Recent Appearances...

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Recent Appearances...

Iraq

‘Alarming lack of transparency:' Amnesty slams latest Iraq prisoner executions

2024-05-10

[Rudaw] Amnesty International on Tuesday slammed Iraqi authorities for an "alarming lack of transparency" over the execution of 11 prisoners on the same day for "terrorism" charges, condemning the trials for lacking due process and falling short of international standards.

AI doesn’t like executions — they’re so judgmental and final, donchaknow, and thus unfair to terrorists and evildoers of all sorts.

Iraqi authorities on Monday executed 11 inmates in southern Dhi Qar province’s Nasiriyah central prison on charges of "terrorism", security sources told AFP news agency. It is the latest round of executions after 11 others were executed in the same prison on similar charges last month.

"There is an alarming lack of transparency surrounding these executions both in terms of actual numbers of executions taking place as well as the process of guaranteeing the rights of the men being put to death," Razaw Salihy, Iraq Researcher at Amnesty, told Rudaw English.

The men in Nasiriya central prison, known as al-Hout, were hanged for their alleged affiliation to with the Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems....
(ISIS). At least 150 inmates in the facility are facing execution on terrorism-related charges, pending ratification from Iraqi President Abdul Latif Rashid.

"Iraq’s justice system has been plagued by human rights
...which are often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless...
violations. Courts have condemned thousands to death in unfair trials, based on torture tainted evidence and on vaguely worded laws," Salihy said, worrying that the execution rate is set to rise "given the enormous number on death row" if the Iraqi president continues the ratifications.

"Amnesty International stresses to the Iraqi authorities that any executions carried out after trials that don't meet international human rights standards may amount to arbitrary deprivation of life," she added.

Since the rise of ISIS in 2014, thousands of people have been detained across Iraq for suspected links to terrorist groups, including ISIS, while hundreds have been executed. The United Nations
...an organization originally established to war on dictatorships which was promptly infiltrated by dictatorships and is now held in thrall to dictatorships...
has criticized Iraq’s trials of ISIS suspects, saying proceedings have not met fair trial standards and raising concerns about allegations of torture.

Amnesty has routinely called on Iraqi authorities to halt all executions and abolish the death penalty

.

Iraq has often been criticized for poor prison conditions and harsh treatment of detainees and suspects.

While access to data on executions in the country is limited, UN experts in January said they were "deeply concerned about the secretive nature of the implementation of the death penalty in Iraq," after 13 men were executed on the same day in late December.

More than 8,000 are purportedly on death row in Iraq, and authorities have been repeatedly criticized for carrying out hasty trials.

Link

Iraq

Amnesty blasts Iraq execution of 13 on ‘vague' terrorism charges

2024-04-28

[Rudaw] Amnesty International on Wednesday criticized Iraqi authorities for carrying out the death sentences of 13 men on the same day, saying the prisoners were denied fair trial, and expressed concern that many others had been executed in secret.

A total of 13 prisoners were executed in Dhi Qar’s Nasiriyah central prison on Monday, and scores more have been executed since April 10, said the Amnesty report citing activists and lawyers of the death row prisoners.

"Iraq’s recent executions are alarming and disheartening. For years, a legacy of human rights violations and abuses have plagued Iraq’s justice system, landing thousands on death row after grossly unfair trials," said Razaw Salihy, Amnesty International’s Iraq researcher.

Eleven of the men were convicted based on their alleged affiliation to the Islamic State (ISIS), while the other two were had been detained since 2008 and convicted of terrorism-related charges.

Amnesty said that the two men were tortured and forced to sign documents they were not allowed to read, which were later revealed to be confessions, according to their lawyers and relatives. The men were denied a re-trial.

"Amnesty International looked into documents issued in 2020 by the judicial committee in charge of reviewing these requests, which stated that a review of the cases could not be carried out as per the law because the casefiles had been lost," said the report, describing the losing of the casefiles as "utterly callous and outrageous."

The rights watchdog called on Baghdad to "immediately" establish a moratorium on executions and abolish the death penalty.

Since the rise of ISIS in 2014, thousands of people have been detained across Iraq for suspected links to terrorist groups, including ISIS, while hundreds have been executed. The United Nations has criticized Iraq’s trials of ISIS suspects, saying proceedings have not met fair trial standards and raising concerns about allegations of torture.

Iraq has often been criticized for poor prison conditions and treatment of detainees and suspects.

Access to data on executions in Iraq is limited. UN experts in January said they were "deeply concerned about the secretive nature of the implementation of the death penalty in Iraq," after 13 men were executed on the same day in late December.

More than 8,000 are purportedly on death row in Iraq, with at least 150 at the imminent risk of execution, according to Amnesty.

Link

China-Japan-Koreas

China Poised To Take Further Control Of Iraq's Key Southern Oil Assets

2024-02-04

[ZeroHedge]

China is over the halfway mark in completing its strategically vital oil project in the critical Iraqi energy hub of Nasiriyah.

This facility will act as a storage hub and supply conduit for 3.0-3.5 million barrels of crude oil.

Even before the huge strategic importance of the new Nasiriyah facility, China will benefit from its massively enhanced presence there in the matter of increasing its oil supplies from southern Iraq, with the DhiQar Province being home to several huge fields

Link

Iraq

HRW calls for moratorium on mass executions in Iraq

2024-01-25

[Rudaw] Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Wednesday called on the Iraqi government to declare a moratorium on all executions "with a view to abolish the death penalty

," after the emergence of reports of the mass execution of 13 inmates in a prison in Nasiriyah, southern Iraq.

Thirteen men in Nasiriyah’s al-Hout prison were executed on December 25, in what was the first mass execution since November 2020, when 21 men were executed for terrorism charges, according to HRW's report on the issue.

"The renewal of mass executions in Iraq is an appalling development," said Sarah Sanbar, Iraq researcher at Human Rights Watch. "The Iraqi government should immediately declare a moratorium on executions. These tremendous injustices are compounded by well-documented flaws in Iraq’s judicial system that deny defendants a fair trial," read HRW’s report.

At least 150 inmates in Nasiriyah’s al-Hout prison are facing "imminent execution without warning", pending ratification from Iraqi President Abdul Latif Rashid, according to HRW. 8000 more prisoners, most charged with terror-related charges, are also believed to be on death row.

Nasiriyah’s executed prisoners were not allowed to consult their lawyers or have a final meeting with their family members, HRW cited an inmate as saying.

Human rights groups have accused Iraq of carrying out hasty trials and denying the defendants their right to a fair trial, with judges reportedly disregarding torture allegations, particularly in cases related to terrorism. HRW said some Iraqi judges have sentenced defendants to death for "mere membership of a terrorist organization."

"If the defendant’s fair trial guarantees have been violated, imposition of the death penalty would make the sentence arbitrary," HRW said in the report.

Since the rise of the Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems....
(ISIS) in 2014, thousands of people have been detained across Iraq for suspected links to terrorist groups, including ISIS, while hundreds have been executed.

Iraq is the fourth country in the Middle East and North Africa region for the number of executions carried out in 2022, according to a May report by ~~Amnesia~~ Amnesty International. The country carried out at least 11 recorded executions and handed out at least 41 recorded death sentence
...the barbaric practice of sentencing a murderer to be punished for as long as his/her/its victim is dead...
s in 2022, according to Amnesty. Only Egypt, Soddy Arabia
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face...
, and Iran
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate ~~Jews~~ ~~Zionists~~ Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol...
recorded more executions.

According to Article Four of the 2005 Counter-Terrorism Law, anyone found guilty of committing a terror offense is given a death sentence, with life imprisonment given to those who assist or hide those convicted of terrorism.

Iraq also hands out death sentences for drug-related charges. An Iraqi court, earlier this month, issued the death sentence for three people, one convicted for carrying out a deadly car kaboom in 2007, and two more individuals for drug-related charges.

In September, Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudan
Sudan

...a Moslem country located in the Horn of Africa. It is noted for its affinity for rule by ex- or current generals, its holy men, and for the oppression of the native Afro population by its Arab conquerors. South Sudan, populated mostly by the natives, split off from Sudan proper, which left North and South Darfur to be oppressed by the guys with turbans...
i called on President Rashid to ratify all the death sentences related to drug trafficking charges.

Sudani in May discussed the dangerous spread of narcotics in the country at the first Baghdad Conference on Drug Control, stating that terrorism and drugs are "two sides of the same crime."

Link

Iraq

Iraq to resume excavations at southern mass graves in 2024: Official

2023-12-14

[RUDAW] The Iraqi government has announced that it will resume excavation works in 2024 for the first time in five years at mass grave sites in the deserts of Samawah in the southern Muthanna province.

Mass graves in the deserts of southern Iraq contain the remains of countless Kurdish civilians, including women and kiddies, killed during former dictator Saddam Hussein’s campaign of extermination in the late 1980s known as the Anfal, launched to punish the Kurds for rebelling against his regime.

"Whenever we are informed by the government, eyewitnesses or survivors of the existence of a mass grave, we immediately form a technical team to search," Dhargham Kamil, in charge of the mass graves department at the Iraqi Martyrs Institute, told Rudaw.

"Our plan for the year 2024 is to excavate mass graves dating back to the Baath regime era," he added.

One of the notorious locations where the graves are located is in Shaikiya, around 80 km southwest of Samawah, the capital of Muthanna province near the Soddy Arabia
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face...
n border.

Fahd Nasir al-Zeyadi is a villager in the Shaikiya deserts. He is an eyewitness and says there are many mass graves in their region that have not been discovered by the government of Iraq.

"The mass graves date back to the 80s. During Saddam's rule, no one dared to get close to them. After the collapse of Saddam, people started to learn that they were mass graves," al-Zeyadi said.

"In the past, this region used to be a prohibited zone. Some people used to have farms there. They would not dare even visit their farms or cultivate them," he added.

The eyewitness explained that there are mass graves that have not yet been discovered.

"In the Saibiya area, there are mass graves. There are mass graves in the Nugra Salman area also. They are not yet discovered. But there are," he said.

The Anfal campaign took place over eight phases — beginning in 1986 and reaching its peak in 1988 with the Halabja genocide that killed 5,000 people and injured another 10,000. It culminated in the closing weeks of the Iran-Iraq war (1980-88).

More than 182,000 people are thought to have died.

Political dissent was not tolerated under the Baathists. Hundreds of thousands of Kurds and Shiites were disappeared, trucked to Iraq’s southern deserts, and murdered.

Link

Iraq

Russia to own 80 percent stake in Iraq's Eridu oil field

2023-12-10

[Rudaw] Russia’s Lukoil will own 80 percent of the massive Eridu oil field in southern Iraq’s Dhi Qar province after Japanese oil major Inpex Corporation sold half of its 40 percent stake in the field, an Iraqi MP told Rudaw on Thursday.

"Russia’s Lukoil has acquired an additional 20 percent from Japan in Eridu and now owns 80 percent of the oil field," Adil Hashosh, an Iraqi MP from Dhi Qar province, told Rudaw’s Nahro Mohammed.

It contradicts previous media reports that Lukoil had fully acquired the field from Inpex.

The Eridu oil field has been heralded as the major oil discovery in Iraq in the last two decades. Russian giant Lukoil was granted approval to develop the field by Iraqi state-owned Dhi Qar Oil Company in March.

Eridu is one of Iraq’s biggest oil finds in the last 20 years and is located within Block 10, which is located 120 kilometers west of Basra city and 150 kilometers from the massive West Qurna 2 oil field, where Lukoil also operates with a majority 75 percent stake.

According to Lukoil, the oil field is estimated to hold reserves of 12.9 billion barrels.

The development plan of Eridu includes a high of 250,000 barrels of oil per day, a target which is set to be met by 2028.

Iraq and the Kurdistan Region share close economic ties with Russia as a number of Russian oil companies operate both in the Region and in oil fields in southern Iraq. The two countries first established diplomatic relations in 1944. Lukoil, Gazprom Neft, and Rosneft are some of the major Russian oil and gas companies operating in Iraq and the Kurdistan Region.

Link

Iraq

Al-Sudani's appearance at Conference sparks protests over normalization with Israel

2023-04-02

[Shafaq News] Dozens of supporters of Iraq's Sadrist movement

...Iranian catspaws, most of the time, though Iran occasionally lets them pretend to independence...

demonstrated in Nasiriyah, the center of Dhi Qar governorate in southern Iraq, on Saturday to protest against what they described as attempts to "normalize" the Iraqi government's relations with Israel.

The protesters accused the Iraqi government, led by the Framework Coalition, of seeking to organize "normalization" with Israel and expressed concern over the recent appearance of Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia'a al-Sudani, at the same Conference in the "Democracy Delivering Justice for All" session, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which they viewed as an "indirect rapprochement with Israel."

“OMG!! They breathed the same air, you guys! EWWWWW!!! Joo cooties!!!11!!”

However,
facts are stubborn; statistics are more pliable...
a high-ranking government source denied reports of al-Sudani participating in a session with Netanyahu during the summit.

He checked to see where that horrid Bibi would be, then signed up for the other ones. No telling what kind of accord that insidious joo might seduce him to, were they ever in the same room.

The source clarified that al-Sudani participated in a session that did not include Israel after setting the condition that Israel would not be present.

The source emphasized that Iraq's refusal of normalization only pertains to its presence with Israel in a single activity, such as the World Cup or Olympics, and not to its participation in any international forum where Israel is present.

Perhaps that makes sense in the original Arabic...

The Iraqi prime minister's participation was at the official invitation of US President Joe The Big Guy Biden
Joe <q>The Big Guy</q> Biden

...46th president of the U.S. Sleazy Dem mschine politician, paterfamilias of the Biden Crime Family...
, and leaders and representatives from 115 countries worldwide also participated in the summit.

Iraq and Israel have traditionally been considered enemies due to Iraq's alignment with other Arab states and the wider Moslem world in their opposition to Israel, which they view as an occupying force in Paleostine and a threat to regional stability.

Link

Iraq

Less than 24 hours after new Iraqi gov’t installed, hundreds gather in Dhi Qar to protest al-Sudani's government

2022-10-30

[Shafaq News] Hundreds of demonstrators gathered in al-Haboubi square downtown Dhi Qar's capital city, Nasiriyah, to protest against Mohammad Shiyaa al-Sudani's cabinet and "the way it was formed".

Yesterday, Iraq's parliament approved the government of Prime Minister Mohammad Shiyaa al-Sudani after more than a year of political paralysis, but the war-ravaged country seems far from reaching safe shores.

Al-Sudani now faces the gargantuan task of delivering on pledges to fight corruption and offer job opportunities to the country's disaffected youth, all while grappling with an unpredictable political opponent.

Shafaq News Agency correspondent said that the demonstrators carried placards and rolled their eyes, jumped up and down, and hollered poorly rhymed slogans real loud denouncing the incoming cabinet and its head.

The demonstrators accused al-Sudani of "getting the country back to square one" with the controversial power-sharing formula that has characterized the consecutive governments that have run the country, and they accuse of undermining the economic and security situation.

In a bid to dispel criticism over his pro-Iran
Iran

...The nation is noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence...
political backers in parliament, he has also vowed not to "adopt the polarised politics" of the past that saw Iraq split amongst fiercely rival camps.

The demonstration saw the head of the anti-establishment Emtidad movement, politician Alaa al-Rikabi, and his colleague Falih al-Hilali, among the participants. al-Rikabi, and other parliamentarians in his bloc, were involved in a fistfight with members of the Coordination Framework's bloc.

The oil-rich has for years suffered rampant corruption preventing the adequate distribution of funds, and analysts predict no imminent end to the country's protracted crises.

Link

Olde Tyme Religion

Iraq’s dwindling Sabean-Mandaeans cling to their faith

2022-05-22

Possibly the original people and religion of the queen of Sheba. It seems as if all the peoples mentioned in the Old Testament have continued to exist to the present day, most of them somehow in Iraq.

[Rudaw] Members of the Sabeans, also known as the Sabean-Mandaeans, submerged themselves in the Tigris River in Baghdad on Wednesday to wash away their sins and pray for a safe life during the dwindling group's holy Golden Baptism ritual.

Sabeans are followers of a monotheistic religion that predates Christianity and Islam and have has struggled since 2003 to cling to their faith amid sectarian tensions experienced in the country during the following years.

During the Holy festival, they dress in white and pray before being baptized in the waters of the Tigris river. Food, washed in the same water, is traditionally served during the feast after the baptism is concluded.

Dalal Ghanim, a Sabean-Mandaean community member, told Rudaw’s Halkawt Aziz on Wednesday that many followers of his religion do not have a job."We are calling for peace and security. We want peace," he said. "Many families among us migrated abroad due to insecurity."

According to data from the Sabean-Mandaeans Affairs Council, until 2003, nearly 100,000 Sabeans lived in Iraq before the country was plunged into bloody sectarian and religious conflict, of which minority groups bore the brunt of the crisis.

Sheikh Aanmar Uda, secretary-general of the Spiritual Council of Iraq, told Rudaw that before 2003, the Sabeans started to disperse across Iraq, living in provinces including Maysan, Basra, Nasiriyah, Baghdad, Erbil, and Kirkuk.

"In the wake of the events of 2003, they started to migrate in large numbers, many of them abroad," he said. "Today, the Sabean-Mandaeans have come to take part in this ritual from everywhere."

In the 1970s and 1980s, as Iraq experienced a profound economic boom despite its bloody wars, the Sabaeans, like most other minority groups, were a relatively integrated community with nearly 10,000 families, the majority of whom lived in Baghdad, the Nineveh Plains, and Kirkuk.

The overthrow of Iraq's dictator Saddam Hussein in 2003, whose brutal reign often resulted in systematic suppression of the Kurds and the Shiites, was detrimental to the survival of religious minority groups such as the Sabaeans, as well as the Shabaks, and the Yazidis.

Decades later, these groups have seen their number decline dramatically and their communities increasingly dissolved and fragmented.

Link

Iraq

Army deploys a brigade in Dhi Qar following a tribal conflict

2022-04-22

[SHAFAQ] A large military force has been deployed in the district of al-Shatra, northern Dhi Qar, a local officer revealed on Thursday.

The Commissioner of al-Shatra, Haidar Ghaleb, told Shafaq News Agency that a brigade of the Iraqi army was deployed in the city in the aftermath of the recent security turbulence.

"The army forces are heavily deployed at the entrances of the city," he added.

"The curfew is still in force," Ghaleb said, "a tight security plan has been devised to bring those who incited the conflict to justice."

Link

Iraq

IED explosion targets a convoy of the Coalition in southern Iraq

2022-04-11

[PUBLISH.TWITTER]

IED explosion targets a convoy of the Coalition in southern Iraqhttps://t.co/tH2XAVWu1a
— SHAFAQ News (@Shafaqnews) April 10, 2022

A blast from a roadside kaboom reportedly hit a convoy of the US-led Global coalition in Dhi Qar on Sunday.

A source told Shafaq News agency that the earth-shattering kaboom targeted a supply convoy of the Coalition inside the territory of the Dhi Qar governorate.

The attack resulted in no human casualties and the convoy resumed its march toward its destination, according to the source.

Observers believe that Iran-backed Iraqi factions orchestrate these nearly daily attacks against the convoys of the US-led Coalition in Iraq. The frequency of the attacks increased drastically since the liquidation of the Commander of Quds Force, Qassem Soleimani

, and the Deputy Head of al-Hashd al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization Forces-PMF) Commission, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, in Baghdad in January 2020.

Link

Iraq

IED explosion targets a convoy of the Coalition in southern Iraq

2022-04-08

IED explosion targets a convoy of the Coalition in southern Iraqhttps://t.co/z5AB1hGIDH
— SHAFAQ News (@Shafaqnews) April 7, 2022

A blast from a roadside bomb reportedly hit a convoy of the US-led Global coalition in Dhi Qar on Thursday.

A source told Shafaq News agency that the explosion targeted a supply convoy of the Coalition inside the territory of the Dhi Qar governorate.

The attack resulted in no human casualties and the convoy resumed its march toward its destination, according to the source.

Observers believe that Iran-backed Iraqi factions orchestrate these nearly daily attacks against the convoys of the US-led Coalition in Iraq. The frequency of the attacks increased drastically since the assassination of the Commander of Quds Force, Qassem Soleimani, and the Deputy Head of al-Hashd al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization Forces-PMF) Commission, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, in Baghdad in January 2020.

On December 9, the Iraqi government announced that U.S. troops had ended their combat mission. In reality, U.S. troops in Iraq made the transition to a training mission in July 2020, and thousands of U.S. troops will remain in both Iraq and Syria in this advisory role into 2022. The announcement was meant to ease pressure on the Iraqi government by Iranian-backed groups.

Link

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