Iraq round up this week (from Oct. 15 to, Oct. 20, 2007)

Iraqi landscape and the tumult that follows after ‘war on terror’ leaves no one in doubt what is happening and what is to happen. Well, now there remains no hope for better future, no reconciliation, no light at the end of tunnel, every adjective to describe the chaotic scenario falls short and one wonders whether there will be another pinnacle of misery than one in Iraq. Of course not, this is the zenith of brutality that leaves Iraqis in dilemma as to which path to go to find peace and stability, and sorry, there is blockade at every point. Words are too short to describe what Iraqis are going through. Meanwhile, here are some excerpts what Iraq went through this week. Image Oct. 15, 2007 bomb in a parked car struck worshippers heading to a Shiite mosque in Baghdad, killing at least nine people as Iraqis celebrated a Muslim holiday, while the death toll rose to 18 in a coordinated suicide truck bombing and ambush north of the capital. Relatives and rescue workers pulled bodies from under piles of concrete bricks and rubble in the Sunni city of Samarra, where a suicide truck bomber detonated his explosives. Guards had opened fire before he could reach the targeted police headquarters. Image Turkish troops shelled farmland around a half-dozen villages in northern Iraq from across the tense border in what the Turkish military called retaliation for weekend attacks by Kurdish rebels. A provincial intelligence official in Iraq’s Kurdish city of Dohuk said the shelling set orchards and farmland ablaze, but no casualties were reported. Firefighters worked until just before daybreak to put out a blaze that scorched fields on farms near the border. Turkey’s military alleged that Kurdish separatist guerrillas attacked villages on its side of the border. A journalist for The Washington Post was shot and killed while reporting from a volatile neighborhood in southern Baghdad. The killing, an isolated act that appeared to have been deliberate, was one of at least nine in the capital. The reporter, Salih Saif Aldin, 32, was shot once in the head, apparently at close range. Oct. 16, 2007 Three Iraqi newspaper employees were killed near Kirkuk when their convoy was ambushed by gunmen, the second deadly attack on Iraqi journalists. Eyad Tariq, an editor of al-Watan, a weekly newspaper in Tikrit, was killed along with two security guards for the news organization after dropping off a colleague at the airport. Two other journalists from the paper were injured. Image The Turkish government asked parliament for a one-year authorization to conduct military operations in northern Iraq to attack Kurdish separatist guerrillas, but senior government officials attempted to play down the prospects of an immediate attack. It is impossible to speak for certain on a possible cross-border operation if the parliament approves it. The parliamentarian said that we will look at the season and go over our needs before launching a military operation. Oct. 17, 2007 An explosives-laden sewage truck blew up near a police station and a car bomb struck an Iraqi army checkpoint. Attacks that bore the hallmarks of al-Qaeda and showed extremists can still hit hard despite recent gains by U.S. led forces. A U.S. military spokesman said the terror network is on the run in some areas, but it “obviously remains very lethal.” Image Iraq’s prime minister wants private military contractor Blackwater out of his country after an Iraqi probe found Blackwater guards randomly shot civilians without provocation in a Baghdad square last month. Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and most Iraqi officials are “completely satisfied” with the findings and are “insisting” that Blackwater should leave the country. The U.S. State Department and the FBI are conducting their own investigation into the September 16 killings in western Baghdad’s Nusoor Square, and a joint U.S.-Iraqi commission is reviewing the results of both probes. Image MPs in Turkey are due to debate a motion authorizing cross-border military operations into northern Iraq to target Kurdish rebel bases there. Parliament in Ankara is expected to approve the motion by a large majority amid widespread public support for military action against the PKK. Attacks blamed on the rebels have been escalating inside Turkey in a conflict which dates back more than two decades. But the US is anxious that Turkish action could destabilize northern Iraq. The motion says that Turkey has warned Iraq repeatedly to clamp down on the PKK to no avail. Oct. 18, 2007 Turkey’s foreign minister assured that his country would not hesitate to act against Kurdish rebels waging deadly attacks against its troops and warned them against testing its resolve. His remarks came a day after Turkey’s parliament approved a motion allowing troops to cross into northern Iraq to hunt down Kurdish rebels there. The move prompted Turkey’s Western allies and Baghdad to urge it to refrain from military action. Turkey is determined to continue the fight against terror. Walls are an emotive issue in Baghdad. Towering concrete barriers have mushroomed across Iraq’s capital, put up by U.S. forces striving to cripple Sunni and Shiite militants. Critics argue the walls divide communities, stifle economic activity, imprison residents and only widen the sectarian rifts that remain at the root of Iraq’s political gridlock. Proponents say walls protect single sect or mixed neighborhoods alike, allow the security forces to choke off insurgent groups, make people feel safer and permit residents to start policing their own streets. For Um Ali, a shopkeeper in the mainly Sunni Arab district of Qadissiya, the high concrete blast walls makes it difficult to move around and new checkpoints add hours to journeys. Oct. 19, 2007 Image The president of the Kurdish region in northern Iraq has said his people will defend themselves if Turkey attacks Kurdish rebels based in the region. Massoud Barzani, the Kurdish leader, rejected accusations that his government provided cover for Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) fighters. Turkish parliament authorized cross-border raids against the PPK which it blames for attacks soldiers and civilians in Turkey. Image Violence is something that has become firmly associated with Iraq. A roadside bomb has killed seven Iraqi policemen near the city of Diwaniya, south of Baghdad. The bomb exploded overnight as three police vehicles were passing along the main road between Diwaniya and Ifak. Vehicles were heading to the police station at Ifak, which had come under an earlier attack. Russian President Vladimir Putin called on the United States to set a date for withdrawal from Iraq, saying the U.S. military campaign had become a “pointless” battle against the Iraqi people. Putin used a live Russian TV and radio broadcast to criticize U.S. policy in Iraq, which he said was aimed in part at seizing oil reserves. The Russian leader’s latest broadside against U.S. foreign policy came during his annual question-and-answer session with the Russian people. Oct. 20, 2007 Image Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan called on Washington and Baghdad to crack down on Kurdish rebels based in Northern Iraq, warning that Ankara will follow through with its threat of a cross-border operation if it sees no action. “We are tired of being put off with empty words,” and “We need to see some concrete results with regards to the presence of (Kurdish rebels) in northern Iraq”, The Turkish PM said. He, however, showed the alacrity to have negotiations with his Iraqi counterpart to carry out a joint military operation against Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) bases in northern Iraq.