Iraq : The 2nd Biggest Terror Attack In History Fades Quickly From Headlines

Bush Blames Maliki For US Troubles In Iraq

Maliki Fires Back : We Have Friends Elsewhere


"It is like Hiroshima" - the horrific aftermath of the bombings that killed more than 500 Yazidi Kurds in northern Iraq, making it the 2nd worst terror attack in modern history, after 9/11.

We'll come back to President Bush's mind-bogglingly stupid speech about why pulling out of Iraq would be like pulling out of Vietnam later, but for now here's a number of important Iraq-War related stories, to fill out the picture of what's been happening there since our last round-up.

A few weeks out from the release of a Pentagon assessment report on the results of President Bush's troop "surge" strategy, and Bush and his usual coterie of NeoCons, are already blaming the Maliki government for the all but unstoppable rise in attacks on Iraqis, car bombings and US casualties, and are hinting that Maliki's days in power might be at an end :

"Clearly, the Iraqi government's got to do more," President Bush said...

"I think there's a certain level of frustration with the leadership in general, inability to work _ come together to get, for example, an oil revenue law passed or provincial elections..."

"The fundamental question is, Will the government respond to the demands of the people? And, if the government doesn't demand _ or respond to the demands of the people, they will replace the government."

Prime Minister Maliki, who has recently negotiated oil and trade deals with Iran and Syria, has slammed the Bush administration, and warned, not too subtly, that Iraqi government no longer needs the United States to achieve its aims :

Firing back in an escalating war of words, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki on Wednesday chided U.S. officials for expressing impatience with the Iraqi government's failure to unite divided political factions and said Iraq would find other friends if the United States was disenchanted.

"These statements do not concern us a lot," Maliki said to reporters while he was visiting Syria. "We will find many around the world who will support us in our endeavor."

Maliki's comments came one day after U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker called the government's failure to tackle legislation intended to ease Sunni and Shiite Muslim tensions "extremely disappointing" and two days after the chairman of the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee called for the Iraqi parliament to replace Maliki.

President Bush added to the criticism on Tuesday, remarking during a trip to Canada that there is "a certain level of frustration" with Iraq's leaders.

Maliki suggested that U.S. officials were questioning his performance because he was visiting Syria, which the Bush administration has accused of allowing foreign fighters into Iraq.

"The Iraqi government was elected by the Iraqi people," he added.

Maliki's talk of finding cooperation elsewhere is most evident in the growing security and business ties between Iraq and Syria. Maliki hailed Syria's pledge to help stabilise Iraq on his recent visit to Damascus :

Mr Maliki said bilateral diplomatic and economic ties were growing, adding that the two neighbours were working together to stabilise Iraq. Mr Maliki was speaking after talks with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Relations between Syria and Iraq were only restored last year after a period of almost 25 years.

Countering claims by a host of American NeoCons and Republicans that violence has dropped in Baghdad as a result of the troop "surge" - US officials claim they now control 50% of Baghdad's suburbs - solid investigative reporting from McClatchy correspondents prove the claims of significant reductions in the deaths of Iraqis and American troops is yet more spin.


The US Military continues to unfold its new strategy of recruiting Sunni insurgents as a counter to Al Qaeda, but perhaps more importantly, Shia militia and death squads. The US is accused of dealing from the bottom of the deck with this strategy. While it appears to be yielding positive results, Maliki and his Shia-dominated government are viewing the US alliance with Sunni insurgents, who have launched thousands of attacks on US soldiers and the government, as a betrayal :

Under a tree by a battlefield road in Iraq's "Triangle of Death," Lieutenant- Colonel Robert Balcavage meets his new recruits.

The men are Iraqi Sunni Arabs who are about to join the U.S. military's payroll as a local militia. They want guns.

"I am not giving out guns and ammo," the U.S. commander says. The men listen carefully as the interpreter translates.

"I've been shot at up here enough times to know that there's plenty of guns and ammo. Me personally. Some of you guys have probably taken some pretty good shots at me."

Slowly but deliberately, U.S. forces are enlisting groups of armed men -- many probably former insurgents -- and paying cash, a strategy they say has dramatically reduced violence in some of Iraq's most dangerous areas in just weeks.

It is a rare piece of good news in four years of war, and successes like this are likely to play a prominent part when U.S. commander General David Petraeus makes an eagerly anticipated report to congress in mid-September.

"People say: 'But you're paying the enemy'. I say: 'You got a better idea?'," says Balcavage. "It's a lot easier to recruit them than to detain or kill them."

The multiple car and truck bombings of Yazidi villages in northern Iraq has killed more than 500 people. More than 600 were said to be wounded. Entire villages, literally hundreds of homes, were wiped from the face of the earth, in co-ordinated attacks that looked like the work of a small tactical nuke.

With more than 500 dead, the attacks on the Yazidi now rank as the worst bombings of the entire Iraq War and, perhaps more spectacularly, the largest and most deadly terror attacks since 9/11, and the second highest terror death in modern history.

As Westerners attention is drawn back to the latest celebrity trash, by an easily distracted media, the Yazidi are dealing with the horrific aftermath of the attacks, and trying to work out they will now stay alive :

Nearly one week after four bombs blew apart this village and a neighboring one, Sheikh Khadar, the dead are still being recovered, adding to the toll that already had made last Tuesday’s bombings the deadliest terrorist attack since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States.

At least 354 people are confirmed dead and 80 more are known to be missing. The toll of the wounded stands at 600. Half of those are in serious condition, and many aren't expected to survive. On Sunday, 10 more bodies were discovered in the rubble of what used to be Tal al Azizziyah’s core. A bulldozer beeped constantly as it pushed through the rubble. American Humvees, absent until last week’s explosions, rolled along the dirt roads.

For most of the survivors, there’s no doubt why their villages were targeted.

“The problem is we are Yazidis,” said one man as he stood among the remains of what had been at least 150 clay houses, now reduced to nothing more than broken shards. “We go to Mosul and Tal Afar, the Arabs and Turkmen try to kill us. …We didn’t stand against anyone. What is our fault?”

The Yazidis are another minority in an Iraq filled with religious and ethnic divides, any one of which can burst into violent warfare, as last week’s bombings made clear. The Yazidis, who trace their religious roots to ancient Persia, aren’t Muslim and have for years been viewed disdainfully by Christians and Muslims as devil worshippers for the homage they pay to Malak Taus, the most revered of seven angels who Yazidis believe were God’s first creations.

The low-slung clay homes have no running water or electricity. Little boys play with makeshift toys fashioned from tin cans and other leftover items.

Villagers remain in shock at the extent of the damage. One of the craters is 15 feet deep and has been hastily filled with rubble — little flip-flops, shreds of children's clothes and men’s headdresses sprinkled amid broken clay blocks, dirt and twisted metal.

Everyone lost a cousin, a neighbor, a father, a brother or a child. The lists were endless.

The Kurdish Regional Government doled out 500 tents, 1,500 mattresses, 3,000 blankets, 500 kitchen sets, 1,000 bed sheets and 450 water tanks. For every family with a fatality the central government had promised 2 million Iraqi dinars, about $1,616.

The mayor of Tal al Azizziyah, Khodr Khodail Rasheed, was at home when the bombs exploded. He ran outside and was met with devastation. Hundreds of dead lay in the streets. Homes had collapsed on them, and a deep crater scarred the landscape. He shook his head when asked if the town could recover.

“I don’t know,” he said. “It’s just like Hiroshima. We’ve never seen anything like this. It needs time, a long time.”

Everyone expects the attacks to continue to rid Iraq of Yazidi Kurds.

Yazidi have voted to take revenge for the mass slaughter of their people :

Emergency workers continued to drag body parts from the site’s dusty rubble. Among the wounded, one in five suffered serious wounds, and hospital officials reported that hundreds of families had taken their broken loved ones home, despite the threat of infection.

In the area of last week’s attack, the desert villages dominated by Yazidis — a Kurdish-speaking sect whose faith combines Islamic teachings with other ancient religions — struggled to cope. Residents and officials say a constant flow of burials has filled the streets amid the stench of death arising from mounds of beige brick.

Duraid Kashmula, the governor of Mosul, said several regiments of Iraqi soldiers had been deployed to protect the area. Sand barriers have been built around three villages in greater Qahtaniya “to secure the area and prevent any strangers from entering,” he said.

He added that the explosions leveled more than 1,000 houses, most of them made of mud and stone, while another 500 were damaged.

Iraqi officials said no suspects had been arrested. Sunni extremists, who have been warring with Kurds in the northern cities of Mosul and Kirkuk, are believed to be responsible for the attack.

Yazidis may have been targets because of their proximity to Syria’s porous border; for their beliefs (they worship an angel whose name is sometimes translated as Satan in the Koran); or as retribution for an episode in April, when some Yazidis stoned a young Yazidi woman to death for marrying a Sunni.

Yazidis from across the north, where the sect is most concentrated, said they feared that their community of several hundred thousand might not recover.

“I’ve lost 32 people from the families of my five brothers and four sisters,” said Rasheed Muhsin Khesru, 59, a Yazidi from Kirkuk.

Others said the attack would only accelerate Iraq’s already dizzying level of violence.

“In a few days, 10,000 of our men will be ready to protect our areas,” said Kheder Aziz, who was sobbing on a street in Kirkuk. “All the Sunni Arab tribes living around us are responsible, either because they helped with the attack or knew what would happen.”

The Western world's media, meanwhile, has already lost interest in the story. There was no spectacular footage of the attacks that can be played over and over and over again. The victims were mostly Kurds, non-white, and believers in a religion that many Christians would deem strange, and possibly Satanic.

Plus, this is Iraq. And Iraq is the world centre for terror attacks now.

Another 500 dead Iraqis barely even cracks the headlines.

The next time most Westerners are likely to hear about the Yazidi is if they strike back at the Sunni Arabs in a large and spectacularly violent way. Another wave of beheadings and body dumpings, likewise, are unlikely to even make the news in the US and Australia.


France Under Sarkovsky Now Seeks Active Role In Iraq's Future

Pentagon List Of Future Goals Features Only One Entry On Iraq - Pentagon Looks Beyond Iraq War

Don't Give Them Guns - Baghdad Neighbourhood Protests US Arming Of Sunnis

14 GIs Killed In BlackHawk Helicopter Crash

The Iraq War As We Saw It - Seven Serving Marines Risk Retribution To Tell The Truth About What Is Happening In Iraq

'War On Terror' War Leads To Shocking Increase Of Terrorism

14,000 Terror Attacks In 2006

49% Of All Terror Attacks Occurred In Iraq And Afghanistan

When President Bush first started talking about going to war against terrorists, and terrorist groups, in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks on Washington DC and New York City, the term used was 'War Against Terror'.

The 'War Against Terror' was in common usage by the US State Department, the Pentagon and the White House until late 2002, when it was quietly changed to the 'War On Terror'. The change from 'against' to 'on' is an important distinction, particularly in light of an utterly horrific new report from the US State Department that reveals there were more than 14,000 terror attacks and acts of terrorism in 2006.

A war 'against' terror instead of 'on' terror would then be harder to justify when the following details from the State Department report are considered :

(the report will) show a nearly 30 percent increase in terrorist attacks worldwide in 2006....almost all of the boost due to growing violence in Iraq and Afghanistan...

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and her top aides earlier this week had considered postponing or downplaying the release of this year's edition of the terrorism report, officials in several agencies and on Capitol Hill said.

Based on data compiled by the U.S. intelligence community's National Counterterrorism Center, the report says there were 14,338 terrorist attacks last year, up 29 percent from 11,111 attacks in 2005.

Forty-five percent of the attacks were in Iraq.

Worldwide, there were about 5,800 terrorist attacks that resulted in at least one fatality, also up from 2005.

The figures for Iraq and elsewhere are limited to attacks on noncombatants and don't include strikes against U.S. troops.

President Bush and his aides routinely call Iraq the "central front" in Bush's war on terrorism and likely will say that the preponderance of attacks there and in Afghanistan prove their point.

But critics say the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq have worsened the terrorist threat.

The contention by Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney that al-Qaida terrorists were in Iraq and allied with the late Iraqi President Saddam Hussein before the invasion has been disproved ...

Among the major strikes were bombings in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Dahab on April 24, which killed 23 people and injured more than 60, and aboard trains in Mumbai, India, that left more than 200 dead and in excess of 700 wounded on July 11.

That the wars on Iraq and Afghanistan have dramatically increased the incidents of terrorism are firmly, repeatedly and consistently denied by virtually every official connected with the White House or Pentagon, despite the fact that every major intelligence agency in the world says this is an undeniable fact.

White House and Pentagon officials continue to insist that Saddam Hussein was involved with Al Qaeda before the American occupation of Iraq began because it is the only way they can seriously deny that Al Qaeda terrorists were not in Iraq before invasion and occupation began.

A 'War on Terror' can be credibly waged even during unprecedented waves of terror attacks, and the statistics spun a dozen different ways to say that war is being waged, in part, successfully.

But to say that you are waging a 'War Against Terror', when there are more terror attacks than ever before, is to declare failure by admission.

Few understood why, or even noticed, the 'War Against Terror' was officially renamed the 'War On Terror' back in 2002.

It is dramatically clear now why this renaming process was undertaken, and indicates that the Pentagon and White House were fully aware of intelligence and military-related projections before the Iraq invasion began that such unpopular, supposedly pre-emptive action would lead to greatly increased incidents of terrorism across the world.

Terror Attacks Hit Capital Of Algeria

30 Dead, Hundreds Injured, Toll Rising

Terror On '11'


At least two three massive car bombs have exploded in Algiers, killing more than 30 people and injuring more than 200.

An anonymous caller to Al Jazeera reportedly claimed responsibility for the attack, and within two hours, wire news services were repeating claims that the attacks were the responsibility of the newly formed African branch of Al Qaeda :

One of the blasts, believed to be a suicide bombing, ripped part of the facade off the prime minister's headquarters in the centre of Algiers. A second bomb hit Bab Ezzouar on its eastern outskirts, the official APS news agency said.

The al-Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb claimed responsibility for the bombings, Al Jazeera television reported.

The claim could not be immediately verified but the group, formerly known as the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), has taken responsibility for a number of deadly attacks on security forces and foreigners in Algeria since January.

On March 3, Islamic extremists killed one Russian and three Algerians in a bomb attack on a bus carrying workers employed by a Russian company.

On March 22, the US State Department issued a specific travel warning for Algiers :

The Department of State urges U.S. citizens who travel to Algeria to evaluate carefully the risk posed to their personal safety. Sustained small-scale terrorist attacks including bombings, false roadblocks, kidnappings, ambushes, and assassinations occur regularly.

On April 8, 9 Soldiers, 6 Islamists were killed during an ambush :

Some political observers have said Islamic militants could be looking to step up violence against government forces in an effort to disrupt Algeria's legislative elections on May 17.

Algeria has been fighting an insurgency that broke out in 1992 after the army canceled legislative elections, which an Islamic party appeared set to win.

Since then, violence related to the insurgency has left an estimated 200,000 dead — civilians, soldiers and Islamic fighters — according to the government in the North African country. Large-scale violence died down in the late 1990s, but skirmishes have continued in recent months particularly in the east and center of the country.

The previous known attack by insurgents against military forces took place Tuesday, when three soldiers were killed by alleged Islamic militants in the Biskra region southeast of Algiers.

The attacks may appear to have come out of the blue, but they signify a deadly revenge against the Algerian government, after it quietly launched "a sustained military campaign" against the Islamist group in late March, in a concerted effort to cut off an Al Qaeda-linked resurgence of terrorism :

...under the cover of a nearly complete media blackout, the Algerian military began what appears to be a sustained military campaign against the organization. According to the Algerian press, the campaign is taking place in the Kabylie region near the town of Amizour to the east of Algiers...

As of April 2, the National People's Army was continuing its offensive against the group and entering its 10th day of combined military operations involving artillery and helicopter gunships as well as Algerian Special Forces. The strength of the military operations is likely designed to reassert the government's authority, particularly after the group successfully conducted attacks in suburbs of the capital previously believed secure...

Striking at the heart of the Algerian government will be viewed by Al Qaeda as a major achievement, and a shocking example to the government of how the terrorists can get inside heavy security cordons which have been up around key government offices for at least three weeks.

The attacks were clearly aimed at killing the Algerian prime minister, who survived.


In a remarkable coincidence, the News24 site published the following AFP story only a few hours before the first attack :

The US state department renewed on Tuesday its "Worldwide Caution" alerting US citizens to the continuing threat of "terrorist actions and violence" against Americans and US interests overseas.

Current information "suggests that al-Qaeda and affiliated organisations continue to plan terrorist attacks against US interests in multiple regions, including Europe, Asia, Africa and the Middle East," it said.

"These attacks may employ a wide variety of tactics to include assassinations, kidnappings, hijackings and bombings."

It also referred to "bomb attacks targeting buses carrying foreign workers in March 2007 and December 2006 in Algeria" to illustrate "how terrorists exploit vulnerabilities associated with soft targets".

The terror attacks came less than 24 hours after Algeria's Energy and Mines Minister announced the gas rich country was joining with Iran, Nigeria, Russia and Qatar to look into the formation of a 'gas Opec'. Algeria is the second largest exporter of natural gas in the world :

The group...sought to assuage mounting fears among gas consumers that the creation of a gas cartel was imminent, but it confirmed that the group’s intention was to strengthen cooperation.

“In the long term we are moving towards a gas Opec,”, Chakib Khelil, the Algerian Energy and Mines Minister, said. “It will take a long time.”

The 11th day of the month is proving to be an extremely popular day for high profile, high death toll, terror attacks by Islamists, and insurgents claiming allegiance to Al Qaeda.

September 11, 2001 : Terror attacks on New York City and Washington DC.

April 11, 2002 : Terror attack in Tunisia.

October 11, 2002 : Terror attacks in Bali.

March 11, 2003 : Terror attack on a funeral in Mosul, Iraq

March 11, 2004 : Terror attacks on trains in Madrid.

April 11, 2006 : Terror attack in Karachi, Pakistan

May 11, 2006 : Terror attack in Quetta, Pakistan

July 11, 2006 : Terror attacks on trains in Mumbai, India

April 11, 2007 : Terror attacks in Algiers.


Opinion : Algeria Could Provide Springboard For European Terror

Reuters : Key Facts On Algerian Islamist Terror Group

April 10 - Algerian Government Tries To Head Off Al Qaeda Resurgence

'PROFESSIONALS BOMBED THE GOLDEN MOSQUE

WIRING OF EXPLOSIVES ESTIMATED TO HAVE TAKEN AT LEAST TWELVE HOURS


BAGHDAD (AFP) - The bombing of a revered Shiite shrine which sparked a wave of violence in Iraq was the work of specialists, Construction Minister Jassem Mohammed Jaafar said Friday, adding that the placing of the explosives must have taken at least 12 hours.

"According to initial reports, the bombing was technically well conceived and could only have been carried out by specialists," the minister told Iraqia state television.

Jaafar, who toured the devastated thousand-year-old shrine on Thursday a day after the bombing which brought down its golden dome, said "holes were dug into the mausoleum's four main pillars and packed with explosives."

"Then the charges were connected together and linked to another charge placed just under the dome. The wires were then linked to a detonator which was triggered at a distance," the minister added.

To drill into the pillars would have taken at least four hours per pillar, he also estimated.

Damage to the mausoleum, holding the tombs of the 10th and 11th Shiite Imams, was extensive.

"The dome was completely wrecked and collapsed on the tombs which were covered over by debris. The shrine's foundations were also affected as 40 percent of the power of the blast was directed inwards," he added.

FROM ISLAM ONLINE : BAGDAD, February 26, 2006 In a gesture of goodwill, Iraqi Sunnis in the northern city of Samarra are working tirelessly to rebuild the Golden Mosque, one of the holiest Shiite shrines which was devastated in an odious explosion last week.

"The initiative came soon after the explosion in solidarity with our Shiite brothers," Abu Oqba Al-Samarrai told IslamOnline.net Monday, February 27, after collecting golden pieces of the mosque's destroyed dome.

He said people of different age groups have volunteered to remove the ruble in a love demonstration.

"Elderly, women, children and men of [predominantly Sunni] Samarra rush to the tomb to remove the debris, using shovels and manual carriages," he explained.

Women provided food and water to exhausted men after a long day of hard work to get the job done as soon as possible.

"The men chant in unison Islamic songs to kill time," Samarrai said.

More than 200 people have been killed since Wednesday, February 22, when the Golden Mosque was destroyed in a bombing that sparked a wave of tit-for-tat killings and led the defense minister to warn of the danger of "endless civil war."

The main Sunni political coalition announced on Thursday, February 23, boycotting talks on government formation after the sectarian attacks, while Shiite leader Muqtada Al-Sadr ordered protection for Sunni mosques in predominantly Shiites areas.

On Saturday, February 25, Shiite scholars from the Sadr and Khalsi schools met with Sunni leaders in Baghdad's premier Sunni mosque Abu Hanifa, where they both prayed under the leadership of prominent Sunni imam Abdel Salam Al-Qubaissi.

The meeting also announced the formation of a commission to "determine the reasons for the crisis with a view to solving it," while also calling for a timetable for the withdrawal of US troops.

Donations

Chairman of the Sunni Waqfs Ahmad Abdul Ghaffor Al-Samarrai has declared that his body will donate two billion Iraqi dinars ($1,350 million) to reconstruct the shrine..

The Shiite shrine contains the tombs of the 10th and 11th imams, Ali Al-Hadi, who died in 868 A.D., and his son Hassan Al-Askari, who died in 874 A.D.

Tradition says the shrine, which draws Shiite pilgrims from around the world, is near the place where the last of the 12 Shiite imams, Muhammad Al-Mahdi, disappeared.

Shiites believe he is still alive and will return to restore justice to humanity.

Shiite scholar Jawad Al-Khalsi has said the shrine bombing was a planned and a specialist work.

The Iraqi capital returned to relative normality on Monday with the end of an extended curfew that had seen a traffic ban to reduce the threat of further violence.

Residents were moving freely, with cars back on the roads under the direction of traffic police.