11 April 2005 Events in Iraq.

baquba protest 

Baquba. Students demonstrated against the US occupation.

Basrah. A joint British-Iraq patrol discovers mass grave. A mass grave containing the remains of women and children was found in the desert near the Saudi Arabian frontier. The daily newspaper Sabah quoting physicians says the victims died between 1983 and 1985. Salman is 150 km south of Samawa, where Saddam Hussein ran a long-term incarceration center.

Washington. Gen. John Sattler says in an interview with The Washington Times that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi recently narrrowly avoided capture by Marines in the western desert of Iraq.

Kirkuk. Ansar Al-Sunna claims credit for this morning's carbombing in Kirkuk which wounded 18. The intended target was the Kirkuk Police Chief, General Shirku.

Bucharest. The three kidnapped Romanian reporters are alive, says presidential spokesperson Adriana Saftoiu in the Romanian capital.

Baghdad. The Iraqi Defense Ministry announced that one of the alleged kidnappers of French reporters Christian Chesnot and George Malbrunot has been arrested. Amer Hussein Chikhane confessed to kidnapping the pair with a Syrian accomplice.

Baghdad. Three Saudi Arabians, a UAE national, a Yemeni and a Syrian were sentenced to life in prison for links to the guerrillas.

Mahmoudiyah. Two rebels were killed and two others captured in a clash with Iraqi security forces 30 km south of Baghdad. Meanwhile three persons were arrested during an attempt to kidnap a schoolboy.

Baïji. Jawad Bakhtiar, a Turkish truck driver, was killed by a roadside bomb Hajjaj, 200 km north of Baghdad. He and his rig were travelling in a US supply convoy.

Doujail. The bodies of three Iraqi civilians were found with a note claiming credit by The al-Qaeda Organization of Mesopotamia, headed by Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi. We have punished the miscreant collaborators according to divine law after having proven their betrayal of Islam. Physicians say the deaths had occured 12 hours earlier and that the trio had been executed by gunshot with their hands tied behind their back.

Balad. Nashtoman Azad Ali, a Kurdish engineer working for the Americans, was kidnapped after gunmen knocked down the door of his residence before dawn.

20:30 Baghdad. A US citizen, Jeffrey Ake of Indiana, was kidnapped at noon from a construction site in Baghdad.

19:00 Ft. Bragg. Lawyers on both sides agree that the mental stability of Army sergeant Hasan Akbar, on trial in the fatal grenade attack of two officers in Kuwait, will figure prominently in the case. Prosecutors said Akbar confessed to the March 2003 grenade attack in the opening days of the Iraq war, telling investigators he was worried that United States forces would harm fellow Muslims in the war. Akbar, 33, is charged with two counts of first-degree murder and three counts of attempted murder. Prosecutors accuse him of stealing grenades from a Humvee and throwing them into a tent where officers slept, at the same time opening fire on fellow soldiers. Killed were Army Capt. Christopher Seifert, 27, and Air Force Maj. Gregory Stone, 40; 14 other soldiers were injured. If convicted, Akbar could get the death penalty.

18:46 Acre. A Lebanese Hezbollah drone overflew north Israel. In reprisal for the unending and repeated violations of Lebanese airspace, a Mersad-1 reconnissance drone overflew northern occupied Palestine and passed over Zionist setttlements. The drone crossed into Israeli airspace around 17:15 in the afternoon. The UN Interim Forces in Lebanon said it would launch an investigation.

18:44 Gaza Strip. Three children were shot dead by Israel forces in the Gaza strip as they attempted to vandalize surveillance cameras along the Egyptian frontier. The children began by playing soccer in the area then ran after a loose ball which rolled into the "forbidden zone." Israeli forces said they had fired warning shots (Yeah, right! Straight to the head!--Nur). The victims are Khaled Ghanam, Ashraf Moussa and Ali Hassan Abou Zeit, all 15 years of age. A fourth child, Ahmad al-Jazar, 14, was wounded.

18:23 Baghdad. Progress is being made toward the formation of a cabinet. However, horsetrading continues with the Kurds. Ghazi al-Yawar says the new cabinet should be decided within a week.

18:16 Samarra. A pickup truck exploded as a 4-vehicle US convoy passes by. Three are dead and 26 wounded, including 5 children and a woman. Blood donations were requested from loudspeakers atop local minarets. The bombing occurred a few moments before curfew at 8:00 pm local time. The bombing took place in east Samarra. Witnesses say a US convoy was travelling on a commerical street when it was rammed by a pickup truck.

13:53 Balad. A Turkish truck driver was killed in a guerrilla raid on the Balad-Baghdad highway.

10:29 Baghdad. US and Iraqi troops raided the Rashid district of southeast Baghdad and arresed 65 guerrilla suspects. A US soldier was wounded in the operation.

10:12 Mossul. Lieutenant Mohammed Saleh Talab, an Iraqi officer and member of a demining team coordinating with US forces, was shot dead together with his driver.

09:32 Qaim. Three suicide bombers targeted the entrance of a US camp in western Iraq near the Syrian frontier. Two passenger cars and a fire truck were driven into the entrance of a US camp, damaging a mosque and wounding three Marines. Al-Zarqawi claims credit for one of the cars in the attack, which was fired upon by a Cobra attack helicopter. Witnesses said that a firefight ensued between insurgents and US troops after the detonations. A 7 year-old child was wounded in the crossfire.