Newspaper Reporter is Kidnapped and Photographer is Killed
5 Feb 2007
After learning of the kidnapping of Al-Dawa reporter Karim Sabri Sharar Al-Rubai and the murder of freelance photographer Munjid Al-Tumaimi, Reporters Without Borders today appealed again to the Iraqi authorities to take concrete measures to protect media personnel.

Syria: Give Refuge to Palestinians Fleeing Threats in Iraq
5 Feb 2007
Syria should immediately reopen its border to Iraqi Palestinian refugees fleeing deadly attacks against their community. Human Rights Watch called on the international community, and the United States in particular, to provide financial assistance to Syria to help it host the Palestinian refugees, and to share the burden of this refugee problem by offering third-country resettlement opportunities to Palestinian refugees in Syria. Since the fall of Saddam Hussein’s government, Palestinian refugees in Iraq have increasingly become targets of violence and persecution, with abductions of scores of Palestinian men.

More Palestinians Flee Baghdad
5 Feb 2007
The number of Palestinians stranded at the Iraq-Syria border has risen to 700 as more refugees flee the escalating violence in Baghdad, the United Nations Refugee Agency said. “Another 50 Palestinians have fled to the Iraq-Syrian border following a traumatic week in Baghdad, bringing the total number stranded at the frontier to about 700,” Jennifer Pagonis, UNHCR spokeswoman, said at a press briefing in Geneva. On 27 January, 73 Palestinians made the hazardous journey from Baghdad to this border following the temporary detention of 30 Palestinian men by Iraqi security forces in the capital.

Journalists still missing one year on
4 Feb 2007
The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned that more than a year after Iraqi journalists Marwan Ghazal and Reem Zaeed were abducted by gunmen in Baghdad they remain missing. “The plight of Marwan Ghazal and Reem Zaeed underscores the enormous dangers faced by all journalists covering this conflict, but especially those largely anonymous, local reporters who are most at risk,” CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon said. “Alive or dead they must not be forgotten. If they are still being held, Iraqi authorities should do everything to find them.” Ghazal and Zaeed, who worked for the Iraqi satellite channel Al-Sumaria, were seized by several gunmen driving a blue Opel car outside the offices of the Iraqi Islamic Party in Baghdad’s Yarmouk district at midday on February 1, 2006, according to a family member of one of the journalists and a news editor at Al-Sumaria.

Children living without limbs lack support
4 Feb 2007
According to Save the Children, a UK-based NGO, many children were killed or injured in the initial US-led invasion of Iraq in April and March 2003. The NGO said the injured children continue to suffer the effects of the conflict, have become more vulnerable to chronic diseases and lack assistance. The exact number of children living without limbs in Iraq, as a result of the war and the daily violence countrywide, is not known. However, local NGOs estimate that they must be in the thousands. “Every explosion, air strike, fighting or targeting in Iraq makes a child injured. In addition, we cannot forget the remaining UXOs [unexploded ordnance] whose victims are mostly children,” Khalid Ala’a, spokesman for local NGO Keeping Children Alive, said.

No Light at Tunnel’s End
4 Feb 2007
A long-awaited study by the U.S. intelligence community released here Friday concludes there is little, if any, light at the end of tunnel in Iraq. The report, which comes on the eve of an unprecedented Senate debate on President George W. Bush’s plan to add at least 21,500 more troops to the 140,000 U.S. forces already in Iraq, described the current conflict there as a “civil war” that could very easily lead to the country’s de facto partition. Moreover, even if the additional U.S. troops succeed in reducing the violence over the next year to 18 months, progress toward reaching a political settlement is doubtful given attitudes among the various Iraqi communities and their leaders, according to the report’s “Key Judgments”, the only part of the report that was released publicly.

“Surging” Right Into Bin Laden’s Hands
31 Jan 2007
“Amid weakening support for President Bush’s ‘surge’ among once-reliable Republican allies in the House and Senate,” writes Adam Elkus, “his predictable right-wing cheering squad continues to rant in a vain attempt to give the ill-conceived plan some momentum. Economist and pundit Thomas Sowell warns that ‘politicians who demand timetables’ and ‘today’s media’, will cause America to ‘lose’ in Iraq. When not tossing out specious historical comparisons to the Civil War, the Korean War, and World Wars I and II, The National Review’s Victor Davis Hanson urges ‘no substitute for victory’. Lost in the ‘surge’ debate is the unfortunate reality that Bush’s surge in Iraq, just like the invasion itself, is just another success for Al Qaeda’s ultimate strategy to eliminate America.”

What Really Happened in Najaf?
30 Jan 2007
What is clear is that what happened in Najaf is unclear. Eyewitness testimony, posted in the Iraqi press, suggests that the “Soldiers of Heaven” story may not hold water.

Engagement with War
29 Jan 2007
“There should be massive convoys traveling into Iraq on a regular basis to meet the rising humanitarian needs,” writes Kathy Kelly from Amman, Jordan. “There should be, but there aren’t. We who are vastly more comfortable and secure stand by, seemingly mesmerized by the awful consequences of a “war of choice” begun by the United States. We must liberate ourselves from the absurd presumption that the U.S. military has the power or the right to impose solutions in parts of the world where they are not welcome.”

Testimony by Anthony Arnove before the Out Now Caucus on Capitol Hill
29 Jan 2007
Anthony Arnove, author of Iraq: The Logic of Withdrawal, gave testimony before the Out Now Caucus on Capitol Hill on January 29, 2007.

Review: Iraq in Fragments
29 Jan 2007
In the years since the invasion of Iraq, many documentaries have attempted to record its consequences: the violence; the occupation; the plunder. The focus has ranged from the anthropological to geopolitical, just as the production has varied from the bland to the spectacular. With the urgency of the political reality taking preeminence, the myriad documentary renderings have hitherto failed to present a sustained portrait of life in occupied Iraq. Iraq in Fragments the distilled product of more than two years and 300 hours of filming is James Longley’s splendid contribution towards filling this void.

Who Is the Enemy?
29 Jan 2007
Two incidents involving U.S. forces in predominantly Shi’a southern Iraq over the past week appear to demonstrate the growing complexities and dangers of the country’s civil conflict. Sunday’s day-long battle near Najaf, in which two U.S. pilots were killed when their military helicopter was shot down, was first reported as an attack by Sunni insurgents and “foreign fighters” on the holy city and the tens of thousands of Shi’a pilgrims who are converging there for Ashura. But later reports identified the heavily armed and highly organized assailants as members of the Army of Heaven, an obscure Shiite sect that believes the killing of Najaf’s senior ayatollahs, including Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, will hasten the return of the Mahdi. Meanwhile, officials here are still trying to figure out who was behind the Jan. 20 surprise attack on a U.S. security team that was meeting with their Iraqi counterparts in the regional government offices in Karbala, some 70 kms north of Najaf.

Widespread condemnation of fatal attack on girls school
29 Jan 2007
The Iraqi government, the United Nations and NGOs have condemned an attack against a girls’ school in Baghdad that left five students dead and more than 20 injured on Sunday. Parents, students and teachers were left horror-struck after the incident. Kholoud Secondary School in the mainly Sunni Adel neighbourhood of western Baghdad witnessed one of the most horrific attacks against Iraq’s education system since the US-led occupation of the country began in 2003.

Anti-War Marches Draw Massive Participation
28 Jan 2007
Peace activists from across the United States gathered in Washington Saturday for what they said was the largest demonstration to date against the Iraq war. The demonstration, which was pulled together by an umbrella group called United for Peace and Justice, also featured speeches by a half dozen antiwar Congresspeople. Among them was a founder of Congress’ “Out of Iraq Caucus,” Maxine Waters, a California Democrat, who pledged not to vote “one dime for this war”. Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson also spoke, as did actors Jane Fonda and Sean Penn, members of the National Organization for Women and other feminist groups, members of the United States military and veterans groups opposed to the war, and representatives of organized labor.

Rural America Pays the President’s Price in Iraq
28 Jan 2007
When we hear about the American dead in Iraq, we normally learn about the circumstances in which they died. Demographer William O’Hare and journalist Bill Bishop have released an important study that has gotten too little attention. Matching a data set from the Department of Defense listing the dead and their hometowns against information from the White House Office of Management and Budget on which counties in this country are metropolitan, they found that the American dead of the Iraq and Afghan Wars do indeed come disproportionately from rural America. Quite startlingly so. According to their study, the death rate “for rural soldiers is 60% higher than the death rate for those soldiers from cities and suburbs.

Today I’m the only one in class…
28 Jan 2007
“I’m 11 years old and an only son. I’m a pupil at Mansour Primary School in Baghdad. Lately, I have been feeling very lonely in my class. This week, I was the only student in class because all my classmates didn’t come to school for various reasons. Since last September, three of my classmates have been kidnapped and two have been killed. One was murdered with his family at home and the other was a victim of a bomb explosion a month ago. The others have either fled to Jordan and Syria with their families or their relatives have prohibited them from coming to school for fear that something might happen to them.”

Baghdad hospitals in crisis as they lack security and drugs
28 Jan 2007
Hospitals and Primary Health Care Centers in Baghdad are facing a major crisis as a result of lack security and a shortage of medicine, equipment and specialized staff, say health specialists. “A major problem affecting [Iraq’s] health sector is definitely the country’s desperate security situation,” said Nada Doumani, a spokeswoman for the International Committee of the Red Cross. “Armed men storm the operating theaters forcing doctors to treat their own patients, as a priority. Some patients insist on keeping their arms and masks, while being treated. This creates a traumatizing situation for the doctors,” she said. Doumani added that as a result of insecurity, “More than half of the 34,000 registered doctors have recently left Iraq and hundreds have been killed. Medical staff are often considered soft targets by kidnappers.”

Students, Professors Flee to the Kurdish North
28 Jan 2007
Academic life in Iraq’s volatile southern and central regions has become increasingly paralysed, with hundreds of students and professors targeted and many more abandoning their educational institutions in search of a refuge. Since the eruption of violence in Iraq, following the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, Kurdistan’s five universities have been flooded with students and professors who abandoned their original schools. Figures from regional government institutions show that from the beginning of 2006 until November of the same year, nearly 1,200 students from other parts of the country have been admitted to Kurdistan universities. That figure is growing on a daily basis as the number of people fleeing violence the in central and southern parts of Iraq continues to rise.

Jordan Becomes a Doubtful Refuge
28 Jan 2007
Hundreds of thousands have fled the violence in Iraq to seek refuge in Jordan, but refugees are now beginning to find its borders closing. Jordan and Syria are the only two countries where fleeing Iraqis can hope to find shelter. Western countries have shut their doors to Iraqi nationals – even to refugees. And now much the same is happening with Jordan too. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reports that 100,000 Iraqis are fleeing the country every month. UNHCR estimates that approximately 700,000 Iraqis are currently living in Jordan and another 600,000 in Syria—although many experts believe the real numbers are higher, given the numbers leaving every month. The UNHCR estimates also that there are more than 1.5 million internally displaced people within Iraq itself.

UN concerned for persecuted Palestinians
28 Jan 2007
There is increased international concern about the plight of Palestinians living in Baghdad following the arrest on 16 January of 30 Palestinians by Iraqi security forces in two neighborhoods of the capital, Baghdad. Although they were released shortly after, the UN is concerned that Palestinians have been systematically targeted and threatened by authorities and militias. However, despite their release, a group of up to 90 terrified Palestinian men, women and children fled Baghdad on Wednesday heading toward the Syrian border, where the UN Refugee Agency says more than 500 Palestinians have been stranded for months.

Spanish judge issues warrants for the arrest of three US soldiers for “murder” of journalist in Iraq
24 Jan 2007
Reporters Without Borders today welcomed the international warrant issued by a Madrid judge yesterday for the arrest of three US soldiers for the “murder” of Spanish cameraman José Couso of the privately-owned television station Telecinco, who was killed on 8 April 2003 when a US tank fired a shell at a Baghdad hotel used by the international media. “We hope that judge Santiago Pedraz’s decision to issue an international arrest warrant for the three US soldiers responsible for firing the shell that killed Couso means they will finally be required to explain their actions before a court,” the press freedom organization said.

Karbala authorities on alert for Shi’ite pilgrimage
24 Jan 2007
Health and security authorities in Karbala, some 100km south-west of the capital, Baghdad, have been put on high alert in case of any major attacks during the upcoming most important religious event in the Shi’ite Muslim calendar. The day of Ashura draws millions of pilgrims from other Iraqi provinces and beyond the country to Karbala, a holy city for Shi’ite Muslims. Because of the high levels of sectarian violence plaguing Iraq today, authorities are taking every precaution to ensure no violent incidents occur, and if they do, that they are well prepared for casualties. “We are ready for any emergencies. More medicine and medical equipment have been brought from Baghdad and other provinces. Doctors and other health employees will be on duty round the clock,” said Dr Sadiq Abdullah of Al-Hussein Hospital, the city’s main hospital.

Anti-War Groups Plan Surge on Washington
24 Jan 2007
Peace activists from around the United States will converge on Washington Saturday for what organizers hope will be the largest demonstration to date against the Iraq war. “We expect a turnout in the six figures,” said Tom Andrews, a former Democratic congressman who now runs the group Win Without War, which is organizing the march along with True Majority, Working Assets, the RainbowPUSH Coalition, the National Organization for Women and the national umbrella group United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ). UFPJ’s Leslie Cagan told IPS that the level of energy in the antiwar movement has spiked since the November election, when voters ended Republican majorities in both houses of Congress. “The voters of this country figured out that they could use the November elections as a vehicle to voice their opposition to the war,” Cagan said. “What happened there was that the voters gave Congress a mandate to end the war in Iraq and bring the troops home.” That success at the polls gave antiwar citizens more optimism that a large demonstration might make an impact, she said.

Revolt Builds Against Bush’s Iraq Policy
24 Jan 2007
In the first step toward what some believe could eventually lead to a constitutional crisis, a key Congressional committee approved a non-binding resolution here Wednesday formally dissenting from President George W. Bush’s plan to send some 21,000 more troops to Iraq. The 12-9 vote in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which came less than 14 hours after Bush appealed in his State of the Union address for Congress to give his plan “a chance to work”, sets the stage for a broader debate next week when a majority of the full Senate is also expected to voice its disapproval of the president’s course, albeit possibly in a somewhat milder form. Wednesday’s resolution, which drew the backing of all the Democrats on the Committee, as well as its one Republican co-sponsor, Sen. Chuck Hagel, declared that deepening U.S. military involvement in Iraq at this time is “not in the national interest of the United States.”