| Iraq |
| Iraqi forces clash with Iran exiles in camp |
| 2011-04-09 |
| BAGHDAD - Iraqi security forces clashed with residents of an Iranian dissident camp north of Baghdad overnight, the Iraqi government said on Friday, and an Iranian opposition group said residents were attacked and killed. The government spokesman said five members of the Iraqi security forces were wounded in the incident at Camp Ashraf. Representatives of the camp called the incident a criminal attack and said 25 residents were killed and 320 wounded. An Iraqi medical source at nearby Baquba hospital said they had received the bodies of three Iranians, while 16 Iranians, five Iraqi soldiers and one Iraqi policemen were brought to the hospital with injuries. The source requested anonymity since he was not authorised to speak to the media. The 25-year-old camp, home to some 3,500 people, is the base of the Peoples Mujahideen Organisation of Iran (PMOI), a guerrilla group that opposes Irans Shia cleric leaders. Iran, Iraq and the United States consider the PMOI a terrorist organisation. Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said Ashraf residents threw rocks at security forces in what he called a riot. Troops had not opened fire, he said, contrary to reports by camp residents. The security forces have pushed back residents of Camp Ashraf inside the camp by force, Dabbagh said. The situation is now controlled. I do not have any information about any deaths or injuries among the residents of the camp, he said. The National Council of Resistance of Iran, the PMOIs political wing, said Iraqi security forces had been ordered by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to attack the camp, in restive Diyala province about 90 km (55 miles) northeast of Baghdad in a remote location largely inaccessible to journalists. Al-Maliki, under orders of (Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali) Khamenei, has commenced an unprecedented murder in Ashraf, the group said in a statement. Forces under his command used Colts, automatic weapons and machineguns installed on armoured vehicles to open fire on residents. Ashraf has been a sore point for Washington, Baghdad and Tehran for years. The PMOI began as a group of Islamist leftists opposed to Irans late Shah but fell out with the Shiite clerics who took power after the 1979 revolution. US Defence Secretary Robert Gates, who is visiting Iraq, said the U.S. military had reports of deaths in clashes at Ashraf but could not confirm them. Were very concerned with reports of deaths and injuries resulting from this mornings clashes... I urge the Iraqi government to show restraint and to live up to its commitments to treat residents of Ashraf according to Iraqi law and their international obligations. Asked about any US military role, Gates said nearby forces might render medical help but thats about the extent of it. |
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| Iraq |
| Izzat Ibrahim urges Arab support for Iraq militants |
| 2010-03-30 |
| Iraqi former dictator Saddam Hussein's number two, fugitive Izzat Ibrahim al-Duri, has urged Arab states to talk to what he called the Iraqi "resistance" instead of the government. "The Iraqi people request that your summit adopts a historic and courageous position by inviting resistance leaders to represent Iraq and its people in the summit and in the Arab League," Ibrahim said in the purported audiotape aired on Al-Jazeera television Sunday. He asked Arab leaders meeting at their summit in Libya to "recognize resistance groups, armed and unarmed, break their diplomatic relations with the occupying authority in Iraq and annul all obligations resulting from those relations," AFP reported. Ibrahim is the most wanted of the now-executed dictator's henchmen still at large. The Baathist was second only to Saddam in the decision-making Revolutionary Command Council. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki ordered the country's Foreign Minister to quit an Arab League ministerial meeting held in Libya. Hoshyar Zebari quit the meeting in protest to a meeting granted by Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi to ex-members of Saddam Hussein's outlawed Baath party and some opposition figures including former oil minister Issam Shalabi. Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh condemned the meeting on Wednesday, describing it as "undiplomatic" and an "insult" to the people of Iraq. |
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| Iraq |
| Family lauds release of Iraqi-American contractor |
| 2010-03-28 |
| The Pentagon said Saturday that Salomi was back under U.S. military control but gave no details on his disappearance or return. The family says he is expected to arrive at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio within a week. Asaib Ahl al-Haq, known in English as the League of the Righteous, said the four were freed "in response to our demands following the capture of the American officer" a reference to Salomi, who was not identified by name. The statement's authenticity could not be verified but it was posted on a Web site commonly used by the group. Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said Sunday he had "no information that anyone was released in return" for Salomi. |
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| Iraq |
| Qadaffy meets with Iraqi Baathists |
| 2010-03-26 |
| On Wednesday, Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh condemned Libyan President Muammar Gaddafi's Sunday meeting with 29 Saddam loyalists, describing the move as "undiplomatic" and an "insult" to the people of Iraq. Iraq's post-Saddam governments are particularly sensitive to any contacts between foreign governments and Saddam loyalists. It views such meetings as an attempt to undermine their legitimacy and casting doubt on the right of the country's Shiite Muslim majority to be the country's most dominant political group. The head of the 22-member pan-Arab organization Amr Mussa met privately with Zebari over breakfast on Thursday to try to contain the diplomatic spat between Libya and Iraq, and convince the Iraqi foreign minister to remain for the summit. Several Arab foreign ministers also tried to persuade Iraq's top diplomat to stay but were told by Zebari that he had no choice but to return home, the diplomat added. Libya's JANA official news agency said that Gaddafi received on Sunday a high-ranking delegation of Iraqi opposition leaders, including former members of the outlawed Baath party of executed dictator Saddam Hussein. The Iraqi delegation included former oil minister Issam Shalabi as well as ex-Baathist Salah Omar al-Ali. |
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| Iraq |
| Iran, Iraq seek diplomatic end to border dispute |
| 2009-12-20 |
| [Al Arabiya Latest] Tehran and Baghdad pledged on Saturday to pursue a diplomatic solution to a border dispute over accusations that Iranian troops seized an oil well inside Iraq. The Iranian flag was flying over the disputed oil well in a remote desert area southeast of Baghdad early on Saturday and an Iranian military tent was pitched nearby. "We call for calm and for a peaceful solution to this matter, far from any military escalation," Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh told Reuters Television in Baghdad. Iran on Saturday acknowledged its takeover of the oil well but insisted the well lies on its land, playing down the fallout from the first such incident since the 2003 invasion of Iraq. "Our forces are on our own soil and, based on the known international borders, this well belongs to Iran," Iran's armed forces command said in a statement, quoted by Iran's Arabic-language al-Alam satellite television. On Friday, Iraq's state-owned South Oil Co in the southeastern city of Amara said "an Iranian force arrived at the field ... It took control of Well 4 and raised the Iranian flag even though the well lies inside Iraqi territory." |
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| Iraq | |||
| Iraq beefs up Syria border patrol | |||
| 2009-09-05 | |||
| Iraq began stationing thousands of extra police on the border with Syria this week in response to a spate of bombings blamed on militants Baghdad accuses Damascus of sheltering, an official said on Friday. Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has accused Syria of turning a blind eye to Sunni militants using it as a safe haven.
"These are the emergency forces for the borders ... to fill in the gaps," Major-General Tariq Yusuf, police chief of Iraq's western Anbar province, which borders Syria, told Reuters. He said Maliki had ordered the deployment personally. Some were already stationed, while others were on the way, he said, declining to give further details. "There is a government accusation against Syria relating to the bomb attacks ... They have information that there is a threat from Syria," he added. "We have caught two infiltrators trying to enter in the last two months." Explanations demanded
Iraq's Shiite-led government blames supporters of Saddam Hussein's outlawed Baath party and Sunni Islamist al Qaeda for recent attacks, and says Baath party leaders plotted the bombings from Syrian territory. Iraqi officials on Monday broadcast a video of what they said was a confession by a suspected al Qaeda militant claiming to have been trained by Syrian intelligence agents there. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad called Iraq's accusations "immoral" and demanded Baghdad provide proof. Maliki has formally asked the U.N. Security Council to launch an inquiry into the bombs. Addressing the state-run Iraqiya TV station in a program aired on Friday, government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said the request for an inquiry had not mentioned Syria. "We just asked for investigation," he said. "But we have the proof and evidence and confessions. Al-Qaeda has even declared that it gets the logistic support from groups operating in Syria, and we have proof of that." | |||
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| Iraq | ||
| Baghdad demands Damascus hands over alleged masterminds | ||
| 2009-08-27 | ||
Iraq's Shiite-led government has blamed supporters of Saddam Hussein's outlawed Baath party for massive truck bombs and other attacks last Wednesday, and says it has already captured some suspects it deems responsible.
"The cabinet demands the Syrian government hand over Mohammed Yunis al-Ahmed and Sattam Farhan," said government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh, announcing that Iraq's ambassador would return to Baghdad. "The cabinet decided to ask that they be handed over for their direct role in carrying out the terrorist operation," the statement added, referring to "the terrorist crime committed by Baathists and Takfiri (extremists)." Takfiri is a term used by the Iraqi government to refer to al-Qaeda members. Dabbagh said the Foreign Ministry would ask Syria to hand over all those wanted for crimes in Iraq and "to banish the terrorist organizations that use Syria as a base from which to carry out terrorist acts against the Iraqi nation". He also said the cabinet had summoned Iraq's ambassador to Syria back to Baghdad to discuss the issue, prompting the Syrian government to recall its ambassador to Iraq in response. Expelled last year Diplomats in Damascus say Syria, ruled by a rival branch of the Sunni Arab Baath party, and expelled Younis earlier this year. Syria's official news agency SANA, quoting "an official Syrian source", rebuffed Dabbagh's comments about the attacks, which Damascus has strongly condemned as a "terrorist act". "Syria informed the Iraqi side of its readiness to receive an Iraqi delegation and discuss with it available evidence on the perpetrators of the bombings. Otherwise, it would consider what is broadcast on Iraqi media as evidence fabricated for domestic political goals," the source said. | ||
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| Iraq |
| US General: Iran Backs off Worst Bombs in Iraq |
| 2008-12-12 |
| Iran is no longer actively supplying Iraqi militias with a particularly lethal kind of roadside bomb, a decision that suggests a strategic shift by the Iranian leadership, U.S. and Iraqi authorities said Thursday. Use of the armor-piercing explosives -- known as explosively formed penetrators, or EFPs -- has dwindled sharply in recent months, said Army Lt. Gen. Thomas Metz, head of the Pentagon office created to counter roadside bombs in Iraq and Afghanistan. Metz estimated that U.S. forces find between 12 and 20 of the devices in Iraq each month, down from 60 to 80 earlier this year. "Someone ... has made the decision to bring them down," Metz told reporters. Asked if the elite Iranian Republican Guard Corps has made a deliberate choice to limit use of EFPs, Metz nodded: "I think you could draw that inference from the data." Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh agreed Iran has curtailed its activity inside Iraq. He said he thinks Iran has concluded that a new security agreement between the U.S. and Iraq poses no threat to Iran. Iran opposed the agreement as a blessing for foreign forces to remain in Iraq, and encouraged Iraq's democratic government to reject it. The United States has long claimed that Iran or Iranian-backed groups are using Iraqi Shiite militias as proxies to kill U.S. troops in Iraq. Iran denies the Bush administration allegations that it supplies money and weapons, but independent analysts have said U.S. evidence is strong, if circumstantial. The U.S. cites the spread of powerful EFP roadside bombs as the clearest Iranian fingerprint. U.S. military officers say they know the EFPs come from Iran because they bear Iranian markings and because captured militants have told them so. The workmanship is so precise they could only come from a modern factory with machine tools available in Iran but not Iraq. EFPs account for only about 5 percent of the roadside bombs found in Iraq but 30 percent of the casualties, Metz said. The U.S. has never specified who in Iran's government it believes is responsible. But military briefers point out that the Quds Force branch of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, which report to Iran's supreme leader, has a history of supporting Shiite militants outside Iran. The Army has said EFP attacks declined late last year in apparent response to an Iranian pledge to Iraq's Shiite-led government that it would hold back the flow of weapons. By early 2008, however, the U.S. was again accusing Iran of supplying EFPs. "It is my opinion, it is the policy of the Iranian government, approved to highest level of that government, to facilitate the killing of Americans in Iraq," CIA Director Michael Hayden said in April. U.S. military officials have said it had caches of weapons with date stamps showing they were produced in Iran this year. Besides EFPs, the military said it found Iranian mortars, rockets, small arms and other kinds of roadside bombs. |
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| Iraq |
| Iraq: Saddam-era mass grave found |
| 2008-11-21 |
| (AKI) - A mass grave from the era of former dictator Saddam Hussein containing the remains of 150 people has been discovered in an area south of the capital Baghdad, the Iraqi government said on Wednesday. The victims are believed to have been executed in a crackdown against the Kurdish minority by Saddam. Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said the victims were from the area of Kalar, located in the northeastern province of Suleimaniyah. Suleimaniyah province, known as Zamwa prior to its founding, is the cultural base of the Sorani-speaking Kurds and an important economic centre for the Kurdish semi-autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan. A memorial ceremony was also held on Wednesday in the holy Shia city of Najaf as the victims' remains were transferred to the northern Kurdish city of Erbil. Saddam's former regime is believed to have used chemical weapons in his Anfal campaign against the Kurds, causing the deaths of an estimated 100,000 Kurds. An Iraqi court last year sentenced to death Saddam's cousin Ali Hassan al-Majeed on genocide charges for his role in the Anfal campaign. Al-Majeed, once one of the most feared figures in Iraq, was nicknamed Chemical Ali because of the poison gas that was used during the Anfal campaign. |
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| Iraq | |
| Iraq wants details of US raid in Syria | |
| 2008-11-01 | |
| ISTANBUL - Iraq is waiting for the United States to provide details of a deadly U.S. military raid on a Syrian border village, Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said on Friday. The government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has opened an investigation into the incident and has said Iraq must not be used to stage attacks on other nations. We have not received any details from the United States. We have put a request to be informed about the incident, Dabbagh told Reuters on the sidelines of a World Economic Forum meeting in Istanbul. We have expressed our position that Iraq is not accepting this kind of aggression that is creating difficulties with our neighbours, he said. Syria says eight Washington has yet to officially confirm the raid but officials have said on condition of anonymity that the operation is believed to have killed a major al-Qaeda militant responsible for smuggling foreign fighters into Iraq. Dabbagh also called on Damascus to halt to what he described as insurgent activity inside Syria and to step up intelligence cooperation and border patrolling. 'We would like the Syrians to act as good neighbours, but we are not satisfied with the level of cooperation from the Syrians, he said.
Iraq has been hoping for rapprochement with Syria and other Arab neighbours, despite complaints since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 that Syria has failed to stop the flow of foreign fighters into Iraq. Dabbagh said relations between Baghdad and Damascus should not be affected by the raid. | |
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| Iraq |
| Obama didn't raise troop withdrawal with Iraq PM |
| 2008-07-21 |
| Musta...forgot? BAGHDAD -- U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama met Iraq's prime minister in Baghdad on Monday but did not raise his plan to remove combat troops within 16 months if he wins the election, an Iraqi official said. Probably figured he already read about it in the New York Times. U.S. strategy in Iraq and troop levels are central issues in the November election race between the first-term senator from Illinois and Republican candidate John McCain. Mr. Obama said in brief remarks that he had a "very constructive discussion" with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. He impressed me as a "typical Iraqi person". Television pictures showed the two men smiling and shaking hands before they sat down for talks after Mr. Obama flew in to get a first-hand assessment of security in the country, where violence has fallen to its lowest level since early 2004. Can you move over a little, Nuri? The photograpers like to catch my aura. Thanks, man. Mr. Obama did not mention his withdrawal plan to Mr. Maliki, Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh told reporters. "This issue, we do not discuss... Mr. Obama did not speak about anything which concerns the Iraqi government because he does not have any official [government] capacity," Mr. Dabbagh said. Nice copout, Barry... On Sunday, the Iraqi government denied Mr. Maliki told a German magazine in an interview that he backed Mr. Obama's plan to withdraw combat troops within 16 months. The government said Mr. Maliki's remarks to Der Spiegel were translated incorrectly. Probably why Barry didn't bring it up. "Damn! I thought he knew! I read about it in Der Spiegel." |
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| Iraq to sue oil-for-food suspects | ||
| 2008-06-30 | ||
The Iraqi government has said it will file lawsuits in US courts against firms and people suspected of illegally profiting from a UN programme.
Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said in a statement that the legal action was to recover damages and hold those who benefited from the illegal activity 'accountable for their actions'. 'The oil-for-food programme was subject to huge financial scandals by companies and others [who] conspired with Saddam Hussein to embezzle large sums of money through kickbacks, inflated prices and the supply of shoddy goods,' he said. A UN-commissioned inquiry headed by former US Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker found that 2,200 companies in 66 countries had paid kickbacks to Iraqi officials to win supply contracts under the $60bn (£30bn) programme.
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