Iraq analysis

[Al-khiyal]

BAGHDAD — The number of unidentified corpses discovered in Baghdad soared more than 70 percent during May, according to new statistics from the Iraqi Ministry of Interior, an indication that sectarian killings are rising sharply as militias return to the streets after lying low during the first few months of the troop “surge.”

In May, 726 unidentified bodies were found in Baghdad, many bound and shot in the head or showing signs of torture and execution, compared with 411 during April, according to figures provided by a ministry official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information.

The Bush administration and military have cited a decline in sectarian killings as proof that the troop escalation is working. And despite May’s increase in corpses, the numbers remain far below the peak of sectarian executions last year. In July and August, for example, a total of 5,106 people died violent deaths in Baghdad alone, according to the United Nations, including 3,391 reported by the city’s morgue.

The new figures also show a decline in the number of deaths of identifiable victims in Baghdad to 344 in May from 495 in April. While victims of car bombs, homemade bombs and mortar strikes can usually be identified, those who are kidnapped, tortured and executed are normally stripped of identification before their bodies are dumped.

Three more American soldiers were reported killed: two in Baghdad on Wednesday, one from a roadside bomb and one from small-arms fire, and one Friday by small-arms fire near Zawiyah.

Three children, ages 7, 9 and 11, were killed when an allied tank attacked insurgents trying to bury a bomb near Falluja on Friday, the military said. The insurgents escaped.

The increase in sectarian killings came as residents reported more than a dozen people killed this week in the insurgent-dominated Amiriya district of western Baghdad in what they described as fierce skirmishes between Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia and the Islamic Army of Iraq. The fighting appeared to be the first large-scale battles inside Baghdad between Al Qaeda and other Sunni insurgent groups.

Terrified Amiriya residents said by telephone on Friday that they were holed up in their homes after Iraqi and American forces warned them to stay inside. American officials said they also imposed a ban on vehicles in the district. Some residents said the forces appeared to be allowing the Sunni insurgent groups to fight Al Qaeda.

The American battalion commander responsible for operations in the area, Lt. Col. Dale Kuehl, said, “We have been involved in operations with the Iraqi Army and local nationals against Al Qaeda in Amiriya,” according to a statement. “I believe today was relatively quiet as Al Qaeda is regrouping,” he said.

According to residents interviewed, it was unclear how much of the fighting was driven by objections to Al Qaeda’s extremist tactics and attacks on other Sunnis, or reflected a turf battle in Amiriya, a large district near Abu Ghraib, by two insurgent factions that not long ago were allies.

Several residents said the fighting began after Qaeda members went to a mosque and confronted and later killed a leader in the Islamic Army, an insurgent group with ties to mainstream Sunni parties. The Islamic Army retaliated by killing several Qaeda fighters, spurring all-out fighting, residents said.

“What is happening now is to clear the name of the Iraqi resistance from all the crimes committed by Al Qaeda against the Sunnis,” one Amiriya resident said, adding that at least 40 people were killed.

One midlevel commander in the Islamic Army said he lost two men during the fighting but that the “operation will last forever until we get rid of Al Qaeda.” Some residents said another Iraqi insurgent group, the 20th Revolutionary Brigades, joined the fighting against Al Qaeda. But that group later issued a statement denying it had taken part.

Elsewhere, 10 people were killed and 30 wounded during a mortar strike in western Baghdad, according to an Interior Ministry official. Fifteen bodies were also discovered in the city. The killing and dumping of corpses is a hallmark of Shiite militiamen, notably the Mahdi Army, the force that sprang from the movement of the anti-American Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr.

American military commanders in Baghdad have said they believe some Mahdi Army commanders who fled Baghdad in January and February have returned recently. Officials close to Mr. Sadr have asserted that many militiamen who identify themselves as Mahdi fighters are operating outside of Mr. Sadr’s command.

On Friday, Agence France-Presse reported that Iraqi civilian deaths soared by almost a third in May, after a decline in April. The Iraqi government has lately refused to release official data on civilian casualties. But the report said information from the Interior, Health and Defense Ministries found at least 1,951 civilians killed throughout the country in May, a 30 percent increase from April. In the past month, American military officials in Baghdad have acknowledged an uptick in sectarian killings. But on Friday a spokesman did not respond to questions about increased civilian deaths in May.

South of the capital, military officials said tests concluded that a body recovered from the Euphrates River on May 27 was not one of two American soldiers still missing since their abduction May 12 near Mahmudiya.

Also on Friday, state-run television reported that Abdul Aziz al-Hakim had returned from Iran, where he sought treatment for a tumor. Mr. Hakim, leader of the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, one of the two most powerful Shiite parties, earlier said he traveled to the United States and Iran for treatment of “limited infections” and a “limited tumor.”

Number of unidentified bodies found in Baghdad rose sharply in May

[Al-khiyal]

WASHINGTON (AFP) - A US architect working on the construction of a massive new US embassy in war-torn Baghdad quickly removed plans and drawings of the proposed compound from its website Thursday after a protest from the State Department, officials said.

"Our desire would be that this not be in the public domain," State Department spokesman Gonzalo Gallegos said after officials called the firm of Berger Devine Yaeger within minutes of learning from a reporter that the embassy plans had been posted on its website.

"We work very hard to ensure the safety and security of our employees overseas and this kind of information out in the public domain detracts from that effort," Gallegos told AFP.

"When it was brought to our attention that these drawings were on their website, they were contacted by department officials and subsequently agreed to take it down," he said.

Congress has authorized nearly 600 million dollars to build what will be the largest, most fortified US embassy in the world, to be situated in the US-controlled "Green Zone" in central Baghdad.

The current US embassy is housed in Saddam Hussein's former Republican Palace, also in the Green Zone, and employs some 1,000 US nationals, the most of any US diplomatic mission.

Washington wants to return the buildings, and many other Saddam palaces occupied by US forces after the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq, to Iraqi authorities.

The Green Zone has been a frequent target of mortar and rocket fire from anti-US insurgents.

Until the State Department intervened on Thursday, the Berger Devine Yaeger website showed a full aerial plan of the proposed 104 acre (41 hectare) embassy compound, including the ambassador's residence, Marine guard quarters and residential areas.

The firm, based in Kansas City, Missouri, also posted artists' renditions of the ambassador's and Marine residences, embassy office buildings, a swimming pool, tennis court and community center.

The company said its part of the project included the design of a "self-contained compound" comprising the embassy, residences, a cinema, shops, restaurants, schools, a fire station, power generation and water treatment facilities.

In total, the full compound will include more than 20 buildings and housing for more than 380 families, it said.

Officials at Berger Devine Yaeger did not respond immediately to queries about the project or the decision to remove pages concerning the embassy from their website.

U.S. scrambles to remove plans for new Baghdad embassy from Internet

[Al-khiyal]

U.S. scrambles to remove plans for new Baghdad embassy from Internet

I bet they were really worried about some Iraqi finding those, eh?

[Al-khiyal]

U.S. scrambles to remove plans for new Baghdad embassy from Internet

[Al-khiyal]

June 2, 2007 -- A key bridge on the highway between Baghdad and the northern oil hub of Kirkuk was badly damaged by insurgents overnight in the latest bomb attack on Iraqi infrastructure, police said on Saturday.

"Gunmen bombed this strategic and important bridge and caused a great deal of damage, cutting the road between Kirkuk and Baghdad," said Colonel Abbas Mohammed Amin, chief of police in Tuz Khurmatu.

The bridge crosses the al-Adham river, a seasonal waterway that flows out of the remote Himreen hills, an insurgent hotbed around 150km north of the Iraqi capital.

While rebel fighters have attacked power lines and oil infrastructure since the US-led invasion of 2003, a new trend has appeared in the past few months of hitting bridges in an apparent attempt to divide the country.

Police believe the bridge was blown up in this case to hinder police and army attempts to conduct operations against insurgents in the hills.

In April, two Baghdad bridges crossing the Tigris between the warring eastern and western halves of the city were hit by bombs. One of them, the Sarafiyah bridge, was totally destroyed.

In May, a highway overpass connecting two neighbourhoods of the capital was also bombed.

Insurgents blow up bridge in Baghdad

[Al-khiyal]

Baghdad - An Iraqi journalist working for Associated Press Television (APTN) was shot dead on Thursday by gunmen as he went to a mosque near his Baghdad home, AP announced on its website.

Saif Fakhri, 26, joined the long list of media professionals to die in the Iraqi conflict, which is now being described as the most deadly for the press.

Fakhri was cut down on his day off by two bullets in the Sunni west Baghdad neighbourhood of Amiriyah which has been the scene of violent clashes between rival armed groups for the past two days, said AP.

The cameraman is the fifth AP employee to be killed in Iraq and the third since December. His wife was expecting their first child in June.

According to an May 18 toll posted by Reporters without Borders on their website, 176 journalists and media workers have been killed in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion - five journalists have died since then.

The vast majority of the victims have been Iraqi journalists killed by death squads and insurgent factions angered by their coverage or ideologically opposed to their employers, whether Iraq or foreign.

Others have been caught in crossfire between US and Iraqi forces, insurgent groups and militias, and some have disappeared after being seized by groups in security force uniforms.

AP cameraman killed in Baghdad

[Al-khiyal]

AP cameraman killed in Baghdad

Report: AP cameraman, carrying rifle, killed in Baghdad opposing Al-Qaeda