Tuesday, March 26, 2013

2 more candidates killed as campaign season heats up


Mohammed Tawfeeq (CNN) reports a Tuz Khurmatu roadside bombing has claimed the lives of "Qader Ali, head of the Tuz Khurmatu town council, and Rasheed Khorshid, a member of the Salaheddin provincial council."  There are also people injured from the bombing.  All Iraq News reports this includes the Mayor of Tuz Khurmatu and three of his bodyguards.  AFP adds that the two who died were en route to "inspect a road paving project" and that the two were "candidates in provincial elections due to be held on April 20."  National Iraqi News Agency reports "the head of al-Rasheed munnicipal council, south of Baghdad, was wounded when a car bomb exploded."  All Iraq News adds that a Samarra bombing has claimed the life of 1 police officer and left three more injured. World Bulletin reports, "A bomb explosion in fron of Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) office in Kirkuk injured three KDP guards."  Alsumaria notes 1 person was shot dead in Mosul. NINA notes a Hilla bridge was bombed last night as was a pipeline to the north of Tikrit.  In addition, Alsumaria reports that "masked gunmen" have told cab drivers who work the Baghdad to Mosul route that they will kill any of the drivers they find transporting security passegners to Mosul from Baghdad or vice versa.

The repeated targeting of candidates should have clued you in that campaign season was underway.  For Ammar Karim (AFP) the tip off is the campaign posters throughout Baghdad.  Karim describes one poster:

 For one of his election posters, erected in a town south of Baghdad, Salam Kurdi Abboud is depicted in traditional attire -- clad in the dishdasha, the long robe worn in the Gulf, and keffiyeh, or chequered scarf.
Across the poster runs text in Arabic relating one salient detail: Salam Kurdi Abboud is dead.
The poster is asking voters to cast their ballots for his widow, Sausen Abduladhaim Ahmed, a member of the secular Sunni-backed Iraqiya bloc -- but her face does not appear anywhere on the poster.

Wael Grace (Al Mada) reports from Wasit Province on Kut candidates who are using schools to campaign in and are making "big promises" to help the poor.  Grace notes that resisdents are aware of the last election and the promises from that which included pledges for additional projects that never emerged.


The Iraq Times reports Nouri al-Maliki was the last to learn of US Secretary of State John Kerry's trip to Iraq on Sunday.  Al Mada cites a CBS News report that Nouri and Kerry engaged in two hours of heated debate about various issues including whether or not Iran was aiding Syrian President Basher al-Assad with weapons it was transporting through Iraqi air space.

  Kitabat notes that cleric and movement leader Moqtada al-Sadr's response to Kerry's trip was to call for national dialogue.  Parliament was in session today.  As if to celebrate, Kitabat reports, an MP from State of Law and an MP from Iraqiya got into a physical altercation.   All Iraq News notes that despite an attempt to meet, the session was suspended due to the lack of a quarom.

As part of the move towards national dialogue, NINA reports that Moqtada sent a member from his block to the Cabinet session to outline "Sadr's four-point conditions for the return of his ministers to attend Cabinet's sessions."

Sunday, Secretary of State John Kerry declared in Baghdad:


We know from our own experience how difficult the work of democracy is and can be. Democracy, I would say to our friends in Iraq, is about inclusion and about compromise. When consensus is not possible, those who are dissatisfied should not just walk away from the system, should not just withdraw, just as those who prevail should not ignore or deny the point of view of other people. If the Iraqi democratic experiment is to succeed, all Iraqis must work together so that they can come together as a nation. We will continue to build the partnerships between our security and our defense sectors. But we’re also working to build partnerships in education and culture, energy and trade, finance, technology, transportation, and the rule of law.

Moqtada's four-points are: "forming a security committee charged with the issue of postponing elections in some provinces, without neglecting the Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) role, writing the Cabinet's bylaw to limit dictatorial tendency, fulfilling the protesters' legitimate demands and re-establishing national unity by bringing all around dialgoue table."

NINA notes Iraqiya will be present at today's Cabinet session as well to consider the demands of the demonstrators.



The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.









iraq iraq iraq iraq iraq iraq



Posted by at