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A blog on the current crises in the Middle East and news accounts unpublished by the US press.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).

Tuesday, May 03, 2005

3 May 2005 Events in Iraq.

Damascus. Syria will restore diplomatic ties with Baghdad. Relations were broken off when Iraq invated Iran in 1980.

Al-Qaim. Twelve suspected rebels were killed and 8 wounded, including a 9 year-old girl and six US troops in clashes near the Syrian border. US troops followed a suspect truck to a small encampment outside the town where suspect packages were loaded. [Is it date harvest season?] . Also, US aircraft launched a raid on a tent and a storage shed, killing three suspected rebels.

Baghdad. A booby-trapped automobile in the Gazaliya district of west Baghdad exploded as a police convoy passed by. A policemen and an civilian were wounded.

Baghdad. Three bombs detonated in separate incidents targeting police, wounding three.

23:56 Brussels. EU Foreign Minister Iran says that Teheran would feel the "consequences" of restarting its nuclear program.

23:43 Baghdad. Australian hostage has health problems. Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer says Douglas Wood, a 63 year-old Australian businessman and California resident has serious heart problems. Wood was working as a contractor to the US Army when he was kidnapped

23:42 Washington. The US State Dept. warns US citizens in Egypt to exercise maximum caution.

23:42 Basrah. Four police were killed by a roadside bomb.

23:31 Washington. The US Army has had difficulty in reaching recruiting quotas for the third consecutive month. Recruiters have fulfilled only 84% of the recruitment quotas in the 12-month period beginning April 2004.

23:20 New York. Iran tells the US that it will not abandon its uranium enrichment activities, which it says are meant for nuclear power. Meanwhile German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer says the decision would mean the end of EU-led negotiations. However, Iran found support elsewhere. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Kislyak says negotiations would continue. The head of the Chinese delegation, Zhang Yan, says his country prefers to solve the Iranian problem through the IAEA rather than the Security Council.

23:15 Nouakchott. Israeli Foreign Minister Sylvan Shalom visits Mauritania. Shalom says that diplomatic relations between the two countries would play a key role in the Middle East. Israeli is building a cancer hospital in the country.

23:13 Ft. Hood. Lynndie England risks 11 years in prison for her role in the Abu Ghraib torture scandal. Her attorneys argue that England suffers from mental handicaps due to being temporarily deprived of oxygen at birth.

23:02 Baghdad. Premier Ibrahim al-Jaafari was sworn in today as Prime Minister at the head of an incomplete government. The Defense and Oil portfolios have not yet been attributed. In the meantime, al-Jafaari will handle the Defense portfolio and Ahmed Chalabi will take charge of Oil. Vice President Ghazi Al-Yawar boycotted the ceremony in protest.

16:13 Jerusalem. Sharon and Abu Mazen trade accusations. Sharon accused Abu Mazen of not disarming armed Palestinian factions while Abu Mazen accused Sharon of cancelling the transfer of control to the PA in some West Bank cities.

14:30 Ramadi. Fifteen persons, including 12 rebels were arrested Tuesday in clashes at a joint US-Iraqi checkpoint. The US military says 12 rebels were killed and 4 wounded. Four US soldiers were also wounded.

16:27 Washington. Majority Senate leader Bill Frist praised Mahmoud Abbas' "formidable leadership".

16:16 Baghdad. Passenger airline flights suspended. Royal Jordanian and Iraqi Airways cancelled all flights between Amman and Baghdad "until further notice" citing security issues.

15:44 Baghdad. Abu Moussab al-Zarqawi denies that 12 of his supporters were killed in clashes near Al-Qaïm on the Syrian border. The US Army claims 12 rebels were killed yesterday in operations near d'Al-Qaïm. Nine were killed when the US Army stopped a suspect truck.

15:43 Paris. Raffarin, contacts restored with kidnappers of French reporter Florence Aubenas, says French PM Jean-Pierre Raffarin.

15:38 Teheran. Iran, Russia and Azerbaïdjan have announced that they would be linking up their national railroads. The project will cost $600 million to be spent over 7 years. A rail line will be laid between Astara in Azerbaijan and Qazvin in Iran.

15:19 Rome. Reform Minister Roberto Calderoli says the time has come to begin pullout of Italian troops from Iraq.

14:30 Ramadi. Fifteen dead in clashes. Clashes between rebels and the Iraqi National Guard backed by the US Army kill 12. However the local hospital director,Moneim Aaaftan, says the dead were all civilians, including a group of laborers, who were caught in the crossfire at a checkpoint.

14:19 Baghdad. Letter to Al Zarqawi intercepted. The letter was found in a raid on 28 April.

13:42 Samarra. Three police killed.

13:11 Baghdad. Ministry official assassinated. Water Resources Ministry official Ahmed Subeih Weiss was shot to death on his way to work in the Dura district.

13:06 Ramadi. Fourteen civilians killed in furious fighting. Battle near checkpoint outside the city.

12:47 Beirut. Walid Jumblatt demands release his former enemy Samir Geagea, ex-leader of the Maronite group, Lebanese Forces, against whom he fought one of the bloodiest battles of the Lebanese Civil War in 1983. Geagea is serving several life sentences for a series of political murders, including Premier Rashid Karami, a Muslim.

10:09 Baghdad. Remains of pilot found. The remains of one pilot of two missing Marine F/A-18 Hornet fighterjets, which disappeared over Iraq.

09:30 Baghdad. Al-Jafaari to be sworn in today.

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Assuming that the report on Ms. England brain injuries is true can some long-suffering American taxpapyer please tell me how much is the recruiting bonus for brain damaged rednecks?

11:01 AM  

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