Iraqi security forces have captured an aide to Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the al Qaida leader in Iraq, the government said on Saturday May 7, 2005. Ghassan al-Rawi was identified as the militant leader of the western town of Rawa. Iraqi and US officials said, once more, they are closing in on Zarqawi.
Six bodies also were found Monday May 9, 2005, in Markab al-Tair village, near the Syrian frontier. They were identified as a senior Iraqi border policeman and five of his relatives.
Major reconstruction has not yet got off the ground in Iraq and security costs can eat up half the funding in some areas, US Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction Stuart Bowen auditing $18.4 billion in US-funded projects said on Tuesday May 10, 2005. Asked whether he thought rebuilding was properly under way and funds were being spent as Congress intended, the former White House lawyer said: "No," largely because so much money had been diverted to security, forcing projects to be scaled back. There has also been evidence of corruption in some US-funded deals. As of April 11, his offices had received 131 potential criminal cases, and of these 62 have been closed, 35 referred to other agencies and 34 remain open.
Suicide bombers have set off a wave of blasts in Iraq, killing at least 71 people and injuring more than 100 on May 11, 2005, the bloodiest day since February. The deadliest bombings were in Tikrit, where at least 33 died, and the town of Hawiya, where at least 32 were killed. Suicide bombings and shootings rocked Baghdad, killing at least four people. The attacks continue an upsurge in violence that has claimed more than 400 lives since the start of May, as US forces fight rebels in the west.
Insurgency still brings devastation across Iraq. Wednesday May 11, 2005, experts said the country is either on the verge of civil war or already in the middle of it. As no major road in the country was safe to travel, some Iraq specialists speculated that the Sunni insurgency was effectively encircling the capital and trying to cut it off from the north, south and west, where there are entrenched Sunni communities.
On May 15, 2005, we were told that Islamist websites are enlisting large numbers of fighters for the Iraq insurgency from other countries, including many from Saudi Arabia. The sites are a popular recruiting tool for a new generation of militants eager to fight against the United States, in much the same way that Afghanistan attracted Muslims opposed to the Soviet Union in the 1980s. About 70 per cent of the suicide bombers named by the websites were Saudi.
The body of Hassan al-Naimi, along with those of 14 other Sunni including at least four prominent clerics, was found on Tuesday May 17, 2005, dumped in empty waste ground in various parts of Baghdad. About 50 bodies, both Sunni and Shia, have been discovered in and around the capital since Saturday. Ibrahim al-Jaafari, prime minister, has vowed to use an "iron fist" to crack down on sectarian violence, which many Iraqis fear heralds the outbreak of wider civil war. Mr Dhari said Mr Naimi had been taken from his mosque on Monday night in the district of al-Shaab by uniformed troops of the Wolf Brigade, a police commando unit, accompanied by members of the Badr Brigade militia loyal to the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (Sciri). Mr Naimi was "one of the best and most upright men, well known for resisting the occupation", Mr Dhari said. Other association clerics have said Wolf Brigade commandos gunned down another sheikh, Hamid Mukhlaf al-Dulaimi, on Monday night as he was sleeping on the roof of his home.
The commander of a new unit set up to fight insurgents in Iraq has been shot dead in Baghdad on May 22, 2005. Wael Rubaie, head of operations at the Ministry for National Security, and his driver were killed on their way to work. Major General Rubaie was appointed to command a special operations room recently set up to co-ordinate the fight against insurgents across all Iraqi ministries and with the US-led multi-national force.
On May 23, 2005, the Iraqi general Weal al-Rubies, director of the National Security Department, was killed in Baghdad together with his driver. This happened one day after the killing of Ali Moussa, a high official of the Commerce Ministry. In another attack also in Baghdad, 8 people were killed and 107 wounded by the explosion of a car bomb. In other attacks in Samarra, Kirkuk and Mosul, 10 other people were killed. Iraqi and American soldiers are trying to control the zone around Abu Ghraib prison, west of Baghdad.
An Islamic website statement claimed on May 24, 2005, that Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi, al Qaida in Iraq chief, has fled to an unidentified "neighbouring country" with two Arab doctors treating him for gunshot wounds to his lung. There was no way to verify the authenticity of the claim.
On May 25, 2005, we were told that the main terrorist in Iraq, the number one American enemy, Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi has been wounded. Al-Qaida seems to have confirmed the news. But it is not known if it is a serious wound or a light one. However al-Qaida asked all the Muslims to pray for him.
On May 25, 2005, we still do not know what happened to Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi in Iraq. It is not even certain that he was wounded. It could be a smoke screen to help him escape from the Americans.
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is in good health and is running his terror organization we were told on May 27, 2005. There was no way to verify the statement's authenticity. Conflicting reports on whether he had died or been taken abroad for treatment led to speculation about confusion or jockeying for position among underlings. The statement did not clarify whether al-Zarqawi was ever wounded.
On Sunday May 29, 2005, the Iraqi government has launched a big military operation -called Thunder- to try to clean Baghdad of the many terrorists that are creating havoc in the capital. Also on Sunday at least five people were killed as well as a British soldier.
A voice purporting to be that of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the head of al-Qaida in Iraq, surfaced on a Web site Monday May 30, 2005, denying reports he was seriously injured and saying that he suffered only "minor" wounds.
An Iraqi Air Force aircraft crashed northeast of Baghdad close to the Iranian border on Monday May 30, 2005, with four US military personnel and an Iraqi on board. The aircraft went down during a sandstorm near the town of Khanaqin shortly before noon (0800 GMT). It was not immediately clear if the aircraft was a helicopter or fixed-wing plane.
On June 2, 2005, a man has been arrested for allegedly targeting Iraqi security forces with poisoned watermelons. The attacker was said to have been driving around with a lorry full of fruit injected with a toxic substance. Posing as a farmer, he had apparently been stopping at checkpoints south of Mosul, presenting the watermelons as gifts to thirsty soldiers. Police say he was caught in the act after men who ate the melons fell ill. They were able to call ahead to checkpoints further along the road to make sure the man was detained.
A suspected deputy of terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has been captured in the restive city of Mosul on June 4, 2005. Iraqi and US-led coalition forces arrested Mullah Mahdi and five other suspected terrorists -Mahdi's brother, three other Iraqis and a Syrian. The authorities believed Mahdi carried out attacks at the direction of al-Zarqawi. They also believe Mahdi belongs to Ansar al-Sunni, a group thought to have ties to al-Zarqawi but not under his direct control.
On June 5, 2005, we were told that an Iraqi National Guard unit has been disbanded after it refused to attend a military training academy overseen by US advisers. The soldiers, part of a 90-strong force that calls itself the Defence Force of Rutba, said they feared reprisals from locals if they were seen to have cooperated with the Americans. A US military official who oversees training said Iraqis who refused to attend courses could be dismissed.
Another senior aide to Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi was arrested on June 16, 2005 according to the local authorities. Abu Talha was arrested in Mosul.
A suicide bomber wearing a vest laden with explosives blew himself up today inside a popular Baghdad kebab restaurant, killing at least 23 people and injuring at least 36 others on June 19, 2005. The attack took place at the Ibn Zanbour restaurant, one of Baghdad's most popular, at around lunchtime. The injured were taken to Baghdad's Yarmouk hospital. The dead included seven police officers, while the injured included 16 officers and the bodyguards of Iraqi Finance minister Ali Abdel-Amir Allawi, police Lt. Col. Talal Jumaa said. The minister was not in the restaurant.
The vast majority of suicide attackers in Iraq are thought to be foreigners -mostly Saudis and other Persian Gulf Arabs- with North Africans also streaming in this year to carry out deadly missions, US and Iraqi officials say. The bombers are recruited from Sunni communities, smuggled into Iraq after receiving religious indoctrination, then quickly bundled into cars or strapped with explosive vests and sent to their deaths. They are not so much fighters as human bombs. Authorities have found little evidence that Iraqis carried out the near-daily stream of suicide attacks over the past six months but there have been exceptions. An Iraqi is believed to have detonated explosives inside a US military mess hall in Mosul that killed 22 last December. On June 11, an Iraqi suicide bomber in the uniform of the interior ministry's feared Wolf Brigade blew himself up inside the police militia's heavily guarded Baghdad headquarters.
Three Sunni men connected to the Iraqi National Assembly's constitutional drafting committee, Mijbal al-Sheikh Issa, Thamir Husayn al-Ubaydi, and Aziz Ibrahim Ilaywi, were gunned down outside a Baghdad restaurant on July 19, 2005. Issa joined the committee as part of the 15 Sunni Arabs added to the 71-member committee last month. He was the secretary-general of the Movement for Decision Making [Harakat al-Qarar] and a member of the National Dialogue Council. Al-Ubaydi was a member of a subcommittee of Sunnis advising the drafting committee. Ilaywi, who is reportedly the nephew of Issa, was an informal adviser to the drafting committee. No group has yet to claim responsibility for the attack but it is likely that terrorists affiliated with Jordanian terrorist Abu Mus'ab al-Zarqawi will claim responsibility. Al-Zarqawi's Tanzim Qa'idat al-Jihad fi Bilad Al-Rafidayn has threatened to kill anyone who associates with the transitional Iraqi government.
Major recent attacks:
24 July: Suicide bomb kills 25
16 July: Suicide bomb kills 98
15 July: Suicide bombs kill 16
13 July: Bomb kills 26 children
10 July: 20 army recruits killed
26 June: 35 die in Mosul attack
25 June: Suicide attacks kill 23
20 June: Several attacks, 31 dead
2 June: Multiple bombs kill 24
30 May: 27 dead in Hilla
11 May: 70 dead in Tikrit, Hawiya
4 May: Irbil bombing kills 60
The bodies of 20 beheaded or shot individuals have been found in the southeast of Iraq on August 1, 2005. The corpses found near a school in Om el Ma'lif; they have been brought to the region by truck. Most of the victims' resembled long-bearded militants. The bodies had been placed into black plastic bags. Iraqi police also reported that Selam Lutfi from the Ministry of Domestic Affairs died after an assault with a weapon this morning. Armed men opened fire on the vehicle that was travelling east bound on the highway in Baghdad, killing Lutfi and injuring two bodyguards.
At least 43 people died and 76 were injured in three car bombings in the centre of Baghdad on August 17, 2005. Two of the blasts went off within 10 minutes of each other at the busy Nahda bus station. The third blast happened on the road to a nearby hospital some 15 minutes later, just as victims of the first two attacks were being brought in. Four men were arrested at the bus station on suspicion of being involved in the bombings.
The Iraqi government should back away from executing three prisoners under the newly reintroduced death penalty, says the UN representative in Iraq, Ashraf Qazi, said on August 20, 2005. Three men are due to be executed in the central city of Kut in the next few days for murder, kidnap and rape. They would be the first prisoners to be executed since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein two years ago. The three prisoners - a Kurdish man and two Sunni Arabs - are thought most likely to be killed by hanging, the method used under the old Iraqi criminal law.
Police found the bodies of 36 men, bound and shot in the head, near the Iranian border On August 25, 2005 -apparent victims of Iraq's worsening communal tension.
Reuters demanded the immediate release on Monday August 29, 2005, of an Iraqi cameraman who was still being held by US forces in Baghdad more than a day after being wounded in an incident in which his soundman was killed. Iraqi police said US soldiers shot the news team. The US military said it was investigating and refused to say what questions it was putting to cameraman Haider Kadhem. It would not say where he was held nor identify the unit holding him.
Almost 1,000 people are known to have died in a stampede of Shia pilgrims in northern Baghdad on August 31, 2005. So far, there have been at least 965 confirmed deaths, making the incident the single biggest loss of Iraqi life since the US-led invasion in 2003. The incident happened on a river bridge as about a million Shias marched to a shrine for a religious festival. Witnesses said panic spread over rumours of suicide bombers. Iraqi officials said the tragedy had nothing to do with sectarian tension. Many victims, mostly women, children or elderly, were crushed or drowned.
The first funerals are taking place on Thursday September 1, 2005 in Iraq of the victims of Wednesday's stampede during a Shia religious procession in Baghdad. More than 960 people died in the stampede, apparently triggered by rumours of an imminent suicide attack. Health Minister Abdul Mutalib Mohammad Ali called for the defence and interior ministers to resign for failing to protect the worshippers. But Mr Jaafari said the ministers had done everything possible to ensure the pilgrims' security and criticised Mr Ali for making his remarks in public. It occurred after mortars were fired on crowds near the Kadhimiya mosque - the burial place of a venerated Shia religious leader. At least seven died and more than 30 were wounded.
Iraq executed three convicts on September 1, 2005, the first legal executions carried out since the 2003 ouster of Saddam Hussein. On August 17, the government has announced that the three had been sentenced to death after having been convicted by a court in Kut, for killing three police officers. The statement said they also had been found guilty of kidnapping and rape.
The Iraqi section of al-Qaida, headed by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, said on September 3, 2005, it was not involved in the stampede that killed almost 1,000 people on a Shiite pilgrimage in Baghdad earlier this week. It was not possible to verify the authenticity of the statement. At least 965 people died and 815 were injured Wednesday in a stampede on a bridge in Baghdad provoked by rumours that one or more suicide bombers were among the pilgrims.
More than 130 people have been killed in a deadly series of bomb attacks and shootings across Iraq on September 14, 2005. In the worst incident, at least 108 people were killed and 160 injured when a car bomb exploded in Baghdad's mainly Shia district of Kadhimiya.
A suicide bomber killed 114 people in a crowd of Shiite labourers in Baghdad on Wednesday September 14, 2005, and a statement attributed to Iraq's al Qaida leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi declared war on Shiites. A total of more than 150 people were killed in Wednesday's violence and the suicide bombing was the second deadliest single attack since the US-led invasion of Iraq in March. Zarqawi said his declaration of war on Iraq's majority Shiite Muslims was in response to the offensive mounted by US and Iraqi forces against insurgents in the town of Tal Afar near the Syrian border, according to an Internet audiotape.
Gunmen north of Baghdad have killed a member of parliament from Iraq's Kurdish region on September 18, 2005. Faris Hussein, his driver, and at least one other person died, and another MP, Haider Qassem, was wounded. The group were on their way to Baghdad late on Saturday when unknown insurgents ambushed them. Mr Hussein is the third MP to be killed since elections in January this year. He was a member of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, one of two main parties in the country's northern Kurdish region.
Hundreds of thousands of Iraqi Shiite pilgrims descended on the holy city of Karbala on Monday September 19, 2005, amid tight security. Shiite Muslims are commemorating the birth of Imam Mehdi, their 12th and last imam who disappeared more than 11 centuries ago. They believe he will return to rule the world before judgement day.
Al-Qaida's second-in-command in Iraq, Abu Azzam described as the top aide to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, has been shot dead in a raid in Baghdad on September 27, 2005. Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari called the killing very important. However, al-Qaida says it cannot confirm the death and denies Azzam is the group's number two in the country.
On October 3, 2005, a roadside bomb struck the convoy of Iraqi Oil Minister Ibrahim Bahr al-Uloum, killing two guards but missing the minister's vehicle. The attack occurred in west Baghdad as the minister was travelling north to Beiji to open a rebuilt oil refinery.
A senior member of the provincial government in the western Iraqi province of Anbar was shot dead by gunmen in Ramadi on Tuesday October 18, 2005. Talib al-Dulaimi, a deputy governor, was ambushed by gunmen in an attack that also killed his bodyguard.
On November 12, 2005, members of the dissolved Baath party said that Saddam Hussein's former deputy, Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri died of cancer. However the Americans do not fully believe the news of al-Douri's death and they will continue to look for him.
Many insurgents wearing Iraqi Army uniforms killed an important Sunni Arab leader, Khadim Sarhid al-Hemaiyem, and three of his sons on Wednesday November 23, 2005. He was the leader of the Sunni Batta tribe. The four men were killed in their beds.
On Monday November 28, 2005, two Sunni Arab politicians were killed in
separate attacks.
As the Iraqi forces are taking shape -about 48 battalions are operative-
Americans are handing them more and more military bases, about 24 until
now.
A leading Sunni Arab politician has been shot dead in Iraq on December 13, 2005. Iraqi Free Progressive Party leader Mizhar Dulaimi was killed while campaigning in western Iraq.
On January 8, 2006, Sunni Arabs were angered over an American raid on the Association of Muslim Scholars, s Sunni clerical group located at Baghdad's Umm al-Qura mosque. The Americans believe it is close to some insurgent groups. Six people were detained.
On January 9, 2006, two suicide bombers dressed as policemen entered into the Interior Ministry in Baghdad and blew themselves up killing at least 29 Iraqis and wounding many others. This happened during celebrations of National Police Day. The US ambassador was there together with senior Iraqi officials but they were unhurt.
On January 18, 2006, we were told that two al-Qaida senior leaders and Ayman al-Zawahri's son-in-law were linked in the bombing of a Pakistani village at the border with Afghanistan last week. However the bodies of these men have not been recovered. At the same time 18 Pakistani civilians were killed!
The bodies of 14 Sunni Muslim Iraqis have been found shot and dumped in the country's capital, Baghdad on January 4, 2006. The interior ministry is investigating claims from Sunni groups the men were arrested during weekly prayers eight days ago and were not heard from again. The Association of Muslim Scholars said interior ministry forces had detained the 14 men. The 14 bodies had all been shot multiple times it was not confirmed whether government forces had detained them.
On February 22, 2006, a bomb attack has badly damaged one of the holiest sites in Shia Islam, sparking furious protests. Thousands of Iraqis have gathered at the al-Askari shrine in Samarra, north of Baghdad, where two men blew up the famous golden dome in a dawn raid. Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the spiritual head of Iraq's Shia Muslims, has called for a week of mourning. Shies in Baghdad attacked at least five Sunni mosques in reprisal raids, with disturbances reported in other cities.
The blast which damaged the Shia Askari shrine at Samarra on Wednesday February 22, 2006, amounted to a major provocation of the Shia at a time politicians in Baghdad are holding sensitive consultations on the formation of a new government. The bombing occurred early in the morning after men in army uniforms overpowered guards at the mosque and planted explosives which shattered the golden dome over the tomb of the Hassan al-Askari, a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad regarded by "Twelver Shias" as the 11th imam in the line of succession. Since the Twelvers are the largest denomination in Shi'ism, an attack on this particular mosque over al-Askari's grave is seen as an assault on all members of this community. Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, spiritual head of Iraq's Shias, called for a week of mourning as thousands of Shias gathered in Samarra and elsewhere to protest against the bombing. Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari, a Shia, proclaimed three days of official mourning and called upon Iraqis to "close the road to those who want to undermine national unity". The strike on the shrine, the fourth most holy Shia site in Iraq, could make negotiations between Shia and Sunni political parties all the more difficult because Sunni religious groups are believed to have ties with the insurgents. Although no group has claimed responsibility, Shia politicians and members of the public blamed al-Qaidaa in Mesopotamia, a Sunni group headed by Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, and Ansar al-Sunnah, a Sunni Kurdish faction. Three Sunni clerics were among six people killed at 27 Sunni mosques in Baghdad that were attacked. Much damage was minor but at least two mosques were burned out. Sectarian clashes among militias occurred elsewhere. In Baghdad residents rushed home before dark, some stocking up on food. President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, accused the bombers of trying to derail talks on a national unity coalition. US President George W. Bush, offering help to rebuild the shrine, called for restraint on all sides.
On February 23, 2006, Baghdad police have recovered the bullet-riddled bodies of at least 50 Iraqis believed killed to avenge a bomb attack on a key Shia Muslim shrine. An extended curfew has been called in the capital and dozens of Sunni mosques have been attacked across the country. The main Sunni Arab political group has suspended talks on forming a new government in protest at the reprisals. Iraq's leaders are warning publicly about the dangers of a civil war. The government has cancelled all police and army leave to deal with the wave of violence sparked by the bombing of al-Askari shrine.
Sectarian violence killed more than 130 people across Iraq on February 23, 2006, and left dozens of mosques damaged or in ruins. The United States appealed on Thursday to Sunnis and Shiites to step back from the brink of civil war.
Baghdad's streets are almost deserted on February 24, 2006, after Iraq's government put the capital and three provinces under curfew to halt sectarian violence. The curfew began on Thursday evening February 23 and will last until late afternoon on Friday, the Muslim day of prayer. It left the centre of Baghdad eerily quiet as hundreds of police officers are manning checkpoints and turning back motorists attempting to cross the city. However, people are being allowed to walk to mosques in their local areas.
The curfew did not prevent violence going on Friday February 24, 2006:
- At least 36 people have been killed across Iraq.
- The bodies of 14 Iraqi commandos were recovered in south Baghdad following
a gun battle with Shia militiamen.
- A car bomb in the shrine city of Karbala killed eight, as others died
in attacks on a Shia family and a funeral.
- A dozen members of a Shia family are gunned down in Baquba, north of
Baghdad.
The number of Iraqi battalions able to fight the insurgency with no US
help falls from one to zero, the US military tells Congress - but the
number able to fight with some US assistance rises substantially.
Iraq's main Sunni Muslim religious organisation, accused the Shia-led government and US forces of involvement in attacks by Shia militiamen, called on Wednesday March 1, 2006 on the community to protect its mosques. Since a bomb blamed on Al Qaeda demolished the Golden Mosque in Samarra, one of the holiest sites in Shia Islam, sectarian violence has killed more than 400 people by government reckoning, pitching Iraq toward civil war.
Iraqi police have found at least 85 bodies, many of them killed execution-style, around Baghdad on Tuesday March 14, 2006. Dozens were found buried in a Shiite neighborhood in the Sadr City area of the city. The episode is the latest sign of continued sectarian violence between Shiite and Sunni Muslims. The discoveries included 29 bodies unearthed at a children's soccer field in Sadr City. North of Baghdad, a roadside bomb disupted a Shiite pilgrimage, killing one and injuring seven.
On March 18, 2006, six men have been arrested in Iraq on suspicion of involvement in the murder of a female journalist and her crew from the al-Arabiya television network. Iraqi Defence Minister Saadoun al-Dulaimi said the arrests were made in the course of Operation Swarmer, a US-led offensive north of Samarra. Atwar Bahjat, her cameraman and soundman were seized by gunmen and shot dead near Samarra in February.
Shiite Muslims massed in their hundreds of thousands around Kerbala on
Sunday March 19, 2006, for one of the biggest events of their religious
calendar as Iraqi security forces sealed off the city to protect pilgrims.
A mortar round landed in the city's western district, sparking brief alarm,
but there were no casualties. The streets of Kerbala, 110 km southwest
of Baghdad, were packed with pilgrims -waving green, black and red flags-
arriving for Arbain, mourning the defeat of Imam Hussein in a 7th century
battle that sealed Islam's schism. At least 8,000 Iraqi police and soldiers
have been deployed in the city. Local officials say they expect as many
as 2 million people to attend the mourning ritual on Monday, many having
walked from Baghdad and further afield. At least four pilgrims walking
from Baghdad were killed in shootings and a roadside bomb blast in the
past two days.
Iraq on Monday March 20, 2006, marked the third anniversary of the US-led
invasion with new bombings, more sectarian tension and continued indecision
on government.
The continuing violence prompted former Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi
to say on March 19, 2006, that Iraq was in the grip of civil war - a view
played down by the US and UK.
Six men have been arrested in Iraq on March 21, 2006, on suspicion of involvement in the murder of a female journalist and her crew from the al-Arabiya television network. The arrests were made in the course of Operation Swarmer, a US-led offensive north of Samarra. Atwar Bahjat, her cameraman and soundman were seized by gunmen and shot dead near Samarra in February. They were reporting on the bombing of the al-Askari shrine in the city.
A new audiotape by Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, Saddam Hussein's chief deputy, has been broadcasted by al-Jazeera television. Al-Douri has eluded capture since the invasion of Iraq three years ago. The tape says Iraq's Sunni-led insurgency is "the sole legitimate representative of the Iraqi people."
In an assault on a mosque linked to Iraq's largest Shiite political party,
suicide bombers killed dozens of worshipers Friday April 7, 2006. Men
and women were filing out of Baghdad's revered Buratha Mosque after Friday
prayers when the suicide bombers, wearing women's cloaks, struck first
at the gate near where female worshipers are searched before being allowed
to enter the mosque's grounds. In the confusion after the initial blast,
at least one other bomber ran into the mosque and exploded a suicide vest.
The blasts killed at least 90 people, wounded 160 and threatened to further
inflame sectarian tensions in a nation that has been engulfed in violence.
Iraqi leaders strongly criticised Egypt's president on April 9, 2006,
after he said Iraq was on the verge of a civil war.
On April 25, 2006, a man believed to be al-Qaida's leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, showed his face publicly for the first time in a video posted on the Internet since the insurgency began three years ago. Dressed in black and his chest covered with ammunition pouches, he made an appeal to Iraqi Sunnis to support his fight against the US-led coalition and its Iraqi supporters.
The sister of newly appointed Iraqi Vice-President Tariq al-Hashemi, Meysoun al-Hashemi and her bodyguard were gunned down while driving through the Hai al-Ilam part of Baghdad shortly after leaving her home on April 27, 2006. The attack follows the killing of one of Mr Hashemi's brothers on 13 April.
Al-Qaida's number two Ayman al-Zawahiri has appeared in a video on April 29, 2006, saying that Iraqi insurgents have "broken the back" of the US military. He praised "martyrdom operations" carried out by al-Qaeda in Iraq in the video, posted on an Islamist website. He called on the people and army of Pakistan to fight against President Musharraf's administration.
Iraq's president said on Sunday April 30, 2006, that he and US officials had met with insurgents and that a deal with some groups to end violence could be reached. Though US and Iraqi officials have spoken before of contacts with Sunni Arab rebels, the statement by Jalal Talabani came as Iraq's various factions negotiate on a new government and were among the strongest yet that some groups involved in the three-year-old war may be ready to lay down their arms.
Iraq has apprehended an aide to the country's most-wanted man, al-Qaeda chief Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, in the city of Ramadi we were told on May 16, 2006. The suspected insurgent, Salah Hussein Abdel Razak, had a mobile telephone with a picture of himself and Zarqawi together, but a statement didn't specify when the arrest took place. In a separate incident, Iraqi police arrested Omar Ahmed Salah, known as Abu Jibril, "a leader of what is known as the Brigades of Al-Tawhid Wa Jihad", a militant group believed to be linked to al-Qaeda.
A tribal chief who challenged Iraq's most feared terrorist and sent fighters to help U.S. troops battle al-Qaida in western Iraq died in a hail of bullets Sunday on May 29, 2006.
Iraq's new prime minister declared a one-month state of emergency in the city of Basra on Wednesday May 31, 2006, vowing to strike with an "iron fist" against gangs and feuding Shiite factions threatening vital oil exports.
Militant leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has been killed, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki has announced on June 7, 2006. Zarqawi was considered the figurehead of the Sunni insurgency. He was leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, blamed for killing thousands of Shia and US forces. The US said he was killed in an air strike against an "isolated safe house" 8km north of Baquba.
On June 8, 2006, vehicles have been banned from the streets of Baghdad for several hours, amid fears of bomb attack reprisals for the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. The vehicle ban coincides with Friday prayers and is in force both in the capital and in nearby Baquba, where Zarqawi was killed.
Militant leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was still alive when Iraqi police got to the scene of the air strikes that targeted him, the US military said on June 10, 2006 but the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq died of his wounds shortly afterwards. US planes dropped two 500lb bombs on Zarqawi's safe house near the city of Baquba on.
At least 11 people have been killed and 25 injured in a suspected suicide
shoe-bomb attack at a key Shia mosque in Baghdad on June 16, 2006. The
blast hit the Buratha mosque in northern Baghdad. The mosque's imam, Sheikh
Jalaluddin al-Saghir, said he believed he was the target, but was unhurt.
Militants fired mortars at a Sunni mosque in Baquba on Wednesday June 28, 2006. This sectarian attack left the mosque and some 20 shops destroyed by fire. There were no casualties but a bank was also burnt out in the overnight attack in Shahraban.
A huge explosion ripped though a busy Baghdad market in Sadr City, killing at least 66 people on July 1, 2006. About 100 others were injured. The attack was the worst incident in the capital for weeks.
At least 62 people were killed and 114 wounded Saturday July 1, 2006 in a blast in the Shiite militia stronghold of Sadr City. It was the bloodiest attack in Iraq in three months and by far the deadliest since bin Laden's lieutenant in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, was killed. Around the time of the market bombing, gunmen kidnapped a Sunni Arab member of parliament and seven of her guards as they drove through another mainly Shiite area of Baghdad.
Iraq's deputy electricity minister and bodyguards kidnapped by gunmen
in Baghdad have been released on July 5, 2006. The guards managed to free
themselves and then the deputy minister, Raad al-Harith. Earlier reports
said Mr al-Harith was pulled from his car and captured along with some
19 bodyguards. But interior ministry sources told Reuters that Mr al-Harith
was freed 12 hours later with just seven bodyguards.
At least 12 people have been killed and about 40 others wounded on July 6, 2006, in a car bombing at the Shia shrine of Maitham al-Tamar in the Iraqi city of Kufa. Several of the victims are reported to be pilgrims from Iran.
Gunmen in Iraq have assassinated Mahmoud al-Nida, the head of Saddam Hussein's tribe, a prominent tribal leader in the northern Iraqi city of Tikrit on July 24, 2006.
Special security measures have been introduced in Baghdad on August 19, 2006, ahead of a Shia pilgrimage - the annual tribute to revered Shia leader Imam Musa Kadhim- that last year saw nearly 1,000 killed in a stampede.
The Iraqi authorities have announced the arrest on Sunday September 3,
2006, of a man, Hamad Jama al-Saedi, they say is the second-in-command
of al-Qaeda in Iraq. The man was behind the bombing of a Shia shrine in
Samara in February that drew revenge attacks.
On September 8, 2006, the Iraqi ministry of health says more than 1,500 people were killed in attacks in Baghdad in August.
Iraq's government shut down the capital with a one-day curfew on Saturday September 30, 2006, ordering all cars and pedestrians off the streets, but giving no reason for the measure. The curfew would remain in place until 6:00 a.m. on Sunday. Iraq's national security adviser said security forces were closing in on the al-Qaida leader in Iraq who took over from the late Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in June. But the US ambassador said the main threat to Iraq was now from general sectarian violence.
On October 5, 2006, Iraqi officials are doing DNA tests on a militant killed in Haditha during a US military raid to determine if he is al-Qaida in Iraq leader Abu Hamza al-Muhajir. US military sources say it is probably not Muhajir, but they are awaiting confirmation from the tests. Muhajir took over as the al-Qaida in Iraq leader in June after the death of his predecessor Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
Hundreds of Iraqi policemen fell sick from poisoning Sunday October 8, 2006, at a base in the town of Numaniyah in southern Iraq after the evening meal breaking their daily Ramadan fast; officials are investigating whether the poisoning was intentional. An official with the Environment Ministry said 11 policemen had died. However, the governor of Wasit province where the poisoning took place denied any deaths, though he said some of the victims were in critical condition. There was no immediate explanation for the contradictory reports. Some of the policemen began bleeding from the ears and nose after the meal.
Gunmen in police uniforms killed the brother of Iraqi Vice-President Tariq al-Hashimi in Baghdad on Sunday October 8, 2006. Amer al-Hashimi, a major general in the Iraqi army, was at home in the Sulaikh district when the gunmen arrived in 10 police cars and stormed into the house and shot him dead. Tariq al-Hashimi's Iraqi Islamic Party is the largest Sunni Muslim bloc in parliament. Earlier this year another brother and his sister were murdered.
Eighty-nine Iraqi police needed medical treatment after an outbreak of sickness and diarrhoea at a base in central Iraq it was confirmed on Monday October 9, 2006. Infected water is the most likely cause of illness in the town of Numaniya. The US military says some 200-300 people are affected. Iraqi ambulances and US helicopters took the men to hospitals, and samples of food and water were being tested. Iraqi and US officials denied earlier reports that some of the men had died. On October 9, 2006, it became known that an Australian firm had provided the food that poisoned the policemen. An Environment Ministry official said 11 policemen had died, but another source denied there were any deaths but some of the victims were in a critical condition.
Authorities have arrested the head of a mess hall where at least 350
Iraqi policemen suffered food poisoning. A military spokesman said on
Tuesday October 10, 2006, that it was likely the poisonings were intentional.
An unnamed Australian contractor working through Iraqi subcontractors
supplied the base's food and water.
Iraq's health minister said on November 10, 2006, that between 100,000 and 150,000 civilians have been killed in the war, far more than other previously accepted figures. Officials said the number of victims is based on estimates of the number of bodies brought to mortuaries and hospitals - an estimate of 100 bodies being brought into government run mortuaries and hospitals every day. Casualty figures are a controversial topic, with estimates or counts ranging from 50,000 to 650,000 deaths.
Saddam Hussein, who was hanged on Saturday December 30, 2006, and buried
on Sunday, is the latest Iraqi leader to die violently in the state's
bloody history. Here are the other main leaders of Iraq since it was created
as a state by imperial Britain after World War One:
- KING GHAZI took the throne in 1933 on the death of his father KING FAISAL
I, the first British-installed monarch. He died in a suspicious car crash
six years later.
- Bakr Sidqi, who led a 1936 military coup under the monarchy, was assassinated
by fellow soldiers in 1937.
- KING FAISAL II was killed in his palace during the July 14 revolution
of 1958, along with Crown Prince Abdulillah and Prime Minister Nuri al-Said,
the power behind the throne.
- ABDUL-KARIM KASSEM took power on the 1958 declaration of a republic.
He survived an assassination attempt a year later by Saddam Hussein but
died in a military coup in 1963.
- ABD SALAM MOHAMMED ARIF made president after the 1963 coup and jailed
his erstwhile Baathist allies, including Saddam, within months of seizing
power. He died in an air crash in 1966.
- ABD AR-RAHMAN MOHAMMED ARIF succeeded his brother but was deposed by
the Baath party coup of July 20, 1968 and exiled.
- AHMED HASSAN AL-BAKR installed as president by the 1968 coup, he was
eclipsed by his kinsman Saddam during the 1970s and formally forced aside
by him in 1979. Bakr died three years later. Many believe he was poisoned
on Saddam's orders.
- SADDAM HUSSEIN took control of the Baath party behind the scenes before
ousting Bakr and becoming president in 1979. Survived an assassination
attempt in 1982 at Dujail. Overthrown by US invasion of 2003 and hanged
on Dec. 30, 2006 for crimes against humanity over his reprisals against
people of Dujail.
Iraq's need for US troops could fall in three to six months if the US supplied more weapons to the Iraqi security forces, PM Nouri Maliki said on January 18, 2007. Shortages of weapons and equipment had led to the insurgency being more prolonged and bloody he said. There has been concern that US military hardware could end up in the hands of militias and insurgents.
There is disagreement on February 14, 2007, over the whereabouts of the radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, with the United States saying he has left Iraq for Iran some time last month. But top aides to al-Sadr have strongly denied the claim but he has been keeping a low profile for security reasons. The US military says Moqtada Sadr's militia is one of the biggest threats to law and order in Baghdad.
Radical Iraqi Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr is currently in Iran, an adviser to the Iraqi prime minister said on February 15, 2007. The cleric will be back soon and had not fled the country in response to the new US-Iraqi security plan for Baghdad.
On February 16, 2007, radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has ordered heads of his Mehdi Army militia to leave Iraq and asked the government to arrest "outlaws" under a US- backed crackdown. President Jalal Talabani made the remarks after Iraq closed its borders with Iran and Syria and as US and Iraqi troops tightened their grip on Baghdad, patrolling neighbourhoods and setting up checkpoints that searched even official convoys.
Iraq's prime minister sacked an official on February 21, 2007, who demanded an international enquiry into the alleged rape of a Sunni woman by Iraqi security forces. Nouri Maliki, who is Shia, released a copy of a US medical report saying no rape had taken place. The woman says she was raped after a wrongful arrest for helping insurgents.
A top United States general said on Thursday February 22, 2007, insurgents in Iraq were using crude chemical bombs in a new campaign to create instability. Two bombs with chlorine gas have killed up to 11 people this week. The blasts, one in Baghdad and the other north of the capital, caused toxic fumes that have made scores sicker.
Iraq's prime minister called on Monday March 5, 2007, for an investigation into Sunday's raid by Iraqi and British forces in Basra on an intelligence agency detention centre. Nouri Maliki asked for those behind the "illegal and irresponsible act" to be punished. The raid was part of an operation led by Iraqi counter-terrorist forces that were seeking a "known death squad leader". Evidence of torture had been found at the southern Iraqi facility.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki made an unannounced visit to Ramadi, a stronghold of the Sunni insurgency on March 13, 2007. It is the first visit as prime minister by Mr Maliki, a Shia Muslim, to Iraq's western, mostly-Sunni Anbar province, and is being seen as highly symbolic. He met Ramadi's provincial governor, as well as local tribal leaders and US and Iraqi military commanders. Mr Maliki has said he wants to promote reconciliation between the minority Sunni community and the Shia community.
IRAQI insurgents detonated a car bomb on March 18, 2007, with two children inside the vehicle after using them as decoys to get through a military checkpoint. Adults in a vehicle with two children in the back seat were allowed through a Baghdad checkpoint on Sunday. The adults then parked next to a market in the Adamiya area of Baghdad, abandoned the vehicle and detonated it with the children still inside. The attack killed five, including the children, and wounded seven.
Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Salam Zaubai was injured in a double bombing
in Baghdad on March 23, 2007, in which nine people were killed. A suicide
bomber blew himself up and a car bomb exploded as Mr Zaubai was leaving
a mosque close to his home in the Iraqi capital. He is undergoing surgery
to remove shrapnel at a US military hospital in the Green Zone. Mr Zaubai,
a prominent Sunni, a member of the Accordance Front, the main Sunni bloc
in the Shia-led national unity government, is one of Iraq's two deputy
prime ministers. Two of the dead were Mr Zaubai's bodyguards and 15 people
were injured, including the deputy prime minister and his brother, who
is said to be badly hurt.
An al-Qaida affiliate in Iraq claimed responsibility in a statement posted Saturday April 7, 2007, on a militant Web site for this week's downing of a US helicopter south of Baghdad. US Army said in a brief statement Thursday that a helicopter carrying nine personnel went down south of Baghdad but that all on board survived. Four were wounded. The US military did not give details but said the incident was under investigation.
A group linked to al Qaida said on Saturday April 14, 2007, it abducted 20 Iraqi troops and policemen and demanded the release of all Sunni women held in Iraq's prisons. The Internet posting by the self-styled Islamic State in Iraq carried pictures of rows of blindfolded men, most of them in either blue or brown uniforms, in front of the group's black banner. Their hands appeared to be bound behind their backs. "The Islamic state in Iraq gives the infidel government of (Prime Minister Nuri al-) Maliki 48 hours to comply with its demand or God's judgment (execution) shall be carried out against them," the statement said.
Prince Harry will be a prime kidnap target for insurgents in Iraq, a
commander in the Mahdi army, the Shia militia loyal to the radical cleric
Moqtada al-Sadr, said on April 28, 2007. In comments denounced by British
defence sources as "blatant propaganda", Abu Mujtaba added:
"We have a special unit that would work to track him down, with informants
inside the bases.
The interior ministry in Iraq says it has received intelligence that the head of al-Qaida in Iraq has been killed in an "internal battle" between militants on April 30, 2007. Abu Ayyub al-Masri has led the group since June 2006, when Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed in an air strike. One official said he was "100% sure" Masri was dead, but another urged caution as they do not have the body. The self-styled Islamic State in Iraq said Masri, also known as Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, was alive and safe.
Iraqi Interior Minister Jawad al-Bolani said on May 1, 2007, highly reliable information indicated Abu Ayyub al-Masri, leader of al Qaida in Iraq, had been killed north of Baghdad. An al Qada-linked group, however, denied the report and U.S. officials said it could not be confirmed.
The Islamic State in Iraq, an alliance of Sunni groups headed by the Iraqi branch of Al-Qaida, confirmed on May 3, 2007, that its spokesman had been killed. But their guide, Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, is well, the group said, denying earlier claims from Iraqi officials that he had been killed while confirming US reports that it was Juburi who was killed.
An audio recording from al-Qaida's leader in Iraq, Abu Ayyub al-Masri -who the government said was killed this week- has appeared on a militant website on May 5, 2007. The tape says claims of internal fighting are "lies and fabrication".
On May 5, 2007, al-Qaida in Iraq branded the country's Sunni vice president a "criminal" for participating in the US-backed government.
A Sunni police chief praised by US forces for clearing his city of insurgents
has been arrested following an investigation into alleged murder, corruption
and crimes against the Iraqi people. Colonel Hamid Ibrahim al-Jazaa, his
brother and 14 bodyguards were taken into custody Tuesday May 29, 2007,
in the city of Hit.
The remains of 13 members of an Iraqi tae kwon do team kidnapped last
year have been found in western Iraq on Saturday June 16, 2007. The team
had been driving to a training camp in neighbouring Jordan in May 2006,
when their convoy was stopped and all 15 athletes abducted along a road
between the cities of Falluja and Ramadi, in Anbar province.
The US command announced on Wednesday July 18, 2007, the arrest of an al-Qaida leader, the link between the organization's command in Iraq and Osama bin Laden's inner circle, enabling it to wield considerable influence over the Iraqi group.
A top aide to Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani was stabbed to death on Friday July 20, 2007, a warning to Iraq's senior Shiite cleric. Abdullah Falaq was killed in his office, adjacent to Sistani's home in Najaf. Sistani, the most influential Shiite leaders in Iraq, and Falaq was his chief adviser on matters of Islamic law.
On July 22, 2007, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki urged the parliament to cancel or shorten its summer vacation to pass laws the US considers crucial. Parliament is scheduled to adjourn for August.
US and Iraqi forces announced Saturday August 4, 2007, that they had killed the mastermind of attacks on Samara's famed Golden Mosque, which sparked sectarian violence across the country. Haytham Badri, who also used the last name Sabi, was killed Thursday when his car caught fire as he fled a US air assault on his home. He had been hiding with a group of armed men in the Banat Hassan area of east Samara.
On Thursday August 9, 2007, hundreds of thousands of pilgrims have converged in the Iraqi capital on one of Shia Islam's holiest shrines, amid a big security operation. Nearly 2,000 Iraqi police and security agents are guarding the Kadhimiya mosque in the city's north and local traffic has been banned until Saturday. Each year, a million pilgrims walk to the shrine where the 8th Century imam, Moussa al-Kadhim, is said to be buried. In 2005, nearly 1,000 people died when rumours of an attack caused a stampede.
Some 30 Iraqi judges have been killed in the line of duty in Iraq, underscoring the need for tight security and a new complex in Baghdad aimed at protecting the justice system we were told on Monday August 13, 2007.
A Sunni leader in the Iraqi province of Diyala, who encouraged his community to confront al-Qaeda in Iraq, has been killed by the group on August 23, 2007. The militants exploded a bomb in his house in the town of Kanaan, and fired mortars and rocket-propelled grenades at other houses and a Sunni mosque. A total of 22 civilians died in the dawn attack. The attackers then seized at least seven people before retreating. Some of those kidnapped were women and children.
Osama Bin Laden is said to be preparing to release a video message to the American people to coincide with the sixth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. The announcement, made on an Islamist website on September 7, 2007, where al-Qaida's media arm frequently posts messages. US homeland security officials could not confirm the existence of a tape, and said there was "no credible information of an imminent threat". Al-Qaida has put out similar statements in the past but no video has followed. Bin Laden has not been seen in a video since October 2004, when he threatened new attacks
A new video tape purportedly made by al-Qaida leader Osama Bin Laden urged the American people on September 8, 2007, to embrace Islam in order to stop the war in Iraq. US officials believe the speaker, who makes no overt threats against the US, was indeed Bin Laden. It is his first video in three years. The release of the tape comes near the sixth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. US President George W Bush said the message was "a reminder of the dangerous world in which we live".
Six years after the most spectacular, horrific attacks on US soil in the nation's history, President Bush has failed to keep his promise. Osama bin Laden quickly went from America's most wanted man -a man President Bush himself said he wanted "dead or alive"- to a man of whom the president said just months later, "I truly am not that concerned about."
A high-profile Sunni Arab sheik, Abdul Sattar Buzaigh al-Rishawi, who collaborated with the American military in the fight against jihadist militants in western Iraq, was killed in a bomb attack on Thursday September 13, 2007, near his desert compound. The attack appeared to be a precisely planned assassination meant to undermine one of the Bush administration's trumpeted achievements in the war. Two guards were also killed in the attack.
A senior leader of al-Qaida in Iraq was killed in a US air strike near Baghdad on Tuesday September 25, 2007. The death of Abu Osama al-Tunisi, who led a group of foreign militants in Iraq, is a major blow to the organisation. He is accused of leading a cell responsible for kidnapping and killing three US soldiers in June 2006.
On Monday October 22, 2007, Osama bin Laden called for Iraqi insurgents
to unite and avoid divisive ``extremism." The tape appeared to be
in response to moves by some Sunni Arab tribes in Iraq that have joined
US troops in fighting al-Qaida members, as well as other Sunni insurgent
groups that -while still attacking Americans- have formed coalitions opposed
to al-Qaida.
Al-Qaida's deputy leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, said Arab leaders have betrayed the Palestinians by attending US-hosted Middle East talks last month. He added that Muslims are urged to reject the talks. The Annapolis conference started the first major Israeli-Palestinian peace drive in seven years.
A local Al-Qaida leader was killed early on Saturday February 9, 2008.
Abu Omar al-Dori was killed in a police raid on his home north of Baghdad.
He resisted police for about an hour before he was killed in his house
in downtown Samara.
On March 7, 2008, the Iraqi Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr explained why he has not been seen in public for more than nine months -and acknowledged splits in his movement. He said he missed his followers "too much" but that every "commander needed to be away for a while to worship". He has reportedly resumed his religious studies to gain the title of ayatollah. The statement comes two weeks after the cleric renewed a unilateral ceasefire his powerful Mehdi Army militia has been observing for the past six months.
An increase in Iraqi asylum seekers in 2007 contributed to the reversal of a five-year downward trend in asylum applications to developed countries. Iraqis were the largest group among asylum seekers to the world's industrialised countries for the second year running. More than 45,000 Iraqis applied for asylum in 2007, up from 22,900 in 2006, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said on March 18, 2008. But they make up only 1% of some 4.5 million Iraqis uprooted by war.
Iraqi President Jalal Talabani singled out violence and corruption as
the main problems facing his country on March 20, 2008, the fifth anniversary
of the invasion. Mr Talabani welcomed the end of Saddam Hussein's era
of "torture and tyranny", but warned that violence, terrorism
and corruption had now become a "disease". He also said any
further progress would not be possible without reconciliation.
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