Iraq analysis

[Al-khiyal]

مقتل عشرات العراقيين وخطف وكيل وزارة الصحة وتصعيد خطير في عمليات الثأر المذهبي ... المعلم في بغداد يدين الإرهاب ويأمل بجدولة الانسحاب الأميركي

[Al-khiyal]

خطف وكيل وزارة الصحة وموجة مفخخات في بغداد والحلة
المسلحون يسيطرون علي 4 أحياء في بعقوبة

[Al-khiyal]

Insecurity is hampering repair work by electricity workers 66 of whom have so far been killed in Karkh, the western region of Baghdad.

“Deterioration in security is the major hurdle preventing us from doing our job properly,” said Ghaleb Baqer, Director-General of Karkh Power Distribution Company.

“We have lost 66 workers to violence and many others have suffered heavy injuries,” he said.

Power pylons and lines come under attack in Iraq where the authorities have failed to impose fees for power consumption.

The national grid is unreliable and only capable of providing erratic supplies which may not continue for one hour in a day.

Residents bypass meters installed by the grid.

Baqer said his engineers have found “58,700 cases of violation” by residents who devise their own way of reaching the main lines of supply.

Power output is said to still be less than the pre-war levels.

Attacks on electricity workers surge; 66 killed in west Baghdad

[Al-khiyal]

The twin pipeline which once used to carry more than 1 million barrels of Iraqi crude oil to terminals in Turkey is no longer of any use, according to Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani.

Repeated rebel attacks and lack of repairs have rendered the pipeline useless, he said.

The pipeline used to carry crude from oil fields of Kirkuk to Turkish ports on the Mediterranean.

But it was also linked to a strategic pipeline which gave the country the flexibility of shipping oil from the northern fields to southern terminals on the Gulf and from southern oil fields to terminals in Turkey via the twin pipeline.

That possibility is no more with the destruction of the twin pipeline.

With twin pipeline declared dead, the country loses yet another important chunk of its oil industry infrastructure.

The pipeline’s loss means that anti-U.S. rebels have finally succeeded in putting the gigantic oil fields of Kirkuk outside the reach of international markets, and denying the pro-U.S. government in Baghdad an important source of hard cash.

The pipeline’s destruction will have far reaching repercussions on the country’s refining capacity already slashed to less than half of pre-war levels.

Iraq’s largest refining complex at Beiji, north of Baghdad, relies heavily on secondary pipelines linked to Kirkuk oil fields.

Experts say rebels have recently intensified their attacks on these pipelines with the aim of putting them out of order for good.

“That will reduce the country’s fuel production to a trickle,” one expert, refusing to be named, said.

Iraq now will have to solely rely on exports from southern terminals and oil production from fields in the south where rival Shiite militias exercise control.

Fuel shortages are worsening in Iraq, though endowed with massive oil reserves.

Twin oil pipeline to Turkey rendered useless, says minister

[Al-khiyal]

BAGHDAD - A roadside bomb hit the convoy of a junior minister, Mohammed al-Oreibi, an official in his party said. Nobody was hurt in the blast.

TIKRIT - Police found eight bodies, including five people they said had been kidnapped on Sunday on the road from Dujail to Baghdad, police and a joint coordination center for Iraqi and U.S. forces said.

ISHAQI - A police colonel and two of his brothers were killed by gunmen on Sunday in Ishaqi, 100 km (60 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.

RAMADI - A suicide car bomber exploded his vehicle near a police checkpoint and killed two people, including a policeman, and wounded six others, including four policemen, in Ramadi, police and hospital sources said.

RAMADI - A mortar round landed near a court and wounded three people in Ramadi, 110 km (68 miles) west of Baghdad, a hospital source said.

NEAR MOSUL - A suicide car bomber rammed his car into a joint Iraqi police-army patrol and killed three soldiers and wounded four others, including a policeman, on Sunday in a town west of Mosul, police said.

ISKANDARIYA - A roadside bomb targeting an Iraqi army patrol killed two civilians and wounded three others in the town of Iskandariya, 40 km (25 miles) south of Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD - A roadside bomb in a crowded food market killed three people and wounded five others in Jamila district in eastern Baghdad, police said. An interior ministry source put the death toll at two, with seven wounded.

RAMADI - U.S. forces conducted an air strike and killed two suspected insurgents on Sunday in the Sunni insurgent stronghold of Ramadi, the U.S. military said in a statement.

BAGHDAD - A roadside bomb exploded near a police patrol and wounded two civilians near a highway in central Baghdad, an Interior Ministry source said.

BAQUBA - Gunmen killed a police officer from the Facility Protection Services (FPS) along with his driver in the religiously mixed city of Baquba, 65 km (40 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.

[Al-khiyal]

Sectarian tension in Iraq is increasing, as cracks are forming in the fragile governing coalition, writes Nermeen Al-Mufti:

The Kurdish community received news of the outcome of the United States elections with obvious concern. But most Iraqis didn't have much to say about the loss of the Republicans. Most refuse to believe that the Democratic control of the Congress is going to improve their lives in any tangible manner.

The Sunnis remain sceptical about the performance of Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki, and some have threatened to leave the government. The Sunnis are particularly worried about the worsening security situation. And not only the Sunnis are disenchanted with the performance of the Shiite prime minister. Mohamed Ihsan, a minister in the Kurdish government, said that the prime minister is failing to act on Article 140 of the constitution, which calls for full normalisation in the country.

Other politicians, especially the Turcomans, disagree with that assessment. Tareq Zeinal, a legal consultant for the Turcoman Front, said that Article 140 is about normalisation in the entire country. "The Kurds want to implement Article 140 in Karkuk alone. In other words, the Kurds want to annex Karkuk, which is something Arabs and Turcomans are opposed to. All historic documents and previous censuses confirm that Karkuk is an Iraqi and Torcuman town," Zeinal pointed out.

The New York Times has published a report by a US officer who worked in Dialy, 90 km northeast of Baghdad. The officer claimed that the commander of the fifth division of the Iraqi army in Dialy, Shaker Al-Kaabi, was involved in fomenting sectarian sedition in the country. Iraqi Defence Ministry spokesman Mohamed Al-Askari, denied the charges.

The dominantly Sunni Al-Azamiya region and other Sunni areas in the country have come under mortar fire for most of last week. The government blames "unknown gunmen" for the bombardment.

Meanwhile, differences continue to surface in government ranks. Half Al-Alyan, chief of the National Dialogue Front, threatened to withdraw from the government, citing Al-Maliki's refusal to listen to Sunni ministers. But Vice President Tareq Al-Hashimi, in a meeting with the Iraqi community in Doha, denied that the Sunnis were about to pull out of the government.

In a closed session of the parliament, Al-Maliki threatened to punish parliamentarians who speak out against the government. In the event of government reshuffle, Al-Maliki said, he will choose the new ministers himself and will not base his decision on their sectarian background. The remarks angered some deputies, one of whom told me that "what Al-Maliki said conflicts with the standing agreement among the parliamentary blocs." The Reconciliation Front now seeks an urgent meeting with the Coalition Bloc to discuss power sharing. The Reconciliation Front wants to maintain sectarian balance in various government agencies, especially the security services and may withdraw from the coalition unless its demands are met, according to a well-informed source.

Ministers of the Reconciliation Front are disappointed with the government's failure to bring security to Sunni areas, political analyst Raad Al-Hadithi said. "It is significant, though, that Al-Maliki now recognises that the militia are a menace," Al-Hadithi, who favours the incorporation of the militia in the army and the police, pointed out.

But what if the militia were incorporated in the police and then continued to disrupt the system from inside? The question worries Sheikh Mohamed Al-Badran, who lives in Ramadi. The best thing would be for the militia to be disbanded and their leaders to be brought to trial, he said.

Other analysts don't see Nuri Al-Maliki as someone who is insensitive to Sunni demands in particular. "I don't think that Al-Maliki is ignoring his Sunni ministers. But he is acting alone, just as former Prime Minister Ibrahim Al-Jaafari used to do. It is hard to blame him, for most officials cannot make up their mind and the country is spiralling out of control," says Janan Ali, an expert in Iraqi politics.

Living conditions in Iraq are steadily worsening. Gasoline is now 1,000 dinars ($0.6) a gallon, rather expensive by Iraqi standards. A bottle of liquefied gas costs 30,000 dinars ($20) and lasts an average family about a week. Electricity and water supply are irregular. Students are afraid to go to school. And many families are moving out of their neighbourhoods because of sectarian violence. Some are spending the cold winter in stadiums, now turned into open-air makeshift camps.

Divided they fall

[Al-khiyal]

Iraq's defence minister has declared that the country is in a "state of war" on a day in which more than 20 people were killed and 75 new bodies found.

Among the dead was a popular comedian who had made fun of US forces and the Iraqi government. He was shot and killed in Baghdad.

Nearly 1,500 Iraqis have been reported killed during November.

"We are in a state of war and in war all measures are permissible," Abdel Qader Jassim, Iraq's defence minister, said on Monday.

He was speaking at a news conference attended by several government ministers who are at odds over the fate of dozens of kidnapped education ministry workers.

Education officials have rejected government claims that most of the hostages have been freed, saying dozens are still missing. They blamed Shia militias for abducting them.

Iraq's interior minister, a Shia, said that the attack on the Sunni-run higher education Ministry was not sectarian.

Meanwhile US-led forces raided Baghdad's mainly Shia Sadr City for the second time in two days, searching for the men suspected of carrying out the mass kidnapping.

British and Iraqi forces also raided homes in southern Iraq on Monday and arrested four men suspected of being involved in the kidnapping of four American security guards and their Austrian co-worker, an official said.

Iraqi society was dealt another blow on Monday when gunmen assassinated a prominent comedian.

Waleed Hassan, whose satirical television show poked fun at the US-led forces, sectarian militias and the government, was killed when he was shot three times in the head while on his way to work.

He was the latest of dozens of Iraqi broadcasters and journalists to be killed.

"We feel we're all at risk," a journalist at Al-Sharqiyah TV said. "We all think of quitting the station."

Several senior Shia members of the government were also targeted on Monday - apparently by members of Sunni armed groups.

Mohammed Abbas Auraibi, the minister of state and a member of Iraq's Shia majority, said a roadside bomb hit his convoy on Monday morning on a highway in eastern Baghdad, wounding two of his bodyguards.

"I was returning from an official visit to Amarah when our convoy was attacked," he said in an interview with The Associated Press news agency.

"Thank God the two guards were only slightly injured."

Hakim al-Zamily, a Shia deputy health minister, also escaped unhurt when gunmen opened fire on his convoy in Baghdad.

"The convoy was blocked by several cars and we were fired on from the cars and round about," al-Zamily told Reuters news agency.

"Two of my guards were killed, but we were able to fight our way out."

The attacks came one day after another deputy health minister, Ammar al-Saffar, also a Shia, was abducted from his home in northern Baghdad.

Officials said the al-Saffar was taken away by men wore police uniforms and arrived in seven vehicles.

Al-Saffar is believed to be the most senior government official kidnapped in Iraq since the war began in March 2003.

'State of war' in Iraq