News of the Day for Sunday, June 12, 2011

Reported Security Incidents

Hashimiya, south of Hilla

Iraqi security forces say that U.S. forces killed 2 civilians, apparently accidentally, while firing rockets to destroy an anti-tank bomb planted by the road.


Baghdad

Roadside bomb injures 3 police officers on Palestine St. Saturday night.

In the same dispatch, Aswat al-Iraq reports a sticky bomb seriously injures an Iraqi army officer in Doura, also late Saturday.

Three civilians injured by a roadside bomb in Adhamiya.

Mosul

One police officer killed, another injured by a bomb attack on their patrol.

Aswat al-Iraq also reports a city council member escapes an attempt to assassinate him by booby trapping his car.

Four people are injured late Saturday in successive explosions in al-Zuhour district, the first injuring 2 civilians, the second injuring 2 soldiers. (Note: This is not the attack that occurred earlier in the day, which killed 4 or 6 people depending on the source, noted in yesterday's post.) Reuters calls this location "a town near Mosul," apparently referring to the same incidents.

Other News of the Day

U.S. Republican Rep. Dana Rohrbacher, leading a "fact finding" mission to Iraq, sets off a firestorm of anger by Iraqi lawmakers, and the government calls the U.S. embassy to ask that the delegation leave the country. First, in a 1 1/2 hour meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, Rohrbacher tells the PM that his House subcommittee is investigating the deaths of 35 members of the Iranian dissident group Mujahedin-e Khalq by Iraqi security forces. He later says at a press conference that the "massacre" was probably a crime against humanity; and stated that Iraq should repay the U.S. for the cost of the invasion and occupation.

Outside the parliamentary cafeteria, a member of the Prime Minister's State of Law party attacks a member of the Iraqiya party with his cane.

Demonstrators in Basra demand better living conditions, as the Prime Minister's declared '100 days for reform' expire without any cabinet ministers being removed.

Afghanistan Update

ISAF says a soldier was killed in an insurgent attack in southern Afghanistan on Saturday. No further details available at this time.

Taliban attack an Afghan army vehicle in Ghazni. According to an Afghan military spokesman, 6 insurgents were killed and 3 injured; 1 Afghan soldier was injured.

The UN says that more Afghan civilians died violently in May than in any month since 2007. Of 368 civilian deaths, the UN says anti-government forces were responsible for 82%.

Quote of the Day

Tom Ridge appears to be alleging in a new book that the Bush administration put political pressure on him to raise the terrorism threat level in fall of 2004 so as to help George W. Bush’s chances of reelection. . . .Frances Townsend, Donald Rumsfeld and other Bush administration figures are denying the charge. But, of course, they are seasoned liars and so their denials don’t count for much.

Juan Cole