Nur al-Cubicle

A blog on the current crises in the Middle East and news accounts unpublished by the US press. Daily timeline of events in Iraq as collected from stories and dispatches in the French and Italian media: Le Monde (Paris), Il Corriere della Sera (Milan), La Repubblica (Rome), L'Orient-Le Jour (Beirut) and occasionally from El Mundo (Madrid).

Sunday, April 10, 2005

10 April 2005 Events in Iraq (and elsewhere)

Baghdad. Credit claimed in kidnapping of Pakistani. A group calling itself The Followers of Omar ben Khattab kidnapped Pakistani consular employee Malik Mohammed Javed. Karachi says the man does not have diplomatic status and is not an embassy consul.

Baghdad. US and Iraqi authorities hold more that 17,000 prisoners in poor and unsanitary conditions. But outgoing Human Rights Minister Bakhtiar Amin stated to the press that There are obviously a lot of prisoners but if you compare that to California or Italy, which do not have the security problems we do, the number of detainees is very modest, though we are working to reduce our prison population.

Baghdad. Tarek Aziz will not testify against Saddam Hussein. Defense attorney Bady Aref Izzat says his client will not testify against Saddam. Izzat says he has only be able to meet with Aziz three times in two years.

Dubai. An al-Arabiya television reporter arrested in March by Iraqi authorities has been released on bail.

Iskandariyah. Three Iraqis were shot dead as they waited for a car repair. Two others were wounded.

Zaafaraniyah. A member of SCIRI was killed and another wounded.

Mossul. One civilian was killed and three police wounded in an RPG attack on a police patrol in the Maidan district of central Mosul.

Mossul. A Nineveh ex-Provincial Council member, Oujail Mohsen Oujail, was shot dead.

Bohrouz. The manger of a power plant was kidnapped by insurgents.

Doujail. A man was killed in a shootout with police.

Kut. The bodies of two Iraqi soldiers, an officer and a private killed three days ago at the Iranian frontier, were recovered.

Soueirah. The body of a suicide bomber, a 51 year-old Palestinian by the name of Chahata Abdallah Salem, was recovered. Salem blew himself up when he was surrounded by police in Soueirah, 50 km south of Baghdad.

Baïji. The bullet-ridden body of an oil pipeline security guard was recovered.

Baghdad. Four civilians were wounded in a blast in west Baghdad's al-Khadra district.

Baghdad. General Bassem Mohammed Kazem of Iraq's Interior Ministry disappeared and was reported executed by a group linked to Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi.

Doura. Saad Imad Salman, a policeman suspected of membership in Ansar al-Sunna, was arrested by security forces. Salman is also suspected of having killed 10 persons including Police Colonel Abdel Karim al-Mouhayawi.

Najaf. A group linked to Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi says it has kidnapped and executed the head of police in Najaf.

20:25 Baghdad. US soldier dies in road accident. A Marine of the 155th Expeditionary Force Brigade was killed in a road accident.

19:36 Rome. Giuliana Sgrena to show video on her abduction. Giuliana Sgrena is to project her video, The Longest Month, tomorrow at a meeting of the Italian National Press Association. A CD with the video will be distributed by the newspaper Manifesto with its midweek edition.

16:50 Jerusalem. Israeli security forces prevented a demonstration by Ultra-nationalist Jews belonging to Revava (Multitude). Thousands of Israeli police were deplyed in Jerusalem to prevent the entry of the demonstrators into the Esplanade of the Mosques. Although Revava claimed thousands would attend only a few hundred answered the call. One policeman was wounded by a rock. If Sharon thinks he can expel Jews from Gaza, he is wrong, said Efraim Cohen, a 21 year-old demonstrator. Meanwhile, Gaza Nizar Rayyan, an Hamas spokesman said If the Zionists profane the al-Aqsa Mosque, they will sow the seeds of the Third Intifada.

16:42. Baghdad. Iyad Allawi's Iraqi List accepted on Sunday to join the new coalition government. Spokesman Thaer al-Nakib says Iraqi List will ask for four ministerial portfolios, including the so-called Ministry of Sovereignty, in exchange for its agreement to participate in the new government. Iraqi List received 13.8% of the vote in the 30 January elections.

16:32 Yemen. 40 minority Shi'ite Zaidi rebels and 10 Yemeni troops have been killed in a battle in northwest Yemen ongoing since Friday.

16:21 Baghdad. Nephew of Saddam Hussein arrested. Ibrahim Sabawi, accused of financing the guerrillas, was arrested. Sabawi was Number 38 of 55 personalities of the old regime sought by US forces.

16:14 Baghdad. Rebel leader Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi rejected Iraqi President Jalal Talabani's offer of amensty, calling him an American lacky.

16:01 Amman. 250 pro-Islamist students demonstrated on the campus of the University of Jordan against the attempt by Jewish extremists to enter the Esplanade of the Mosques in Jerusalem. The students marched in defense of the al-Aqsa moque, the third holiest site in Islam and carried signs saying Al Aqsa is not your temple. The protesters urged the Jordanian government to expel the Israeli Ambassador from Amman and expressed their opposition to the normalization of relations with the enemy state of Israel. On Saturday, a spokeperson for the Jordanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs warned that the demonstration planned by Israeli extremists would jeopardize Mideast peace. Jordan, which is charged with defending Islamic holy sites in Jerusalem, mobilized it diplomatic corps to defuse tensions in the region.

12:13 Kirkuk. Iraqi soldier killed. One Iraqi soldier was killed and three wounded on the highway between Baghdad and Kirkuk when a roadside bomb destroyed their vehicle near the Ferhad checkpoint. After the blast, insurgents opened fire on them.

11:30 Kabul. American escapes kidnappers. An American national escaped his kidnappers in the Wazir Akbar Khan district of Kabul, better known as Embassy Row. The American was thrown in the trunk of a white Toyota and was able to unlatch the truck from the inside and elude his abductors.

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