[R-G] Bombings in Baghdad Kill 34, Wound 100; Arab-Kurdish Violence in Diyala

[Anthony Fenton]

http://www.juancole.com/2008/09/bombings-in-baghdad-kill-34-wound-100.html
Monday, September 29, 2008
Bombings in Baghdad Kill 34, Wound 100; Arab-Kurdish Violence in Diyala

A wave of deadly bombings and other attacks swept Baghdad on Sunday,  
killing nearly three dozen persons and wounding over 100.

The attacks on Shiite neighborhoods were likely intended to remind the  
Iraqi public on the eve of Eid al-Fitr (the celebration of the end of  
the fasting month of Ramadan) that the Sunni guerrilla movement is  
still active and has not been defeated.

The situation in Iraq is dire, and the discourse about Iraq in the  
presidential campaign is often disconnected from reality. McCain is  
asserting that "victory" is at hand and rewriting his own history of  
support for Bush's invasion and policies there. Now the McCain people  
are trying to claim that McCain called for the resignation of former  
secretary of defense Donald Rumsfeld, which he certainly did not.

And, the McCain call for "victory," meaning an Iraq that can police  
its own borders, begs the question of what those borders even are.  
("Kurdistan" is not a settled place). See below.

The attacks come days after the Iraqi parliament finally approved  
enabling legislation for provincial elections. The parliamentarians  
agreed to postpone elections in the disputed oil province of Kirkuk.

I have long been a proponent of early provincial elections. The Sunni  
Arab provinces have never had proper elections since the January 2005  
polls were boycotted because Bush leveled Fallujah. The elections  
could create a new post-Baath political elite in the Sunni Arab  
provinces that has legitimacy and actually represents big  
constituencies. Some of the trouble in Diyala comes from minority  
Shiite dominance of a majority Sunni province. If the al-Maliki  
government wants to find a Sunni negotiating partner (which is still  
unclear), the provincial leaders to be elected next winter could fit  
the bill. Some of them will go on to national political careers. A lot  
of Sunnis are still secular, and could begin the process of moving  
away from religious fundamentalist parties always dominating.

The likely emergence of significant political rivals among the Sunnis  
would cause the fundamentalist vigilantes to redouble their efforts to  
destabilize Iraq further.

On the other hand,that parliament had to postpone elections in Kirkuk  
is a very bad sign, as is the military and paramilitary conflict  
between Arabs and Kurds.

Kurds are reversing Saddam's ethnic cleansing drive of earlier  
decades, returning and expelling Arabs. Not all Kurds going to such  
regions are returnees, and not all the Arabs being forced out are  
internal migrants.

Iraqi police and Kurdish paramilitary members seem to have had a shoot- 
out in Jalaula on Sunday that left a Kurdish politician dead.

In nearby Sa'adiya, a Kurdish mayor was wounded in a bombing.

McClatchy reports details of political violence in Iraq on Sunday:

     ' Baghdad

     - Around 8 a.m. a roadside bomb targeted an Iraqi army vehicle in  
Mansour neighborhood, killing one soldier and injuring two soldiers  
and a civilian.

     - Around 1 p.m. American soldiers searched an empty house in  
Zayuna neighborhood and shot randomly, injuring two civilians in the  
area, Iraqi police said. U.S. military said they had no information  
about the incident.

     - Around 5:30 p.m. a parked car bomb exploded in a busy market in  
Shurta Rabaa neighborhood, southwest Baghdad, killing 12 civilians and  
injuring 35 others.

     - Around 5:30 p.m. a bomb planted in a car exploded on a main  
road near Al Bayaa neighborhood, killing one and injuring one.

     - Around 7 p.m. a parked car bomb exploded in the busy market  
area of Karrada neighborhood in central Baghdad, followed by a  
roadside bomb that killed 19 civilians and injured 72 others.

     - Police found two dead bodies throughout Baghdad, one near Al  
Rasheed Camp and one in Hurriyah.

     Diyala

     - Around 9 a.m. a roadside bomb targeted Ahmed Samir Zargush, the  
mayor of Al Saidiyah town, about 50 miles east of Baquba. Zargush was  
injured along with three of his bodyguards and two civilians.

     Nineveh

     - Gunmen killed one citizen, a Christian, in Al Baladiyat  
neighborhood and in another incident gunmen killed a man and injured  
his brother in Mosul.'

Labels: Iraq