The Hindu : International : Violence sweeps through Iraq

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Dec 10, 2004

International

International

Violence sweeps through Iraq

By Atul Aneja

MANAMA, DEC. 9. In a day marked by violence, a car bomb exploded in a busy market place in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul and mortar rounds targeted the Italian embassy and a Iraqi military base in Baghdad, killing at least three civilians.

Thursday's attacks are part of a series of recent guerilla strikes against the U.S. occupation forces in the resistance strongholds of Mosul, Ramadi, Samarra and Fallujah, where American troops have been unable to wrest complete control despite clashing with guerillas for over a month.

Ethnic dimension

Analysts point out that the unabated violence has called into the question the feasibility of holding general elections next month. Mosul has witnessed several attacks in recent weeks. The fighting there has also acquired an ethnic dimension as the U.S.-supported Kurdish Peshmarga fighters have battled resistance fighters. The city has Sunni Arabs and Kurds occupying the area on either side of the Tigris river. Mosul also has a sizeable population of Turkomans and Assyrians, who are reportedly leaving the country in significant numbers. The bombing came after Iraqi fighters and the city police clashed on Wednesday.

In Fallujah, the Iraqi daily Al-Zaman reported that the U.S. has once again undertaken aerial bombardment of the city's Jubail and Jolan districts, targeting guerillas who are still active, especially in the southern parts of the city. The occupation forces are reportedly embarking on a controversial programme of controlling Fallujah.

According to the U.S. daily Boston Globe, residents would be sent to "citizen processing centres" on the outskirts of the city so that a database of their identities can be compiled based on DNA testing and retina scans. The people of Fallujah would also receive badges, which they would have to wear all the time, bearing their home addresses. They would be ferried into the city in buses, as cars, the deadliest tool of suicide bombers, would be banned. The plan envisages pooling all male civilians into "military-style battalions." Depending on their skills, they would be assigned jobs in construction, waterworks, or rubble-clearing platoons.

Police chief quits

In the restive city of Samarra, north of the Iraqi capital, guerillas on Wednesday launched a series of coordinated attacks against U.S. and Iraqi Government troops, leaving five Iraqis dead and several more wounded. A roadside bomb attack, later in the evening, also wounded an American soldier. Faced with the violence, Samarra's police chief, Shamel al-Samarrai, said he was resigning. "When I felt that I wasn't carrying out my duties as I should, I had to give an opportunity for someone else to carry on," Mr. Al-Samarrai said.

As the fighting spiralled, the Central Intelligence Agency, in a confidential report leaked in a section of the press, has concluded that the security situation in war-ravaged Iraq was likely to deteriorate unless the interim Government made significant progress in asserting its authority and building up the economy.

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