Iraq analysis

[Al-khiyal]

Iraq TV reporter gunned down in Baghdad

[Al-khiyal]

Clerics will need official sanction to lead congregations in Iraq's capital and Iraqi forces will only be allowed to raid mosques in the presence of US troops.

"We reached an agreement that the imams of mosques must be nominated by the Shiite and Sunni Waqfs (religious administrations) because we have discovered that some imams are imposters who should not be in charge," Major General Mehdi Musabah - the interior ministry commando chief - said Thursday.

The general was speaking to journalists after a heated meeting with Baghdad Sunni and Shiite imams and tribal leaders where he said a decision had also been taken not to allow Iraqi security forces to raid mosques without US presence.

"We have taken the decision not to raid any more Sunni or Shiite mosques without the presence of US security," Musabah said.

"If there are forces doing this without the US, it means this is unofficial and that they are gangs using the uniforms of Iraqi forces," Musabah added.

US military officials were seen by a reporter at the talks but the military said it knew nothing of the agreement.

"That's news to me, that's a surprise to me," said US military spokesman, Major General Rick Lynch......

Baghdad clerics must be approved by Iraqi government

[Al-khiyal]

In a bid to stop sectarian violence, Iraq's top Shiite cleric ordered all Shiite mosques to close for three days in a town in southern Iraq where a local Sunni Arab leader was assassinated.

Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani issued the edict for mosques in Zubayr, where gunmen killed Sunni imam Sheik Khaled Ali Obeid al-Saadoun and two of his associates Wednesday as they left a mosque after evening prayers. Al-Saadoun also had served as the local leader of the Iraqi Islamic Party, a Sunni Arab political group......

Al-Sistani orders some Iraqi mosques closed

Gunmen killed a Sunni imam and his son in the mostly Shiite city of Basra in southern Iraq as they were leaving a mosque after Friday prayers, police said.

The attack occurred one day after Iraq's top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, had tried to curb sectarian violence in the region by ordering all Shiite mosques to close for three days in a town near Basra where a local Sunni Arab leader had been assassinated.....

Gunmen kill Sunni imam, son in Iraq after mosques ordered closed

[Al-khiyal]

A senior U.S. officer has been working to restore the morale of some 600 Ugandan guards, most of them serving abroad for the first time, following the allegations that they were sexually abused while working with the U.S. forces in Iraq.

Some of the Ugandan recruits at al Asad Airbase, northwest of Iraq, one of the biggest U.S. fortresses, were allegedly sodomized by foreign soldiers and admitted at the Gettysburg health facility inside the fortress, according to a report of Daily Monitor on Thursday.

Sources said two Ugandans, Enock Bashaija and Geoffrey Kawuka, slipped into a coma due to brutal assaults at the hands of foreign officers at Alasad Airbase after they queried terms of the contract.

Ugandans would have gone on strike to protest the beatings of Bashaija and Kawuka, if it has not been intervened by Fred Lynch, the retired Commanding Officer of the US army at the airbase and Paul Hegue, the executive officer of SOC-SMG, a private security management firm that manages the airbase, according to the report.

But the United States embassy in Kampala could not confirm or deny the allegations emerging out of Iraq involving Ugandans.

"We cannot comment; only the Defense Department (in Washington) can answer those questions," Ms Alyson Grunder, the US embassy spokesperson told the paper.....

600 Ugandans reportedly abused while working in Iraq

[Al-khiyal]

Three US fuel transport tankers were set on fire Thursday in an attack by militants in North Baghdad, eyewitnesses said Friday.

The witnesses told KUNA unknown militants attacked late last night a convoy of US army trucks near Al-Mshahda, North Baghdad. They added three fuel tankers were burned completely.

The witnesses also said US forces quickly returned fire and surrounded the scene while helicopters were seen hovering in the area in search for the perpetrators.

According to witnesses' accounts, civilians are still banned approach to the area and it is not possible to assess damage as yet.

The Multi-National Forces would not comment on the incident for the time being.....

US fuel tankers burned in North Baghdad ambush

4 U.S. Marines killed in Iraq

Two U.S. soldiers killed in bomb attack southwest of Baghdad

[Al-khiyal]

Shi'ite in-fighting delays Iraq government

A small but influential Shia Islamist party said it was pulling out of talks on forming a new Iraqi government today, complaining of US interference.....

Fadhila party withdraws from Iraq talks

[Al-khiyal]

The spiralling violence in Iraq has led to sustained "sectarian cleansing" with many families forced to take refuge in squalid camps.

The Red Crescent says more than 100,000 people - equally Sunni and Shia Muslim - living in mixed areas have fled their homes since the February bombing of the Golden mosque in Samarra, a revered Shia shrine, which led to a frenzy of tit-for-tat killings.

Those with nowhere to stay find themselves reduced to tent cities like Shu'lah in Baghdad, where 800 families now live......

Displaced Iraqis 'living like animals'