Thursday, September 06, 2007
Electricity employees struggle with reconstruction due to insecurity
Security, Electricity
(Azzaman) - Eight electricity engineers on a mission to repair power lines were abducted and killed in Baghdad. The kidnapping and brusque murder of the engineers took place in Waziriya, an upmarket Baghdad district supposedly one of the most secure in the capital. The bodies of the engineers were dumped on a street in Baghdad.
Electricity engineers and workers have become main targets of attacks. Meantime operations directed to cripple the already rickety power grid are reported to have increased recently. The killing of the engineers brings the number of electricity personnel killed on duty to 150 since the U.S. invasion of the country.
The Electricity Ministry says almost half of Baghdad is a dangerous area for its employees. “Our technicians and engineers cannot enter many areas in Baghdad, particularly in the Karkh Side of the city, to repair power failures due to the presence of gunmen,” a ministry source refusing to be named said.
Electricity engineers and workers have become main targets of attacks. Meantime operations directed to cripple the already rickety power grid are reported to have increased recently. The killing of the engineers brings the number of electricity personnel killed on duty to 150 since the U.S. invasion of the country.
The Electricity Ministry says almost half of Baghdad is a dangerous area for its employees. “Our technicians and engineers cannot enter many areas in Baghdad, particularly in the Karkh Side of the city, to repair power failures due to the presence of gunmen,” a ministry source refusing to be named said.
Labels: abduction, electricity engineers, execution, Karkh, Ministry of Electricity, Waziriya
Saturday, June 02, 2007
Despite Baghdad security operation, violence soars
Security
(Azzaman) - Four months after the start of the U.S. military campaign to bring security to Baghdad, acts of violence, forced displacement and sectarian killings have worsened. Violence has even spread to quarters which were relatively quiet before the start of the operations which brought tens of thousands of more U.S. and Iraqi troops to the streets of the capital.
Worst hit is the Karkh side of Baghdad where pitched battles occasionally take place amid densely populated quarters. U.S. and Iraqi troops have failed to put an end to kidnapping and the dumping of unidentified bodies on the streets of Baghdad. Baghdad is divided into two quarters – Karkh and Rasafah – bisected by the Tigris River.
Assad Ali from Karkh says residents sometimes have to stay indoors for several days fearing to leave their homes due to escalating violence. “Violent acts are setting our areas on fire. It is illogical for the government to leave us to our fate,” he said. Ali said he thought the authorities were more concerned about the Rasafah side of Baghdad which he said was relatively quieter.
The ongoing violence has brought business to a halt in many areas. Workers and civil servants cannot join work, aggravating living conditions for the majority of the population. According to Muhsen Hamed property prices have dropped by almost 50 percent particularly in Karkh. “There is a continuous movement of families in the city for the most violent areas to the less violent,” he said.
Hamed said certain quarters of Baghdad with their own vigilante groups are seeing a rise in property and rent as more and more families flock there. Estate agents in Karkh say they have lost their business due to ongoing violence. “For more than a year I have not sold a single house,” said Abdullatif Raheem, an estate agent.
Raheem said even in smart areas with heavy military presence, prices property prices have dropped substantially. He said monthly rents in the smart district of Mansour have plummeted to about 250,000 (USD$200) dinars from one million.
Worst hit is the Karkh side of Baghdad where pitched battles occasionally take place amid densely populated quarters. U.S. and Iraqi troops have failed to put an end to kidnapping and the dumping of unidentified bodies on the streets of Baghdad. Baghdad is divided into two quarters – Karkh and Rasafah – bisected by the Tigris River.
Assad Ali from Karkh says residents sometimes have to stay indoors for several days fearing to leave their homes due to escalating violence. “Violent acts are setting our areas on fire. It is illogical for the government to leave us to our fate,” he said. Ali said he thought the authorities were more concerned about the Rasafah side of Baghdad which he said was relatively quieter.
The ongoing violence has brought business to a halt in many areas. Workers and civil servants cannot join work, aggravating living conditions for the majority of the population. According to Muhsen Hamed property prices have dropped by almost 50 percent particularly in Karkh. “There is a continuous movement of families in the city for the most violent areas to the less violent,” he said.
Hamed said certain quarters of Baghdad with their own vigilante groups are seeing a rise in property and rent as more and more families flock there. Estate agents in Karkh say they have lost their business due to ongoing violence. “For more than a year I have not sold a single house,” said Abdullatif Raheem, an estate agent.
Raheem said even in smart areas with heavy military presence, prices property prices have dropped substantially. He said monthly rents in the smart district of Mansour have plummeted to about 250,000 (USD$200) dinars from one million.
Labels: Baghdad, Karkh, Operation Fardh al-Qanoon, violence
Sunday, May 27, 2007
Ministry of Oil to privatise the National Oil Production Distribution Company in 2008
Economy
(Al Mada Newspaper) - 26 MAY - Deputy Oil Minister, Motassim Akram, announced that an oil products law will soon be issued which will allow individuals and companies to import fuel from outside Iraq. He confirmed that licenses will be issued to create competition in the market depending on some basic standards such as; the octane ratio, which should be 92% benzene.
He clarified that eight local companies have presented requests for licenses and the Oil Ministry has granted them. Akram was sorry because only one company from outside of Kurdistan presented a license request. Many owners with capital have left Baghdad and the provinces for outside Iraq or to Kurdistan.
He pointed out that the Ministry has decided to open two fuel stations, one in Karkh and the other in Rasafa. They will sell fuel for 750 ID per liter. Locally produced fuel will remain at 400 ID per liter. He revealed that the Ministry of Oil has a plan to issue a decision to privatize the National Oil Production Distribution Company in 2008.
He further said that the current fuel crisis in Baghdad is a result of the Diyala Bridge being blown up by terrorists. The explosion influenced oil production distribution in Baghdad. Also, Al Jadriya and Double Bridge are closed to trucks because of the security plan which makes hundreds of trucks wait in long lines to pass.
Also, the Nasiriya-Dora pipeline was sabotaged and has made the situation worse. He added that the Ministry of Oil is suffering from the sabotage of the oil pipelines. He pointed out that the 12 inch Kirkuk-Bayji pipeline was sabotaged in the Mamlaha area. In addition, the pipeline between Dora and Rasafa was sabotaged as well. He confirmed that the hot areas are easier to distribute oil products, but Baghdad needs more procedures.
He said that Diyala Bridge should be fixed as well or the fuel crisis will continue. He added that Dora Refinery has a maximum amount of crude oil in storage but the Ministry can not move this oil from the refinery.
He clarified that eight local companies have presented requests for licenses and the Oil Ministry has granted them. Akram was sorry because only one company from outside of Kurdistan presented a license request. Many owners with capital have left Baghdad and the provinces for outside Iraq or to Kurdistan.
He pointed out that the Ministry has decided to open two fuel stations, one in Karkh and the other in Rasafa. They will sell fuel for 750 ID per liter. Locally produced fuel will remain at 400 ID per liter. He revealed that the Ministry of Oil has a plan to issue a decision to privatize the National Oil Production Distribution Company in 2008.
He further said that the current fuel crisis in Baghdad is a result of the Diyala Bridge being blown up by terrorists. The explosion influenced oil production distribution in Baghdad. Also, Al Jadriya and Double Bridge are closed to trucks because of the security plan which makes hundreds of trucks wait in long lines to pass.
Also, the Nasiriya-Dora pipeline was sabotaged and has made the situation worse. He added that the Ministry of Oil is suffering from the sabotage of the oil pipelines. He pointed out that the 12 inch Kirkuk-Bayji pipeline was sabotaged in the Mamlaha area. In addition, the pipeline between Dora and Rasafa was sabotaged as well. He confirmed that the hot areas are easier to distribute oil products, but Baghdad needs more procedures.
He said that Diyala Bridge should be fixed as well or the fuel crisis will continue. He added that Dora Refinery has a maximum amount of crude oil in storage but the Ministry can not move this oil from the refinery.
Labels: fuel station, Karkh, Ministry of Oil, Motassim Akram, National Oil Production Distribution Company, privatisation, Rasafa
Monday, April 16, 2007
Destruction of bridges seen as plot to split Baghdad
Security
(Al Jazeera) - After the Sarafiya bridge was destroyed in a suicide attack, Iraqis fear that the recent targeting of bridges in Baghdad is a plot to divide the city. On Saturday, a suicide car bomber blew himself up at a ramp leading to the Jadriyah bridge, causing no structural damage. It is unclear if the two attacks were related; but the US military said on Sunday that fighters appeared to be changing tactics.
"The constant strategy of the terrorists is to look at ways to divide and create terror and make life difficult for the people of Iraq," Mark Fox, a spokesman for the US military in Iraq told reporters, saying military planners were studying the two incidents "carefully". "The terrorists are planning to split Karkh from Rusafa," said a senior Shia minister, using Baghdad's ancient names for the west bank (Karkh) and the east bank (Rusafa). "This has been the plan by terrorists and their political allies all along to try and drive Shia out of Karkh so they can split Baghdad in half."
On the other side of the divide, Mahmoud Mashhadani, parliament speaker and an outspoken Sunni politician, called the destruction of the Sarafiya bridge as a "conspiracy to isolate the two halves of Baghdad." Sunnis now mainly live on the west side of the river and Shia on the east.
(Al Jazeera) - After the Sarafiya bridge was destroyed in a suicide attack, Iraqis fear that the recent targeting of bridges in Baghdad is a plot to divide the city. On Saturday, a suicide car bomber blew himself up at a ramp leading to the Jadriyah bridge, causing no structural damage. It is unclear if the two attacks were related; but the US military said on Sunday that fighters appeared to be changing tactics.
"The constant strategy of the terrorists is to look at ways to divide and create terror and make life difficult for the people of Iraq," Mark Fox, a spokesman for the US military in Iraq told reporters, saying military planners were studying the two incidents "carefully". "The terrorists are planning to split Karkh from Rusafa," said a senior Shia minister, using Baghdad's ancient names for the west bank (Karkh) and the east bank (Rusafa). "This has been the plan by terrorists and their political allies all along to try and drive Shia out of Karkh so they can split Baghdad in half."
On the other side of the divide, Mahmoud Mashhadani, parliament speaker and an outspoken Sunni politician, called the destruction of the Sarafiya bridge as a "conspiracy to isolate the two halves of Baghdad." Sunnis now mainly live on the west side of the river and Shia on the east.
Look at the map links to see how Baghdad's sectarian make-up has changed drastically between 2003-2007.
Labels: Jadriyah bridge, Karkh, Rusafa, Sarafiya bridge
