[Kabar-indonesia] 3, 000 Iraqi Civilians Killed in June, 14, 000 in '06: UN [+US Hawks Smell Blood]

[JoyoNews at aol.com]

4 reports: 

- NYT: Over 3,000 Iraqi Civilians Killed 
  in June, U.N. Reports 

- WP/Baghdad: Scores Killed in Bomb 
  Attack Near Shiite Shrine [Human Rights 
  Report Cites Average of 100 Deaths Per 
  Day in June]

- Asia Times/Inter Press Service: 
  US Hawks Smell Blood

- CNN: U.N.: 14,000 Iraqis killed in 2006
  [Holy city bomb kills 45; Armed 
  robbers hit Baghdad bank]

The New York Times
July 18, 200

Over 3,000 Iraqi Civilians Killed in June, U.N. Reports 

By KIRK SEMPLE

BAGHDAD, Iraq, July 18 — An average of more than 100 civilians per day were 
killed in Iraq last month, the highest monthly tally of violent deaths since 
the fall of Baghdad, the United Nations reported today. 

The death toll, drawn from Iraqi government agencies, was the most precise 
measurement of civilian deaths provided by any government organization since the 
invasion and represented a dramatic increase over daily media reports.

United Nations officials also said that the number of violent deaths had been 
steadily increasing since at least last summer. In the first six months of 
this year, the civilian death toll jumped more than 77 percent, from 1,778 in 
January to 3,149 in June, the organization said.

This sharp upward trend reflected the dire security situation in Iraq as 
sectarian violence has worsened and Iraqi and American government forces have been 
powerless to stop it.

Underscoring the report, a suicide bomber attacked a marketplace in the 
southern Shiite holy town of Kufa today, killing 53 people and wounding at least 
105, according to local hospital officials. 

Kufa is a stronghold of Moktada al-Sadr, the powerful Shiite cleric who 
counts an enormous following among the Shiite poor and dispossessed in Baghdad and 
southern Iraq. The militia loyal to him, the Mahdi Army, has been blamed for 
many recent kidnappings and assassinations of Sunni Arabs.

Kufa and the nearby Shiite holy city of Najaf — because of their vastly 
Shiite populations and tight control by Shiite militias and the Shiite-dominated 
security forces — have been largely spared the sort of sectarian violence that 
has ravaged mixed cities like Baghdad and Baquba. 

But today’s attack, coupled with several other recent suicide attacks in both 
cities, suggested an ominous deterioration in security even in Iraq’s 
demographically homogenous populations. 

The attack occurred near the gold-domed Kufa mosque at an intersection where 
men, down on their luck and out of work, would gather every morning hoping 
that someone would hire them for a day of manual labor and the promise of a small 
wage. 

This morning, a man drove up in a van, leaned out of the window and lured the 
laborers with an offer of work. As the men pressed in close, and as some 
started to climb in the back, the driver pushed a detonator and the van exploded, 
witnesses said. 

The blast scattered bodies and street vendors’ carts, blackened nearby walls, 
dyed the ground red with blood and ignited pandemonium in the street. When 
Iraqi police officers arrived, the crowd pelted them with stones. According to 
The Associated Press, many demanded that the Mahdi Army take over security of 
the city.

Dr. Munther al-Ithari, the chief of the city’s medical directorate, said some 
survivors were in critical condition and he expected the death toll to climb. 

It was one of the bloodiest attacks in Iraq this year and the latest incident 
in a 10-day surge of dramatic sectarian violence that has killed hundreds and 
wounded far more. 

The attack underscored the futility, at least in the short term, of the 
government’s latest efforts to short-circuit the vicious cycle of sectarian 
violence that has defined life in Iraq. 

Iraq’s elected officials condemned the attack, which came a day after dozens 
of gunmen suspected of being Sunni Arabs rampaged through a mostly Shiite 
market area in the town of Mahmudiya, killing at least 48 civilians and wounding 
scores, according to police officials. 

Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki vowed today to find and punish those 
responsible for the Kufa attack.

The Iraqi Islamic Party, a Sunni Arab organization, urged the country “to be 
wise and rational instead of drifting into the abyss,” and it called upon the 
country’s political and religious leaders to meet and discuss ways “to lead 
Iraq out of this dark tunnel.”

“God knows what comes next,” the statement said.

Asad Abu Gulal, the governor of Najaf Province, blamed the attack on 
insurgents from the volatile region south of Baghdad that includes Mahmudiya and 
Latifiya, where Sunni Arab fighters have frequently clashed with security forces 
and with Shiite militias. 

“These two towns are exporting terror to Najaf and other provinces,” he 
said. “If we do not provide a solution, all the areas close to them will be a 
target for the terrorists who come from there.” 

In its report, the United Nations said that 14,338 civilians had died 
violently in Iraq in the first six months of the year.

U.N. officials said they had based their figures on tallies provided by two 
Iraqi agencies: the Ministry of Health, which collates violent deaths recorded 
at hospitals around the country; and Baghdad’s central morgue, where 
unidentified bodies are delivered.

Last month, The Los Angeles Times, drawing from statistics provided by the 
Ministry of Health and the Baghdad morgue among other agencies, reported that at 
least 50,000 people, and perhaps many more, had been killed since the 
invasion. 

The article said that while most of those victims were civilians, they 
probably also included some security forces and insurgents. But the newspaper did 
not offer month-by-month breakdowns. 

The United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq published the new tallies in 
its bi-monthly human rights report, issued today. It was was the first time 
that the United Nations had published combined death statistics from the Ministry 
of Health and the Baghdad morgue. 

The Ministry of Health under Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari had rebuffed 
requests by the United Nations for civilian casualty statistics, officials 
said. 

“There has been a great deal of sensitivity there and a great deal of concern 
about providing figures,” Gianni Magazzeni, chief of the human rights office 
of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq, said in an interview. 

Mr. Magazzeni praised Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki for his efforts to 
address human rights concerns “more forcefully” than his predecessors. 

“There is a greater willingness of the new government to be more 
forthcoming,” he said. “The more information we have, the more information we can provide 
— including the number of people who have been violently killed — and the more 
the government and others will be able to take action and address some of 
these issues.” 

According to the United Nations’ tallies, 1,778 civilians were killed in 
January, 2,165 in February, 2,378 in March, 2,284 in April, 2,669 in May and 3,149 
in June. 

The totals represent an enormous increase over figures published by media 
organizations and by nongovernmental organizations that track these trends. 

The Iraq Coalition Casualty Count, an independent Web site that uses news 
reports to do its tallies, reported that at least 840 Iraqi civilians died in 
June, compared with an all-time high of 1,100 the previous month.

The United Nations report said that in recent months, “the overwhelming 
majority of casualties were reported in Baghdad.” 

The capital has been the focus of raging sectarian violence, particularly 
since the bombing in late February of a major Shiite shrine in Samarra, which 
triggered several days of bloodshed, widened a rift between the Sunni Arab and 
Shiite communities and stoked fears that the country was sliding toward 
full-scale civil war.

Other parts of Iraq were also scarred today by violence, including the 
explosion of a homemade bomb near a garage outside Kirkuk that killed eight people, 
including six police officers, according to Brig. Hamid Abdul al-Jibouri of 
the Iraqi Army.

Iraqi employees of The New York Times in Kufa, Falluja, Kirkuk and Mosul 
contributed reporting for this article.

------------------------------------

The Washington Post
July 18, 2006

Scores Killed in Bomb Attack Near Shiite Shrine

Human Rights Report Cites Average of 100 Deaths Per Day in June

By Andy Mosher and Saad Sarhan
Washington Post Foreign Service

BAGHDAD, July 18 -- A suicide car bomber beckoned a crowd of day laborers 
toward his explosive-packed minibus in the southern city of Kufa on Tuesday, then 
detonated a massive explosion that killed 53 people and wounded more than 
100, police and health officials said.

The attack contributed to a rising civilian death toll that the United 
Nations said today has reached record levels. A U.N. human rights report said 3,149 
civilians were killed in Iraq in June, an average of more than 100 a day and 
the highest monthly total since Baghdad was captured by U.S. forces in April 
2003.

According to figures compiled by the Iraqi Health Ministry and the Baghdad 
morgue, at least 50,000 civilians have died in the country's violence since 
2003, more than 14,000 of them in the first six months of this year, the U.N. 
report said.

The attack in Kufa occurred at 7:15 a.m., when men seeking work were 
gathering outside the Kufa Mosque to await prospective employers.

Police said the bomber drove up in a Kia minivan, called out for anyone 
seeking work and waited for his vehicle to fill up with men. He promised to return 
for more and had begun to drive away when the bomb detonated, killing the 
driver, passengers and many in the large crowd that had gathered.

The bombing came one day after a military-style assault that killed at least 
40 unarmed civilians in a crowded market area in the Shiite city of Mahmudiyah.

Mothers and their children were shot down Monday by masked attackers wielding 
machine guns and grenades during the 30-minute attack, as were seven mostly 
elderly men sitting in a cafe and drinking tea. Later, Sunni Arab insurgents 
asserted responsibility, saying the attack was in retaliation for the deaths of 
Sunnis in the country's increasing sectarian violence. Hundreds of people have 
been killed since July 9, when suspected Shiite gunmen carried out a daytime 
massacre of at least 40 residents in Baghdad's mostly Sunni neighborhood of 
al-Jihad.

In the bombing Tuesday morning, many of the dead and wounded were taken to 
hospitals in nearby Najaf when medical facilities in Kufa became filled beyond 
capacity, said Brig. Gen. Abbas Mouadal, the Najaf police commander.

The director of public health in Najaf, Munther al-Itari, put the total 
number of wounded at least 132.

Kufa, about 90 miles south of Baghdad, is a stronghold of Shiite cleric 
Moqtada al-Sadr. Police and witnesses said many of the victims of Tuesday's bombing 
were Sadr's followers.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite who has offered a dialogue with some 
Sunni insurgent groups since he took office in April, pledged to "hunt down 
and punish" those responsible, the Reuters news agency reported.

In addition, the Iraqi Islamic Party, the country's largest Sunni Arab party, 
denounced the two latest attacks as a "horrible escalation of violence" and 
appealed to Iraqis "to come to their sense instead of slipping into the abyss," 
the Associated Press reported. The party urged political and religious 
leaders to meet to find ways "to get Iraq out of this dark tunnel."

Also Tuesday, a roadside bomb near a bus station in Hawijah, about 130 miles 
north of Baghdad, killed nine persons, including six police officers, 
according to Col. Abdul Fattah al-Jubouri, the Hawijah police chief.

In addition, an Iraqi official announced that security forces had killed a 
Jordanian man responsible for the deaths of two U.S. soldiers whose mutilated 
bodies were found last month, the AP reported. National Security Adviser 
Mowaffak al-Rubaie identified Diyar Ismail Mahmoud, known as Abu al-Afghani, as the 
man who killed the two soldiers -- Pfc. Kristian Menchaca of Houston and Pfc. 
Thomas L. Tucker of Madras, Ore. -- but he would not say when or where Mahmoud 
died. The soldiers had been captured by insurgents after a clash southwest of 
Baghdad in Yusufiyah.

According to the human rights report by the U.N. Assistance Mission in Iraq, 
14,338 civilians were killed in Iraq from January through June 2006, with the 
monthly totals climbing steadily higher.

In May, the death toll reached 2,669, the report said, and last month's total 
of 3,149 was the highest yet. The report said the figures were compiled from 
tallies provided by the Health Ministry, which receives statistics from 
hospitals in all provinces except those in Kurdistan, and by the Medico-Legal 
Institute in Baghdad, which separately counts bodies delivered to the central morgue.

"The overwhelming majority of casualties were reported in Baghdad," the U.N. 
report said.

The Health Ministry has acknowledged that at least 50,000 people have been 
killed in various acts of violence since 2003, adding that the death toll "is 
probably underreported," the report said.

Sarhan reported from Najaf. Correspondent Ellen Knickmeyer and special 
correspondent Naseer Nouri in Baghdad contributed to this report. Staff writer 
William Branigin contributed from Washington.

-------------------------------------

Asia Times/Inter Press Service
Wednesday, July 19, 2006

US Hawks Smell Blood

By Jim Lobe 

WASHINGTON - Seeing a major opportunity to regain influence lost as a result 
of setbacks in Iraq, prominent neo-conservatives are calling for unconditional 
US support for Israel's military offensives in Gaza and Lebanon and "regime 
change" in Syria and Iran, as well as possible US attacks on Tehran's nuclear 
facilities in retaliation for its support of Hezbollah. 

In a Weekly Standard column titled "Our war", editor William Kristol called 
Iran "the prime mover behind the terrorist groups who have started this war", 
which, he argued, should be considered part of "the global struggle against 
radical Islamism". 

He complained that Washington recently had done a "poor job of standing up 
and weakening Syria and Iran" and called on President George W Bush to fly 
directly from the "silly [Group of Eight] summit in St Petersburg ... to Jerusalem, 
the capital of a nation that stands with us, and is willing to fight with us, 
against our common enemies". 

"This is our war, too," said Kristol, who was also a founder and co-chairman 
of the recently lapsed Project for the New American Century (PNAC). 

Echoed Larry Kudlow, a neo-conservative commentator, at the Standard's 
right-wing competitor, the National Review: "All of us in the free world owe Israel 
an enormous thank-you for defending freedom, democracy and security against 
the Iranian cat's-paw wholly owned terrorist subsidiaries Hezbollah and Hamas. 

"They are defending their own homeland and very existence, but they are also 
defending America's homeland as our frontline democratic ally in the Middle 
East," according to Kudlow, who, like Kristol and other like-minded polemicists, 
also named Syria, "which is also directed by Iran", as a promising target as 
the conflict expands. 

The two columns are just the latest examples of a slew of commentaries that 
have appeared in US print and broadcast media since Israel began bombing 
targets in Lebanon in retaliation for Hezbollah's fatal cross-border attack last 
Wednesday. 

They appear to be part of a deliberate campaign by neo-conservatives and some 
of their right-wing supporters to depict the current conflict as part of 
global struggle pitting Israel, as the forward base of Western civilization, 
against Islamist extremism organized and directed by Iran and its junior partner, 
Syria. 

This view was perhaps most dramatically expressed by the former Republican 
Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich, in an appearance on the National 
Broadcasting Co's Meet the Press on Sunday when he described the conflict as "the early 
stages of ... the Third World War". 

The effort to frame the current round of violence as part of a much larger 
struggle - and Israel's role as Washington's most loyal front-line ally - 
recalls the neo-conservatives' early reaction to the terrorist attacks on New York 
and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. 

Just nine days after September 11, Kristol and PNAC - whose charter members 
included Vice President Dick Cheney, Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and half a 
dozen other senior Bush administration officials - released an open letter to 
Bush that called for the United States to retaliate not only against al-Qaeda 
and Afghanistan, but also against Israel's main regional foes, beginning with 
Iraqi president Saddam Hussein and Palestine Liberation Organization chairman 
Yasser Arafat. 

In addition, the letter advised, "any war against terrorism must target 
Hezbollah. We believe that the administration should demand that Iran and Syria 
immediately cease all military, financial and political support for Hezbollah and 
its operations. Should Iran and Syria refuse to comply, the administration 
should consider appropriate measures of retaliation against these state sponsors 
of terrorism. 

"Israel has been and remains America's staunchest ally against international 
terrorism, especially in the Middle East," the letter asserted. "The United 
States should fully support our fellow democracy in its fight against 
terrorism." 

While the Iraqi and Palestinian components of PNAC's agenda were soon adopted 
as policy and in essence achieved, neo-conservative hopes that Bush would 
move on Hezbollah - as well as Syria and Iran - eventually stalled as US military 
forces became bogged down in an increasingly bloody and costly 
counter-insurgency war in Iraq. 

As the situation in Iraq worsened, neo-conservative influence in and on the 
administration also declined to the benefit of "realists" based primarily in 
the State Department who favored a less aggressive policy designed to secure 
Damascus' and Tehran's cooperation in stabilizing Iraq and strengthen the elected 
Lebanese government of which Hezbollah was made a part. 

In that context, the current conflict represents a golden opportunity for the 
neo-conservatives to reassert their influence and reactivate their 
Israel-centered agenda against Hezbollah and its two state sponsors. 

"Iran's proxy war", blazed the cover of this week's Standard, which also 
featured no fewer than three other articles, besides Kristol's editorial, 
underlining Iran's sponsorship of Hezbollah and Hamas and the necessity of the US 
standing with Israel, if not taking independent action against Tehran and/or 
Damascus as recommended by Kristol himself. 

A major theme of the new campaign is that the more conciliatory "realist" 
policies toward Syria and Iran pursued by the State Department have actually 
backfired by making Washington look weak. 

"They are now testing us more boldly than one would have thought possible a 
few years ago," wrote Kristol. "Weakness is provocative. We have been too weak, 
and have allowed ourselves to be perceived as weak," he went on, adding that 
"the right response is renewed strength", notably "in pursuing regime change 
in Syria and Iran [and] consider[ing] countering this act of Iranian aggression 
with a military strike against Iranian nuclear facilities". 

The notion that US policy in the region has become far too flaccid and 
accommodating is echoed by a number of other neo-conservatives, particularly Michael 
Rubin, a prolific analyst at the hardline American Enterprise Institute and 
protege of Cheney confidant and former Defense Policy Board chairman Richard 
Perle. 

In a companion Standard article, Rubin qualified recent State Department 
policy as "all talk and no strategy" that had emboldened enemies, especially Iran, 
to challenge Washington and its allies. 

In another article for the National Review on Monday, bluntly titled 
"Eradication first", Rubin elaborated on that theme, arguing that diplomacy in the 
current crisis will only be successful "if it commences both after the 
eradication of Hezbollah and Hamas, and after their paymasters pay a terrible cost for 
their support. If ... peace is the aim, it is imperative to punish the Syrian 
and Iranian leadership," he wrote. 

Above all, according to the neo-conservatives, the US position in the region 
is now inextricably tied to the success or failure of Israel's military 
campaign. 

In yet another Standard article, titled "The rogues strike back: Iran, Syria, 
Hamas and Hezbollah vs Israel", Robert Satloff, executive director of the 
hawkish, pro-Israel Washington Institute for Near East Policy, argued that 
"defeat for Israel - either on the battlefield or via coerced compromises to achieve 
flawed ceasefires - is a defeat for US interests; it will inspire radicals of 
every stripe, release Iran and Syria to spread more mayhem inside Iraq, and 
make more likely our own eventual confrontation with this emboldened alliance 
of extremists." 

-------------------------------------

U.N.: 14,000 Iraqis killed in 2006

Holy city bomb kills 45; Armed 
robbers hit Baghdad bank

BAGHDAD, Iraq, July 18 (CNN) -- More than 14,000 civilians have been killed 
in Iraq in the first half of this year, an ominous figure reflecting the fact 
that "killings, kidnappings and torture remain widespread" in the war-torn 
country, a United Nations report says.

Killings of civilians are on "an upward trend," with more than 5,800 deaths 
and more than 5,700 injuries reported in May and June alone, it says.

The report, a bimonthly document produced by the U.N. Assistance Mission for 
Iraq, covers May and June, and includes chilling casualty figures and ugly 
anecdotes from the insurgent and sectarian warfare that continues to rage despite 
the establishment of a national unity government and a security crackdown in 
Baghdad.

The report lists examples of bloody suicide bombs aimed at mosques, attacks 
on laborers, the recovery of slain bodies, the assassinations of judges, the 
killings of prisoners, the targeting of clergy -- all incidents dutifully 
reported by media over these three-plus years of chaos in the streets.

The U.N. agency says it has been made aware since last year of the targeting 
of homosexuals, "increasingly threatened and extra-judicially executed by 
militias and 'death squads' because of their sexual orientation."

The intolerance propelling the anti-gay prejudice extends to ethnic and 
religious minorities and others whose manner of dress doesn't meet the standards of 
religious extremists.

"On 28 May, an Iraqi tennis coach and two of his players were shot dead in 
Baghdad allegedly because they were wearing shorts. Similar threats are said to 
be made to induce men to conform to certain hair styles or rules regarding 
facial hair," the report says.

Women face intolerance -- and violence -- as well.

"In some Baghdad neighborhoods, women are now prevented from going to the 
markets alone. In other cases, women have been warned not to drive cars or have 
faced harassment if they wear trousers. Women have also reported that wearing a 
headscarf is becoming not a matter of religious choice but one of survival in 
many parts of Iraq, a fact which is particularly resented by non-Muslim 
women."

Academics and health professionals have been attacked, spurring them to leave 
the country or their home regions, causing a brain drain and a dislocation in 
services.

"Health care providers face difficulties in carrying out their work because 
of the limited supply of electricity and growing number of patients due to the 
increase in violence," the report says.

Kidnappings have been part of the chaotic Iraqi scene since the insurgency 
began, with many hostages killed even after a ransom is paid. The abductors are 
not only motivated by sectarianism or politics; organized crime appears to be 
involved with some of the kidnappings.

"On some occasions, sectarian connotations and alleged collusion with sectors 
of the police, as well as with militias, have been reported to UNAMI. 
Although there are no reliable statistics regarding this phenomenon, because Iraqis 
often are afraid to report such crimes to the police, the kidnappings are 
likely a daily occurrence," the report says.

For children, the "extent of violence in areas" other than the Kurdish region 
"is such that likely every child, to some degree, has been exposed to it," it 
says.

"In one case the body of a 12-year-old Osama was reportedly found by the 
Iraqi police in a plastic bag after his family paid a ransom of some 30,000 U.S. 
dollars. The boy had been sexually assaulted by the kidnappers, before being 
hanged by his own clothing. The police captured members of this gang who 
confessed of raping and killing many boys and girls before Osama," the report says.

Cultural symbols

"Civilian casualties resulted mainly from bombings and drive-by shootings, 
from indiscriminate attacks, in neighborhood markets or petrol stations, or 
following armed clashes with the police and the security forces," the report says. 

"Civilians were also targeted or became unintended victims of insurgent or 
military actions.

"Terrorist acts against civilians have been aimed at fomenting sectarian 
violence or allegedly motivated by revenge and have targeted members of the Arab 
Shia and Sunni communities, including their cultural symbols, as well as 
markets in Shia neighborhoods."

Figures from the Medico-Legal Institute in Baghdad and the Ministry of Health 
show that the total number of civilians killed from January to June was 
14,338.

In late June, the Ministry of Health "acknowledged information stating that 
since 2003 at least 50,000 persons have been killed in violence and stated the 
number of deaths are probably under-reported." the report says.

"The Baghdad morgue reportedly received 30,204 bodies from 2003 to mid-2006. 
Deaths numbering 18,933 occurred from 'military clashes' and 'terrorist 
attacks'" between April 5, 2004, and June 1, 2006.

The report also notes the probes by the United States into the alleged 
killings of 24 civilians in Haditha by U.S. troops as well the deaths caused by 
military operations throughout the country.

Other developments

At least 45 people were killed and 60 others wounded Tuesday morning when a 
suicide car bomber detonated in a busy Kufa marketplace where day laborers 
gather, Iraqi police said. 

The attack took place around 7:30 a.m. near a Shia shrine.

Kufa is considered a holy place by Shia Muslims and is just outside Najaf, 
about 100 miles (160 kilometers) south of Baghdad.

Meanwhile, gunmen wearing Iraqi army uniforms on Tuesday stole 1.24 billion 
Iraqi dinars (about $675,000) from Rafidain Bank in western Baghdad early 
Tuesday afternoon, Iraqi emergency police told CNN.

An in the northern city of Kirkuk, a roadside bomb killed six policemen, 
Kirkuk police said. Another police officer was wounded in the incident, which 
occurred at 11:30 a.m. in Hawija. 

On Monday, in a coordinated attack in Mahmoudiya, south of Baghdad, at least 
40 people were killed and wounded dozens, and small-arms fire killed a U.S. 
soldier in the capital.

The incidents took place as Sunni-Shiite sectarian violence festers in and 
near Baghdad.

The killing of a U.S. soldier on Monday -- which occurred at 12:55 p.m. (0955 
GMT) in western Baghdad -- brought the number of U.S. military deaths in the 
Iraq war to 2,548. The soldier was from Multi-National Division Baghdad.

Associated Press contributed to this report.

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