Monday, January 30, 2012

Iraqi VP predicts return to sectarian violence


From Mohammed Tawfeeq and Frederik Pleitgen, CNN
updated 3:41 PM EST, Mon January 30, 2012

Irbil, Iraq (CNN) -- Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi has lashed out at Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, predicting that Iraq could soon return to widespread sectarian violence that could require the return of U.S. forces.
"Al-Maliki is pushing my country to reach a turning point with deeply sectarian dimension," The Sunni vice president told CNN on Sunday during an interview in the semiautonomous Kurdish region in the north, where he has fled so that government forces loyal to the Shiite prime minister cannot execute an arrest warrant for him on charges of running a death squad.
He expressed concern that Americans "will face the same problem as they faced in 2003," when a U.S.-led coalition invaded Iraq, toppling the regime of Saddam Hussein and unleashing a wave of sectarian violence.
And he said he did not understand how U.S. President Barack Obama is able to characterize Iraq as a free, stable and democratic country.
"What sort of Iraq are we talking about?" he asked. "How the Americans feel proud? How the American administration is going to justify to the taxpayer the billion of dollars that has been spent and at the end of the day the American saying, 'Sorry, we have no leverage even to put things in order in Iraq'?"

READ MORE HERE...

Jeremiah lamented, "Suddenly Babylon has fallen and been broken, wail for her! bring balm for her pain; perhaps she may be healed. 'We applied healing to Babylon, but she was not healed; forsake her and let us each go to his own country, for her judgment has reached to heaven and towers to the very skies...'" (Jer. 51:8-9). "I shall set fire to her cities, and it will devour all his environs" (Jer 50:32); "And her high gates will be set on fire; so the (nations) will (have) toil(ed) for nothing, and the nations become exhausted (because of the) fire" (Jer. 51:58).

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Tuesday, January 24, 2012

More car bombs rock Baghdad

BBC News 24 January 2012
At least 13 people have been killed and 62 wounded in four separate car bomb attacks in Shia districts of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, police have said.
Eight died when a bomb blew up close to day labourers waiting for jobs in Sadr City. Minutes later, a blast about 3km (1.9 miles) away killed another two.
Later, car bombs exploded in Shula and Hurriya, killing three.
There has been a rise in attacks in Iraq since US troops left last month, leaving as many as 170 people dead.


The prophet Jeremiah predicted a series of sequential judgments on "the land of the Chaldeans" that leads up to her utter desolation -- invasion led by a "great nation" and involving "many kings" (Jer 50:41), capture in humiliating defeat (Jer 51:14), punishment of the "arrogant one" (50:31), and then burning of the cities (50:32) and an abandonment by the reconstruction forces (51:9) due to the failure of that reconstruction effort.

While all military forces have been withdrawn from Iraq, a significant force of American contractors remains to continue the efforts of revitalizing the infrastructure of the country. With the increase in violence, will the cities of Iraq soon literally go up in flames? Will the leader of the reconstruction efforts declare a full pullout of reconstruction personnel, leaving the land of the Chaldeans to face the future themselves?

And what is that future? According to the prophet, after the abandonment comes a war with the "Medes" (51:28) -- modern day Kurds -- who then plunder her treasures (50:10), followed by a devastating flood event (51:42) and subsequent drought (51:43) that culminates in the land of Babylon remaining a perpetual desolation without inhabitant (50:39).

With the first three judgments -- invasion, capture, execution -- already accomplished, are we on the verge of burning, abandonment, civil war, plunder, flood and drought?

The wheels of prophetic fulfillment turn slowly, but perhaps irrepressibly.

We shall see. The bombs continue to destroy.

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Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Allawi: crisis tearing Iraq apart

By Associated Press, Updated: Wednesday, January 18, 2012
BAGHDAD — Iraq needs new leaders to prevent the country from disintegrating, the leader of the main Sunni-backed bloc said Wednesday, reflecting the severity of a sectarian political battle in the Shiite-led government, accompanied by violence, just a month after the exit of U.S. forces.
The leader of the Iraqiya bloc, Ayad Allawi, was responding to a bold step by Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, issuing an arrest warrant against the nation’s top Sunni official, sending him into virtual internal exile.
“Iraq is at a crossroads and I say that Iraq needs forgiving leaders, who will raise above their personal hatred,” Allawi told a new conference in Baghdad, accusing the government of stoking sectarian tensions to divert attention from its failures.
The government crisis has intensified sectarian resentments that have remained raw in Iraq since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion unleashed fierce fighting between Sunni and Shiite militias battling for dominance and killing tens of thousands civilians on both sides of the sectarian divide just a few years ago.
Attacks have surged since the last U.S. troops left Dec. 18.

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Friday, January 13, 2012

Iraq's deputy premier calls for Maliki's removal

By ADAM SCHRECK, Associated Press January 13, 2012

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq's Sunni deputy premier called Friday for Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to step down and warned that the country's festering political crisis risks sparking a wider sectarian conflict in the region.
Deputy Prime Minister Saleh al-Mutlaq stood by an earlier charge that Iraq is becoming a new dictatorship under al-Maliki, a Shiite. He said Iraqis could eventually rise up violently if al-Maliki remains in his post, and pushed for a parliamentary vote of no-confidence in the prime minister if he remains in office.

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Thursday, January 12, 2012

Kurds defy Iraqi government


ARBIL, Iraq | Wed Jan 11, 2012 3:52pm EST
(Reuters) - Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdistan region is unwilling to hand over Iraqi Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi despite a formal demand from the central government that he be sent to Baghdad to face charges of running death squads.

While not refusing outright to arrest the Sunni leader and send him to face trial, Iraqi Kurdish officials said the Baghdad government should accept Hashemi's demand to be tried outside the capital.

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Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Iraq: Gunmen kill police, mayor in ambushes

by Mazin Yahya, Associated Press JANUARY 11, 2012
BAGHDAD (AP) — Gunmen in Iraq killed three police officers and a local mayor Wednesday, targeting symbols of government control in former insurgent strongholds in the country's west.
The killings in Sunni-dominated Anbar province are the latest in a string of bloody attacks that has left more than 100 Iraqis dead over the past week.
Many Iraqis fear the country risks descending into a wave sectarian violence like the one that nearly led to civil war in 2006 and 2007. Well-armed Shiite militias continue to operate in the country, as do Sunni insurgents who seek to undermine the Shiite-dominated government.
READ MORE HERE

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Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Political crisis pushes Iraq toward sectarian war

Violence fuels criticism of US troop pullout
By Adam Schreck | ASSOCIATED PRESS JANUARY 10, 2012

BAGHDAD - More than 90 people have died in blasts across Iraq in less than a week, including 19 people killed in attacks in the Baghdad area yesterday, while the protracted political standoff between Shi’ite and Sunni leaders shows no sign of ending.
The troubled start of an Iraq era without United States forces has fueled critics of the Obama administration’s decision to remove all forces last month. They question the assertion that America’s long war was wound down responsibly.
Three car bombs exploded last night in the Iraqi capital and killed at least 17 people, sinking the country deeper into sectarian violence, authorities said.
READ MORE at BOSTON GLOBE
...
[T]he president’s decision to remove all but a few military advisers and focus on diplomatic efforts has come under criticism during the election year.
“In all due respect, Iraq is unraveling. It’s unraveling because we did not keep residual forces there,’’ said Senator John McCain, the ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee..
Administration officials acknowledge that Iraq is mired in its worst government crisis since Hussein’s ouster, with no obvious answers because of longstanding sectarian and regional rivalries, and newer schisms caused by political maneuvering. The task is Iraq’s now, they insist, with the United States only advising and providing aid.

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Thursday, January 05, 2012

Bomb attacks in Iraq kill scores

bbc.co.uk 5 January 2012
At least 72 people have been killed in bomb attacks targeting Shia Muslims in southern Iraq and the capital Baghdad.
Officials said 45 pilgrims died in a suicide attack in Nasiriya and 27 people died in Shia areas of Baghdad.
The attacks were the deadliest since the last US soldiers pulled out of Iraq on 18 December.
Sectarian tensions have risen since the US pullout and since an arrest warrant was issued for Sunni Vice-President Tariq al-Hashemi.
The BBC's Rafid Jabboori in Baghdad says Iraq is going through a severe political crisis and the situation in the country is tense.
The scene of one of the blasts in Kadhimiya
  • 5 January - At least 27 die in blasts in two Shia areas of Baghdad. A roadside bomb kills 45 pilgrims near Nasiriya
  • 4 January - At least three die in bombings and grenade attacks in Baquba and Abu Ghraib, north of Baghdad
  • 26 December - At least seven killed in suicide car bomb attack outside Iraq's interior ministry
  • 22 December - 68 killed in multiple blasts in Baghdad
  • 5 December - At least 30 killed in attacks targeting Shia pilgrims in central Iraq
  • 27 October - 38 killed, 78 injured in twin bomb blasts in a Shia area of Baghdad
  • 12 October - 28 killed by car bombs and roadside bombs around Baghdad
  • 15 August - At least 60 killed in co-ordinated attacks in several Iraqi cities

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