Middle East News
Violence surges across Iraq, coalition forces under attack (Roundup)
Apr 21, 2007, 13:23 GMT
Iraqi boys inspect a destroyed bus at the site of a blast in Sadr city, Baghdad ,21 April 2007. In one of the violent incidents, a blast ripped through Sadr City in eastern Baghdad killing two people and wounding eight others, a news agency reported. EPA/SHEHAB AHMED
Baghdad - An explosion rocked Baghdad's Shiite-dominated Sadr City on Saturday killing two Iraqis, while multi-national forces were attacked in Diwaniya overnight, reports said.
The violence occurred amid reports of a planned three-mile wall around a notorious Baghdad Sunni district.
In one of the violent incidents, a blast ripped through Sadr City in eastern Baghdad killing two people and wounding eight others, the Voices of Iraq news agency reported.
Eyewitnesses told the local news source that the blast was caused when a bomb-laden bus was detonated as it passed a checkpoint.
The witnesses believed that the bomb was timed to go off as the commuter bus neared one of Sadr City's access points.
Police forces quickly cordoned off the area, as ambulances were seen rushing to the blast site.
In another incident, a US patrol and a coalition forces base were reportedly attacked overnight in southern Diwaniya, Voices of Iraq said.
The US vehicle convoy was attacked with an explosive device on a main road in Diwaniya, 180 kilometres south of Baghdad, causing damages to the vehicle, while the Echo coalition base was struck with eight Katyusha rockets, the agency said.
No casualties were immediately reported, and the US military could not be reached for comment.
US military choppers were reportedly seen flying over the blast sites. No arrests have yet been made relating to the incidents.
The US-led coalition forces, however, said on Saturday that an American soldier was killed and two others were wounded when their patrol was attacked by an explosive device in southwestern Baghdad.
Security sources also told Voices of Iraq that the British consulate in Basra, 550 kilometres south of Baghdad, came under fire from five Katyusha rockets. The attack occurred near dawn and did not yield to human losses, according to the source.
Also on Saturday, the Polish Defence Ministry said that a Polish soldier was killed and four were wounded in an explosion during a night-time patrol also in Diwaniya.
The ministry said the soldier was on a joint patrol of Polish forces and Iraqi police when the blast occurred.
It is not clear if any of the above incidents were related.
Separately, a security source told the local news agency that unidentified gunmen had launched an overnight attack using small arms on the house of parliament member Abdel-Wahab al-Hakim. The politician had not been harmed.
The Shiite deputy is a member of the United Iraqi Alliance, which has 128 seats in parliament.
In Kirkuk, 250 kilometres north of Baghdad, unknown gunmen broke into a house and opened fire on the Kurdish family living there. The father, mother, an 18-year-old daughter and her 8-year-old sister were all killed. Nothing was stolen from the house, according to the security sources who reported the incident.
Meanwhile, Britain's Guardian newspaper said that the US military was planning to build a three-mile wall around a Sunni neighbourhood in Baghdad in an attempt to halt sectarian violence in that part of the city.
The 3.5-metre-high concrete wall, currently under construction, is expected to enclose Adhamiya district, where tit-for-tat sectarian violence is threatening to spiral out of control.
Local news sources circulated the British paper's report, while the official al-Sabah newspaper ran a similar one in its Saturday edition.
Commenting, Qassem Atta, a senior police officer and a spokesman for the Fard al-Qanoon security plan, confirmed the report.
He told the press that building such and similar walls across Baghdad was part of the Fard al-Qanoon, enacted on February 14 in an effort to quell the ongoing violence.
The Adhamiya wall construction had already begun on April 10, a local source said. Similar constructions are said to follow and are expected be held up in areas like al-Rasafa and al-Karakh in addition to several Sunni and Shiite districts.
According to Atta, the planned walls are expected to reduce traffic of armed militants between neighbourhoods. Each wall would have two access points only, Atta explained, 'one for entry and another for exit.'
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-AgenturCOMMENT
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Older Talkback
page: 1
Reagan 'Tear down this wall!'
Bush 'Put up more walls'
That should end the comparisons, once and for all.
The bloodshed and the violence continue. U.S. Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada honestly acknowledges that the U.S./U.K. neo-Crusader Coalition has been defeated. That devilish, bloodthirsty warmonger, U.S. President George W. Bush refuses to admit that he made a horrific mistake in invading Afghanistan and Iraq. So more Americans will needlessly die in Bush's Satanic efforts to steal Iraqi oil and placate the Middle East for those racist Zionists in Israel. From the beginning Bush has lied to the American public, but the citizens of the United Snakes of America don't seem to care. 4000 dead Americans (troops & contract workers) and 400000 dead Muslim non-combatants matter little to the people of the U.S.A. because America loves death and violence. There would be no U.S.A. if the Euro-Americans had not perpetrated a deadly genocide against the Native American Indians. Nor would there be a U.S.A. without the evil and demonic violence against the African slaves and their progeny. Violence and killing are as American as apple pie. Since 1941 more innocent people have died at the hands of the U.S. military than all of the world's so-called terrorist attacks combined.
Ronald Reagan did not tear down the walls of communism. The Soviet Union fell apart after the Red Army was defeated by the Muslims in Afghanistan. Will the U.S. and U.K. suffer the same fate? It is nonsensical to think that the U.S./U.K. can subdue Afghanistan with 70,000 troops when the Soviets could not control the country with 150,000 soldiers.
Brits and Yanks GO HOME before more soldiers senselessly die.
Ronald Reagan, the greatest president in U.S. history, was responsible for the fall of communism. George W. Bush, the second greatest president in our history, will get credit for defeating and desroying the hateful religion of Islam.
Yo, Maher!
Nice 'pravda'. It's better written than most of the other 'pravdas' I've read in 'Pravda.'
You can't honestly believe this can you??? You have been completely brainwashed!!!
Re: 'Ronald Reagan did not tear down the walls of communism. The Soviet Union fell apart after the Red Army was defeated by the Muslims in Afghanistan.'
I was into some 'symbolism' - Reagan is remembered for his statement on the Berlin Wall, and he chose the correct historical time to make it.
Bush's symbolism goes all in the wrong direction, and the world judges us accordingly, no matter how well-meaning this latest policy might be. Needing walled communities is a sign that the former policies have failed. Israel has proposed security walls to separate them from Palestine, and the idea is seen by the Arabs as sheer discrimination, even if the idea is keeping Shia and Sunni apart.
RE: Ronald Reagan, the greatest president in U.S. history, was responsible for the fall of communism. George W. Bush, the second greatest president in our history, will get credit for defeating and desroying the hateful religion of Islam.
(I hope there's someone sober to drive you home later, and that they bring a spell checker ... perhaps a lithium?).
The Middle East has got US entangled, your the hateful one due to warped view no one can resist US tyranny. OFF TOPIC, Do not cite Japan's success as a example because they attack America because of sanctions (an act of war). As I always Americans no jack about their own nation, reagon was fool and Bush is a bigger one. Lets cut the budget but raise military spending because everyone in America is rich.
page: 1
Maher OsseiranApr 21st, 2007 - 15:48:45
Please Read
'The crime that started war crimes'...Pravda
online at
http: //english.pravda.ru/world/americas/20-04-2007/90188-war-0
Please remove the space after http:
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