Thursday, April 19, 2007
INM daily summary – 19 April 2007
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- Iraq's oil reserves are significantly untapped and daily production could be doubled within five years, a report has concluded.
- Iraqis vented their anger at a Baghdad security plan on Thursday, a day after almost 200 people were killed in attacks, including a truck bombing, the deadliest in the capital since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.
- Iraq's Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) will not sign up to details in the emerging oil law that would centralise control of most of the country's reserves.
- In a new sign of the resurgence of death squads, both Sunni and Shia, despite an ongoing U.S.-Iraqi security operation, several dozen people were found dead across the country.
- The Committee for Women and Children in the Baghdad Governorate Council revealed in a press statement that there are over 300,000 widowed mothers and 900,000 orphaned children in Baghdad.
- A leader of one of the largest Sunni Arab tribes in Kirkuk denied news reports on the formation of a tribal force to combat Al-Qaeda elements in the oil-rich northern city.
- Attacks on Yazidis have surged recently and almost all Yazidi families living outside the autonomous Kurdish region have fled the country.
- Iraqi Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahrestani said on Wednesday the enactment of an oil and gas law is a national achievement for Iraq’s people, underlining that it would have a positive affect on Iraq’s unity.
- The Iraqi Islamic Party announced on Tuesday that two gunmen belonging to the so-called "Islamic State of Iraq" had bombed two of its headquarters west of Baghdad, injuring and killing many people.
- The Ministry of Finance said that the number of countries that have reduced their debt on Iraq hit 54 states.
- In a joint statement issued on 14 April, nine Kurdistani parties announced that they "strongly criticize [Iraqi Premier] Nuri al-Maliki's government and demand that the government implement Article 140 without any delays and as scheduled.
- Suggestions will be made to beef up security in Karbala by increasing police forces and digging a trench around the city.
- In a new report, the International Crisis Group says two factors are to blame for growing tensions in Kirkuk: Kurdistan Regional Government insistence on a status referendum by year’s end, despite bitter Arab and Turkoman community opposition; and exploitation by Jihadi fighters.
- The bloc of Shia cleric Moqtada Al Sadr is debating its next move after quitting Iraq’s government, but its militia will not take up arms even after a wave of bombings in Shia areas in Baghdad
- Security round-up.
