Middle East News
Work on Baghdad wall continues as violence kills 29 (Roundup)
Apr 23, 2007, 13:51 GMT
Baghdad - The construction of a three-mile wall around a Sunni neighbourhood in Baghdad continued Monday, the military spokesman for the Iraqi government said, despite Premier Nuri al- Maliki's opposition to the plan.
Meanwhile, four bombings across Iraq killed at least 29 people and wounded scores of others as the US military and Iraqi police continued in their attempts to quell violence.
Military spokesman Qassem Atta confirmed the US military's plan to form a 3.5-metre-high concrete wall to enclose Adhamiya district, where tit-for-tat sectarian violence is threatening to spiral out of control. He repeated that it was not the only wall.
Witnesses said Monday that construction was indeed continuing under the guard of US soldiers. The area is currently sealed off, they said.
Atta insisted that Iraqi citizens had requested that walls be erected between neighbourhoods for security considerations, and so the work on the Adhamiya wall among others would continue, he told Iraqiya state television.
Atta also said that the defence minister had a 'firm opinion' about the walls, saying that they were 'temporary.'
Atta's statements came only a day after al-Maliki had openly called for a halt to the wall of separation, saying he opposed it.
Anger was sparked among citizens and some politicians in Baghdad after local and international news sources circulated the report of the wall that is expected to divide notorious neighbourhoods - and in turn Baghdad itself.
Atta had told the press that building such and similar walls across Baghdad was part of a security plan enacted on February 14 in an effort to quell ongoing violence in the city.
The planned walls are expected to reduce the traffic of armed militants between neighbourhoods. Each wall would have two access points only.
The Adhamiya wall's construction had already begun on April 10.
According to Britain's The Guardian, which blew the whistle on the construction last Saturday, US paratroopers from Camp Taji, some 30 kilometres to the north of Baghdad, transported 'stacks of huge (6,300-kilogram) concrete barriers' in trucks into the capital.
'Cranes, protected by tanks, winched them into place. Building has continued every night since,' the newspaper report read.
And according to Atta, similar constructions are to follow and are expected to appear in areas like Rasafa and Karakh.
Sunnis are increasingly concentrating to the west of the Tigris in Baghdad, while Shiites flee to the east.
Meanwhile, violence continued to rage across the nation amid all the arguments about the wall.
In Baghdad alone, two attacks rocked Karada-Mariam district, only several metres away from Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone, where the government's buildings and the US embassy are located.
In one incident, a suicide bomber blew himself up in a restaurant, killing eight people and wounding 14 others. A local police source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, described the blast as 'intense.'
Witnesses said the explosion caused serious damage to the restaurant, nearby buildings and several parked vehicles. Local security forces, with the help of the US military, cordoned off the site.
Several minutes after the first bombing, another blast rocked the same district, killing one civilian and wounding two others, according to local police and witnesses.
The attack occurred in front of the Iranian embassy, and around 22 cars caught fire as a result, the Voices of Iraq news agency reported.
The blast was believed to have been caused by a car bomb, detonated by remote control.
In Sunni-dominated Baquba, 60 kilometres north-east of Baghdad, a suicide bomber detonated his explosive-laden vehicle in front of a police station, killing 10 people and wounding 10 more, security sources said.
A number of police officers were reported to be among the dead.
A car bomb in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul killed 10 people and wounded 18 others, local authorities said.
The attack targeted the headquarters of the Kurdish Democratic Party, led by Masoud Barazani, in the area known as Tal.
Initial news reports said a suicide bomber was behind the Mosul attack.
The US military said that US soldiers arrested 19 suspected militants Monday during raids in western Iraq and to the north of Baghdad.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-AgenturCOMMENT
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Older Talkback
page: 1
Gated communities!!! I can not believe that such idiots are running the iraq war. I think Iraq will look like the occupied Gaza and West Bank soon. Cities and villages walled off and a maze of checkpoints.
The surge is working!! Way to go you bushies...We have won the war and now we are building walls to win the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people. Now they can claim to live in the symbols of american dream, so called 'gated communities'.
First off -- George, You should not be allowed to live in the U.S. since you have such a low opinion of it. Secondly the U.S. has not taken 1 red cent of money from oil sells to repay what is actually owed us.I don't know if you have ever lived in a gang area--but they have to be kept seperate until a pact is agreed upon--not to forget most of the crap is being caused by outside interference and the weak minded thinking of pc idiots like you.
Nice rant george, it doesn't change the fact that when given the opportunity for freedom and liberty the Iraqis have chosen to slaughter each other.
'We have won the war and now we are building walls to win the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people. Now they can claim to live in the symbols of american dream, so called 'gated communities'.'
Goodness, such hyperventilation... Sounds like you are frightened that it might actually have some positive effect. Not that that would stop you from ranting on the internet.
Walls have never worked. Great Wall of China. East/West Germany. They have never worked. C'Mon, walls don't even work in strategy games like AOE. They only delay the inevitable. I don't understand how we haven't learned from the past. The great wall of china didn't even work - and THAT is a great wall.
What exactly is 'owed' to the US for which not one red cent has been taken ? Do you expect the Iraqis to pay for your illegal invasion
Response to Steve
What type of nazi are you, to propose that my family, living in America since the 1620's should not have the right to live here? Isn't this the land of the free, and home of the brave? What do you really know of my regard for my country, and by what ordained power can you be the judge? Your totalitarian ways may have worked well in Hitler's Germany and Stalin's Russia, perhaps you should be the one to move- back into the dark past of some authoritarian govt.
'Gated communities' is equal to Ghettos of the 21st Century all in the name of bringing peace, prosperity, security, democracy, and values of the west. Good work George; you and your allies are smart, rest of the world is full of Fools!
OMG!!!! OMG!!! They are going to build a WALL...A WALLL!!!!! Sorry I just wanted to act like an eccentric liberal.
you can't get these idiot muslims to agree on nothing...in a few weeks they will be whining to have the wall built...these low life people live only to complain and kill each other...best thing is to build the wall and fill it up with gasoline...then left the first moron fire a shot to ignite it.
steve is a war generation nazi...you see his grandmother sleep with the germans and then his mother was born...then the germans pimped her to the dutch. he is very anger because of the 5000 men..he isnt sure which one is his father.....but if i had to guess steve...its the one with his head up his arse.
master-bates,
you are not acting like an eccentric liberal- you are, or are acting like, a complete a-hole.
yes the Americans are stealing oil.
and nobody asked america to step into Iraq in the first place. America is in Iraq for its own benefit. Stop acting like you're doing us a favor.
You just showed the world the real meaning of your 'freedom'. Basically, raping and looting and having the locals fight each other.
I believe that liberty is the only genuinely valuable thing that men have invented, at least in the field of government, in a thousand years. I believe that it is better to be free than to be not free, even when the former is dangerous and the latter safe. I believe that the finest qualities of man can flourish only in free air – that progress made under the shadow of the policeman's club is false progress, and of no permanent value. I believe that any man who takes the liberty of another into his keeping is bound to become a tyrant, and that any man who yields up his liberty, in however slight the measure, is bound to become a slave.
Alice if your going to debate on here maybe you could be mature about it and not say things like Steves grandmother slept with 5000 men.
If anyone wants to get a better view of the Iraq war watch Alpha Company on Sunday nights on the Military channel. A narrator fallows the soldiears around for 7 months with a video camera. Its a great show in my opinion.
Second, American soldiers dont cause much trouble in Iraq. Carfully read the news...99% of any deaths are cause by local people form car bombs or bomb strapped to themselves. Every single one of those bombs are set off without the concern of harming their own people. If they did care, they wouln't walk into restaurants and blow them up...
George-- your regard for this country( or lack of) is evident by what you’ve written. As far as your right to live here, a family’s length of time in this country has nothing to do with their “support and pride in it” ----things you know nothing about. Your home of the free was earned by the blood of others fighting in foreign lands to protect your freedom --If it had been left to the likes of you we would now be speaking German or Russian .I have seen your Anti -American liberal commie rants before on the net --why expect anything different
You would think that the Liberals would love the idea of wall. The Liberals are all about social engineering the humanity out of human beings. All you have to do is legislate it and we can all hold hands and sing Kum Baiya.
The people of Iraq must rise up and destroy the apartheid-like wall, which is being built with materials from Israeli factories in Tel Aviv. These are the same type of barriers that isolate Palestinian villages and cities from each other under the pretext of defending Zionist Israel's security. The U.S./U.K. invaders have come up with the idea of establishing gated Iraqi communities with the aim of fermenting sectarianism. Muslims around the world do not believe that the Sunnis nor the Shias are behind the horrific carnage and violence in Iraq. The Islamic world earnestly believes that the Americans are actually the perpetrators of the violence in hopes of pitting Shia vs. Sunnis. The Occidental nations have long used the strategy of divide and conquer when trying to steal the land and/or natural resources of non-White peoples. Iraqis have lived together for hundreds of years in relative peace prior to the coming of the devilish neo-Crusaders. Never in the history of the region have places of worship been the target of sectarian attacks. This is the insidious hand of the devilish Americans. The continued violence in Iraq only serves the interest of the Occidental invaders in their efforts to steal Iraqi oil and placate the Middle East for those racist Zionists in Israel. Today it's al-Adhamiyah, tomorrow it will be Sadr city, then Basra, the day after Mosul and the day after that Kirkuk - until the whole of Iraq becomes a Bantustan - a sectarian ghetto which closes its doors to strangers from other ghettos. There will be no national identity anymore, only sectarian and racial identity. Iraqi P.M. Nuri al-Maliki ordered the construction of the wall stopped, but the building of the wall by the U.S. military continues. This shows that Iraq is not at all a sovereign state. The imperialist occupiers control Iraq and the elected Iraqi government is powerless. No Muslim should keep silent about this new crime committed by the pro-Zionist occupation forces in Baghdad, and all Iraqis must reject such a wall because it will turn al-Adhamiyah into a big prison. In the U.S.A. racism is status quo, such segregation must be rejected by Iraqis. The racist wall must be torn down and the devilish neo-Crusaders expelled from the country!
Steve, I find you funny. You have George, makes a comment about his views on the war and how it's being mishandled.. (Which, by the way, 59% of the country agrees with) and he makes a comment about how building a wall is a bad thing, and instead of just explaining why he's wrong... you ask him to leave the country? I mean, maybe the reason Iraq isn't accepting democracy is because it's full of people like you. People who, instead of embracing an opportunity for discussion and debate, your first reaction is to ask him to leave your country, metaphorically building a wall between you and him. I mean, maybe I'm wrong, but I thought that debate was one of the best things about America.
Can you imagine if no one debated the idea of slavery. If everyone just accepted slavery as being okay, and anyone who disagreed left the country? America would be a much different place. Maybe you would enjoy that kind of country, but I think most Americans would agree that if their was no form of debate in this country, it would completly fall apart.
stevie- you speak as a true nazi
Reign, you can speak to truth. The same kind of people who supported slavery and their so called right to own another person, are the same type pf people who today blindly support anything their political Tzar dictates.
The people who supported and benefited from the Atlantic slave trade and chattel slavery in the Americas were the devilish Euro-Americans. The Occidental peoples are the Biblical Pale Horse, wherever the Occidental people go, death and Hell follow. Iraq is just the latest example.
Here is to the Bushies..
People like Geroge and I will continue to speak our minds abd make sure that the US does not get harmed by idiots like you.
As a citizen it is our duty to make sure that the adminsitration is criticized and eventually thrown out in election if makes mistakes and undertakes policies that hurt our nation.
You are nothing but armchair patriots. Comments like 'low life muslims' who that real agenda behind your wars. Honesty and truth is not in yoru dictionary. Just look at Bush supporting Gonzales this mroning even after his lies to the senate last week.
Geroge said it right, folks still supporting this war are really like those 25% iditos who were supporting slavery, opposing civit rights. denying global warming till the end. These folks just suffer from lower level of intelligence and I feel pity for them.
MQM, you seem to miss the point that the foreign occupation has sown a lot of the seeds of the sectarian turmoil in Iraq. But as a matter of practicality, if the Iraqis want to kill each other, why should anyone get in between? If global intervention into a country is necessary, isn't this a role of the UN?
Why should, or how can, America police the rest of the world? America is not showing a lot of respect for Iraq by creating and condoning the turning of it into a massive 'terrorist' killing field. Wasn't America's real mission to go after al qeada and osama bin ladin in Afghanistan? What happened to that part of American justice? Shall we say it doen't matter? What about Pakistan- which harbors the terrorists, has nuclear weapons, gave/sold nuclear bomb technology to N. Korea, and was one of only three gave dipolmatic recognition to the Taliban govt which supported obl?
People like Geroge and I will continue to speak our minds abd[sic] make sure that the US does not get harmed by idiots like you.'
You mean regurgitate your programing, don't you? Harm the USA? You do nothing but.
'Honesty and truth is not in yoru[sic] dictionary. '
'Your' isn't in yours... I wonder if you ran your mouth like that when the last Clinton was wondering what the definition of 'is' is.
'Geroge said it right, folks still supporting this war are really like those 25% iditos[sic] who were supporting slavery'
Only in your mixed up idiotic, adolescent. ill-informed, stupid, indoctrinated, infantile world could an effort to free a people from a brutal dictator be the equivalent to supporting slavery. Idiots.
''DEATH AND HELL FOLLOW HIM''
Get a job.
What is really needed is to get the Bush's back in Crawford and then build a wall around their compound. If we make it hard, George will never figure out how to get out. The world would be a much safer place!
The truth hurts!
...We are constantly looking for people such as Osama. Unfortunately its like find a needle in a hay stack. I dont think the war is just to prevent violence between the Iraq people...but to prevent future terrorist attacks on US and allied soil. 30 years ago we worked along side Osama but he didn't like us on 'his land' so now we have all these problems today. This is very simplified cause I dont have time to write much detail....I dont think establishing foreign business is any reason to kill our innocent people.(Im not referring to the oil in Iraq). If they want a fight they should ask for it. Not fly planes into our buildings....People trespassed on our soil and the government released the hounds...
'To grow up Sams'
Well at least Clinton did not get 300 americans soldiers killed in a war based on lies.
As brutal as Saddam was, Iraq is in a worse shape now then ever. More people have been killed since Saddam's fall. All because of incompetent handling of the war. It is fools like you who are in charge...may same graudates of Messiah College who are running the justice department...may ne same folks like 'Hec kf Job Brownie' running the EPA...may be some other 'born again' bushie with no experience.. You are telling me, we harm the nation!!!
Slavery was not such a bad idea. We should enslave the people of Iraq and force them to adopt Christianity, break-up their families, rape their women, emasculate their men, and treat them real bad for a long time. Look at how good the blacks in America turned out. Also, during slavery there was full employment.
'Enslave the people of Iraq...' Gee, I wish I would have thought of that!
MasterQM,
you still seem to believe that OBL is solely responsible for 9/11. You seem to neglect the mounting evidence that Bush and his allies allowed it to happen, and even made it appear worse by rigging WTC, to give America an excuse to gain more power in the Middle East, secondly to secure oil, but mainly to secure Israel by removing a major anti-Israel regime and replace it with an easy to control democracy, i.e: dictatorship. Neither USA nor Bush really care about democracy in the Middle East, and they don't want it. They want their own dictatorship that they call democracy. That's obvious because just like America's ignoring Nuri Al-Maliki, America has historically always ignored any democracy that isn't in its own interest.
USA is the biggest dictator of the 20th century.
Israel is really the center of the conflict that everybody overlooks. Why does America support Israel so badly? Perhaps for economical reasons, perhaps religious?
I dont know if anyone remembers but Clinton ordered an attack on Iraq...If Bush is a Liar so was Clinton.... cnn.com/US/9812/16/clinton.iraq.speech/ add the (www.) they dont allow links on here.
If there were true democracy in the Middle East the radical Islamists would control the region and Zionist Israel's days would be numbered. Osama Bin Laden would be the President of Saudi Arabia and Ayman al-Zawahiri would be the president of Egypt.
Bush is fighting against a troop withdrawal timetable in attempt to get americans to eventually forget about it, just like his constant hot air talk about Iraq being in any way related to 9/11 eventually made americans believe so.
Why? Why does Bush want troops indefinately stationed in Iraq? Well, besides that it strengthens America's grip on the world in general and the Middle East in specific, it becomes very convenient and quick for america to step in and strike against anybody in the middle east who stand up against israel.
The Base,
you said Israel's days would be numbered. That's exactly my point, that's exactly why america is moving, to stop that.
As for OBL and Ayman Zawahiri, and other extremists, they wouldn't exist today if it weren't for Israel's existince and America's fierce support, financially, politically, and militarily.
Extremist Islam slowly developed over the past 60 or 80 years, influenced in the beginning by nazism and fascism, but ultimately fueled by the USA's support for Israel, and Israel's existence. Wasn't it america who trained and funded Al-Qaida???
If it weren't for Israel, and USA's support for it, the Middle East would have been a very pieceful and moderate place, and Islam would have shined for what it really is. Either way, both Christians and Muslims consider todays events as revelations and indications of future events.
Everybody knows that eventually this is a Christian vs. Muslim thing, and that it will unfortunately get worse.
'Well at least Clinton did not get 300 americans[sic] soldiers killed in a war based on lies.'
Nope, his indifference/incompetence and distraction by interns allowed Al Queda to grow and got 3000 killed on 9/11.
'As brutal as Saddam was, Iraq is in a worse shape now then ever'
So that makes him preferable. Eh? When did it become 'liberal' to side with dictators?
' More people have been killed since Saddam's fall. '
Then in Saddam's purges? Then in the wars Saddam started? You are wrong. Just wrong.
'It is fools like you who are in charge...may same graudates[sic] of Messiah College'
LOL! You would eat grandma to be allowed to put my degrees on your resume. Typical leftist clown, you consider yourself 'educated' when all you have been taught is how to regurgitate others opinions, not to think for yourself.
'You are telling me, we harm the nation!!!'
Add a few exclamation points you hysterical child, then people will take you more seriously. Lol!
'If it weren't for Israel, and USA's support for it, the Middle East would have been a very pieceful[sic] and moderate place, and Islam would have shined for what it really is. '
It is always the Israelis fault.. You are so jealous, they can create you can only destroy. No one has held you back other then Mohammad. If they were to magically disappear tomorrow you would still be in the exact same fix you are today, only looking for another scapegoat.
MQM
Let me understand- the greatest superpower the world has ever seen can not find osama bin laden? Is that because of the same reason it could not find any WMD in a country not harboring osama? Faulty intelligence, sheer incompetence,or deliberate protocol? It is not like looking for a 'needle in a haystack'. For one, osama is not in Iraq, so we are not there to look for him. Not dealing with osama and his henchmen in Pakistan makes a mockery of our justice.
The argument that if we don't kill them over there, they will come here to America to kill us is totally illogical. Are you saying that Homeland
Security has done nothing in the past five years? Why is that? How are these terrorists going to get their armies of people here- in hot air balloons flying beneath the detection of radar? If so, what good is having our armies in Iraq, and leaving our homeland defenseless? Better to consider reality, than faith-based fantasy.
Looks like the Americans have been given some lessons by the Isrealies, Wall them in then bomb the crap out of them, I can see walls going round every town and village, what a b----y indictment for a failed policy. The mad men in the Whitehouse must sit up all night thinking how thy can make a bigger cockup than they already have. The surge is working the insurgents are killing more people now, than before.
Steve
Iraq dosen't owe you a penny you invaded the country you are responsible for the catastrophy, you pay the price. has for not taking money out of Iraq, you must live in cloud cuckoo land, your oil barons are bleeding the country dry.
Any self respecting terrorist wouldn't want to go to America, he might get shot by some of your home grown nutters.
First off Waine---It is spelled Israelis not Isrealies--secondly it can’t be ( has for not taking money out of Iraq) must be as for not. And as far as ( some of your home grown nutters) I can only assume you are wearing your underwear too tight! You should take the time to learn the Queens English before anyone will take what you say in a serious way LOL!!!
Steve
Crap
I can spell bomb and that's all the Yanks know.
'waine UKApr 23rd, 2007 - 19:41:21
Steve
Crap'
You are such a smart fellow 'waine'.
From my studies the UK produces 100% of the crude necessary to meet it's needs but it's people pay how much??? Who is getting rich from you waine boy
Steve
Your postings are all about name calling, not much to do with the political postings, looked through one of your efforts, it's oil sales not oil sells.
Your kind of postings add nothing to the worlds problems, but your Country does, unfortunatly they have a negetive outcome. Look what is happening in Mogadishu with your meddling.
ps do a spell check for me.
Bad news is that we still have low IQ bushies like steve and 'grow up sam' writer but the good news is that in 2008 their low IQ president would be gone. Then folks like these will have no power left. Democrats will end the war. These wingnuts can then go back to dreaming about the golden era of slavery, segregation and Vietnam. These are the same idiots who still think that Vietnam war was teh right war to fight despite knowing bloody well that some morons like wolfowitz and Cheneys of the time costed us thousands of lives at that time.
The Muslims of the world must unite against Christendom, Zionist Israel, and the greatest threat to Islam, moderate, hypocritical Muslims whose minds have been poisoned by the perverse philosophies and ideologies of the West. Islam is the only obstacle standing in the way of the devilish Occidental nations and their bastard child Israel from economic and social domination of the world. The Muslims must put aside their differences and unite to defeat their common enemies. Sunni, Shia, Sufi, Oadianis, N.O.I., M.S.T. of A., all of the world’s Muslims must be as one body.
Other stories have no replies , (some for months) this has pages of replies . That is how much we care , ignore the rest of the world but when its Isreal or Iraq we flood the internet with our love and brotherhood .
'Bad news is that we still have low IQ bushies'
Spoken by an inveterate loser who probably has to parrot the words 'do you want fries with that' 40 times a day. Disgraceful, programed, 'followers' like you 'sams' make me sick. There are people putting their lives on the line for this country and all you are capable of is bitching and moaning when you haven't been asked to sacrifice a thing. Selfish, stupid, spoiled brat.
'Then folks like these will have no power left. Democrats will end the war.'
Have you given the slightest idea what the consequences to prematurely ending the war are? Naaah, to people like you,, consequences are for others to worry about.
'These wingnuts can then go back to dreaming about the golden era of slavery, segregation and Vietnam.'
Again, pretty childish.
'Have you given the slightest idea what the consequences to prematurely ending the war are? Naaah, to people like you,, consequences are for others to worry about.'
I've given it an idea. The same thing that happened when the U.S. had its ass kicked out of Vietnam: the Vietnamese took back their country after defeating the most powerful military force since nazi Germany. Not that I'm comparing the U.S. to nazi Germany. I don't have to. Everyone else is the entire world is comparing the U.S. to nazi Germany.
Any way you look at it,
Saddam died with more dignity
Than Bush and Blair live with.
Vietnam was lost due to Johnson and his liberal buddies not wanting to win the war( his wife owned a bomb-fuse plant in Texas among other business they thought were hidden from the public by making them subsidiaries of subsidiaries) to hide the true ownership. The longer the war lasted ,the more money they made. Then the liberal press made sure they only printed the ugly losing side of the war and not the success. This is the same tactic that is being used now. Your comment Democrats will end the war should be changed to Democrats will loose the war along with millions of innocent lives in Iraq that will be lost when we leave and the wolves return in mass. This is the same death sentence given to many innocents from Vietnam when we left them to the wolves at the liberals request.
I never used the words sells or sales in any post I have ever made on this site--roll over and hit your crack pipe again
It is negative not negetive you moron
page: 1
georgeApr 23rd, 2007 - 14:10:34
Don't you know we have come to liberate you! First we will use bombs to destroy buildings so they are un-inhabitable, and storm-troopers to kill persons who offer us the opportunity to do combat. Then we will take control of all of your resources, and even sell them to pay for our expenses. Next we will build vast military bases to shelter our occupying armies, and vast prisons to put the belligerent citizens behing bars. Then we will build big walls around the hovels where you still live, complete with barbed wire on top, and kindly name this area a 'gated community' just for you. Don't you know we have come only to liberate you!
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