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
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Islamic State of Iraw claims to have executed a U.S. embassy employee
Security
(AP) -- An al-Qaida front group claimed Thursday on an Islamic Web site known to be used by extremists that it had executed an employee of the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. The veracity of the claim could not be independently verified and the U.S. Embassy said it was looking into the report but had no immediate comment.
On the site, the Islamic State of Iraq claimed the execution of an embassy "official" it identified as Zaher Abdel Mohsin Abdel-Saheb took place Saturday as revenge for "the Muslim women who are still captives in the prisons of Shiites and crusaders." The Arabic-language statement was signed by the Ministry of Information of the Islamic State of Iraq.
On the site, the Islamic State of Iraq claimed the execution of an embassy "official" it identified as Zaher Abdel Mohsin Abdel-Saheb took place Saturday as revenge for "the Muslim women who are still captives in the prisons of Shiites and crusaders." The Arabic-language statement was signed by the Ministry of Information of the Islamic State of Iraq.
Labels: execution, Islamic State of Iraq, U.S. embassy Iraq, Zaher Abdel Mohsin Abdel-Saheb
Friday, August 17, 2007
Ansar al-Sunnah post video on internet of Defense Ministry official's execution
Insurgency
(Stratfor) - Iraqi insurgent group Ansar al-Sunnah on Aug. 17 posted a video on the Internet that purportedly shows the execution of an Iraqi Defense Ministry official accused of working with U.S. forces. The video also shows the kidnappers holding up an identification card that allowed the victim access to Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone. The authenticity of the video has not been independently verified.
Labels: Ansar al-Sunnah, execution, Iraqi Defense Ministry official
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Chemical Ali to be hanged in Kurdistan
Crime
(AP) -- Saddam Hussein's cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid, known as "Chemical Ali," and two other regime officials will probably be hanged in Kurdistan if the appeals court upholds their death sentences, an Iraqi official said Tuesday. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not supposed to release the information to the media, said no final decision had been taken but the executions would probably take place in either Irbil or Halabja.
Also sentenced to death were Sultan Hashim Ahmad al-Tai, the former defense minister who led the Iraqi delegation at the cease-fire talks that ended the 1991 Gulf War, and Hussein Rashid Mohammed, a former deputy director of operations for the Iraqi armed forces. They were convicted Sunday of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity for their roles in "Operation Anfal," a 1987-88 crackdown on Iranian-backed Kurdish rebels during the final years of the Iran-Iraq war.
The prosecution said up to 180,000 Kurds - including women and children - died in chemical weapons attacks, artillery barrages and mass deportations. Two other defendants were sentenced to life in prison for their roles in the crackdown and one was acquitted for lack of evidence.
Death sentences are automatically appealed, and the appellate court faces no time limit in reviewing cases. If the sentences are upheld, executions are supposed to take place within 30 days. Saddam was among the defendants when the trial began Aug. 21. But he was hanged in Baghdad on Dec. 30 for his part in the deaths of more than 140 Shiite Muslims in Dujail. Iraq's government is dominated by Shiites and Kurds.
Also sentenced to death were Sultan Hashim Ahmad al-Tai, the former defense minister who led the Iraqi delegation at the cease-fire talks that ended the 1991 Gulf War, and Hussein Rashid Mohammed, a former deputy director of operations for the Iraqi armed forces. They were convicted Sunday of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity for their roles in "Operation Anfal," a 1987-88 crackdown on Iranian-backed Kurdish rebels during the final years of the Iran-Iraq war.
The prosecution said up to 180,000 Kurds - including women and children - died in chemical weapons attacks, artillery barrages and mass deportations. Two other defendants were sentenced to life in prison for their roles in the crackdown and one was acquitted for lack of evidence.
Death sentences are automatically appealed, and the appellate court faces no time limit in reviewing cases. If the sentences are upheld, executions are supposed to take place within 30 days. Saddam was among the defendants when the trial began Aug. 21. But he was hanged in Baghdad on Dec. 30 for his part in the deaths of more than 140 Shiite Muslims in Dujail. Iraq's government is dominated by Shiites and Kurds.
Labels: Ali Hassan al-Majid, Chemical Ali, execution, Halabja, Irbil
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Iraqi soldiers who desert to get death penalty
Security
(Azzaman) - Iraqi soldiers who desert their units now face execution, according to a decree by the country’s Presidential Council. The offense is the latest of nearly 200 others convicted Iraqis are to be punished with death penalty. The council slapped three-year imprisonment on absentee soldiers.
The harsh penalties come following reports of large-scale desertion from army ranks in the wake of the latest surge in rebel attacks against U.S. and Iraqi forces. The penalties are also applicable to the cadets of military academies in the country. Turning desertion into an offense punishable by death comes amid mounting criticism from human rights groups that Iraq has become one of the world’s highest users of death penalty.
Amnesty International, for example, says that more than 100 people have been hanged since mid-2004 after unfair trials and 270 others are on the death row.
The harsh penalties come following reports of large-scale desertion from army ranks in the wake of the latest surge in rebel attacks against U.S. and Iraqi forces. The penalties are also applicable to the cadets of military academies in the country. Turning desertion into an offense punishable by death comes amid mounting criticism from human rights groups that Iraq has become one of the world’s highest users of death penalty.
Amnesty International, for example, says that more than 100 people have been hanged since mid-2004 after unfair trials and 270 others are on the death row.
Labels: death penalty, desertion, execution, Iraqi soldiers, Presidential Council
Monday, April 23, 2007
23 Yazidis kidnapped and executed
Security
(AINA) - AP) -- Gunmen in northern Iraq stopped a bus filled with Christians and Yezidis, separating out the groups and taking 23 of the passengers away to be shot. Armed men in several cars stopped the bus Sunday afternoon as it was carrying workers from the Mosul Textile Factory to their hometown of Bashika, which has a mixed population of Christians and Yazidis -- a primarily Kurdish sect that worships an angel considered to be the devil by some Muslims and Christians.
The gunmen checked passengers' identification cards, then asked all Christians to get off the bus, said police Brig. Mohammed al-Wagga. With the Yazidis still inside, the gunmen drove them to eastern Mosul, where they were lined up along a wall and shot to death, al-Wagga said. Yazidis are concentrated mostly around the northern city of Mosul, 225 miles northwest of Baghdad.
After the killings, hundreds of Yazidis took to the streets of Bashika. Shops were shuttered and many Muslim residents closed themselves in their homes, fearing reprisal attacks. Police set up additional checkpoints across the city.
The gunmen checked passengers' identification cards, then asked all Christians to get off the bus, said police Brig. Mohammed al-Wagga. With the Yazidis still inside, the gunmen drove them to eastern Mosul, where they were lined up along a wall and shot to death, al-Wagga said. Yazidis are concentrated mostly around the northern city of Mosul, 225 miles northwest of Baghdad.
After the killings, hundreds of Yazidis took to the streets of Bashika. Shops were shuttered and many Muslim residents closed themselves in their homes, fearing reprisal attacks. Police set up additional checkpoints across the city.
COMMENT: Police and residents of Bashiqa, where most of the victims lived, linked the attack to the stoning death there this month of a Yazidi woman. She was slain by fellow Yazidis angry over her conversion to Islam and love affair with a Sunni man. In February, Yazidis in Bashiqa went into hiding after mobs of Sunni Kurds attacked businesses and homes there in anger over a Muslim woman's association with two Yazidi men.
The Yezidi Faith: Yezidis worship one God but no prophets. They recognize and respect both Jesus and Mohammed, but as men of faith, not prophets. Yezidi beliefs are a complicated mixture of Islamic and Zoroastrian beliefs, with Gnostic, Jewish, and Shamanistic elements. Worship centers around seven Angels (Malek is from the Arabic word for 'angel'), the most important of which is named Melek Taus, or the "Peacock Angel," also known as Lucifer.
Lucifer plays a different role in Yezidism, where he is considered the chief Archangel, and the creator of the material world. In Yezidi belief, Lucifer is not a fallen angel, or the enemy of God. They are forbidden from referring to him as Satan. The Yezidi have long been accused of "Devil worship" due to misunderstandings of their religious doctrine. In the Yezidi religion, Lucifer is a beneficient deity, long since reconciled with the Creator.
In this religion, God created Adam, but no Eve, and therefore all men came from Adam alone. The Yezidis were first born among all men, and consider themselves to be “the chosen people.” The Yezidis are strictly forbidden to marry outside the Yezidi, and must marry within their caste. While Kurds say the Yezidis are Kurds, the Yezidis claim to be neither Arab nor Kurd, simply Yezidis or, perhaps, Yezidi first and Kurd second.
The designation “Yezidi” applies to both a set of religious beliefs and a genetic or tribal identity. Because Yezidis keep to themselves, it is easy for others to misunderstand, or deliberately mis-project, the Yezidi religion. This can have dire consequences.
One must now be born Yezidi, and converts are not accepted. There is no specific Yezidi Holy text, but important information about Yezidi practices is contained in the Mes'haf i Resh, or "black book", and the Jilwa, or "book of revelation." The Yezidi religion places taboos on the eating of fish or the meat of gazelles; the wearing of blue clothing is forbidden.
COMMENT ENDS.
One must now be born Yezidi, and converts are not accepted. There is no specific Yezidi Holy text, but important information about Yezidi practices is contained in the Mes'haf i Resh, or "black book", and the Jilwa, or "book of revelation." The Yezidi religion places taboos on the eating of fish or the meat of gazelles; the wearing of blue clothing is forbidden.
COMMENT ENDS.
Labels: abduction, Bashika, Christians, execution, gunmen, Iraq, Mosul, Yezidis
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Islamic State of Iraq says it will execute kidnapped Iraqi security forces
Security
(Reuters) - A group linked to al Qaeda said on Tuesday it had decided to kill 20 Iraqi troops and policemen whom it had kidnapped, after the government failed to meet a deadline to free female prisoners, according to a Web statement. "Our Islamic court ... has ruled (to execute) them and we shall soon issue pictures of it," said the Internet posting from the self-styled Islamic State in Iraq.
On Saturday, the group said it was giving the government 48 hours to free all Sunni Muslim women held in Iraq's prisons, saying otherwise it would kill the 20 men, whose pictures it published. It also demanded that the government hand over to it Interior Ministry agents accused of involvement in the widely publicised alleged rape of a Sunni woman and other reported rapes and killings of Sunnis.
Saturday's statement said the 20 men of various ranks, one of whom was identified by his Interior Ministry identification card as a security unit commander, had been abducted northeast of Baghdad. It did not give the date of the kidnappings. Islamic State in Iraq, formed last year by al Qaeda's wing in Iraq and several smaller Sunni insurgent groups, has claimed responsibility for mass kidnappings and a series of major attacks. Last month it shot dead 18 people, mostly police officers, whom it had kidnapped.
On Saturday, the group said it was giving the government 48 hours to free all Sunni Muslim women held in Iraq's prisons, saying otherwise it would kill the 20 men, whose pictures it published. It also demanded that the government hand over to it Interior Ministry agents accused of involvement in the widely publicised alleged rape of a Sunni woman and other reported rapes and killings of Sunnis.
Saturday's statement said the 20 men of various ranks, one of whom was identified by his Interior Ministry identification card as a security unit commander, had been abducted northeast of Baghdad. It did not give the date of the kidnappings. Islamic State in Iraq, formed last year by al Qaeda's wing in Iraq and several smaller Sunni insurgent groups, has claimed responsibility for mass kidnappings and a series of major attacks. Last month it shot dead 18 people, mostly police officers, whom it had kidnapped.
Labels: abduction, execution, Iraqi troops, Islamic State in Iraq
Thursday, March 15, 2007
Saddam's vice president to hang
Law
(AP) An Iraqi court has upheld the death sentence against Saddam Hussein's former deputy for his role in the killing of 148 Shiites in 1982, a judge said Thursday. Taha Yassin Ramadan, who was Saddam's vice president when the regime was ousted by the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, will be hanged, the method of execution in Iraq, the judge Mounir Haddad said at a news conference. The decision was final.
The appeals court decision was relayed to the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, which will set the date for the execution, he added. Haddad, a member of the court's nine-judge panel, said the decision to uphold the death sentence was unanimous. Ramadan was sentenced to life in prison but an appeals court ruled that was too lenient and asked that the lower court reconsider. The court sentenced him to death last month. He maintained his innocence, saying his duties were limited to economic affairs, not security issues.
The appeals court decision was relayed to the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, which will set the date for the execution, he added. Haddad, a member of the court's nine-judge panel, said the decision to uphold the death sentence was unanimous. Ramadan was sentenced to life in prison but an appeals court ruled that was too lenient and asked that the lower court reconsider. The court sentenced him to death last month. He maintained his innocence, saying his duties were limited to economic affairs, not security issues.
The decision to impose the maximum sentence against Ramadan ignored appeals from international human rights groups. Human Rights Watch and the International Center for Transitional Justice said the evidence was insufficient for such a punishment.
Labels: execution, Saddam Hussein, Taha Yassin Ramadan
Monday, March 05, 2007
Sunnis turn on each other as some support reconciliation with Shias
Security
(Al Jazeera) Six Sunni men, who received death threats for meeting with local Shias, have been killed in execution-style slayings in a rising wave of sectarian violence, Iraqi police and military said. The attack on Saturday near Youssifiyah, 20 km south of the capital Baghdad, comes a day after the claimed abduction and execution of at least 14 Shias.
But in this case, Iraqi authorities said they believed that Sunni gunmen had killed fellow Sunnis revealing a rift between those who support reconciliation with Shias and those who will kill to stop it. Also on Saturday, three US soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb that exploded while they were on patrol in central Baghdad, the military said.
An adviser to Iraq's defence ministry was kidnapped in western Baghdad, an aide to Adnan al-Dulaimi, the head of the largest Sunni bloc in parliament, said. Lieutenant General Thamir Sultan hails from Saddam Hussein's tribe and had been mentioned as a possible defense minister when the current government was organised last year. The aide spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to release the information.
Earlier, the US military said it killed "key terrorists" who were using anti-aircraft artillery to fire at American military helicopters near Taji, north of Baghdad.
The Iraqi men gunned down Saturday - all relatives from the Mashhada tribe - were killed after gunmen stormed the family's house at dawn, Haider Satar, an Iraqi policeman, said. The victims in Youssifiyah were separated from women and children and shot dead in their home, Satar said. Captain Ahmed al-Obeidi, from the Iraqi army, whose unit is stationed near the site of the attack, also confirmed the incident.
The bodies were transferred to a hospital morgue in the neighbouring town of Mahmoudiyah, where Associated Press Television footage showed them wrapped in blankets and lined up on the metal floor of a refrigeration chamber. At least two had their hands tied and bound behind their backs. The motive of the brutal attack could not be independently verified. But police, citing information from surviving relatives, said the victims had received threats from Sunni gunmen after participating in a reconciliation conference with Shias last month. The conference was held in Mahmoudiyah in late February.
But in this case, Iraqi authorities said they believed that Sunni gunmen had killed fellow Sunnis revealing a rift between those who support reconciliation with Shias and those who will kill to stop it. Also on Saturday, three US soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb that exploded while they were on patrol in central Baghdad, the military said.
An adviser to Iraq's defence ministry was kidnapped in western Baghdad, an aide to Adnan al-Dulaimi, the head of the largest Sunni bloc in parliament, said. Lieutenant General Thamir Sultan hails from Saddam Hussein's tribe and had been mentioned as a possible defense minister when the current government was organised last year. The aide spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to release the information.
Earlier, the US military said it killed "key terrorists" who were using anti-aircraft artillery to fire at American military helicopters near Taji, north of Baghdad.
The Iraqi men gunned down Saturday - all relatives from the Mashhada tribe - were killed after gunmen stormed the family's house at dawn, Haider Satar, an Iraqi policeman, said. The victims in Youssifiyah were separated from women and children and shot dead in their home, Satar said. Captain Ahmed al-Obeidi, from the Iraqi army, whose unit is stationed near the site of the attack, also confirmed the incident.
The bodies were transferred to a hospital morgue in the neighbouring town of Mahmoudiyah, where Associated Press Television footage showed them wrapped in blankets and lined up on the metal floor of a refrigeration chamber. At least two had their hands tied and bound behind their backs. The motive of the brutal attack could not be independently verified. But police, citing information from surviving relatives, said the victims had received threats from Sunni gunmen after participating in a reconciliation conference with Shias last month. The conference was held in Mahmoudiyah in late February.
Labels: execution, Lieutenant General Thamir Sultan, Mashhada tribe, reconciliation, Shias, Sunnis, Youssifiyah
