News of the Day for Sunday, January 23, 2011

Reported Security Incidents

Baghdad

A series of bombings in and near Baghdad reportedly kills 8 people and injures 34. As usual, casualty totals and accounts vary somewhat. According to the AP:

1. Two separate car bomb attacks on police patrols killed two officers and a bystander;
2. A bomb attack on the sewage department killed two people;
3. An attack on a bus carrying Shiite pilgrims in Kazimiyah killed one and injured nine

Ahlul Bahyt offers additional detail on some of the attacks, reporting that 8 people, including 4 officers, were injured in one of the attacks on a police patrol. They also report an attack "on the banks of the Tigris," which could be the one AP reports as attacking the sewage department but it is not clear. This is said to kill one person and injure six.

They also report on attacks in unspecified locations, apparently not in Baghdad, which don't seem to map onto any other reports I can find:

1. Two killed, and four injured in an explosion "25 km north of the capital." (This could be the attack in Taji.)O
2. In a separate car bomb attack, two teenage boys, aged 13 and 14, were killed when a roadside bomb targeting a militiaman exploded. (This could be the attack in Tarmiyah.)

DPA says there were a total of 13 dead in violence in Baghdad but does not provide any specific accounts. Unfortunately, Aswat al-Iraq is down as I write, so they can't help me sort things out.

Taji

A car bomb kills a farmer and his son on their way to market.

Tarmiyah

Bomb near a school kills two boys.

Afghanistan Update

Former Pakistan security official Colonel Imam, known as the "Godfather of the Taliban" for his role in establishing the movement in Afghanistan initially, is killed after his family fails to pay a ransom demanded by kidnappers. (Whatever the full story, this shows how byzantine the politics are in Pakistan. - C)

Hamid Karzai drops his threat to postpone convening Parliament for one month, averting a constitutional crisis.

A Polish soldier and a civilian medic are killed by a mine in Ghazni.

NATO states that an Italian soldier killed on Tuesday was shot by an Afghan soldier, not insurgents as originally reported.

Quote of the Day

After nine years, the international community needs to recognise it lacks knowledge, it lacks power, it lacks legitimacy. There is no confidence in the ability of the United States to sort this out. It no longer has the trust or the legitimacy. I think it is extremely unlikely that the United States is going to develop a coherent focused policy towards negotiation.

British former diplomat and now conservative MP Rory Stewart.