A mother grieves over a body of her eight year old son in a hospital morgue in Baqouba, the capital of Diyala province, 60 kilometers (35 miles) northeast of Baghdad, Iraq, Sunday, Nov. 4, 2007. At least 12 people were killed or found dead Sunday in the troubled Diyala province northeast of Baghdad. (AP Photo) Note: This may be one of the incidents reported to have happened in Khalis; otherwise it was not reported elsewhere. Khalis is about 15 miles from Baqubah, but the body might have been taken there.
Security Incidents
Baghdad
Qutayba Badr al-Din Mahmud, a consultant at the Ministry of Finance, died around 11 a.m. when two carloads of gunmen showered his vehicle with bullets in the capital's Jamya neighborhood, police said. His driver was also killed in the attack. Note: Various reports refer to two ministry employees killed in this incident, but as far as I can tell, the driver is the second employee. --C
Female principals of two primary schools shot in southern Baghdad district of Saidiya. One dead, one injured.
U.S. military arrests 12 men in the Abi Hunaifa al-Numaan Mosque. The mosque was reportedly being used to plan kidnappings.
Roadside bomb kills two civilians near the Green Zone.
Khalis
Police find the bodies of nine people, killed in separate incidents, including a soldier, a police officer, and a child.
In the village of al-Kubat, near Khalis,a Mmortar attack hits a house, kills a child and injures a woman.
Hebheb (or Hib Hib), Diyala Province
Bomb kills three Iraqi soldiers on patrol, wounds five. Reuters says only two wounded; this report is from KUNA.
Aswat al-Iraq reports that gunmen opened fire on an army checkpoint, killing one and wounding three. VoI transliterates the name of the town as Hab Hab, by the way. It could be that there are garbled versions being reported of the same event, or it could be there is heightened guerrilla activity in this area and there were two separate attacks.
To add to the confusion, or perhaps to clarify, DPA reports that three peshmerga were killed and five wounded in an ambush on the road from Baghdad to Sulaymanyah, near HabHab. If this is the correct description of the incident, that puts an entirely different complexion on it. Rather than an attack on the Iraqi army, this was an attack on the Kurdish army, which is only nominally part of the Iraqi military; the perpetrators could even have been Arab Iraqi official forces of some kind. Note the confusion, however: we have either an attack on Iraqi army checkpoint; a roadside bomb attack on an Iraqi army patrol; or an ambush attack on Peshmerga traveling on the highway. Take your pick, or maybe all three.
Mosul
Two suicide bombers target a police checkpoint, injuring at least 14. Note: this is late-breaking news as I post, toll could go up.
Kut
Gunmen kidnap the wife of a police officer, motive unknown.
Also, gunmen on motorbikes kill a police officer near the town. With attacks on police, it is usually unclear whether they are politically motivated, or are the work of criminal gangs.
Basra
British military says it used artillery fire to destroy a base used to launch missiles.
Tikrit
Police find three bodies, tortured and shot. One of the victims is a police Lt. Colonel.
Samarra
Senior police officer and two civilians killed in attack on their car.
Abbasi (near Kirkuk)
Police find a decapitated body.
near Ramadi
Iraqi police and Anbar Awakening Council militia find a mass grave containing 40 bodies.
Props to Whisker as usual for the assistance.
Other News of the Day
Meeting among Iraqi, Turkish and U.S. diplomats in Istanbul fails to secure meaningful agreement to reduce tensions between Turkey and Kurdistan over the PKK. This article includes an extensive interview with Ryan Crocker on various regional matters. Excerpt:
By PAUL RICHTER LOS ANGELES TIMES
ISTANBUL, Turkey -- U.S. officials met with Iraqi and Turkish diplomats Saturday on the crisis threatening Iraq's northern border, but key Kurdish officials failed to offer assurances that they will move against Kurdish militants attacking Turkey from their haven in the region, American officials said.
A delegation headed by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met with the foreign ministers of Turkey and Iraq amid a broader two-day meeting of Arab countries and world powers on Iraq's many problems.
But Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, acknowledged that while the leaders of the Iraqi region known as Kurdistan are offering rhetorical support, they have not taken any action demonstrating that they will move against the militants as the United States and Turkey want.
"A lot of the right things are being said," Crocker told reporters. "But what's important is that the right things are done on the ground."
snip
Many observers, including some Iraqi officials, believe the United States would not object if Turkey decided to mount limited raids on the guerrillas. Asked if the United States would object to such strikes, Crocker said: "The Turks are not likely to feel the need for our permission. They are a sovereign nation."
PKK releases 8 captured Turkish soldiers after pressure from the Kurdistan government.
Now this reminds us what it's really all about. On advice of U.S., Iraq renounces an oil development contract with Russia, freeing the vast West Qurna oil field for new bids from international developers. Russia threatens to retaliate by revoking its agreement to forgive Iraqi debt.
Sadrist MP resigns over lack of political progress. He says he has wanted to resign since the al-Maliki government took power, but Muqtada al-Sadr prevailed on him not to. He has now followed through on his earlier decision.
Quote of the Day
What I completely fail to comprehend, however, is why the numbers of US Foreign Service positions in Iraq continue to rise when the country is - after four years - still a war zone.
Regardless of what Ambassador Ryan Crocker said, or may not have said, to Guardian reporter Ed Pilkerton about Foreign Service Officers being “in the wrong line of business” if they put their personal safety above the interests of the country or that they all “took an oath to serve our nation worldwide when we joined the foreign service, just as the military swore an oath” that’s just not correct.
FSOs swear an oath to defend the US Constitution. They sign a contract agreeing to worldwide availability. At least that’s what I remember doing when I joined the service years ago. This is corroborated elsewhere.
Seems to me, however, that for its side of the grand bargain, the US government also needs to sign and uphold the terms of yet another contract with its Foreign Service employees. This contract should state that the Department will provide the training and security necessary so US diplomats can be diplomats and not also have to masquerade as soldiers - albeit unarmed - in a war zone(see definitions above).
Patricia Kushlis
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