Iraqi Resistance Report for events of Wednesday, 16 July 2008. Translated and/or compiled by Muhammad Abu Nasr, member, editorial board, the Free Arab Voice. 

Wednesday, 16 July 2008.

·        Fighting rages in streets of al-Hadithah as rival US-backed police forces battle each other for lucrative American bridge reconstruction contract.

·        US announces deaths of two more American soldiers Monday, Tuesday.

·        Car bomb kills 15, wounds 94 in residential neighborhood in Tall ‘Afar Wednesday.

·        Bombs target US patrols in al-Mawsil.

·        Major US airbase said planned for Halabjah as US preparations for attack on Iran continue.

Al-Anbar Province.

Al-Hadithah.

Fighting rages in streets of al-Hadithah as rival US-backed police forces battle each other for lucrative American bridge reconstruction contract.

In a dispatch posted at 9:50pm Baghdad time Wednesday night, the Yaqen News Agency reported that several gun battles erupted in the streets of al-Hadithah, 270km northwest of Baghdad, on Wednesday, as rival US-backed forces fought each other to secure a lucrative rebuilding contract from the American occupation forces.

Yaqen reported its correspondent in the city as saying that members of the local tribal “Awakening” police, recruited exclusively from tribesmen of the al-Jaghayifah, fought regular government police in what was the largest clash between the rival pro-American contingents since the “Awakening” tribal police were first established by the Americans a year and a half ago.

The correspondent reported that the fighting had produced “numerous” casualties, but had no specific casualty count as of the time of reporting.

Local witnesses reported that the fighters on both sides used light and medium weapons and that gun battles had broken out on seven separate occasions on Wednesday alone.  The sides were reported to be fighting each other over a lucrative contract for repairing the main al-Hadithah Bridge that was bombed by US forces more than a year and a half ago.  After that strike, another eight bridges over the Euphrates in western Iraq were destroyed, as the US sought to isolate the various towns – at that time hotbeds of the resistance struggle – one from another.

Witnesses told Yaqen that both the “Awakening” tribal police and the regular police forces were fighting for control over the bridge repair project, a project that is expected to bring considerable financial reward to whoever receives the contract from the Americans.  The witnesses explained that the funds that the Americans were planning to allot for the repair would far exceed the actual cost of the work done locally, and therefore the recipient of the contract were expecting to pocket huge sums of money under the agreement with the US.  The local residents believed that American officers involved in assigning the contract also would receive money as a result of the final award.

Baghdad.

US announces deaths of two more American soldiers Monday, Tuesday.

In a dispatch posted at 10am Baghdad time Wednesday morning, the Yaqen News Agency reported that the US military announced Wednesday that two of its soldiers had been killed in two separate incidents in the provinces of Diyala and al-Anbar over the last two days.

Yaqen reported a US statement as saying that one American soldier died when a bomb, planted inside a house somewhere in Diyala Province, exploded on Tuesday.

A second US statement announced that an American Marine had died of wounds received during military operations somewhere in al-Anbar Province on Monday.

Both Diyala and al-Anbar Provinces have experienced an upsurge in al-Qa‘idah attacks in recent weeks.

Mortar shell kills two in Baghdad Tuesday.

In a dispatch posted on its Arabic website at 8:21am Wednesday morning Beijing time (3:21am in Baghdad), the Xinhua News Agency reported that a mortar shell landed near the top security area around the Republican Palace in downtown Baghdad – the area dubbed the “Green Zone” by US forces – on Tuesday.

Xinhua reported a source in the Iraqi police as saying that the projectile killed one traffic warden and one civilian when it exploded at the ash-Shawwaf intersection near the
”28 April Complex” in the city after noon Tuesday.

Another nine people, including another traffic warden, were wounded in the blast.  All were taken to hospitals for treatment.  The shell also damaged a number of private cars and commercial shops in the area.

Babil Province.

Al-Iskandariyah.

Chief of tribal “Awakening” police killed by bomb planted in his car near al-Iskandariyah.

In a dispatch posted at 10:30am Baghdad time Wednesday morning, the Yaqen News Agency reported that a Salim ‘Abd al-Kazim, chief of the tribal al-Khidr “Awakening”police was killed when a bomb exploded in his car west of al-Iskandariyah (which is 40km south of Baghdad).

Yaqen reported witnesses as saying that ‘Abd al-Kazim had headed the “Awakening” tribal police – recruited to serve the US occupation regime – in the al-Khidr area near al-Musayyib, 70km south of Baghdad.  He died when a bomb exploded in his car as he was driving through the area west of al-Iskandariyah on his way home.

The witnesses said that they thought someone had planted an adhesive bomb in the care when ‘Abd al-Kazim left it in a car park at the Electric power station when he attended a meeting with US troops at their base 15km south of al-Iskandariyah.

The chief of police in al-Iskandariyah denied reports that had claimed that ‘Abd al-Kazim had survived the blast but that it was his son who had perished.

Ninwa Province.

Tall ‘Afar.

Car bomb kills 15, wounds 94 in residential neighborhood in Tall ‘Afar Wednesday.

In a dispatch posted at 8:35pm Baghdad time Wednesday evening, the Yaqen News Agency reported that a car bomb exploded in the residential neighborhood at-Tali‘ah in Tall ‘Afar, 60km west of al-Mawsil in northern Iraq on Wednesday.

In a dispatch posted at 10:10pm Wednesday night, Yaqen reported that Brigadier General Najm ‘Abdallah al-Jabburi, the governor of the district, had reported that 15 people had died and another 94 had been injured in the massive car bombing.

Since 10 May, the US and its Iraqi regime allies have been waging an offensive against the al-Qa‘idah organization in al-Mawsil and surrounding Ninwa Province.

Al-Mawsil.

Car bomber targets US patrol in southeastern al-Mawsil after noon Wednesday.

In a dispatch posted on its Arabic website at 8:56pm Wednesday evening Beijing time (3:56pm in Baghdad), the Xinhua News Agency reported that a man drove an explosives-packed car into a patrol of US troops at the al-Ma‘arid intersection in southeastern al-Mawsil, 420km northwest of Baghdad, on Wednesday afternoon.

Xinhua reported a source in the Iraqi government police as saying that the car bomb explosion wounded six civilians, all of whom were taken to a hospital for treatment.  Since the US troops closed off the area immediately after the attack, no information on the nature or extent of American casualties, if any, was available.

Since 10 May, the US and its Iraqi regime allies have been waging an offensive against the al-Qa‘idah organization in al-Mawsil and surrounding Ninwa Province.

Bomb targets US patrol in northern al-Mawsil Wednesday morning.

In a dispatch posted on its Arabic website at 8:56pm Wednesday evening Beijing time (3:56pm in Baghdad), the Xinhua News Agency reported that a bomb exploded by a passing American patrol in the al-Muthanna intersection in northern al-Mawsil, 420km northwest of Baghdad, on Wednesday morning.

Xinhua reported a source in the Iraqi government police as saying that the blast wounded two Iraqi civilians.  No information on the nature or extent of American casualties, if any, was available.

Since 10 May, the US and its Iraqi regime allies have been waging an offensive against the al-Qa‘idah organization in al-Mawsil and surrounding Ninwa Province.

As-Sulaymaniyah Province.

Halabjah.

Major US airbase said planned for Halabjah as US preparations for attack on Iran continue.

In a dispatch posted at 7:15pm Baghdad time Wednesday evening, the Yaqen News Agency reported that the mayor of the town of Halabjah, 364km northeast of Baghdad, has announced that the municipality has set aside a plot of land to the east of the city for an International Airport, the construction of which is to be funded by the United States.

Yaqen reported an official source as saying that the project was an official “cover” for the construction of an American airbase in the Kurdish enclave in northern Iraq.

Khadar Karim Muhammad, Mayor of Halabjah, said that a 1,500-dunum plot of land had been set aside for the airport construction project in compliance with a request received from the US-backed Kurdistan enclave government.  Muhammad said that the city of Halabjah had carried out what was requested of it and turned over a map of the plan site to the Kurdistan enclave regime.

Halabjah, located 83km southeast of the provincial capital of as-Sulaymaniyah, was the scene of a notorious poison gas attack that claimed the lives of between 3,200 and 5,000 Kurdish townspeople, most of them civilian, during the war between Iran and Iraq in March 1988.

Meanwhile, an official with the as-Sulaymaniyah provincial administration, who asked that his official status not be disclosed, expressed suspicions about the nature of the US-backed project.  The source said that the project was “bigger than a simple civil airport,” and suggested that it was in reality a plan for the construction of a major American-funded military base.

The source pointed out that the news of the project surfaced “at a time when tensions between the United States and Iran are escalating,” and expressed the view that the project was in fact “a step towards construction of a military airfield near the Iranian border.”

Numerous US-backed officials of the Kurdish enclave government have said on more than one occasion that they have no objection to the construction of an American military base in northern Iraq.  Yaqen noted that Kurdish separatist leader and US-installed President of the Kurdistan enclave, Mas‘ud Barzani, had told the French newspaper Le Monde in early 2007 that he welcomed the idea of the construction of an American base in the region.

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