News of the Day for Sunday, March 6, 2011

Reported Security Incidents

Basra

Eight killed, 12 injured by a sticky bomb attached to a minibus. (Other sources give the death toll as 6.) The bomb went off 100 meters from a U.S. military patrol. (Really? There are U.S. military patrols now in Basra? Hmm.) And indeed, Reuters reports that a U.S. convoy was the target and that the bomb was placed in the road, not attached to the bus.

Mosul

Grenade attack on a police patrol injures 6 people, including 3 police.

Sulaimanya

Unknown people, clad in black, set fire to a camp of demonstrators. This particular camp held dozens of people, but thousands of demonstrators have been massing in front of the city gate for 15 days demanding political reforms in Kurdistan. Separately, the owner of an independent radio station reports that the facilities were vandalized.

Baghdad

An employee of the Sunni endowment is killed by a sticky bomb. Two of his companions are injured.

Separate mortar attacks injure a total of 9 civilians.

Other News of the Day

Washington Post editorial writers, for what it's worth, are concerned about the future of democracy in Iraq.

This story is a bit convoluted, but Scotland has hired CACI International, a firm that supplied interrogators at the infamous Abu Ghraib prison operated by the U.S. in Baghdad, to conduct is census. Activists are urging a boycott of the census unless the contract is canceled. "In August 2003, CACI International provided staff to the US army to conduct IT and intelligence work in Iraq, including interrogation services. The company denies allegations that any of its staff were involved in assaults and has defended itself in US courts against lawsuits brought by a number of former prisoners." It is interesting to me that this is all very much under the radar in the U.S. -- C

Afghanistan Update

Roadside bomb kills 12 civilians, including 5 children, in Paktika Province.

Public outrage continues over the deaths of nine boys in Kunar on Tuesday, slain by U.S. helicopters. Five hundred people demonstrated in Kabul today, condemning the U.S. and calling for an end to the occupation.

Yahya Kehl, for Reuters, describes the Taliban shadow government in Paktika. "In the border province of Paktika, U.S. and Afghan intelligence officials describe a "shadow" Taliban authority that levies taxes on the harvest of pine nuts, skims money from the salaries of teachers and runs a network of governors from over the border in Pakistan's lawless tribal belt. They mediate in disputes where the government cannot. In this province of at least 400,000 people, there are just three judges, and only one who actually lives here." The official Afghan government, meanwhile, is nowhere to be seen, although its officials are receiving salaries.

AP's Sebastian Abbot describes the stressful lives of U.S. marines in Helmand's Sangin Valley.