Sunday, December 01, 2013

Hejira

Ammar Karim (AFP) reports, "As violence in Iraq has worsened with attacks hitting a wider array of targets, security officials have held an unusual seminar for cafe owners -- how to stop a suicide bomber."

Leaving aside the fact that the security forces are attempting to farm out their own duties, shove them off on others, there's also the fact that, if you're going to take advice on security, do you really want to take it from failures?  That's sort of like making the loser of the bake off the instructor at culinary institute.

National Iraqi News Agency reports 2 Sadiya bombings left 6 people dead and five more injured, 1 teacher was shot dead in Hamam al-Aleel, an Adhamiya sticky bombing claimed the life of 1 Ministry of Foreign Affairs employee, 2 brothers were shot dead in front of their Baghdad home, a northeastern Baghdad bombing near a cafe left 1 person dead and five more injured, 1 corpse (Sahwa) was discovered in Zab Village, a Ramadi sticky bombing left 1 person dead and another injured, and an Abu Ghraib roadside bombing left 1 person dead and two more injured.


The United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq issued the following today:

Baghdad, 1 December 2013 – According to casualty figures released today by the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI), in November a total of 659 Iraqis were killed and another 1,373 were wounded in acts of terrorism and violence. 

Some 565 civilians (including 120 civilian police) were killed last month, while some 1,186 persons (including 239 civilian police) were injured. A further 94 members of the Iraqi Security Forces were killed and 187 were injured. 
“While indiscriminate bombings and other attacks continue to take a terrible toll on Iraqis every day, I am profoundly disturbed by the recent surge in execution-style killings that have been carried out in a particularly horrendous and unspeakable manner,” said the Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General for Iraq (SRSG), Mr. Nickolay Mladenov. “As a matter of urgency, the Iraqi authorities should take immediate steps to find and hold accountable the perpetrators of these crimes and to implement effective measures to ensure the protection of all citizens,” he added.
Baghdad was the worst affected Governorate with 623 civilian casualties (224 killed, 399 injured), followed by Nineva (107 killed, 224 injured), Salahuddin (88 killed, 230 injured), and Diyala (82 killed, 151 injured). 
Anbar, Kirkuk, Babil, and Wasit, also reported casualties (double digit figures). 
 The entire figure of civilians killed between January and November 2013 is 7,157 in addition to 952 Iraqi Security Forces.


Susanna Capelouto (CNN) covers the violence here.  Kim Gamel and Sameer N. Yacoub (AP) cover it here.









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] 4489.


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