Friday, November 10, 2006
Iraqi media round-up
Ba'ath Party Warning Over Saddam Sentence
(Azzaman) The banned Ba'ath Party in Iraqi threatened that it would attack the Green Zone in Baghdad if the death sentence against ousted president Saddam Husein was implemented. The Ba'ath party said that if Saddam was executed, it would reject all negotiations - and instead focus on supporting the "resistance". The party added that it would do its best to attack the Green Zone and destroy the American embassy. Iraqi officials have not responded to the statement. (London-based Azzaman is issued daily by Saad al-Bazaz.)
Turkey Deports Iraqi Kurds
(Al-Sabah Al-Jadeed) A security source in the border town of Zakho, in northern Duhok province, said that Turkey deported 115 people from Iraqi Kurdistan who had entered the country illegally. The were handed over to Iraqi Kurdish officials at the Ibraheem Khaleel border point. The illegal immigrants were mostly from Sulaimaniyah, Erbil and Duhok provinces and had paid smugglers around four to seven thousand US dollars to take them to Europe. The Turkish authorities returned 120 illegal immigrants to Iraqi Kurdistan on October 20. Iraqi Kurdish authorities are looking to tighten border security. According to border police in Zakho, 600 people have been arrested trying to enter Turkey illegally. Most of those who try to leave Iraqi Kurdistan are between 20 to30 years old. (Al-Sabah al-Jadeed is an independent daily paper.)
Iraqi Foreign Minister Criticises Neighbours
(Asharq al-Awsat) Iraqi foreign minister Hoshyar Zebari has accsued a number of neighbouring countries of interfering in Iraqi affairs. Zebari warned that his country has options to consider in dealing with these countries. This came in a detailed statement to Asharq al-Awsat in Paris where he was accompanying Iraqi president Jalal Talabani on an official visit. (London-based Asharq al-Awsat, a pro-Saudi independent paper, is issued daily.)
Hundreds of Arab doctors settle in Iraqi Kurdish City
(Hawlati) Al-Sulaymaniyah Health Department Director Dr. Shirko Abdullah said on November 8 that approximately 150 Arab doctors have fled southern and central Iraq due to the poor security situation and resettled in Al-Sulaymaniyah Governorate since the fall of the former regime in March 2003. The Kurdish regional government's Human Rights Ministry and the UN have said that approximately 50,000 people have fled to Al-Sulaymaniyah to escape violence elsewhere since 2003. Abdullah said that local officials have assisted the doctors by helping them set up clinics and finding them positions at public hospitals. (Hawlati is a Kurdish daily newspaper).
Suspected terrorists arrested in northern Iraq
(Kurdistani Nuwe) Brigadier General Sarhad Qadir, the police chief of the Kirkuk municipality, said on November 8 that 21 suspected terrorists were arrested in the village of Yarimja in southern Kirkuk. He also said that police seized four vehicles and seized 17 AK-47s and a cache of explosives. In a separate incident, Kurdish officials said security forces have arrested five people suspected of having links to Al-Qaeda and the Thawrat Al-Ishrin extremist group.
