Thread: Iraq/Dinar News. (before Jan.20,2007)

Jan 18, 2007

Iraqi officials have agreed a final draft of a law that sets rules for sharing Iraq's oil wealth and aims to bring in billions of dollars of foreign investment to rebuild the mainstay of the economy.

But crucially, international oil firms waiting for access to the world's third biggest oil reserves will find little detail in the draft about the form future deals will take. They are likely to hold off major commitments until there is clarity.

The draft calls for a federal committee headed by the prime minister to oversee future contracts and review deals signed under Saddam Hussein or by the Kurdish regional government, oil ministry spokesman Asim Jihad told Reuters.

"The committee finalised the draft of the law last night. It was approved unanimously and it will go before the cabinet early next week," Jihad said.

Passing an oil law to help settle potentially explosive disputes among Iraq's ethnic and sectarian communities over the division of oil reserves has been a key demand of the United States in providing further military support to the government.

Iraq's Oil Committee of senior national and regional leaders has been drawing and redrawing the document for months and missed its own deadline of finalising it by the end of 2006.

"Everybody sees this law as a big achievement and as a national project," Jihad said.

The Oil Committee, headed by Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih, will send the draft to cabinet next week for approval. After that it will go to parliament. Officials hope that the broad base of the negotiating team means it will pass easily.

The final draft was in line with earlier versions described last month after a previous round of talks.

A national oil company will be set up to develop production and exports and the law is intended to ensure development of the oil industry across Iraq's regions, Jihad said.

It establishes a mechanism for centralising oil revenues and distributing them to the regions.

"The law sets clear restrictions that all contracts will ensure the best benefit for Iraq," Jihad said.

Jihad refused to say who will negotiate with the international firms but explained a federal council will have the final word on approving the contracts.

Regional divisions

Senior oil industry sources told Reuters last month that the regions will negotiate with big oil companies on crude contracts and oilfields developments but the centre must approve them.

Norwegian company DNO is already drilling in the Kurdish north. Its shares eased on the news.

Iraq desperately needs foreign investment to revive its shattered economy, which relies heavily on oil export revenues.

The division of oil is a key factor in communal tensions in Iraq. The southern oil fields around Basra lie in territory controlled by competing factions of the dominant Shi'ite Islamist political forces, some of whom are close to Iran.

The northern fields lie on the edge of Iraqi Kurdistan around the city of Kirkuk. Kurds want to annexe the city as their regional capital and ethnic Arabs and Turkmen accuse the Kurdish militants of ethnic cleansing before a referendum on the city's future which, under the constitution, is due this year.

The Sunni Arab minority dominant under ousted president Saddam Hussein is concentrated in Baghdad and regions immediately to the north and west where there are few known hydrocarbon reserves - though some potential future finds.

Sunnis have been particularly insistent that the central government in Baghdad control the oil industry, despite a new, US-sponsored constitution, opposed by most Sunnis, which gives newly created federal regions some powers over oil and gas.

Question marks

Oil Ministry sources told Reuters Iraq is aiming to find the best model for its future contracts with international oil companies by studying existing agreements in Norway, Britain and the United States.

The ministry has sent a 20-strong team to Britain to study contracts there, the sources said. From there it will travel to Norway. Another group will head to the United States soon.

Jihad said the percentage of profit that investing companies could expect to earn had not been set. Iraq would not differentiate between companies based on nationality, he added.

One oil company source said government officials had told him the government was leaning towards a system that used a type of production sharing contract, rather than the royalty-based contracts favoured by industrialised countries.

Industry insiders said however advantageous the terms may be, Iraq would struggle to attract big foreign oil firms.

"If the legal problems are solved by the oil law, that's good news," said a senior Western oil executive.

"But security issues are a much bigger issue. The big money will not go to Baghdad unless it's convinced that employees and contractors won't be abducted, shot or killed."

"Companies from countries such as Russia, India and China - they may have different criteria."

Smaller oil firms are also more willing to take a risk.

"What the industry needs is a workable law. At the moment we have uncertainty... we'd prefer to negotiate with the central government," said David Horgan, chief executive of Petrel Resources, which is developing fields in southern Iraq.

Iraq leaders agree draft oil law | BUSINESS | NEWS | tvnz.co.nz

An international conference in Dubai to attract investments in Iraq
An international conference in Dubai to attract investments in Iraq
17/01/2007
Source: Translated by IRAQdirectory.com
Iraqi, American and international officials and businessmen met in Dubai conference titled "exchange of investments between Iraq and the United Arab Emirates".

The Conference was attended by about 600 investors and businessmen came mostly from the Iraqi province of Anbar, in an attempt to attract Gulf and international investments. The attendees called on to invest in Iraq, confirming the existence of an exaggeration in the information on the security situation there.

The conference was held at the hotel "Sofotel" near the famous center "City Center" in the heart of Dubai, and attended by a number of American officials and investors, including the commercial advisor at the American embassy in Baghdad, along with a number of Iraqi officials including the governor of Anbar, Maamoun Rashid Alalwani, the Under-Secretary of the Ministry of Industry and Minerals, the Under-Secretary of the Ministry of Trade and the Deputy of Salah Al Din province.

The trade affairs adviser at the American embassy in Iraq, Andrew Ailjala, said that the conference is not devoted to Anbar province only, as it aims at attracting the necessary investments to help Iraqi people overcome the challenges they face, pointing out that the investments exceed several billions of dollars, which was set previously in a study by the International Bank. He explained that although the majority of attendees are from Anbar, but there are participants from other locations in Iraq, including Babylon and Salaheddin, pointing out that the conference was attended by 160 Iraqi officials and investors, as well as 400 investors and businessmen representing Gulf and international companies operating in UAE. And about the security circumstances in Iraq and whether they were suitable to attract investments, Ailjala explained that investments are required at all times, specifying the targeted investment sectors in Iraq to be in agriculture, food industries, information technology, communications, housing and power generation, contracting and construction.


Iraq's exports

According to statistics reviewed during the conference, oil formed 98% of Iraq's exports in 2005. The United States of America was the first trade partner of Iraq, since it took hold of 49% of Iraq's total trade with the world, followed by Italy with the share of 11%, then Spain 7%, Canada 6%, Taiwan 4%, South Korea 4% and 3% for each of Brazil, France and Turkey.

Ailjala pointed out that countries such as the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Oman, India and Iran had not issued reports on the volume of their trade with Iraq in recent years. The estimated size of the Iraqi Trade in 2005 is more than 46.5 billion dollars. He stated that this conference is the first of its kind within three conferences will be held during the current year, with the aim of highlighting the investment opportunities in Iraq. The second conference will be held between February 28 and March 3 to find out about investment opportunities in the north of Iraq (Kurdistan).

On his part, the governor of Anbar, Maamoun Rashid Alalwani, said that the province provides 150 investment opportunities in several areas; it succeeded last year in attracting 171 million, including $ 96 million of foreign investments and 75 million in the form of external grants. He stressed that: "facing the challenges and problems in Iraq, will only be through the promotion of investments", explaining that the current conference is in a series of conferences held in a number of countries in the region that have agreed to host them, including Jordan.
http://www.iraqdirectory.com/DisplayNews.aspx?id=2962

Announcement No.(845)

D.G. of Foreign Exchange Control

The 845 daily currency auction was held in the Central Bank of Iraq day Thursday 2007/ 1/18 so the results were as follows :

Details Notes
Number of banks 14 -----
Auction price selling dinar / US $ 1300 -----
Auction price buying dinar / US $ 1298 -----
Amount sold at auction price (US $) 65.770.000 -----
Amount purchased at Auction price (US $) 207.000
Total offers for buying (US $) 65.770.000 -----
Total offers for selling (US $) 207.000 -----





D.G. of Investments

Daily price Bulletin buying and selling Thursday 2007/1/18

Currency
Currency Code
Selling Price In IQD
Buying Price In IQD

US Dollar
USD
1305.000
1304.348

European Euro
EUR
1689.714
1688.869

British Pound
GBP
2573.460
2572.173

Canadian Dollar
CAD
1111.868
1111.313

Swiss Franc
CHF
1047.856
1047.332

Swedish Krona
SEK
185.942
185.849

Norwegian Kroner
NOK
202.671
202.570

Danish Krone
DKK
226.732
226.618

Japanese Yen
JPY
10.826
10.821

from mik at the dark side
Coalition Forces Detain 6 Suspects, Discover Large Cache

Multi-National Division - Baghdad Soldiers captured six suspected insurgents and recovered a large weapons cache Jan. 15 during a security operation in East Baghdad.

The Soldiers from 2nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division conducted precision raids to arrest known terrorists while providing security to the area disrupting insurgent activities.

Seized weapons included a sniper rifle with scope, 26 magazines, three hand grenades, two AK-47s, one nine-millimeter pistol, 10 shotgun shells, and an unknown amount of ammunition. Also recovered were $1,400, 13 million Iraqi dinar, and 100,000 Iranian riyals, as well as cellular phones, one citizens band radio, and one pair of handcuffs.

The six detainees are in U.S. military custody for questioning.
Source: Multi-National Force-Iraq
Coalition Forces Detain 6 Suspects, Discover Large Cache

Originally Posted by shotgunsusie

what about the 1380 article that was rehashed a bunch of times?? were we supposed to listen to what they said then too? and does that mean they are going to devalue to meet that original number that they surpassed without a peep?

Nice to see ya Suse. Its stuff like this that makes me sigh when I read the IIF i-d-i-o-t-s that keep parroting "The CBI has to be transparent for the IMF, they would never mislead us...". Reaaaally. I guess they just let the Ministry of Finance do all of the deceptive articles, eh? Since, the CBI and MOF aren't officially linked then I guess that makes them right, the CBI isn't misleading us... Talk about dancing around on the head of a pin.

Stay cool little lady.

Sorry if posted before:

Governor of the Central Bank : This year's budget focused on increasing the volume of investment in Iraq

Baghdad : Ali Jasim
Dr. Sinan Shabibi Governor of the Central Bank that this year's budget, the budget investment because it focused on the size of the investment Ziada.
And Shabibi said that the Central Bank's role is to address the imbalance resulting from the development process that will produce changes in the economic structure are basic.

He pointed out that the work of the Central Bank is to achieve development in a stable monetary attention through all means and policies to achieve economic stability and moderation in the environment straight and moderate inflation rate.
He continued : "Our budget for the preservation of resources, and will be achieved through combat inflation.
Stressing that the bank had several measures including raising the exchange rate of the dinar.
He pointed out that the impact of this action on the budget through the impact on the purchasing power of the government, will increase by addressing inflation.
He added : Shabibi that this policy will increase the confidence dinars, which will pull some of the money to the banking sector and the rationalization of government spending because of its impact on inflation.

He indicated that this action will lead to the reduction of prices of import goods such as private sector imports and the import of the government's development that come from the conversion of the Iraqi dinar to the dollar.
He added that this policy at the time weakens the ability of the government to buy the dinar, it strengthens Aldenarabraghi owned by the government.
Pointing out that the bank wants as a means to affect the economic and monetary policy by making the dinar a valuable and powerful.

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Originally Posted by Hope Full

from mik at the dark side
Coalition Forces Detain 6 Suspects, Discover Large Cache

Multi-National Division - Baghdad Soldiers captured six suspected insurgents and recovered a large weapons cache Jan. 15 during a security operation in East Baghdad.

The Soldiers from 2nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division conducted precision raids to arrest known terrorists while providing security to the area disrupting insurgent activities.

Seized weapons included a sniper rifle with scope, 26 magazines, three hand grenades, two AK-47s, one nine-millimeter pistol, 10 shotgun shells, and an unknown amount of ammunition. Also recovered were $1,400, 13 million Iraqi dinar, and 100,000 Iranian riyals, as well as cellular phones, one citizens band radio, and one pair of handcuffs.

The six detainees are in U.S. military custody for questioning.
Source: Multi-National Force-Iraq
Coalition Forces Detain 6 Suspects, Discover Large Cache

Interesting,

Amazing to see a report like this published when it hardly adds up to a typical bust in NYC. (g) Large cashe? Egads, they are making a big deal of a few hand grenades, a pistol and couple rifles and unknown of ammo? Sure makes you wonder why it was newsworthy given the bombing going on at same time.

Good luck to all, Mike

Books : dhrgham on Thursday, January 18, 2007 1:21 PM-BT
A decline in demand for the dollar and the continued depreciation of the exchange rate

Baghdad - (Voices of Iraq)Decreased demand for dollar dropped sharply today, Thursday, at the conclusion of the meetings this week, an auction of the Central Bank of Iraq, recording the volume reached 65 million and 770 thousand dollars against 113 million yesterday.
The breakdown of the purchase orders between 33 million and 690 thousand dollars Nfda, 32 million and 80 thousand dollars in the form of remittances outside the country, the Bank has full coverage at the exchange rate amounted to 1300 dinars low five points on the exchange rate yesterday.
With advanced banks of the 14 participating in the auction, bids for the sale of 207 thousand dollars to the Central Bank bank has bought fully exchange rate of 1298 dinars.
The expert, economic and industrial Sadiq Abdul Razzaq far as News Agency (Voices of Iraq) to demand independent at the end of the week, despite a drop from the previous meeting, but it is still within the limits of high quality and low price compared to the continued and by the average number of points per day which reflects the adjustment of domestic monetary market, with the Iraqi phenomenon continuing decline in the exchange rate.
He added that the action by the traders and Alassirvein make an acceptable margin of profit in anticipation of the shocks that accompany decline, which has become a daily basis and within the limits of known and calculated and controlled.

Translated version of http://www.aswataliraq.info/?newlang=ara

Iraqis Answer Global Critics by Tackling Troubling Issues

BAGHDAD, Jan. 17 — Iraqi political leaders stepped up efforts to persuade the world that they were tackling the country’s thorniest problems on Wednesday, highlighting crackdowns on militias, pressing for more rapid arming of Iraqi troops, and underlining progress on a national oil law and new examples of reconciliation with former Baathists.

The flurry of activity on the part of the Shiite-led government came after weeks of punishing criticism from Western and Middle Eastern leaders, who have focused on everything from the government’s botched execution of Saddam Hussein to mounting chaos in Baghdad.

Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki seemed to have taken as a challenge President Bush’s assessment that the Iraqi government had “fumbled” Saddam Hussein’s hanging. During an hourlong meeting with several foreign journalists on Wednesday, he suggested that Mr. Bush had been pushed to express disapproval by public opinion.

“I would like to correct President Bush that Saddam, that person, was not subjected to any act of revenge, any physical attack,” he said on a tape of the interview made available to The New York Times. “But it was a judicial process that ended with him executed or sentenced to death according to Iraqi law that sentences such criminals to death.”

“I know President Bush and I know him as a strong person that does not get affected by the media pressure,” Mr. Maliki continued. “But it seems that the pressure has gone to a great extent that led to the president giving this statement.”

He went on to assert that Iraq “is not witnessing a war of ethnic or sectarian cleansing” because Sunnis and Shiites were still meeting and trying “to salvage Iraq,” and he rejected the idea that his government tolerated militia infiltration of Iraq’s security forces, saying it had been detaining Shiite militiamen.

And he made a counterjab at the United States, saying that the failure to fully equip Iraqi troops had damaged efforts to bring peace to the country, and if the United States speeded up the process of giving Iraqi troops equipment and weapons, the need for American troops could be significantly reduced within three to six months.

Prime Minister Maliki also anticipated an increase in the budget this year. And he emphasized that the new security plan, including the addition of 20,000-plus American troops, was set to start in coming weeks. He said it would be directed by Iraqis — a contention that has been greeted by some American military officials with skepticism. Other Iraqi officials, meanwhile, scrambled to show that they were making progress.

Ahmad Chalabi, the former exile who helped the United States build the case for invading Iraq and who heads a committee on de-Baathification, appeared at a rare outdoor news conference in the Green Zone to announce that more than 700 Baathists had returned to their old government jobs.

Smiling behind a bank of television microphones as bombs and gunfire interrupted his speech, Mr. Chalabi, who had advocated a strong de-Baathification effort, said the government’s roster of rehired workers would continue to grow.

Falah Shanshel, one of about 30 lawmakers affiliated with the renegade Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr, said the Sadr bloc would end its boycott of Parliament in the next few days. In Iraqi Kurdistan, Anwar Dolani, the military leader who oversees one of the brigades slated for the new Baghdad effort, said the last of his troops had left for the capital.

There were also hints of progress on one of the White House’s most challenging legislative demands: a new national oil law.

Barham Salih, a deputy prime minister who heads Iraq’s Oil Committee, said that a final draft of the law, expected for more than a month, could reach Parliament as early as next week. “We are finalizing the draft, and we have the lawyers going over it to make sure it is intact and consistent,” he said. But he declined to outline many of the latest draft’s details, suggesting that negotiations may still be incomplete.

Asim Jihad, a spokesman for the Iraqi Oil Ministry, said Wednesday that the new law included provisions for centralized oversight of contracts with foreign energy companies by a council of appointees from several ministries and the prime minister’s office.

If so, that would be a defeat for the Kurds on their longstanding demand for regional control, but it was unclear whether they had found another way to exert their authority. Mr. Salih, a Kurd, said only that the law “would have some surprises.”

Violence continued in Baghdad. For the second day in a row, a car bomb exploded in Sadr City, killing at least 11 people.

The United States military also said two American soldiers had died in Anbar Province, one on Wednesday, another on Monday.

In Washington, the National Democratic Institute, a nonprofit democracy-building group, reported that an American employee and three of her bodyguards from Croatia, Hungary and Iraq were killed Wednesday when their three-vehicle convoy was attacked in Baghdad.

The group released no names, saying it was “making contact with the families affected.”

Reporting was contributed by Khalid al-Ansary, Qais Mizher, Abdul Razzaq al-Saiedi and Khalid W. Hassan from Baghdad, and an Iraqi employee of The New York Times from Iraqi Kurdistan.

Iraqis Answer Global Critics by Tackling Troubling Issues - New York Times

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January 18, 2007

Report: 400 al-Sadr Militiamen Arrested

A suicide car bomber killed 17 Shiites at a teeming Sadr City market Wednesday, while gunmen in a predominantly Sunni neighborhood of Baghdad shot up a convoy of democracy workers in an ambush that took the lives of an American woman and three bodyguards.

The attack on the marketplace came one day after car bombings killed scores of university students just two miles away, indicating that al-Qaida-linked fighters are bent on a surge of bloodshed as U.S. and Iraqi forces gear up for a fresh neighborhood-by-neighborhood security sweep through the capital.

Although nobody claimed responsibility for either day's car bombings, such attacks are the hallmark of Sunni militants, who appear to be taking advantage of a waiting period before the security crackdown to step up attacks on Shiites. There had been a relative lull in Baghdad violence since the first of the year.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said Wednesday about 400 militiamen loyal to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr had been arrested over the past several weeks.

It was the first time al-Maliki detailed specific arrests of members of the Mahdi Army, which has been blamed for much of the sectarian killing in the past months.

Yassin Majid, a senior al-Maliki adviser, said reports that dozens of senior militia leaders had been detained were incorrect.

A Baghdad Mahdi Army commander, meanwhile, said U.S. and Iraqi troops launched a major campaign Tuesday in Um al-Maalef, a Shiite neighborhood in south Baghdad.

"They detained every man who was able to carry weapons. We heard from our people in the area that about 400 people were detained," said the militia commander, who spoke on condition of anonymity because senior figures in the group are not permitted to give their names.

He said that U.S. troops in December had killed one of the Mahdi Army's top commanders, known as Abu al-Sudour, in Sadr City.

State television also reported that at least 100 insurgents were killed Wednesday in clashes with Iraqi troops in a predominantly Sunni region northeast of Baghdad. Troops captured dozens of insurgents and seized large amounts of ammunition, the state-run Iraqiya channel said, quoting police. The fighting reportedly took place near the district of Balad Ruz, 45 miles northeast of the capital. The report couldn't immediately be confirmed with Iraqi authorities.

An Iraqi army officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of security concerns, said the attack on the Western convoy took place in Yarmouk, a predominantly Sunni neighborhood in western Baghdad.

The three-car convoy belonged to the Washington-based National Democratic Institute, according to Les Campbell, the not-for-profit group's Middle East director. He said the four dead included an American woman along with three security contractors - a Hungarian, a Croatian and an Iraqi. Two others were wounded, one seriously, Campbell said by telephone from Washington. Their names were withheld until their families could be notified.

"It appeared to be an attack with fairly heavy weapons, we don't know what kind," Campbell said. "We have some information that a firefight ensued. Our security company responded to the attack."

Campbell said the ambush took place at midday as the group returned from a program elsewhere in Baghdad.

Few foreigners and even fewer women have been caught up in Iraq's recent wave of violence as many Western groups have left and those who remain have tightened security and curtailed their movements after a series of kidnappings and beheadings. The last known American female civilian to be killed was Marla Ruzicka, a 28-year-old rights activist from California who died in a car bombing in April 2005.

Al-Maliki did not give a start date when he announced plans for a new drive to tame the violent capital - the third attempt since he took office May 20. But U.S. and Iraqi reinforcements have started to arrive in Baghdad, and it was expected to begin in about two weeks.

The marketplace explosion took place just before 4 p.m. near a popular commercial area in Sadr City, a sprawling Shiite district of some 2.5 million people in eastern Baghdad.

The blast shattered the windows of nearby shops and restaurants, and blood pooled in the street. Angry Iraqis surrounded the charred mass of twisted metal, all that was left of the explosives-packed car. They tipped the remains on its side and picked off pieces of blackened upholstery.

At least 17 people were killed and 33 people were wounded, police said.

In many parts of the capital, streets were crowded with cars and minivans carrying wooden caskets of the victims from Tuesday's car bombings, which killed at least 70 people and wounded more than 130 at Al-Mustansiriya University. Many vehicles were headed to the holy city of Najaf where Shiites prefer to bury their dead. Other victims were taken to a Sunni cemetery in central Baghdad. The students were from all the country's religious sects.

Hussein Mohammed, a lecturer in the university's French language department, said classes were canceled for two days while workers cleared the debris. "We are trying to heal our wounds and start again," he said.

The Iraqi parliament stood for a moment of silence and lawmakers and students demanded stepped-up security for schools and universities.

Al-Maliki announced the new security drive Jan. 6, four days before President Bush detailed his version of the plan with an announcement that he was sending 21,500 more U.S. troops to Iraq.

There have been concerns that insurgents would just slip out of the capital to wait out the offensive. Some appear to have left, given the spike in violence in northern Iraq, where Sunni militants have retreated in the past.

In oil-rich Kirkuk, 180 miles north of Baghdad, a suicide car bombing killed 10 people and wounded dozens at a police checkpoint.

In all, police reported 70 people killed or found dead in Iraq on Wednesday. They included 31 bullet-riddled bodies that turned up in Baghdad showing signs of torture, victims of apparent death squads largely run by Shiite militias like the Mahdi Army, which has its stronghold in Sadr City.

The U.S. military also said two more American soldiers died - one Wednesday after suffering wounds during an operation in the Sunni stronghold of Anbar province west of Baghdad and another who died there Monday.

Al-Maliki, meanwhile, met with the ambassadors of several countries, including the United States, to shore up support for his planned security operation. He pledged to act equally against all gunmen, regardless of sect, his spokesman said. The Shiite prime minister is under heavy criticism over his interference in U.S. attempts to confront Shiite militias during two failed attempts to bring calm to Baghdad.

"We want the international community to understand that the Baghdad security plan is targeting all the outlaws, it does not target a specific group or specific area, rather it targets all Baghdad," said Ali al-Dabbagh, the spokesman.

Throughout the Middle East, Arab leaders were deeply skeptical of the U.S. plan for Iraq, a day after Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice tried to sell it to them. Kuwait's emir told Rice that America should work with Iran and Syria, officials said - a move Bush has rejected.

The National Democratic Institute, the group whose convoy was attacked Wednesday, supports democratic processes and institutions worldwide. Its staffers in Baghdad run training programs in democracy and political participation, as well as women's rights. The group has had staffers in Iraq since June 2003, though Campbell would not specify how many, for security reasons.

Kenneth Wollack, president of the organization, said in his Washington office that "this is a tragedy that has hit individuals that have been dedicated to the democratic future of Iraq."

The American woman was the first full-time worker for the group to be killed in Iraq. A security contractor for the organization was killed in March 2004.

11 Killed In Baghdad Explosions - Local News


January 18, 2007

[B]100 insurgents killed in clashes northeast of Baghdad:[/B]

Iraqi TV BAGHDAD, Iraq, Jan 18 (AP) Clashes between Iraqi troops and insurgents Wednesday near the district of Balad Ruz, 70 kilometers northeast of Baghdad left at least 100 insurgents killed, the state-run Iraqiya channel said, quoting the police. Dozens of insurgents also were captured and large amounts of ammunition were seized

- DAWN - RSS Feeds; January 18, 2007

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