Iraq suspends Al-Jazeera and 9 Iraqi TV channels

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraqi authorities suspended the operating licenses of pan-Arab broadcaster Al-Jazeera and nine Iraqi TV channels on Sunday after accusing them of escalating sectarian tension. The move signaled the Shiite-led government's mounting worries over deteriorating security amid Sunni unrest and clashes that have left more than 180 people dead in less than a week.

The suspensions, which took effect immediately, appeared to target mainly Sunni channels known for criticizing Prime Minister Nouri al-Malik's government. Apart from Al-Jazeera, the decision affected eight Sunni and one Shiite channels.

The government's action comes as Baghdad tries to quell rising unrest in the country that erupted last week after Iraqi security forces launched a deadly crackdown on a Sunni protest site in the central city of Hawija, killing 23 people, including three soldiers.

Since then, more than 180 people have been killed in gunbattles with security forces and other attacks. The recent wave of violence follows more than four months of largely peaceful protests by Iraq's Sunni Muslim minority against Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government.

Iraqi viewers will still be able to watch the channels, but the suspensions issued by Iraq's Communications and Media Commission state that if the 10 stations try to work on Iraqi territory they will face legal action from security forces. The decree essentially prevents news crews from the stations from reporting on activities in Iraq.

Sunni lawmaker Dahfir al-Ani described the move as part of the government's attempts "to cover up the bloodshed that took place in Hawija and what is going on in other places in the country."

Al-Jazeera, based in the small, energy-rich Gulf nation of Qatar, said it was "astonished" by the move.

"We cover all sides of the stories in Iraq, and have done for many years. The fact that so many channels have been hit all at once, though, suggests this is an indiscriminate decision," it said in an emailed statement. "We urge the authorities to uphold freedom for the media to report the important stories taking place in Iraq."

The channel has aggressively covered the "Arab Spring" uprisings across the region, and has broadcast extensively on the civil war in neighboring Syria. Qatar itself is a harsh critic of the Syrian regime. The nation is a leading backer of the rebels and is accused by many supporters of the Iraqi government of backing protests in Iraq too.

Newspapers and media outlets sprang up across Baghdad after the fall of the Saddam Hussein regime in 2003, yet Iraq remains one of the deadliest countries for reporters with more than 150 killed since 1992, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Iraq and other governments across the Middle East have temporarily shut down Al-Jazeera's offices in the past because they were disgruntled by its coverage.

The other nine channels whose licenses were suspended by the Iraqi media commission are al-Sharqiya and al-Sharqiya News, which frequently criticize the government, and seven smaller local channels — Salahuddin, Fallujah, Taghyeer, Baghdad, Babiliya, Anwar 2 and al-Gharbiya.

The Baghdad-based Baghdad TV said the decision was politically motivated.

"The Iraqi authorities do not tolerate any opposite opinions and are trying to silence any voices that do not go along with the official line," said Omar Subhi, who directs the news section.

He added that the TV station was concerned about the safety of its staff, fearing that security forces might chase them.

In a statement posted on its website, the government media commission blamed the banned stations for the escalation of sectarian tension that is fueling the violence that followed the deadly clashes in Hawija.

Iraq's media commission accused the stations of misleading and exaggerated reports, airing "clear calls for disorder" and "launching retaliatory criminal attacks against security forces." It also blamed the stations for promoting "banned terrorist organizations who committed crimes against Iraqi people."

Osama Abdul-Rahman, a Sunni government employee from northern Baghdad, said the government is adopting a double-standard policy regarding media outlets by turning a blind eye on several Shiite channels that he claims also incite violence.

"The channels close to main Shiite parties and even the state-run television also broadcast sectarian programs promoting violence all the time, yet, nobody stops them," he added.

Erin Evers, a Mideast researcher for Human Rights Watch, called the government's claim that it moved against the channels because they were inciting sectarianism suspicious given its "consistent history of cracking down on media — particularly opposition media — during politically sensitive times."

"The cancellation of these stations' licenses is further evidence that the government seeks to prevent the coverage of news they do not like," she said.

She accused the Iraqi media commission of confusing coverage of a speech with sectarian overtones with the active promotion of sectarian violence. "These are two completely different things and the first is protected under international and Iraqi law," she said.

The decision to suspend the stations came as al-Maliki made a rare appearance at an official funeral for five soldiers killed on Saturday by gunmen in Sunni-dominated Anbar province. Local police in the province said the soldiers were killed in a gunbattle after their vehicle was stopped near a Sunni protest camp.

Authorities had given protest organizers a 24-deadline to hand over the gunmen behind the killing or face a "firm response." No one has been handed over and the deadline passed.

Wrapped in Iraqi flags, the five caskets were loaded on military trucks next to flower bouquets, as soldiers held pictures of the deceased and grieved families gathered outside the Defense Ministry building in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone.

In Saturday violence, gunmen using guns fitted with silencers shot dead two Sunni local tribal leaders in two separate drive-by shootings south of Baghdad.

___

Associated Press writers Adam Schreck and Sinan Salaheddin in Baghdad contributed.

View the original article here

Bombs kill at least 20 across Iraqi capital

By Kareem Raheem

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Bomb blasts in Baghdad killed at least 20 more people on Friday at the end of a week of bloodshed that prompted a United Nations envoy to warn Iraq was "at a crossroads".

More than 160 people have been killed since Tuesday, when troops stormed a Sunni protest camp near Kirkuk, triggering clashes that quickly spread to other Sunni areas in western and northern provinces.

Although well below the heights of 2006-7, this week's violence was the most widespread since U.S. troops pulled out of Iraq in December 2011. Militant attacks have increased this year as Iraq's fragile ethnic and sectarian balance comes under growing strain from the civil war in neighboring Syria.

In and around Baghdad, eight people including a soldier were killed in a series of bomb blasts outside mostly Sunni mosques.

Later on Friday, a car bomb killed seven in a busy shopping area in the south of the city. In the capital's Shi'ite stronghold of Sadr City, a motorcycle bomb exploded near a kiosk selling falafel, killing five.

No group claimed responsibility for any of the attacks, but Iraq is home to a number of insurgent groups including a local wing of al Qaeda.

"I call on the conscience of all religious and political leaders not to let anger win over peace, and to use their wisdom, because the country is at a crossroads," U.N. envoy Martin Kobler said in a statement.

SUNNI PROTESTS

Tens of thousands of Sunni Muslims poured onto the streets of Ramadi and Falluja in the western province of Anbar following Friday prayers, in their biggest show of strength since the outbreak of protests last year.

In Ramadi the preacher, who wore military fatigues with his cleric's turban, gave security forces 24 hours to quit the city, warning he would not be responsible for whatever happened after that.

Sunnis have been protesting since December against what they see as the marginalization of their sect since the U.S.-led invasion overthrew dictator Saddam Hussein in 2003 and empowered majority Shi'ites through the ballot box.

The demonstrations had recently eased, but this week's army raid on a protest camp in Hawija, near Kirkuk, 170 km (100 miles) north of Baghdad, reignited Sunni discontent and appears to have given fresh momentum to insurgents.

The army entered the town of Suleiman Pek after militants who seized control on Wednesday pulled back in agreement with the security forces and the provincial governor.

"We withdrew from these places in order to avoid bloodletting of our people because we know that the army wants to commit a new massacre similar to what happened in Hawija," tribal leader Jamil Al-Saqr told Reuters.

A tribal leader in the nearby town of Tuz Khurmato later said five bodies had been brought to the hospital, accusing government troops of executing them. An army source denied that.

(Additional reporting by Raheem Salman; Writing by Isabel Coles; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)

View the original article here

Iraqi soldiers retake control of Sunni town

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraqi soldiers backed by tanks retook control of a Sunni town north of Baghdad on Friday after gunmen withdrew without a fight, although violence continued in other parts of the country.

The Sunni gunmen had seized Suleiman Beg on Thursday after a firefight with security forces, one in a string of similar incidents that have killed more than 150 people in clashes in Sunni Muslim towns in western and northern Iraq over the past four days.

The fighting has raised concerns about the spread of sectarian clashes in Iraq, whose government is now dominated by the Shiite majority which Sunnis charge mistreats them.

Police and military officials said that army units entered the town after negotiations with local tribal leaders.

The recent unrest in the country followed a deadly security crackdown on a Sunni protest in the northern town of Hawija four days ago.

Meanwhile, police said a bomb blast hit Sunni worshippers as they were leaving a mosque in western Baghdad after the end of Friday prayers, killing 5 worshippers and wounding 22 others. Minutes later, a Sunni was killed and six others were wounded after bomb struck Sunnis near a mosque in the Rashidiyah area, 20 kilometers north of the capital.

Medics in nearby hospitals confirmed the death toll. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to talk to media.

Last Friday, a pair of bombs struck outside a Sunni mosque north of Baghdad, killing at least 11 people. There was no claim of responsibility for the attacks against Sunni mosques, which have now happened for two Fridays in a row.

Al-Qaida's Iraqi branch, Known as the Islamic State of Iraq, frequently carries out attacks against civilian targets such as mosques, markets and restaurants.

The terrorist group mainly target Shiites, but it has in the past also struck Sunni targets in an attempt to reignite the sectarian strife that pushed the country to the brink of civil war in the years following the 2003 U.S. led-invasion.

View the original article here

Syrian, Iraqi jihadi groups said to be cooperating

BAGHDAD (AP) — The wounded Syrian government troops were returning to their country in trucks escorted by Iraqi soldiers. They'd almost reached the border, near the frontier town of Akashat, when the attackers struck.

Regional intelligence officials saw the March 4 ambush, which left 48 dead, as evidence of a growing, cross-border alliance between two powerful Islamic extremist groups — al-Qaida in Iraq and Jabhat al-Nusra or Nusra Front in Syria. Nusra Front is the most effective rebel faction fighting President Bashar Assad's regime, and the U.S. designates both Sunni jihadi groups as terrorist organizations.

Iraqi intelligence officials say the burgeoning cooperation is pumping new life into the Sunni insurgency in their country. They point to nearly 20 car bombings and suicide attacks that killed over 65 people, mostly in Baghdad, on the eve of the 10th anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq last month.

The alliance is also nurturing Nusra Front, which emerged as an offshoot of Iraq's al-Qaida branch in mid-2012 to battle Assad's regime as one of a patchwork of disparate rebel groups in Syria. Nusra Front's presence on the battlefield complicates desperately needed international support for Syrian rebels because foreign backers do not want to bolster Islamic extremist groups.

Two Iraqi intelligence officials said the cooperation reflected in the attack on the wounded Syrian troops prompted their government to request U.S. drone strikes against the fighters. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not permitted to talk to reporters about the subject.

A U.S. official confirmed that elements within the Iraqi government had inquired about drone strikes. But the official said the U.S. was waiting to respond until the top level of Iraqi leadership makes a formal request, which has not happened yet.

Iraq is also turning elsewhere for assistance. Ministry of Defense spokesman Staff Lt. Gen. Mohammed al-Askari said that in Iraq's last weapons deal with Russia, Baghdad requested aircraft and heavy weapons to try to seize control of the Iraqi-Syria border region where the groups are operating.

The two Iraqi intelligence officials said the jihadi groups are sharing three military training compounds, logistics, intelligence and weapons as they grow in strength around the Syria-Iraq border, particularly in a sprawling region called al-Jazeera, which they are trying to turn into a border sanctuary they can both exploit. It could serve as a base of operations to strike either side of the border.

"We are very concerned about the security situation in Iraq," said Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Moussawi. He said Iraqi ground troops and the country's tiny air force were unable to quell the militant activity in the border zone.

"This area is a nest of terrorist cells," he said.

A Jordanian counterterrorism official said al-Qaida in Iraq was assisting Nusra Front "with all possible means, including weapons, fighters and training."

Another regional security analyst cited the attack on the wounded Syrian troops in Iraq as decisive proof of cooperation.

"This is operational collaboration," the analyst said, requesting anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject. "The transfer of weapons, tactics and ideas, what they call complex suicide attacks."

Iraq and Syria's other neighbors, Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey and Israel, all fear the spillover effects of the 2-year-old civil war. Iraq, Lebanon and Syria all share a similar, fragile ethnic mix and the concern is that the conflict could cause sectarian warfare between Sunnis and Shiites to spread throughout the region.

Under Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's Shiite-led government, already tense relations with minority Sunnis have worsened. There are also longstanding strains between Arabs and Kurds, who control their own autonomous region in Iraq's north.

In Syria, Assad is a member of the Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam, and his security forces are heavily stocked by fellow Alawites and Shiites. But Alawites are a minority, and the opposition fighting him is predominantly made up of majority Sunnis.

Shiite-dominated Iran and Shiite militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon are Syria's two closest allies in the Mideast.

Iraq pledged on Friday that it would conduct more searches of Syria-bound planes and vehicles, days after visiting U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry asked al-Maliki to stop shipments of Iranian weapons and fighters through Iraqi territory to help Assad's regime.

But al-Moussawi also pointedly noted that Iraq would try to halt weapons shipments to rebels.

Nusra Front's role in Syria's civil war is troubling not only for Iraq but for international supporters of the Syrian opposition as well.

Since it emerged in mid-2012, it has transformed into the most potent fighting force among rebel groups, with a strong presence in the eastern provinces of Raqqa, Deir el-Zour and Hassakeh close to the Iraqi border.

The group has claimed responsibility for many of the deadliest suicide bombings against the regime and military facilities. Its success has led to popularity among fighting groups, though a source of friction with more moderate and secular brigades in Syria. Nusra Front has complicated the fractured Syrian opposition's cause and remains a chief reason the U.S. has been reluctant to arm the Syrian rebels.

Intelligence officials estimated last month that about 750 Nusra Front militants — including foreign fighters from other Arab countries — were among approximately 2,000 anti-Assad fighters who control long stretches of borderlands on the Syrian side. The officials said the Syrian militants were increasingly crossing into Iraq to meet their al-Qaida counterparts.

They mostly operate from the al-Jazeera region that straddles three provinces of western Iraq. The region abuts part of the porous, 375-mile border, composed of desert valleys, orchards and oases.

Their cooperation with al-Qaida intensified when Nusra Front seized control of two border crossings between Syria and Iraq, freeing up space for the militants to operate, the Iraqi intelligence officials said.

The rebels seized the Rabia-Yarubiya crossing in March and the al-Qaim crossing in September, according to a report on Nusra Front by the U.K.-based Quilliam Foundation. One crossing still remains in Syrian hands — the Walid-Tanf post near where the Syrian, Jordanian and Iraqi borders intersect.

Government spokesman al-Moussawi and Jassim al-Halbousi, a provincial council member in Iraq's Anbar province, also confirmed the two groups were using "nests" — Arabic slang for small bases — in the area.

"This battle has two directions, from Syria to Iraq and from Iraq to Syria," said analyst Mustafa Alani of the Geneva-based Gulf Research Center.

The Jordanian counter-terrorism official said al-Qaida in Iraq was also providing "expertise and logistics" to the Nusra Front.

"During training, Nusra elements are taught how to fire rockets and machine guns, maneuver in the desert terrain and handle arms supply to its in-the-field fighters," he said, requesting anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

He said the training is conducted in "temporary camps in a no-man's land along the Syrian-Iraqi border." After training sessions, the camp is usually dismantled so as not to leave traces behind.

"It's natural for al-Qaida to help another group with a similar ideology," he said. "The aim is to control the street in Syria as a step toward toppling Assad and setting up an Islamic jihadi state there."

According to the Iraqi officials, the group is helping al-Qaida expand in western Iraq and conduct high-profile attacks against mostly Shiite targets.

A wave of daring and coordinated strikes in March led intelligence officials to conclude that al-Qaida militants had strengthened their weapons-smuggling networks as well as their ability to find volunteers and carry out attacks.

They said the surge was caused by increased cooperation with Nusra Front fighters who appear to have facilitated the flow of suicide bombers, weapons and explosives into Iraq.

The ambush on the wounded Syrian troops only strengthened the notion of cooperation. An intelligence official said attackers appeared to have been tipped off.

The soldiers were making their way back to Syria in an Iraqi-escorted convey traveling hundreds of miles westward.

The assault began with militants detonating explosive charges on the military escort vehicles assigned to protect trucks carrying the Syrian soldiers, al-Qaida in Iraq claimed in a statement posted on its website after the attack.

After that, "the fighters launched an attack from two directions using light- and medium-range weapons as well as rocket-propelled grenades," it said. "Within less than half an hour, the whole convoy ... was annihilated."

U.S. and Iraqi forces had mostly quelled al-Qaida's presence in Iraq before American troops withdrew in late 2011. But by September 2012, Iraqi intelligence officials were warning that al-Qaida was regrouping, seizing on regional instability and government security failures to regain strength.

They reported at the time that fighters linked to al-Qaida were crossing into Syria to battle the Assad regime. Since then, those fighters have strengthened the al-Jazeera area into what they hope will be a haven to battle their foes, intelligence officials said.

"For these guys," said the regional security analyst, "the border between Iraq and Syria is not even a real thing."

___

With reporting by Jamal Halaby in Amman, Zeina Karam in Jordan and Lara Jakes in Washington. Follow Hadid on twitter.com/diaahadid

View the original article here

Elderly Iraqi tells inquiry son was tortured

By Estelle Shirbon

LONDON (Reuters) - An elderly Iraqi father described seeing signs of torture on his son's body as he testified on Monday at a London public inquiry into allegations of atrocities by British troops in 2004.

Mizal Karim Al-Sweady was the first of 60 Iraqi witnesses who will give evidence to the Al-Sweady inquiry into the disputed circumstances of 28 deaths during or after a battle at the Danny Boy checkpoint in southern Iraq.

The inquiry is named after Al-Sweady's son Hamid, 19, one of a group of Iraqi men allegedly captured alive and killed in detention. The military denies the allegations.

Dressed in a black-and-white keffiyeh and long brown robe over a grey suit, the elderly father-of-17 arrived carrying a framed photograph of Hamid alive. Before he began answering questions, he carried the photo to the inquiry chairman, retired judge Thayne Forbes, and the two men shook hands.

Moments later, as part of his evidence, Al-Sweady was shown a gruesome photograph of Hamid's corpse and asked to describe injuries he says he saw on his body shortly after his death.

Speaking through an interpreter, Al-Sweady said he had cleaned his son's body before burial and had seen wire marks around his neck, bruises on his chest, a broken jaw, a bullet wound in the neck and one in the leg.

"I turned my son's body around with my hand. I confirmed the injuries right after the doctor did," he said.

It is the second major British public inquiry into military conduct in Iraq. The costly and long-running inquiries have helped keep alive a public debate about why Britain got involved in the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and how the war was conducted.

Iraqi witnesses allege British soldiers captured a number of men during the battle at Danny Boy, about 5 km (3 miles) from the town of Majar al-Kabir, and took them to Camp Abu Naji base where some were murdered and mutilated and others tortured.

The military denies any unlawful killings or ill-treatment in the aftermath of the battle on May 14, 2004.

There is no agreement about the exact number or identities of the dead and whether they died fighting or in detention.

"EYES PLUCKED OUT"

Al-Sweady was asked by a lawyer for the military whether his son Hamid was a supporter of anti-U.S. cleric Moqtada al-Sadr or a member of his Mehdi Army militia. He said no to both.

The elderly father's evidence about the events of May 14-15, 2004, was challenged by several lawyers who noted discrepancies between three witness statements he gave in 2004 and 2010.

He was asked to elaborate on his account of seeing several bodies with eyes plucked out and tongues and noses cut off at the hospital where he collected his son's body. Pressed to be specific, he told the inquiry he had seen one body with a broken-up nose and one with eyes plucked out.

Al-Sweady denied changing his account over time, suggesting that his statements had not been written down correctly by British military police who had investigated the episode.

The Al-Sweady inquiry, ordered by the British government in 2009, has already cost 16 million pounds in its pre-hearings phase.

The hearings, expected to last about a year, will involve flying 15 Iraqi witnesses to London and another 45 to Beirut where they will give evidence by video-link from the British embassy. Some 200 British military witnesses will also testify.

An earlier inquiry, into the death of hotel receptionist Baha Mousa in British custody in Basra in 2003, reported in 2011 that he had died after suffering "an appalling episode of serious gratuitous violence" at the hands of British troops.

(Editing by Alistair Lyon)

View the original article here

Iraqi Sunni official announces resignation

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq's Sunni finance minister announced Friday during a protest in the western city of Ramadi that he will resign from the government, heightening the country's political crisis nearly a decade after the U.S.-led invasion.

The arrest of bodyguards assigned to Finance Minister Rafia al-Issawi in late December was the spark that set off a more than two month-long wave of Sunni protests against the Shiite-led government.

Al-Issawi's announcement marks the first resignation of a senior Sunni member of government since the protests began.

"I am presenting my resignation in front of you. I do not care about a government that does not respect the Iraqi blood and its people," al-Issawi told thousands gathered to protest against what they see as unfair treatment and discrimination against their sect by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government.

The protesters cheered in approval of al-Issawi's decision.

However, the resignation has to be formally endorsed by al-Maliki, leaving al-Issawi's status in government unclear for now.

Earlier Friday, two car bombs struck a livestock market south of the Iraqi capital on Friday, killing five and wounding dozens, the second such attack in as many days.

The twin bombing targeted the market in the Shiite city of Diawaniyah, 130 kilometers (80 miles) south of Baghdad, at the height of trading when many people pour to the market at the start of the weekend.

The head of the provincial council, Jubair al-Jabouri, said five people were killed and 70 were wounded in the attack. He blamed the blasts on al-Qaida, though there was no immediate claim of responsibility.

A day earlier, a similar attack tore a crowded livestock market in the town of Aziziyah, also south of Baghdad, killing three and wounding eight people.

Violence in Iraq has fallen since the height of sectarian fighting in 2006 and 2007, but deadly attacks are still frequent. On Thursday, bombings in Baghdad, Aziziyah and another town south of the Iraqi capital killed at least 22 people.

View the original article here