In addition to the five corpses, Pan Armenian Net reports 7 police officers were killed at checkpoints and on patrols in Haditha and "gunmen attacked police checkpoints, the house of a member of the provincial council and a police chief's residence, killing three policemen and wounding two others: in Rawa. All Iraq News explains that the police who were killed in Rawa (they count five) were then set afire. On the Rawa attack, AFP notes, "Qais al-Rawi, the head of the local council for the area, said that gunmen killed and wounded the police in an attack on their station in Rawa, while they also assaulted and then set fire to an army position. There were 15 soldiers and an officer at the position, Rawi said, and their fate is unknown." BBC offers, "Correspondents say the recent spike in violence is reminiscent of the retaliatory attacks between Sunnis and Shias that pushed the country to the brink of civil war in 2006-2007."
In addition, All Iraq News notes a Kirkuk bombing claimed 1 life and left another person injured. National Iraqi News Agency notes a Baghdad bombing injured four people, a Falluja bombing injured two, a Baquba home invasion left a woman and her husband dead, a Falluja bombing injured two police officers, the owner of an electrical part store in Mosul was shot dead in his store, a Mosul roadside bombing killed 1 adult and left two children injured, a farmer and his son were kidnapped in Tikrit and 1 corpse was discovered in a Hilla river (gunshots).
Emirates News Agency notes:
A UAE daily publication has called on Iraq's political leaders to set aside their differences, come together and engage in a national dialogue to resolve political and security crises in order to set the Iraqi house in order and place the country on the course of development. ''The UAE and other Arab governments as well as the world have legitimate concern over the bloody, violent events in Iraq which claimed the lives of 300 people, mostly women, children and worshippers, since the beginning of the current month," said Akhbar Al Sa'a (News of the Hour), the daily bulletin of the Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and Research (ECSSR).
AFP is terming the alternate attacks on Sunni and Shi'ite mosques "a war of mosques." All Iraq News adds that Speaker of Parliament Osama al-Nujaifi is calling on the Anbar Province Operations Commander and the Anbar Governor to resign as well as the so-called Acting Minister of Defense to resign -- that's a Nouri stooge because Nouri has never, in his second term, nominated anyone to be Iraq's Minister of Defense.
Last July, Mohammed Tawfeeq (CNN) observed, "Shiite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has struggled to forge a lasting power-sharing agreement and has yet to fill key Cabinet positions, including the ministers of defense, interior and national security, while his backers have also shown signs of wobbling support." Those positions should have been filled at the end of 2010. It is now 2013 and they remain empty. They remain empty as violence grips Iraq. This is not unrelated. This goes to the violence and it goes to the incompetence of Nouri al-Maliki. He refused to nominate people for Parliament to approve because he wanted to seize control of the three positions.
With control comes responsibility. Nouri is responsible for the ongoing violence and the failure to stop it.
Nouri is out of control. This is demonstrated daily in Iraq. You can also see it in what Nouri did on Friday to the protesters. From the BRussells Tribunal:
- Maliki’s government forces impose restrictions on the people, deploying its checkpoints throughout the center of Hawija, its entries and exits and all its districts.
- Violent clashes in the Seeniya District, Beiji, with army and federal police forces, resulting in the burning of two (2) army vehicles and the death of all their passengers, as well as the retreat of the army and the police.
- Fifth Regiment Headquarters in Beiji attacked with mortar fire.
- S.WA.T. forces provoke worshippers heading to Unified Friday Prayers in Sarriya Mosque, tightening up procedures.
- Government army forces surround Sarriya Mosque in Baquba.
- Explosion of IED amongst worshippers leaving Sarriya Mosque after Unified Friday Prayers in Sarriya Mosque in Baquba with a great number of dead and wounded victims.
- Eye witnesses: “ S.W.A.T. forces were the perpetrators of the bombing that struck the worshippers leaving United Friday Prayers in Baquba.”
- Explosion of IED amongst targeting worshippers in the Sallam Mosque in QarraTeppa in Diyala Province resulting in numerous victims.
- Government and S.W.A.T. forces surround Baquba General Hospital preventing people donating blood to save the wounded of the Sarriya Mosque massacre.
That is just an excerpt. Click here to read a full summary. Nouri results to violence on the peaceful protesters. And he knows he can get away with it. Look at the April 23rd massacre of the peaceful sit-in at Hawija -- protesters were attacked by Nouri's federal forces who stormed the sit-in. Alsumaria noted Kirkuk's Department of Health (Hawija is in Kirkuk) announced 50 activists have died and 110 were injured in the assault. AFP has been reporting 53 dead for several days now -- indicating that some of the wounded did not recover. UNICEF noted that the dead included 8 children (twelve more were injured). That was a month ago. And the people noting this attack and decrying this attack are the same people who always speak out.
The bulk of the world's press and world leaders stay silent. And that's why the violence continues to rise. Nouri knows he can get away with it on the international stage because he has so far.
I'm traveling in some vehicle
I'm sitting in some cafe
A defector from the petty wars
That shell shock love away
-- "Hejira," written by Joni Mitchell, first appears on her album of the same name
The number of US service members the Dept of Defense states died in the Iraq War is [PDF format warning] 4488.
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