News of the Day for Sunday, July 11, 2010

FILE - In this Nov. 23, 2008 file photo, Iraqi police officer Qassim Ahmed takes aim before shooting a stray dog in the Mansour neighborhood of Baghdad, Iraq. Baghdad officials say 58,000 stray dogs have been killed in and around the Iraqi capital over the past three months as part of a campaign to combat dog attacks. (AP Photo/Asaad Mouhsin, File)





Reported Security Incidents

Baghdad

Gunmen assassinate Maythem Shqair, public relations director of the Baghdad Provincial Council, and escape. This same dispatch reports bombing near the house of Sheikh Sabah al-Hammad, Imam of the al-Gaylani mosque in Abu-Ghraib, which caused no casualties.

Sticky bomb kills chieftain of al-Maamra clan in Abu Ghraib.

Former Sahwa fighter injured in a gun attack on his house in Abu Ghraib.

Shkhier village, Ninevah Province

A police officer and a militant are killed in gun battles, following an attempt on the life of Colonel Eid al-Namis, the local police chief, in which he and two of his bodyguards were injured. These events occurred Saturday and have just been reported.

Arbil Province, Turkish border region

Turkish air raids result in injury to a civilian in the village of Sidakan. Raids target five separate targets.

Other News of the Day

For the past 3 months, 20 teams of shooters have been killing feral dogs in Baghdad. So far, they report killing 58,000. The wild dog population is estimated at 1.25 million, so I'm not sure this is making much of a difference.

The Turkish government has sent a letter to both the Iraqi and U.S. governments demanding the extradition of 248 PKK militants.

On June 14 a man in Samarra killed his father, who had been an interpreter for the U.S., because his father had abandoned Islam. Although the Iraqi secular law does not condone killing of apostates, many Iraqis believe this is justified and some judges say they will take Islamic law into account in rendering verdicts. The linked article by Abeer Mohamed explores this issue.


Afghanistan Update

DPA gives a round up of violence. These attacks occurred in areas which have been relatively quiet.

* Maalem Nazir, administrative chief of the Qaleh Zal district in the Kunduz province, and his driver are killed by a roadside bomb in Pangark. His son and a bodyguard are injured.

* Elsewhere in Kunduz, Taliban attack a police outpost in Emam Saheb, killing either 6 or 9 according to conflicting reports.

* 5 Police are killed in a bomb attack in Keshem district of the Badakhshan province.

NATO announces the deaths of 6 U.S. troops who died on Saturday. Two were killed in separate roadside bombings in Kandahar Province. The remainder were killed in unspecified areas of eastern Afghanistan. "One as a result of small-arms fire, another by a roadside bomb, a third during an insurgent attack and the last in an accidental explosion." Further details are not yet available.

In an odd dispute, An Afghan military commander claims that Hezb-e-Islami, the party of the notorious warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, has been supplying the government with intelligence about the Taliban, an assertion which Hezb-e-Islami denies. This could be an attempt to sow discord between Hezb-e-Islami and the Taliban; if it is actually true, I would expect the Afghan government to keep it a secret. They would only be inclined to announce it publicly if it is false. At least that's how I see it. -- C

Gen. James Mattis, appointed by President Obama to head Central Command, made some remarks in 2005 that may not endear him to Afghans. Addressing a crowd in San Diego, he said "You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years, because they didn't wear a veil," Mattis said. "You know guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot 'em."

Quote of the Day

It is true that we have good relations with the United States and we have exploited these relations in favor of Iraq and not just in the service of the Kurdish issue. We were honest with the United States before and after the fall of the former regime. We gave them a true picture of conditions in Iraq and of our viewpoints. We never deceived them. We criticized them when they made mistakes. I have said that the biggest mistake made by the Americans in Iraq was the issuance of Resolution 1483 that confirmed the occupation. That was a big mistake.

Kurdistan President Masud Barzani. (Who also denies any desire to secede from Iraq.)