Thursday, May 24, 2007
INM daily summary – 24 May 2007
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- At least 27 people were killed and dozens wounded on Thursday when a suicide bomber in a car packed with explosives drove into a crowd of mourners at a funeral in Falluja.
- The U.N. Security Council approved the transfer of more than $3 million in oil-for-food revenue to meet Iraq's U.N. arrears and dues.
- Seventy percent of foreign insurgents arrested in Iraq came from Persian Gulf countries via Syria where they were provided with forged passports, an Iraqi intelligence officer said in a published report Wednesday.
- The military confirmed Thursday that the body found a day earlier in the Euphrates River south of Baghdad was that of Pfc. Joseph Anzack Jr., who had been missing since militants ambushed his unit nearly two weeks ago.
- Iranian forces bombarded northern Iraq's rugged Qandil mountains with mortars Wednesday, targeting Kurdish guerrillas, a local official said.
- Iraq's prime minister asked Parliament Thursday to approve six new Cabinet members to replace a group which resigned last month on the orders of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
- Many members of the former security forces are reluctant to join the Interior Ministry for fear of retaliation.
- Iraqi Vice President Adel Abdul Mahdi arrived in Najaf on Wednesday morning and met with top Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.
- Iraqi Vice President Adel Abdul Mahdi met with Kurdistan Prime Minister Negervan al-Barazani on oil draft law and Kirkuk in the Iraqi capital Baghdad, Mahdi's office said on Wednesday.
- Babel police said two more bodies believed to be of the kidnapped U.S. soldiers were found on Wednesday near a bank of the River Euphrates in al-Masayeb area.
- The US military is engaged in delicate negotiations inside Sadr City to clear the way for a gradual push in coming weeks by more American and Iraqi forces.
- A visiting European Union delegation said that EU countries are interested in importing Iraqi natural gas from the Ekas field in southern Iraq.
- Farmers in southern Iraq have started to grow opium poppies in their fields for the first time, sparking fears that Iraq might become a serious drugs producer along the lines of Afghanistan.
- According to Raghavan's report on May 20, talks between Sadr's representatives and Sunni leaders, including leaders of Sunni armed resistance factions, first began in April.
- Security round-up.
