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Two Police Chiefs Killed in 24 Hours in Iraq (Aril 3, 2004)
YahooNews ^

Posted on 04/03/2004 5:05:06 PM PST by Happy2BMe

By Fiona O'Brien

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Gunmen killed a police chief in Baghdad on Saturday, the second to be shot dead in 24 hours and the latest in a growing list of security officers killed by insurgents who target anyone linked to Iraq (news - web sites)'s occupiers

Police said the police chief of Mahmudiya, south of Baghdad, was shot after leaving his home in the capital. His car was riddled with bullets. On Friday night, the police chief in Kufa, further south, was shot dead along with a colleague.

Insurgents fighting the occupation have increasingly targeted members of the U.S.-trained fledgling Iraqi security forces. More Iraqi security officials have been killed in the past year than American soldiers.

The U.S.-led authorities in Iraq have warned attacks are likely to increase ahead of the planned transfer of sovereignty to Iraqis on June 30. The U.S. military says it has stepped up operations in reaction to the latest uptick in violence.

Near Baquba, north of Baghdad, a bomb planted in a car by the roadside exploded next to a passing U.S. military patrol. One Iraqi was injured in the blast. Witnesses said several U.S. soldiers were wounded but there was no U.S. confirmation.

In Basra, protesters demanding jobs clashed with Iraqi police, lobbing stones and smashing windows in the center of the southern port. Police said at least one officer was wounded.

Southern Iraq, controlled by a British-led force has been relatively calm compared to the rest of the country. But a series of protests in recent weeks have spilled over into violence. On Thursday, one protester was killed in clashes with police.

ROCKET HITS HOUSE

In the capital, two men were wounded when a rocket hit a Baghdad neighborhood on Saturday morning. Parts of one home were completely burned out after the explosion. There was a pool of blood in the hallway, and smoke still rising from an armchair.

Angry residents looking on blamed the attack on the Americans, who are increasingly blamed for everything in Iraq, as frustration grows at the unabated violence more than a year since the start of the war.

That anti-Americanism was seen in its most extreme form on Wednesday, when townspeople in Falluja mutilated the bodies of four American contractors shot dead by guerrillas, burning and kicking their corpses for hours.

Anyone seen as related to the occupiers has become a target for insurgents. Police officers, local politicians, foreigners and Iraqis working for international companies have been killed.

A senior military official said on Saturday that intelligence officers were viewing footage of the gruesome acts to identify those responsible and talk to witnesses.

The U.S. army has promised an overwhelming response, and says it would be better for the town to hand over the guilty without a fight.

"We don't believe that those people represent the vast majority of the people in Falluja, nor that Falluja is a metaphor for Iraq," the senior official said. "We are going to separate the enemy from the people and we are going to destroy them."

In Baghdad, thousands of supporters of defiant Shi'ite cleric Moqtada Sadr marched through the streets of northeast Baghdad, in a show of strength punctuated by anti-occupation rhetoric.

Sadr, a young and radical Shi'ite cleric, has often spoken out against the U.S. occupation and has wide influence, especially among poor urban members of Iraq's Shi'ite majority.

"This is a message to the council of oppression and the U.S. who tried to tell the people we have no influence," Said Murtada Kinani, a construction worker who joined the parade, said.

"Saddam could not stop us, do they think they can stop us?"

In the holy Shi'ite city of Najaf, Sadr's supporters protested outside a Spanish base demanding the release of one of his aides they said was detained by foreign forces. On Thursday night three Salvadoran soldiers were lightly wounded in Najaf during clashes with a separate armed gang. (Additional reporting by Michael Georgy and Ghaith Abdul-Ahad in Baghdad and Faris Mehdawi in Baquba)


TOPICS: Extended News
KEYWORDS: iraq; islam; terror
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Can't we just get along together?

Ducking . . .

1 posted on 04/03/2004 5:05:06 PM PST by Happy2BMe
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To: Happy2BMe; MeekOneGOP; SJackson; dennisw; ItisaReligionofPeace; Prime Choice; Registered; ...
"In the holy Shi'ite city of Najaf . ."

Holy!?

Holy Shi'ite!

2 posted on 04/03/2004 5:07:21 PM PST by Happy2BMe (U.S.A. - - United We Stand - - Divided We Fall - - Support Our Troops - - Vote BUSH)
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To: Happy2BMe
Obviously, the foreign fighters and Saddam loyalists couldn't give a rats behind for the Iraqi citizenry. They'd just a soon kill another Muslim or their own mother.
3 posted on 04/03/2004 5:09:55 PM PST by anniegetyourgun
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To: Ragtime Cowgirl; B4Ranch; MeekOneGOP; Registered; Barnacle; Prime Choice; JohnHuang2
Check out the liberated women in the center of this pic . .

(Man - those Muslimes sure know how to treat their women . .)


4 posted on 04/03/2004 5:10:43 PM PST by Happy2BMe (U.S.A. - - United We Stand - - Divided We Fall - - Support Our Troops - - Vote BUSH)
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To: Happy2BMe
The thugs keep attacking police stations and policemen. They are trying to send a message to those signing up to be police.

It would seem Iraq needs more 'army' type cleaning out before they can have an effective police force.

5 posted on 04/03/2004 5:12:02 PM PST by TomGuy (Clintonites have such good hind-sight because they had their heads up their hind-ends 8 years.)
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To: Happy2BMe
Such a liberating and joyful religion....... joy, joy, joy.....
6 posted on 04/03/2004 5:18:48 PM PST by Lijahsbubbe (If you knew what you were doing, you'd probably be bored.)
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To: Ragtime Cowgirl; MeekOneGOP; dennisw; Salem
Qais al-khazaali, head of firebrand Shiite leader Moqtada al-Sadr's office in Baghdad speaks to the press.(AFP/Sabah Arar)

- *Note - After what happened this week in Fallujah - sure as hell wasn't an ifidel taking ANY of these pics . .

Female followers of Shiite radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr parade in Baghdad's Shiite neighborhood of Sadr city.(AFP/Str)

(Does that kinda tell ya what we're up against in 'Raq?)

An Iraqi police officer tries to drive away from youths pelting his car with bricks and stones during disturbances in the southern city of Basra, April 3, 2004. Demonstrators demanding jobs clashed with Iraqi police, prompting police to fire shots into the air to try to control the crowds. (Atef Hassan/Reuters)

Iraqi women walk past a burned car after a rocket landed on a house in the Baghdad suburb of Al Doura April 3, 2004, wounding two residents. (Ceerwan Aziz/Reuters)

Iraqi demonstrators hold projectiles during clashes in front of the main police station in Basra. Clashes erupted when demonstrators, demanding to be hired as policemen, started throwing projectiles at British troops.(AFP/Antonio Scorza)

A US soldier checks the scene of an explosion in Baghdad's al-Dora district.(AFP/Cris Bouroncle)

Lord - protect this man!

A wanted poster of Ezzat Ibrahim al-Duri, offering 10 million dollars for his capture. US troops detained a bodyguard and nine relatives of Duri, who was a top aide to ousted Iraqi president Saddam Hussein and is still on the run, a family member said.(AFP/File/Marina Passos)


7 posted on 04/03/2004 5:23:13 PM PST by Happy2BMe (U.S.A. - - United We Stand - - Divided We Fall - - Support Our Troops - - Vote BUSH)
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To: Happy2BMe
Someone needs to explain to the Iraqi police agencies the methods employed by police here in the states for dealing with cop-killers.
8 posted on 04/03/2004 5:28:02 PM PST by yooper (If you don't know where you're going, any road will take you there......)
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To: Happy2BMe
Can't we just get along together?

No. We have to kill them.

9 posted on 04/03/2004 5:29:16 PM PST by af_vet_1981
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To: af_vet_1981; All
An Iraqi beggar walks under a defaced billboard featuring the role of Iraqi police in Baghdad, Iraq), Saturday, April 3, 2004. There has been a string of attacks in recent weeks on Iraqi police officers, who insurgents consider as collaborators with the U.S.-led occupation. More than 350 policemen have been killed by shootings and suicide bombings since the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime last year. On the billboard a slogan reads: ' I risk my life everyday to rebuild my country. Restablish order and law and provide security for Baghdad's citizens.' (AP Photo/Murad Sezer)

U.S. soldiers patrol in Mahmoudiya, Iraq, south of Baghdad, Saturday April 3, 2004. Two attacks on Iraqi police south of Baghdad on Saturday left four people dead, officers said, in the latest of a string of attacks on local authorities linked to the U.S.-led occupation.Gunmen fired on a vehicle carrying Col. Wisam Hussein, the police chief of Mahmoudiya, 20 miles south of Baghdad, killing both him and his driver, police said. (AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed)

- Note: No infidel stepping out to take any of these pics . .

Iraqi guards stand around the car of Col. Wisam Hussein in Mahmoudiya, Iraq, south of Baghdad, Saturday April 3, 2004. Two attacks on Iraqi police south of Baghdad on Saturday left four people dead, officers said, in the latest of a string of attacks on local authorities linked to the U.S.-led occupation. Gunmen fired on a vehicle carrying Col. Wisam Hussein, the police chief of Mahmoudiya, 20 miles south of Baghdad, killing both him and his driver, police said. (AP PHOTO/Khalid Mohammed)

An Iraqi police officer tries to drive away from youths pelting his car with bricks and stones during disturbances in the southern city of Basra, April 3, 2004. Demonstrators demanding jobs clashed with Iraqi police in the southern Iraqi port of Basra on Saturday, prompting police to fire shots into the air to try to control the crowds. REUTERS/Atef Hassan

Shiite men parade in Sadr City, a northern Baghdad, Iraq, neighborhood, Saturday April 3 2004. Thousands took part in a parade of the Al-Mehdi army, a shiite group founded by Muktada Al-Sadr. (AP Photo/Samir Mizban)

Shiite men parade in Sadr City, a northern Baghdad, Iraq, neighborhood, Saturday April 3 2004. Thousands took part in a parade of the Al-Mehdi army, a shiite group founded by Muktada Al-Sadr. (AP Photo/Samir Mizban)

Veiled Iraqi women parade in Sadr City, a northern Baghdad, Iraq, neighborhood, Saturday April 3, 2004. Thousands took part in a parade of the Al-Mehdi army, a shiite group founded by Muktada Al-Sadr. (AP Photo/Samir Mizban)

- Note: Still no sign of an infidel within ten miles.

Veiled Iraqi women parade in Sadr City, a northern Baghdad, Iraq, neighborhood, Saturday April 3 2004. Thousands took part in a parade of the Al-Mehdi army, a shiite group founded by Muktada Al-Sadr. (AP Photo/Samir Mizban)

- Didn't Hollywood do a horror flick with these creatures in it not too long ago? (Night of the Living Dead maybe?)


10 posted on 04/03/2004 5:47:45 PM PST by Happy2BMe (U.S.A. - - United We Stand - - Divided We Fall - - Support Our Troops - - Vote BUSH)
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To: Happy2BMe
Holy Shi'ite!

Yeah. What you said.


11 posted on 04/03/2004 5:55:30 PM PST by MeekOneGOP (Become a monthly donor on FR. No amount is too small and monthly giving is the way to go !)
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To: Happy2BMe
Vegas Odds of "Democracy" taking hold in Iraq or ANY Muslim country:

1,000,000,000-1

12 posted on 04/03/2004 6:07:11 PM PST by F16Fighter
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To: Happy2BMe
Can you imagine how hot it is to be out in the summer sun in those.
13 posted on 04/03/2004 6:09:08 PM PST by OneTimeLurker
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To: Happy2BMe; MJY1288; xzins; Calpernia; TEXOKIE; Alamo-Girl; windchime; Grampa Dave; ...
Thanks, Happy.

Pray for these courageous Iraqi security workers. Most have had family members murdered in horrendous ways by Saddam and co., and are standing up to those neighborhood bullies (and their mainstream press agents).

The burka women, like ANSWER rent-a-mobs, a false front.

We can count on anything that undermines our war effort leading the mainstream news daily 'til election day.

Gunmen killed a police chief in Baghdad on Saturday, the second to be shot dead in 24 hours and the latest in a growing list of security officers killed by insurgents who target anyone linked to Iraq's occupiers.

Occupiers. These war critics prefer the conveniently silent mass graves.

Sorry, AP, Kerry, Kofi. The good guys don't.

Good news:

8 Petraeus to Get Key Job in Iraq ~  Washington Post | 4/03/04 | Thomas E. Ricks

I doubt that our enemies will choose to make a martyr out of this well-respected leader.

14 posted on 04/03/2004 6:18:11 PM PST by Ragtime Cowgirl (Just $5/mo:THWART ENEMIES*SUPPORT OUR TROOPS!*http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1109539/posts)
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To: OneTimeLurker
"Can you imagine . ."

I R not a woman.

But when I was in Saudi, that's all the poor creatures wore.

You really wouldn't want to get "up close" to one of them . . Muslims prefer their women having that "natural" odor to them.

One walked in a gold shop I was in and man - I didn't know a human could stink THAT bad.

15 posted on 04/03/2004 6:25:51 PM PST by Happy2BMe (U.S.A. - - United We Stand - - Divided We Fall - - Support Our Troops - - Vote BUSH)
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To: Happy2BMe

Where's an ACc-130 when you really need one for crowd dispersal?

16 posted on 04/03/2004 10:46:12 PM PST by SAMWolf (Please God! Not ANOTHER learning experience!)
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To: Ragtime Cowgirl
Bump~~~!
17 posted on 04/04/2004 12:27:43 AM PST by F14 Pilot (John Fedayeen Kerry - the Mullahs' regime candidate)
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To: Happy2BMe
Mullahs of Iran are behind these incidents in Iraq.
18 posted on 04/04/2004 12:31:03 AM PST by F14 Pilot (John Fedayeen Kerry - the Mullahs' regime candidate)
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To: F14 Pilot
Why is their support so widespread among the Iraqis?

We liberated the Shi'ites from Saddam and they return the deed by burning us alive and hanging us from bridges.

19 posted on 04/04/2004 12:42:35 AM PST by Happy2BMe (U.S.A. - - United We Stand - - Divided We Fall - - Support Our Troops - - Vote BUSH)
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To: F14 Pilot; Mark Felton
BAGHDAD : US tanks deployed in the Iraqi capital to stop hundreds of angry protestors marching on the coalition's city-centre headquarters as Shiite Muslim radicals took to the streets across central and southern Iraq.

The protest in the capital turned violent as some supporters of radical leader Moqtada Sadr threw themselves at the US tanks and a police officer said at least two of the demonstrators had been crushed.

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There was no immediate confirmation of the deaths from police headquarters or the US military.

Huge protests were also held in the central pilgrimage city of Najaf and as far south as Amara, while unarmed militiamen from Sadr's Mehdi Army paraded in Sadr City, a sprawling mainly Shiite neighbourhood of the capital regarded as a radical stronghold.

Sadr's followers have held almost daily demonstrations to protest the decision by the coalition last Sunday to close his weekly newspaper for 60 days on charges of inciting violence.

Early Saturday, Sadr supporters took to the streets of Najaf, reacting to unfounded rumours that Spanish coalition soldiers had detained Mustafa Yaacubi, the head of his office in the city.

Spanish commanders "categorically" denied the charge in a statement that was distributed to the crowd that formed outside the headquarters of the Spanish-led Plus Ultra Brigade in Najaf until mid-evening.

The protestors dismissed the denial, demanding the release of Yaacubi and calling for another sit-in to take place Sunday morning.

Rumours of Yaacubi's arrest also spread to the southern city of Amara where thousands of protestors took to the streets to vent their anger, an AFP correspondent said.

Sheikh Qais al-Khazaali, the head of Sadr's office in Baghdad, warned that his movement would react if Yaacubi was not quickly released.

"This is a new provocation by the coalition forces," Sheikh Khazaali told AFP. "If he is not quickly released, our movement, our leadership and our supporters will react with the means at our disposal."

Another rumour that coalition forces were surrounding Sadr's office in Najaf spread in the afternoon, prompting hundreds of his followers to head to the coalition's Baghdad headquarters in buses and cars, correspondents said.

Their advance was stopped by police units and at least half a dozen US tanks which cordoned off streets leading to the heavily fortified administrative compound.

An AFP correspondent saw one young man lunging at a tank which stopped abruptly without harming him. The crowd cheered the young man and then protestors upturned carts to block the road.

"There were two or three dead among the protestors who threw themselves under American tanks which could not avoid them," said Sergeant Abbas Mohamad.

In similar clashes Friday evening, three Salvadoran soldiers were shot and wounded as they tried to disarm what the San Salvador press described as pro-Sadr militiamen in Kufa, just outside Najaf.

Major Carlos Herradon, spokesman for the Plus Ultra Brigade, said the shooting erupted when the troops tried to disarm the militiamen in the shrine city, a Sadr stronghold, and a group of them opened fire.

He added that one of the soldiers remained in hospital Saturday.

Unlike the mainstream Shiite religious parties -- the Dawa and the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq -- Sadr has refused to take part in coalition-installed interim bodies and has had often troubled relations with coalition troops.

But the weekend's demonstrations marked a sharp escalation of the radical leader's campaign of opposition to the US-led occupation.

The violence came as UN special envoy Lakhdar Brahimi was due to return to Baghdad within two days to discuss the coalition's plans to transfer power to a caretaker government by June 30 and hold elections by the end of January.

US tanks deploy in Baghdad as Shiite radicals take to streets

20 posted on 04/04/2004 12:46:53 AM PST by Happy2BMe (U.S.A. - - United We Stand - - Divided We Fall - - Support Our Troops - - Vote BUSH)
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