Iraq War Deaths Now Estimated At 461,000: For Every 3 Killed By Violence, 2 Died From Iraq’s Failing Infrastructure Chris Weller, Medical Daily 15 October 2013
The devastating effects of the Iraq war are still being felt in pockets of the battle-beaten country, as researchers surveying the region now estimate the death toll has climbed to nearly half a million people. But faceless violence doesn’t tell the whole story: for every three deaths attributable to violence, two people die because of Iraq’s crumbling health care systems, water supply, and sustainable nutrition sources.
New series of attacks in Iraq kills 43 Mohammed Tawfeeq, CNN Mon October 21, 2013
Civilians inspect the aftermath of a car bomb attack in Baghdad, Iraq, on Saturday. At least 350 people have been killed during the violence in Iraq in October. At least 43 people were killed and dozens more injured in the latest round of attacks Sunday in Iraq's Anbar and Baghdad provinces, local police said. In a Sunday evening attack, at least 37 people were killed and 42 others wounded in Baghdad province. A suicide bomber wearing an explosives-laden vest blew himself up in a crowded coffee shop in the predominantly Shiite al-Amel neighborhood in southwest Baghdad, according to police officials. Many of the victims were young men gathering to drink tea, smoke hookah and play games, officials said. (read more)
Iraq: Outburst of Bombings Sweeps Through Baghdad Neighborhoods
Twelve explosions hit Shiite neighborhoods in Baghdad within 40 minutes on Monday, killing at least 37 people and wounding more than 100, security and medical officials said. In one attack in the Husseiniya area in northern Baghdad, a homemade bomb exploded near a restaurant, followed by a car-bomb blast
Other car bombs exploded in markets and garages in the neighborhoods of Baya, Saydia, Obaidi, Kamb Sarah, Zafaraniya, Baghdad Jadida, Elam and Bab al-Sharji, striking shoppers and other pedestrians and turning the streets of Baghdad into a chaos of casualties, ambulances, police patrols and blaring alarms. (read more)
Iraq suicide blasts kill 27, many of them children
BAGHDAD (AP) — Suicide car bombers attacked an elementary school and a police station in a small northern Iraqi village on Sunday while another on foot detonated his payload among Shiite pilgrims in Baghdad, killing at least 27 people including children, officials said.
The attacks are the latest in a relentless wave of killing that has made for Iraq‘s deadliest outburst of violence since 2008. The mounting death tolls are raising fears that the country is falling back into the spiral of violence that brought it to the edge of civil war in the years after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.
Sunday’s blasts began around 9:30 a.m. local time (2:30 a.m. EDT) in the Shiite Turkomen village of Qabak, just outside the town of Tal Afar. The area around the stricken village long has been a hotbed for hard-to-rout Sunni insurgents and a corridor for extremist fighters arriving from nearby Syria. (read more)
Iraq Executes 23 People In Two Days
Most Of Them Convicted On Terrorism Charges
Baghdad: Iraq executed 23 people during two days in September, most of them convicted on terrorism charges, the justice ministry said Tuesday. Twenty of the 23 were either al-Qaeda members or otherwise involved in terrorism, while three were convicted of unspecified “criminal charges,” a ministry spokesman said. The executions were carried out on Sept 22 and 26. They take to at least 90 the number of people who have been put to death in Iraq this year, according to an AFP tally based on reports from the ministry and officials. (read more)
Iraq attacks kill nearly 50 people
(BAGHDAD) -- A suicide bomber blew himself up among a crowd of Shiite pilgrims in Baghdad and another detonated his explosives inside a cafe north of the capital, the deadliest of several attacks across Iraq on Saturday that killed at least 48 people.
The killings, which also included attacks on journalists and anti-extremist Sunni fighters, are part of the deadliest surge in violence to hit Iraq in five years. The accelerating bloodshed is raising fears that the country is falling back into the spiral of violence that brought it to the edge of civil war in the years after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.
The pilgrims were targeted late Saturday as they passed through the largely Sunni neighborhood of Azamiyah en route to a prominent shrine in the nearby Shiite neighborhood of Kazimiyah, according to police officials. At least 24 people, including four policemen manning the checkpoint, were killed and 50 others were wounded, the officials said. (read more)
Iraq Executes 23 People In Two Days
Most Of Them Convicted On Terrorism Charges
Baghdad: Iraq executed 23 people during two days in September, most of them convicted on terrorism charges, the justice ministry said Tuesday. Twenty of the 23 were either al-Qaeda members or otherwise involved in terrorism, while three were convicted of unspecified “criminal charges,” a ministry spokesman said. The executions were carried out on Sept 22 and 26. They take to at least 90 the number of people who have been put to death in Iraq this year, according to an AFP tally based on reports from the ministry and officials. (read more)
September marked by bloody sectarian attacks in Iraq
September violence including sectarian attacks killed nearly 1,000 people in Iraq, the UN said Tuesday, as authorities approved hazard pay for security forces in a sign of the deteriorating situation.
Violence has reached a level unseen since 2008, and there are fears Iraq is slipping back toward the intense Sunni-Shiite bloodshed that peaked in 2006-2007 and killed tens of thousands.
"September has seen a rise in mass-casualty bombings aimed at crowded areas. There has also been an increase in the killing of whole families in shooting attacks," said John Drake, an analyst with risk management firm AKE Group.
"Radical Islamist groups are likely intent on stoking an angry response from the Shiite community," he said.
That "will polarise society further and drive many in the Sunni community to seek protection from whoever they think represents them the best and has the best chance of physically defending them." (read more)
Iraq: Attacks Amount to Crimes Against Humanity Authorities Should End Draconian Responses By Human Rights Watch 11 August 2013 (Baghdad) - Militants who carried out a series of bomb attacks in Iraq on July 29, 2013, deliberately killing more than 60 people committed crimes against humanity, Human Rights Watch said today. Crimes against humanity are some of the most serious crimes under international law. (read more)
Insight: 'Crude for blood' - return of sectarian war hits Iraq's oil exports By Ahmed Rasheed and Ziad al-Sanjary 25 July 2013
(Reuters) - Iraq's Sunni insurgents are targeting its main northern oil pipeline, undoing plans for a massive increase in exports as violence reaches levels unseen since the darkest days of civil war.
Iraq's ambitious plans to ramp up its oil output have been held back by poor maintenance and technical problems. Violence is making the situation worse, and, if it continues to escalate, could have a measurable impact on global supply. (read more)
Militants kill 14 Shi'ites after checking ID cards in north Iraq By Ghazwan Hassan 24 July 2013
(Reuters) - Militants shot dead 14 Shi'ite tanker-drivers after checking their identity papers at a makeshift roadblock on the main route leading north from the Iraqi capital late on Wednesday, police said.
The killings took place near Sulaiman Pek, 160 km (100 miles) north of Baghdad, following clashes inside the town between militants and the police and army. (read more)
Gunmen shoot dead nine policemen in northern Iraq By Reuters 24 July 2013
(Reuters) - Militants riding on pick-up trucks opened fire on a checkpoint in northern Iraq on Wednesday, killing nine policemen, police said.
The attack took place in Shura, 50 km (35 miles) south of Mosul, Iraq's third largest city and capital of the Sunni-dominated Nineveh province, where al Qaeda has been regrouping. (read more)
Iraq suicide bomber kills 20 in Sunni mosque By Mustafa al-Tuwaijri 20 July 2013
BAQUBA, Iraq — A suicide bomber killed 20 people inside a crowded Sunni mosque north of Baghdad on Friday, police said, as Iraq struggles to contain its worst violence since 2008.
The bomber detonated explosives soon after entering the Abu Bakr al-Sadiq Mosque as the imam gave the Friday sermon in the town of Al-Wajihiyah, a police colonel said.
A doctor confirmed the toll from the blast, which also wounded 40 people. (read more)
Iraq: Wave of blasts mostly targeting Shiite areas and other attacks kill at least 38 By Associated Press, writer Nabil al-Jurani in Basra, Iraq, contributed. 14 July 2013
BAGHDAD — A wave of coordinated blasts that tore through overwhelmingly Shiite cities shortly before the breaking of the Ramadan fast and other attacks killed at least 38 in Iraq on Sunday, the latest in a surge of violence that is raising fears the country is sliding back toward full-scale sectarian fighting.
Insurgents have been pounding Iraq with bombings and other attacks for months in the country’s worst eruption of violence in half a decade. The pace of the killing has picked up since the Muslim holy month Ramadan began Wednesday, with daily mass-casualty attacks marring what is meant to be a month of charity and peaceful reflection. (read more)
Latest attacks in Iraq kill 24 Shiites, 5 policemen, officials say By Associated Press, Sinan Salaheddin contributed 12 July 2013
BAGHDAD — New attacks on Iraqi Shiites killed at least 24 people while assaults Friday against policemen killed five, officials said, as insurgents press their campaign to exacerbate the country’s renewed sectarian tensions.
In one of the attacks on Shiites, a suicide bomber rammed his explosives-laden motorcycle into a funeral tent for a Shiite family in the town of in Muqdadiyah, about 90 kilometers (60 miles) north of Baghdad, officials said. (read more)
Iraq 'on the cusp' as spike in brutal sectarian violence threatens civil war By Lincoln Archer 5 July 2013
Iraq is "on the cusp" of collapsing into civil war, the United Nations' chief of human rights in the country has said, after months of brutal sectarian attacks which are more viciously divisive than the violence seen five years ago that left tens of thousands dead.
The death toll in Iraq has spiked since April, with more than 2,200 people killed. Latest figures show militant attacks ramping up in markets, cafes, soccer stadiums and other civilian targets, as well as Shia mosques and religious centres. (read more)
Sunni unrest revives fears of sectarian war in Iraq By Kamal Naama and Suadad al-Salhy, Reuters 01 May 2013
Wearing military fatigues with his cleric's turban, Sheikh Ali Muhaibes brought Friday prayers in Iraq's Sunni Muslim heartland to a climax with chilling words for the Shi'ite-led government.
"If you want jihad, we're ready. If you want confrontation, we're ready. And if you want us to go to Baghdad, we're coming," he roared to the crowd in the western province of Anbar.
For months, Sunnis have been protesting against Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al- Maliki, whom they accuse of marginalizing their minority sect and monopolizing power since U.S.-led troops toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003. Now the mood is suddenly uglier. (read more)
Iraqi troops stand at a makeshift camp at a public square in Hawija, near Kirkuk, 170 km (100 miles) north of Baghdad, April 23, 2013. (Reuters/Stringer)
Series of deadly bombs rocks Iraqi cities By Al Jazeera 01 May 2013
At least 15 people have been killed in a series of bomb blasts across Iraq, police and medics have said.
Wednesday's attacks follow a sharp increase in violence that has prompted warnings of a full-blown sectarian conflict between Sunnis and Shia.
A suicide bomber wearing an explosives vest detonated himself in the midst of a group of government-backed Sunni fighters who were collecting their salaries east of the city of Fallujah, killing six, police sources said. (read more)
Iraq bans al-Jazeera and nine other TV channels over 'sectarian bias' By Associated Press in Baghdad, the Guardian 29 April 2013
The Iraqi authorities announced on Sunday that they had revoked the operating licences of the broadcaster al-Jazeera and nine other satellite TV channels, alleging that they are promoting a sectarian agenda, as the country grapples with a wave of violence.
The move, effective immediately, comes as Baghdad tries to quell rising unrest in the country after clashes at a protest camp last week.
More than 180 people have been killed in gun battles with security forces and other attacks since the unrest began on Tuesday. The violence follows more than four months of largely peaceful protests by Iraq's Sunni Muslim minority against the Shia-dominated government. (read more)
The newsroom at the headquarters of al-Jazeera, in Qatar. (Karim Jaafar/AFP/Getty Images)
Sunni Muslims chant “Allahu Akbar”, meaning “God is great”, during an anti-government demonstration in the central city of Samarra April 26, 2013. Credit: Reuters/Bakr al-Azzawi
Bombs kill at least 20 across Iraqi capital By Kareem Raheem, Reuters 26 April 2013
Bomb blasts in Baghdad killed at least 20 more people on Friday at the end of a week of bloodshed that prompted a United Nations envoy to warn Iraq was "at a crossroads".
More than 160 people have been killed since Tuesday, when troops stormed a Sunni protest camp near Kirkuk, triggering clashes that quickly spread to other Sunni areas in western and northern provinces.
Although well below the heights of 2006-7, this week's violence was the most widespread since U.S. troops pulled out of Iraq in December 2011. Militant attacks have increased this year as Iraq's fragile ethnic and sectarian balance comes under growing strain from the civil war in neighboring Syria. (read more)
At least 110 people killed in Iraq after two days of violence By Al Arabiya with Agencies 24 April 2013
At least 110 people have been killed in Iraq since clashes broke out yesterday between security force and gunmen, officials said on Wednesday.
Tensions are rising since dozens of people were killed and injured when Iraqi security forces stormed a Sunni Muslim anti-government protest camp in Hawija, near Kirkuk, on Tuesday. The raid on the protest was followed by an attack on Iraqi army checkpoints.
Iraqi officials are meeting in Anbar, in the western region of Iraq, to discuss the crisis in Kirkuk, Al Arabiya’s correspondent reported on Wednesday. (read more)
Dozens of people were killed and injured when Iraqi security forces stormed a Sunni Muslim anti- government protest camp in Hawija, near Kirkuk, on Tuesday. (Reuters)
Clashes erupt in Iraq following government crackdown on Sunni protest site, at least 36 dead By Associated Press, the Washington Post 23 April 2013
BAGHDAD — Iraqi security forces backed by helicopters raided a Sunni protest camp before dawn Tuesday, prompting clashes that killed at least 36 people in the area and significantly intensified Sunni anger against the Shiite-led government.
The fighting broke out in the former insurgent stronghold of Hawija, about 240 kilometers (160 miles) north of Baghdad. Like many predominantly Sunni communities, the town has seen months of rallies by protesters accusing the government of neglect and pursuing a sectarian agenda.
In an apparent response to the morning raid, militants tried to storm two army posts in the nearby town of Rashad, and six of them were killed, according to the Defense Ministry. Seven other militants were killed while trying to attack military positions in another town, Riyadh, according to police and hospital officials. (read more)
BBC
Iraq violence: Baghdad cafe hit by deadly bomb attack BBC News 18 April 2013
At least 27 people, including two children, have been killed and dozens more injured in a bomb attack on a cafe in the Iraqi capital Baghdad, officials have said.
A suicide bomber detonated his explosives inside the cafe in the west of the city, police said.
No group has said it carried out the attack.
The violence comes ahead of Iraq's provincial elections on 20 April, the first in the country since 2010. (read more)
Iraq bombings kill eight AFP 16 April 2013 BAGHDAD — Bombings in Iraq, including one near a governor's convoy, killed eight people on Tuesday a day after a wave of attacks left 50 dead ahead of the first elections since US troops withdrew.
A car bomb killed four people and wounded 15 in Aziziyah, while a roadside bomb killed a soldier and wounded two near Mussayib, both south of the capital, security and medical officials said.
Three separate blasts north of Baghdad killed three people and wounded eight others, and a roadside bomb exploded near a convoy carrying Nineveh province's Governor Atheel al-Nujaifi near the main northern city of Mosul, though no one was hurt. (read more)
An Iraqi policeman and civilian inspect the site of a car bomb attack in Baghdad's Sadr City district, on April 16, 2013 (AFP, Ahmad al-Rubaye)
Assassinations Grow as Iraqi Elections Near By Tim Arango, New York Times 15 April 15 2013
BAGHDAD — In the first Iraqi elections since the American troop withdrawal, Sunni candidates are being attacked and killed in greater numbers than in recent campaigns, raising concerns in Washington over Iraq’s political stability and the viability of a democratic system the United States has heavily invested in over years of war and diplomacy.
At least 15 candidates, all members of the minority Sunni community, have been assassinated — some apparently by political opponents, others by radical Sunni militants. Many others have been wounded or kidnapped or have received menacing text messages or phone calls demanding that they withdraw. (read more)
Mourners attending the funeral of Salah al-Obeidi, 48, a candidate who was shot to death in his office. “Because he’s a Sunni, no one will care,” a friend said. (Adam Ferguson for The New York Times)
Many dead in serial blasts in Iraq Al Jazeera 15 April 2013
A wave of bombings across Iraq have killed at least 33 people and wounded more than 160 others, officials said, just days before the country's first elections since US troops withdrew.
Most of the deadly attacks on Monday morning reported by police officials were bombings, which killed several people in Baghdad, in the western city of Fallujah, the contested northern city of Kirkuk and towns south of the capital.
A total of 14 car bombs and three roadside bombs struck seven cities including Baghdad, security and medical officials said on Monday, updating an earlier toll. (read more)
Iraq mosque bombing kills seven worshippers Reporting By Raheem Salman; editing by Patrick Markey, Reuters 12 April 2013
A bomb explosion killed at least seven people and wounded 25 in front of a Sunni Muslim mosque in Iraq's Diyala province as worshippers were leaving after Friday prayers, police and medics said.
A surge of attacks by Sunni Islamists have targeted Shi'ite Muslims this year in growing sectarian confrontation, although officials say insurgents also hit Sunni religious sites as part of their campaign.
The bomb went off near the gate of the mosque, targeting worshippers and enveloping the mosque in white smoke. Witnesses said shoes and pieces of clothes were scattered outside. (read more)
Suicide bomber kills 20 at political rally in northeastern Iraq By Associated Press 6 April 2013
BAGHDAD (AP) — A suicide bomber blew himself up Saturday at a lunch hosted by a Sunni candidate in Iraq's upcoming regional elections, killing 20 people, officials said.
The blast ripped through a hospitality tent pitched next to the house of Muthana al-Jourani, who is running for the provincial council and held the lunch rally for supporters, councilman Sadiq al-Huseini said.
The attack took place in Baqouba, a mixed Sunni-Shiite city some 60 kilometers (35 miles) northeast of Baghdad. Insurgent attacks and sectarian bloodletting have been rampant there in the decade since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion. Violence is expected to surge in the run up to Iraq's provincial elections on April 20. (read more)
This image from AP video shows the aftermath of a suicide attack in Baqouba, some 60 kilometers (35 miles) northeast of Baghdad, Iraq, Saturday, April 6, 2013. (AP Photo via AP video)
Suicide bomber in fuel truck kills 9 in Iraq's Tikrit GlobalPost 3 April 2013
A suicide bomber drove an oil tanker packed with explosives into a local Iraqi government compound on Monday, killing at least nine people, mostly policemen, in the northern city of Tikrit.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but insurgents tied to al-Qaeda have been redoubling their efforts to weaken Iraq's Shiite-led government and stoke inter-communal conflict.
The bomber drove the tanker inside a compound housing governmental administration offices in central Tikrit, 150 kilometers (95 miles) north of Baghdad, setting off a blast that left behind a large crater and badly damaged nearby buildings. (read more)
Bombs at five Iraqi Shi'ite mosques kill 19 Reporting by Omar Mohammed and Baghdad newsroom; Writing by Patrick Markey; Editing by Angus MacSwan and Patrick Graham, Reuters 29 March 2013
Car bombs hit five Shi'ite mosques in Baghdad and the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk just after prayers on Friday, killing 19 worshippers and injuring another 130.
Ten years after the U.S. invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein, Iraq is still grappling with political turmoil and Sunni Islamist insurgents linked to al Qaeda, who are stepping up attacks on Shi'ite targets and security forces.
Friday's blasts hit Shi'ite mosques in southeast and north Baghdad while another tore the front off a mosque in Kirkuk, an ethnically mixed city of Arabs, Kurds and Turkman 170 km (100 miles) north of the capital. (read more)
Residents inspect a damaged vehicle at the site of a bomb attack in Kirkuk, 250 km (155 miles) north of Baghdad, March 29, 2013. (Reuters/Ako Rasheed)
Residents gather at the site of a car bomb attack in the AL-Mashtal district in Baghdad March 19, 2013. (Mohammed Ameen/Reuters)
Bombs kill 50 on Iraq invasion anniversary By Patrick Markey and Kareem Raheem, Reuters 19 March 2013
A dozen car bombs and suicide blasts tore into Shi'ite Muslim districts across Baghdad and south of the Iraqi capital on Tuesday, killing more than 50 people on the 10th anniversary of the U.S.- led invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein.
Sunni Islamist insurgents linked to al Qaeda are regaining ground in Iraq, invigorated by the war next door in Syria and have stepped up attacks on Shi'ite targets in an attempt to provoke a wider sectarian confrontation.
One car bomb exploded in a busy Baghdad market, three detonated in the Shi'ite district of Sadr City and another near the entrance of the heavily fortified Green Zone that sent a plume of dark smoke into the air alongside the River Tigris. (read more)
Blasts, clashes kill at least 25 in central Baghdad Reuters 14 March 2013
Coordinated blasts killed at least 25 people in the heart of Baghdad on Thursday near the heavily fortified Green Zone, where several Western embassies are located, police and medics said.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the explosions, but Sunni Muslim insurgents have been redoubling their efforts to undermine Iraq's Shi'ite-led government and foment inter- communal conflict this year.
The brazen attacks in broad daylight will fan concerns about Iraq's fragile security, which has come under growing strain as the increasingly sectarian conflict in neighboring Syria threatens to upset its own Sunni-Shi'ite balance. (read more)
Members of the Iraqi Army gather near the site of a bomb attack at Alawi district in Baghdad March 14, 2013. (Reuters/Saad Shalash)
Massacre of Syrian Soldiers in Iraq Raises Risk of Widening Conflict By Duraid Adnan and Rick Gladstone, New York Times 4 March 2013
BAGHDAD — More than 40 Syrian soldiers who had sought temporary safety in Iraq from rebel fighters along the border were killed on Monday in an attack by unidentified gunmen as the Iraqi military was transporting the soldiers back to Syria in a bus convoy, the Iraqi government said.
At least seven Iraqis were also reported killed in the attack, which appeared to be the most serious spillover of violence into Iraq since the Syrian conflict began two years ago.
Ali al-Musawi, a spokesman for Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, accused “armed groups from the Iraqi and Syrian side” of coordinating the attack, which he described as an ambush. He said Iraq would deploy more security forces on the border. Middle East experts said such a move raised the risk that the Iraqis could become more directly enmeshed in the Syrian conflict, underscoring how it threatens to destabilize a wider swath of the region. (read more)
Suicide bomber hits Iraq Shiite shrine city of Karbala By AFP, Al Arabiya 3 March 2013
A suicide bomber struck in an area between major shrines in the Iraqi Shiite holy city of Karbala on Sunday, causing casualties, an official from one of the shrines said.
Jamal al-Din Shahristani, an official at the Imam Hussein shrine, said an engineer working on a project between the site and the Imam Abbas shrine blew himself up, causing an unspecified number of casualties.
The shrines for the two grandsons of the Prophet Mohammed are among the holiest sites in Shiite Islam, and are visited by hundreds of thousands of pilgrims each year. (read more)
Sunni militants frequently target Iraq’s Shiite majority in a bid to increase sectarian tension and undermine the country’s Shiite-led government. (AP)
Series of explosions in Iraq kill 22 By Sameer N. Yacoub, Associated Press 28 February 2013
BAGHDAD (AP) — A series of bombings struck Baghdad and towns south of the Iraqi capital on Thursday, killing at least 22 and wounding dozens in areas that are home to mostly Muslim Shiites — the latest evidence of rising sectarian discord in Iraq.
The attackers struck a day before tens of thousands of Sunni Muslims are expected to take to the streets in what have become weekly protests against the Shiite-led government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. The rallies are exacerbating long-simmering tensions between Iraq's Sunnis and the Shiite majority nearly a decade after the U.S.-led invasion.
The deadliest attack occurred around sunset when a pair of bombs exploded nearly simultaneously in Shula in northwestern Baghdad. One was a car bomb that was detonated outside a fast food restaurant and the other blast occurred near a soccer field. The twin bombings killed 15 people and left at least 40 wounded, officials said. (read more)
Prime Minister of Iraq, Nouri al-Maliki said the only 'peaceful solution' for Syria is through dialogue (EPA)
Iraq PM warns of Syria crisis spillover Al Jazeera 28 Feb 2013
Iraq's prime minister has warned that a victory for rebels in the Syrian civil war will create a new extremist haven and destabilise the wider Middle East, sparking a sectarian war in his own country, a civil war in Lebanon and a division in Jordan.
Nouri al-Maliki stopped short of voicing outright support for Syrian President Bashar Assad's embattled regime.
But his comments in a wide-ranging interview with The Associated Press on Wednesday marked one of his strongest warnings yet about the turmoil that the collapse of the Syrian government could create. (read more)
Return of sectarian threats in Iraq raises alarm By Adam Schreck and Qassim Abdul-Zahra, Associated Press, ABC News 25 February 2013
BAGHDAD (AP) — The fliers began turning up at Sunni households in the Iraqi capital's Jihad neighborhood last week bearing a chilling message: Get out now or face "great agony" soon.
The leaflets were signed by the Mukhtar Army, a new Shiite militant group with ties to Iran's Revolutionary Guard. "The zero hour has come. So leave along with your families. ... You are the enemy," the messages warned.
Such overt threats all but disappeared as the darkest days of outright sectarian fighting waned in 2008 and Iraq stepped back from the brink of civil war. Their re-emergence now — nearly a decade after the U.S.-led invasion — is a worrying sign that rising sectarian tensions are again gnawing away at Iraqi society. (read more)
Suicide bombers kill 3 in Iraq's Mosul: police By Kristin Deasy, GlobalPost 21 February 2013
At least three policemen were killed by suicide bombers on Thursday in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, according to Reuters.
The attackers reportedly rammed their vehicles into police checkpoints, a bold assault that comes amid rising violence there.
Extremists have upped attacks around the nation as the country's Sunnis have been taking to the streets in protest against the government. They accuse Shiite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's administration of political corruption and human rights abuses -- especially religious discrimination. (read more)
An Iraqi police officer looks at people fishing by the Tigris river facing the Shahid (martyr) Monument, which commemorates Iraqi soldiers killed in the Iran-Iraq war, in the Iraqi capital Baghdad on February 7, 2013. (Patrick Baz/AFP/Getty Images)
Destroyed cars lie at the scene of an explosion at the bird market in the north Baghdad Shiite neighbourhood of Kadhimiyah on February 8, 2013. Ali al-Saadi/AFP/Getty Images
The roots of renewed sectarian violence in Iraq and Pakistan By Michael Goldfarb, Global Post 20 February 2013
LONDON — In Iraq last weekend, car bombs ripped across Baghdad in a coordinated sequence killing 28 people. In Pakistan last weekend, 90 people were killed in Quetta.
The two events have this in common: the victims were Shia Muslims. The bombs are believed to be the work of Sunni extremists.
These are not isolated events. In January, another 90 Shia were killed by a suicide bomber at a snooker hall in Quetta. In Iraq, 2012 ended with 36 Shia killed in a wave of attacks across the country. (read more)
AP
Iraq’s sectarian dilemma By Salah Nasrawi, Al-Ahram Weekly 13 February 2013
As Iraq’s Sunnis step up their protests against what they consider to be exclusion and discrimination by the country’s Shia-led government, the struggle for power and wealth within the Muslim community is becoming more and more vicious.
The Shia majority, meanwhile, is increasingly feeling the challenge presented by the Sunnis, fearing that the goal of their angry and persistent protests is to wreck the Shia-led state.
Last week, a little-known Shia group unveiled plans to establish a new militia and vowed to exterminate Sunni extremists posing a danger to the Shias’ hard-won power in Iraq. (read more)
Iraq Court Sentences Sunni Leader to Death Sam Dagher & Ali A. Nabhan, The Wall Street Journal 09 September 2012
BAGHDAD—Dozens of Iraqis were killed and wounded in a barrage of bombings and assassinations across the country as a court here sentenced a fugitive vice president to death in absentia for allegedly ordering and bankrolling previous sectarian-motivated attacks and killings.
Sunday's attacks, which started at daybreak and continued past nightfall, hit more than a dozen towns and cities and targeted mainly the country's security forces and majority Shiite population.
Five car bombs parked in several congested and impoverished Shiite neighborhoods in Baghdad were detonated starting at about 7:30 p.m. local time bringing the overall toll from Sunday's mayhem to more than 60 killed and 360 wounded according to a Ministry of Interior official.
Many saw the verdict against Tariq al-Hashemi—a prominent Sunni politician who has professed his innocence and has been sheltered by the Sunni Islamist-led government in Turkey since April—coupled with Sunday's attacks as emboldening those among Iraq's Sunni minority who see violent confrontation rather than politics as the only way to regain powers lost to the Shiite majority after the U.S.-led ouster of Saddam Hussein's regime more than nine years ago. (read more)
Des Irakiens inspectent les lieux de deux attentats à la bombe près de Madaen, au sud de Bagdad, le 27 juin 2012 AFP - Ahmad al-Rubaye
Irak: des attentats à la bombe font 11 morts
Par AFP
27 Juin 2012
Au moins onze personnes ont été tuées mercredi dans l'explosion de trois bombes en Irak, a-t-on appris auprès d'un responsable du ministère de l'Intérieur et d'une source médicale.
Un engin piégé a explosé près du jardin d'une maison dans la localité d'Al-Madaïn, et un autre au moment où les gens se sont rassemblés sur le lieu de la première attaque, a indiqué un responsable au ministère de l'Intérieur en parlant de huit morts et de 10 blessés.
Une source médicale a confirmé un bilan de huit morts, en précisant que les attentats avaient fait également 18 blessés.
A Ghazaliyah, dans l'ouest de Bagdad, l'explosion d'une bombe placée en bord de route a tué trois enfants d'une même famille et blessé trois autres, selon les mêmes sources.
Les violences en Irak ont considérablement diminué par rapport aux terribles années 2006 et 2007 mais demeurent courantes.
BAGHDAD — The trial of Iraq's fugitive Sunni Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi resumed on Tuesday, with the court hearing testimony that silencers were found in raids on his house and that of his son-in-law (read more).
Why Did You Abandon Us? By Gregory Stanton, President, Genocide Watch The Free-Lance Star, Fredericksburg, VA 30 September 2007
"Why did you abandon us?" Those were the haunting words of a survivor of the Cambodian killing fields in 1980. I was the Field Director in Cambodia for the American relief program that included Church World Service, CARE, Lutheran World Relief, and other organizations. The woman who asked me that question saw her husband executed and her children starve under the communist Khmer Rouge. I had no good answer. I could have said, "Because we got tired of fighting and Congress cut off the funds. Our soldiers' lives were worth more than your lives." But I knew that I was partially to blame myself.
I was active in the anti-war movement. I believed, and still believe, that the American bombing and invasion of Cambodia and support for Lon Nol's overthrow of Prince Sihanouk were both strategically stupid and evil. I am still furious that Nixon and Kissinger inflicted a secret bombing on Cambodia that drove Sihanouk and many other Cambodians into the murderous arms of the Khmer Rouge. President Ford predicted a bloodbath if they took over. George McGovern said it would not happen. Ford was right. McGovern, to his credit, saw he was wrong by 1977-- Cambodia was drenched with blood-- and advocated international intervention to overthrow the Khmer Rouge. But his change of heart came too late. The U.S. was tired of war in Southeast Asia. So we did nothing. Two million people died. (Read full text of op-ed.)
Families that live near the front lines of the fighting in Sadr City have already begun to leave the area in fear of the violence (Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Images, for The New York Times).
Genocide Watch is the Coordinator of the International Alliance to End Genocide P.O. Box 809, Washington, D.C. 20044 USA. Phone: 1-202-643-1405 E-mail:communications@genocidewatch.org
