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| Iraq-Jordan |
| Easter attacks in Iraq |
| 2005-03-27 |
| Security officials opened fire on a crowd of protesters Sunday, killing one, and Al Qaeda's arm in Iraq posted a video purportedly showing an Iraqi Interior Ministry official being killed. Iraq's newly elected lawmakers, meanwhile, were expected to meet Tuesday to choose a speaker and two deputies, according to a National Assembly statement released Sunday. The lawmakers met on March 16, but have repeatedly postponed a second meeting because of negotiations over Cabinet positions; it was unclear whether they would name the country's new president on Tuesday, expected to be Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani. Violence persisted Sunday, with bodyguards for Science and Technology Minister Rashad Mandan Omar opening fire on a crowd of protesters who had gathered in front of the ministry's offices to demand their full wages, said Hamid Balasem, an engineer at the ministry. Balasem said about 50 ministry guards were demonstrating because they said they were paid only part of their wages. It was unclear why the guards opened fire. Also Sunday, insurgents hit a police patrol with a roadside bomb in the southern oil city of Basra, injuring one nearby civilian, Lt. Col. Karim Ali Al-Zaydi said. They also damaged an oil pipeline in northern Iraq, halting exports to Turkey. The pipeline has been targeted in the past. Late Saturday, assailants opened fire on a cafe popular with ethnic Kurds in Kirkuk, killing one and injuring three, said Sarhat Kadre of the police force in the ethnically mixed city 180 miles north of Baghdad. The motive in the attack was not known. Iraq's insurgency appears to be scaling back attacks on U.S. military forces while focusing its deadly efforts on government workers, primarily targeting Iraq's fledgling security forces. A video posted Sunday on the Internet purportedly showed an Iraqi Interior Ministry official hostage being shot dead by militants from Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's terror network. There was no way to independently authenticate the video, which was posted on a militant Web site. The video showed a man identifying himself as Col. Ryadh Gatie Olyway seated between two masked men wearing black. He displayed his Interior Ministry identification card and said he was a liaison officer with the American forces. Behind the men was the black banner of Al Qaeda in Iraq. Olyway said he provided the U.S. military with the names "of officers of the former Iraqi army, who are Sunnis, and their addresses." An Interior Ministry official, who spoke on condition of ', said Olyway worked as a liaison officer between the Interior and Oil ministries and was kidnapped more than a month ago. He had not seen the video, and could not confirm whether the hostage was Olyway. The hostage, referring to alleged female Iraqi prisoners, said he had witnessed "different methods of torture and violation of their honor" at the hands of American troops. Al Qaeda in Iraq has said many of its latest killings were in revenge for female Iraqi prisoners. The American military has denied it is holding any Iraqi women. Olyway was then shown blindfolded, and a third masked man appeared to shoot him once in the head. Also Sunday, the top U.N. envoy in Iraq, Ashraf Qazi, met with top Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani in Najaf, but details of the meeting were not immediately released. Congregants gathered at the Virgin Mary Church in Baghdad to celebrate Easter. "We wish Iraqis in general and Christians in particular a happy Easter and wish them a happy year," said one parishioner, Sabah Rasam, part of a Christian community that accounts for an estimated 3 percent of Iraq's 25 million people. "We are brothers with all Iraqis and will remain so forever." |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #1 We've already killed all the femalian prisoners and have their purses. |
| Posted by: Ted Kennedy 2005-03-27 3:32:24 PM |