Thread: Archive Latest News - Think Tank - 01/01/08 - 14/04/08

Sadrist official says bloc started sit-in to protest govt. escalations

The Sadrists, or Iraqis loyal to Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr, started a peaceful sit-in on Friday in the area of Abu Dsheir, southwestern Baghdad, upon orders from Sadr, to protest the government's escalations against the bloc, a Sadrist official said.

"Sadr's office pitched a camp for a peaceful sit-in in Abu Dsheir upon orders from Sayyed Muqtada al-Sadr on Thursday to break the political stalemate and have the items of an agreement implemented," Abu Jaafar, the official in charge of Sadr's office in Abu Dsheir, told Aswat al-Iraq – Voices of Iraq – (VOI) by telephone.

Abu Jaafar was referring to a parliamentary committee set up to find facts about the armed clashes that erupted in southern Iraq last week.

Earlier on Friday Iraqi Prime Minister ordered an end to arrest raids in all areas to give a chance to gunmen to lay down their arms hours before the Sadrists go on a sit-in after the Friday prayers, according to an Iraqi cabinet statement.

"Maliki instructed to stop d****tion raids and give a chance to repentant gunmen to lay down their arms in all Iraqi areas," read the statement received by VOI.

"The premier also ordered to have the families that left their residential areas in all provinces due to acts of violence back home and grant financial assistance to the families of martyrs and the wounded in military operations."

The government's statement came after a media source in Sadr's office said "a peaceful sit-in would be staged on Friday to demand cessation of random d****tions and escalations against the Sadrists."

The announcement followed threats by Sadrist MP Bahaa al-Aaraji to enter into "a decisive battle against the government of Nouri al-Maliki if it failed to meet the items brokered by the parliamentary committee set up to carry out Sadr's initiative to end armed activities."

"Maliki wants escalations while we see appeasement," said Aaraji.

Sadr had announced in a statement on Sunday that he would "disown anyone carrying arms and targeting government and service facilities or parties' offices," ordering his followers to end all armed activities in Basra and other provinces.

Sadr had asked the government in his statement to "stop random illegal d****tion raids and release all non-convicted detainees, particularly those belonging to the Sadrist bloc," also urging "cooperation with the government security agencies."

The Iraqi interior ministry had said on Monday that some 210 gunmen were killed, 600 others wounded and 155 captured since the beginning of Operation Saulat al-Forsan (Knights' Assault) in Basra, Iraq's second largest city and oil hub, last week.

Sadr thanked his followers on Tuesday for their "patience, obedience and defense of the lands and the people," urging more efforts to fight the "bigger enemy".

"Thanks are coming from Allah, not me, for the hardships you faced, and for your patience, obedience, cooperation and defense of your lands, people and honor," Sadr said in his hand-written statement received by VOI.

"Blessed be the mujahideen (holy warriors) who made the occupiers as their enemies and the people as their friends," he said, calling for mustering efforts to fight the "bigger enemy," in reference to the U.S. forces in Iraq.

The capital and other southern Iraqi cities, including Basra, 590 km south of Baghdad, were gripped by fierce clashes a week ago between government forces and cleric Sadr's Mahdi Army militias, hours after Maliki declared Operation Saulat al-Forsan, which he said aimed at eliminating armed groups in the oil-rich port city.

The Sadrists occupy 30 out of a total 275 seats in the Iraqi parliament. The bloc is the fourth largest after the Shiite Unified Iraqi Coalition (UIC), the Kurdistan Coalition (KC) and the Sunni Iraqi Accordance Front (IAF).

Aswat Aliraq

Iran helped end Iraq fighting: Iraq Party Adviser

Iran helped end last week's fighting between Iraqi government troops and a Shi'ite militia in Iraq's oil-rich south, an adviser to a leading Iraqi Shi'ite politician was quoted as saying on Friday.

The comments by Mohsen Hakim, whose father Abdul Aziz al-Hakim heads the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, underlined Shi'ite Iran's growing influence in Iraq after the U.S.-led overthrow of Sunni Arab strongman Saddam Hussein in 2003.

Washington accuses Iran of stoking violence in its neighbor by funding, training and equipping Iraqi militants. Iran denies this and blames the presence of U.S. troops for the bloodshed.

Mohsen Hakim told Iran's Mehr News Agency an Iraqi delegation led by a prominent Shi'ite lawmaker held talks with Iranian officials during a visit to Iran last Friday.

Two days later, fiery anti-U.S. Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr announced a truce to end six days of clashes with Iraqi and U.S. troops in the southern city of Basra that spread through southern Iraq and Baghdad.

U.S. officials say Sadr is currently in Iran.

"Tehran, by using its positive influence on the Iraqi nation, paved the way for the return of peace to Iraq and the new situation is the result of Iran's efforts," Hakim was quoted as saying, without giving further details.

Members of the Iraqi delegation have confirmed to Reuters they went to Iran just before Sadr announced the ceasefire but have declined to give details on any role Iran played.

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's crackdown on militias in Basra exposed a deep rift among Iraq's majority Shi'ites.

The Supreme Council is a key backer of Maliki but a bitter rival of Sadr's movement. The two groups are competing for power in Shi'ite southern Iraq, home to most of Iraq's oil reserves.

The Sadrists, who helped install Maliki in power in 2006 but broke with the government last year, have accused Supreme Council followers of infiltrating the security forces and attacking them.

The U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker, told foreign reporters on Thursday he was not aware of what role, if any, Iran had played in Sadr's decision.

He drew attention instead to the hail of rockets and mortars fired at the Green Zone government and diplomatic compound in Baghdad during the crisis that he said were made in Iran.

"Let's start with the Iranian involvement not in ending it, but maybe in beginning it," he said.

U.S. officials say rogue members of Sadr's militia get support and weapons from Iran.

"We got the tail fins of what was dropping on us ... This was quite literally made in Iran. All of this stuff was out of Iran and a lot of it manufactured in 2007," Crocker added.

Last week's fighting, in which several hundred people were killed in southern Iraq and Baghdad, served as a reminder of the instability in Iraq after months of security improvements.

Iran helped end Iraq fighting: Iraq party adviser | International | Reuters

Constitutional amendments committee refers controversial issues to bloc chiefs-MP

An Iraqi lawmaker on Friday said the constitutional amendements committee agreed on referring the controversial items to the chiefs of politcal blocs to discuss them before submitting the final report to the parliament.

"The representative of political forces in the constitutional amendment committee agreed on referring the controversial issues to chiefs of parliamentary blocs", Izzidin al-Doula, Iraqi National Front MP, told Aswat al-Iraq(VOI).

He pointed out "the authorities of the regions, central government and the president were still pending issues".

THe lawmaker noted "article 140 normlising Kirkuk and article 41 regulatinal personal status law wereunresolved yet".

He called for offering the constitutional committee the freedom and not to be restricted by time.

"Setting time for (constitutional amendments) committee is not right", citing "establishing a democratic Iraq based on sound principles" as a reason for his request .

However, the MP said "the committee report would be submitted to the presidency of the parliament by the end of the legislative term".

Earlier, Iraqi parliament voted on extending the time for the constitutional amendements committee to enable its members to agree on controversial issues.

Aswat Aliraq

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Iraqi Leaders Call for Militias to Disband

Iraq's political leadership on Saturday called on all parties to disband their militias before provincial elections this year, an apparent attempt to isolate the populist Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

The political council of national security, which comprises the president, the prime minister and the heads of political blocs in parliament, issued a 15-point statement at a late night news conference in Baghdad.

It came after fighting last week between Iraqi security forces and Sadr's Mahdi Army militia killed hundreds of people in Southern Iraq and Baghdad.

A key demand in the statement was for all parties and political blocs to dissolve their militias immediately and hand in their weapons. The statement did not mention any militias by name, but Sadr appeared to be the target.

"They should shift to civilian activities as a precondition for taking part in the political process and the next elections," said the statement, read out at the news conference which was chaired by President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd.

The political council said it would stand firmly with the Shi'ite-led government in any confrontation with militias.

Sadr's movement holds 30 seats in the 275-member parliament. Talabani said all members of the council had agreed to the 15-point statement except for the Sadrists.

Nassar al-Rubaie, head of the Sadrist bloc in parliament, said the statement was an attempt to corner the Sadrist faction.

"This aims to disarm the Sadrists, whose weapons are pointed at the occupation forces," he told Reuters, referring to the US military. Provincial elections are due by October.

The Sadrists, who boycotted the last polls in 2005, are vying for control of the mainly Shi'ite, oil-producing south with a powerful rival and supporter of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council.

Sadrists accuse Maliki and the Supreme Council of trying to crush them ahead of the elections in which they are expected to make big gains at the expense of the Council, which controls most local authorities in the South of the country.

Maliki, a fellow Shi'ite, ordered a crackdown on militias in the Southern city of Basra early last week, but his army faced stiff resistance from the Mahdi Army. US and British forces had to launch air and artillery strikes to support Iraqi troops.

The 15-point statement capped a week of government threats and then apparent attempts to placate Sadr, whose militia comprises tens of thousands of fighters.

On Friday for example, Maliki said his security forces would stop arresting militiamen if they gave up their weapons. The day before he had threatened raids on Sadr strongholds in Baghdad.

Maliki had been increasingly uncompromising toward the Sadrists, who backed the prime minister's rise to power in 2006 but split with him a year ago, partly over his refusal to set a timetable for the withdrawal of US forces.

Last week's bloodshed exposed a deep rift within Iraq's majority Shi'ite community and served as a reminder of the instability after months of security improvements. In fresh violence, gunmen shot dead an Iraqi priest in a drive-by shooting in central Baghdad, police said. Priest Adel Yousif was gunned down near his home in central Baghdad's Karrada district.

Cardinal Emmanuel III Delly, leader of Iraq's largest Christian denomination, the Chaldean Catholics, told Reuters that Yousif was a member of the Syrian Orthodox church.

Delly said Iraqi Christians were shocked by the slaying, which follows the kidnap and murder of the Chaldean archbishop of Mosul and other attacks on Christians in recent months.

"We are praying and asking God for security in Iraq. What can we do?" Delly said.

PUKmedia :: English - Iraqi Leaders Call for Militias to Disband

Iraq Pumps 1.3 million BpD South Oil Exports: Shippers

Iraq's southern oil export flow stood at around 1.3 million barrels per day (bpd) on Sunday, down from around 1.66 million bpd on Saturday, shipping agents said.

Iraq ships about three quarters of its exports, or an average of around 1.5 million bpd, from Basra. The pumping rate at the port typically varies between 1.2 and 1.7 million bpd.

A bomb attack on a pipeline branch from the Bazargan oilfield on March 27 forced Iraq to shut in around 100,000 barrels per day of output from three fields. Output from two of the three fields restarted on Thursday.

The attack was the first to disrupt southern exports since 2004, although Iraq has used oil in storage at both the fields and the terminal to minimize the impact on shipments.

PUKmedia :: English - Iraq Pumps 1.3 million BpD South Oil Exports: Shippers

People of Chamchamal Demand Compensations within Article 140’s Framework

Today the Head of Kirkuk office for Implementing Article 140 of the Iraqi constitution, Kaka Resh Sidiq, met with a delegation of the political parties from Chamchamal district.

The delegation clarified the purpose of their visit which is the demand of including Chamchamal district and its surroundings in compensations related to the Article 140 as the area has been the scene of the anfal, deportation and distraction campaigns by the ousted Baath regime.

They also demanded that the district will be attached to Kirkuk administratively after it has been linked to Sulaimani in the framework of changing the area’s demography policy implemented by the Baath regime in Kirkuk.

On his part, Sidiq clarified that reintegration of the district and several other districts like Duz, Kifri, Kalar is one of the basic points in article 140.

Regarding the compensation demand, Sidiq said that Chamchamal district is not included in the framework of compensations related to the Article 140.he called the representatives of the political parties in Chamchamal district to raise their to the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and then to the Iraqi federal government to compensate people of the area as a result of the suppression they endured.

PUKmedia :: English - People of Chamchamal Demand Compensations within Article 140’s Framework

Baghdad neighborhoods in need of ‘more military raids’, warns Maliki

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has warned that he intends to order new military attacks on certain neighborhoods in Baghdad.

The remarks have sent tremors of fear across the Iraqi capital, home to more than six million people as many of them thought they could finally have some faith in U.S. and Iraqi politicians’ statements that they had the city under control.

The so-called U.S. surge in which tens of thousands of troops were dispatched to pacify Baghdad more than a year ago was thought to have succeeded.

But Maliki’s warning signals that Baghdad, or at least certain of its neighborhoods are as wild as before.

“There are areas in Baghdad which are in need of ‘knights’ forays’ because of the presence of gangs which control the lives of the people,” he said.

‘Knights’ forays’ is the codename Maliki has given to his inconclusive attacks on the militiamen of the Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in the southern city of Basra, Baghdad and several other areas.

Many Iraqis now believe that Sadr has taken Maliki almost as a ‘hostage’ since his ‘knights’ forays’ have dealt devastating military blows to Iraqi army and police with his military wing, the Mahdi Army, emerging even stronger than before.

Sadr’s militiamen proved a power to reckon with and far better organized than Iraqi troops.

Maliki has almost met all of Sadr’s conditions and has recently ordered a complete halt to the crackdown on his militias.

It is not clear which areas of Baghdad Maliki has in mind as they certainly would not include predominantly Shiite neighborhoods currently under the control of Sadr’s militias.

An attack on Sunni areas is bound to further anger and alienate Sunni leaders and clerics who have reluctantly agreed to cooperate with the U.S. struggle against al-Qaeda in the country.

http://www.azzaman.com/english/index.asp?fname=news\2008-04-05\kurd.htm