voters have gone to the polling stations across the country to choose 378 provincial council members from more than 8,000 candidates contesting in the first elections since US troops left the country.
Around 5,300 polling centers opened at about 07:00 a.m. (0400 GMT) on Saturday and are to close at 05:00 p.m. (1400 GMT).
Authorities have tightened security around the country with the help of thousands of military forces.
"We will use all of our forces in the interior and defense ministries to control the situation," said Interior Ministry spokesman Brigadier General Saad Maan.
An estimated 13.8 million Iraqis are eligible to vote in the elections.
Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish region will hold local elections in September.-www.shafaqna.com/English
Source:Press TV
