Sunday, 9 January 2005
HEADLINES
IRAQI NEWS
· US Hummer destroyed in northern Iraq; US troops raid homes, make arrests
· Four dead, 19 wounded in suicide blast south of Baghdad
· Iraqi government says 60,000 return to Al-Fallujah, others "within week"
· Car bomb kills one in Babil-Al-Sharqiah
· Clashes erupt in Samarra- Al-Sharqiah
· School destroyed in Tikrit- Al-Sharqiah
· Three bodies found- Al-Sharqiah
· Salah-al-Din police commander sacked- Al-Sharqiah
· Four family members killed in US air raid north of Baghdad- Al-Sharqiah
· Iraqi Independent Electoral Commission in Samarra resigns- Al-Sharqiah
· Iraqi Communist Party secretary delivers speech ahead of elections- Tariq al-Sha'b
· Tikrit delegation kidnapped-IRAQ FOR ALL
· Writer calls on Kurdish leaders to demand vote delay- Khabat, Arbil
· Kurdistan Democratic Party newspaper comments on Armitage's visit to Kurdistan- Al-Ta'akhi
IRAQI PRESS QUOTES, 8 JAN 05
· Iraq's neighbouring countries;'' Are they really mean to end their interference''? - Al-Dustur
· ``Political entities activeties in the Iraqi arena, a lack of wide popular support''-Al-Adalah
· The current argument over the elections - Al-Sharq al-Awsat
· The missile launched on Arbil university students; political message ' - Al-Zaman
IRAQI PRESS HEADLINES, 8 JAN 05
· Al-Nahdhah [Baghdad, political daily newspaper]
· Al-Zaman [Baghdad edition of London-based independent daily newspaper]
IRAQI MEDIA PROGRAMME SUMMARIES 8 JAN 2005
· Programme summary of Al-Sharqiyah TV news 8 Jan 05
· Programme summary of Al-Iraqiyah TV news 8 Jan 05
UPDATES FROM IRAQI KURDISH PRESS, 9 JAN 05
· Iraqi Officials Seriously Consider for Poll Postponement:
· US Mosul Commander Visit Barzani, Apologize for Erbil Attack:
· KDP Politicians Survives Second Assassination Attempt
· The US Prevented Kirkuk Joining Kurdistan Region, Ambassador Says
· Allawi Exempts Kurdistan from Extended Emergency State
· Police Bullets Disperse Sulaymanya Demonstrating Students
· Briefly: From Kurdistani Nwe daily issued by the PUK:
· From Khabat, issued by the KDP:
IRAQI NEWS
US Hummer destroyed in northern Iraq; US troops raid homes, make arrests
Dar Al-Salam Radio, Iraqi Islamic Party-affiliated, 8 Jan 04:Dar al-Salam correspondent in Bayji district in the Salah-al-Din Governorate has said that an explosive charge went off on a highway in northern Bayji [200 km northwest of Baghdad] while a US occupation military patrol was passing by. The incident led to the destruction of a Hummer military vehicle. In a related development, the US occupation forces raided a number of houses in the area of Al-Asri neighbourhood in Bayji. These forces sealed off roads in the area and arrested a number of the district's residents.
Four dead, 19 wounded in suicide blast south of Baghdad
Al-Sharqiyah Satellite Channel, Baghdad, in Arabic, 8 Jan 04: The Iraqi police have announced that a suicide bomber detonated his booby-trapped car today in a fuel station near a checkpoint manned by the Iraqi police and army in southern Baghdad, killing four civilians and wounding 19 others.The Iraqi police said that most of the killed were at a fuel station in the town of Al-Mahawil [85 km] south of Baghdad. The station was crowded with people amid a continued fuel shortage.The explosion destroyed at least three cars. None of the police or army personnel, who were guarding the checkpoint that was not far away, were hurt. The police noted that the explosion was possibly targeting the fuel station. The motive behind the attack is not clear yet. [Video shows doctor treating wounded man at hospital]
Iraqi government says 60,000 return to Al-Fallujah, others "within week"
Al-Sharqiyah Satellite Channel, Baghdad, in Arabic, 8 Jan 04: The Iraqi government announced today that around 60,000 of Al-Fallujah's residents had returned to their houses since 23 December 2004. The government stressed that the return of all the residents of this city would be completed within a week.An official government statement said that these residents had returned to their houses in the neighbourhoods of Al-Jawlan, Al-Nu'aymiyah, Al-Ta'mim and Dur al-Sikak, in addition to other neighbourhoods in the city.The government announced that it had set a one-week deadline, starting today [8 January], for the return of the residents of the remaining neighbourhoods with an average of one or two neighbourhoods each day. The residents of Al-Dhubbat, Al-Shurtah, Al-Shuhada, Al-Sina'i and Al-Askari neighbourhoods will be able to return to their houses.The statement stressed that all of Al-Fallujah's neighbourhoods and areas would thus be ready and open to citizens next Friday. [Video shows citizens standing in street]
Car bomb kills one in Babil-Al-Sharqiah
Al-Sharqiyah Satellite Channel, Baghdad, in Arabic 8 Jan 05: One person was killed and 20 others were wounded on 8 January when a booby-trapped car exploded in the city of Al-Mahawil in Babil Governorate, south of Baghdad, Al-Sharqiyah TV reported. Captain Hadi Atif, spokesman for Babil police, said that the car exploded near a petrol station at 0500 gmt. He added that it had also damaged a number of cars.
Clashes erupt in Samarra- Al-Sharqiah
Al-Sharqiyah Satellite Channel, Baghdad, in Arabic 8 Jan 05: Clashes broke out on 8 January between unidentified gunmen and US forces in Samarra, north of Baghdad, Al-Sharqiyah TV reported. A TV correspondent in the city said a number of civilians had been wounded as a result of the clashes, in Al-Shurtah and Al-Armusiyah districts. The correspondent added that a civilian had been killed when an explosive charge went off in Al-Bubaz are in the centre of the city and that US forces had defused another explosive charge planted on a road used by US patrols in Al-Mu'alimin district.
School destroyed in Tikrit- Al-Sharqiah
Al-Sharqiyah Satellite Channel, Baghdad, in Arabic 8 Jan 05 Unidentified gunmen attacked and destroyed Al-Watan al-Arabi school in Al-Alam in northern Tikrit on 8 January, Al-Sharqiyah TV reported. A source at Tikrit police said that there had been plans to use the destroyed school as a polling station.
Three bodies found- Al-Sharqiah
Al-Sharqiyah Satellite Channel, Baghdad, in Arabic 8 Jan 05: A source with Tikrit police said that three unidentified bodies had been found near the city of Al-Dur on 8 January, Al-Sharqiyah TV reported. The source said that the victims, who were blindfolded and whose hands were tied behind their backs, had been executed by shooting.
Salah-al-Din police commander sacked- Al-Sharqiah
Al-Sharqiyah Satellite Channel, Baghdad, in Arabic 8 Jan 05: The Salah-al-Din governor has sacked Maj-Gen Mizhir Taha Ahmad, Salah-al-Din police commander, for failing to respond adequately to armed operations that targeted several police centres in the governorate, Al-Sharqiyah TV reported on 8 January.
Four family members killed in US air raid north of Baghdad- Al-Sharqiah
Al-Sharqiyah Satellite Channel, Baghdad, in Arabic 8 Jan 05: An Iraqi family of four was killed at dawn on 8 January as a result of a US military helicopter bombardment of a house in Al-Shirqat City, north of Baghdad, Al-Sharqiyah TV reported.
Iraqi Independent Electoral Commission in Samarra resigns- Al-Sharqiah
Al-Sharqiyah Satellite Channel, Baghdad, in Arabic 8 Jan 05: All the members of the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq in Samarra resigned on 8 January, Iraqi Al-Sharqiyah TV reported the same day. It said the 24-member commission had resigned "to express their boycott of the general elections", which will be held at the end of January. "The Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq had witnessed mass resignation of its members in expression of their rejection of holding the elections," the TV said.
Iraqi Communist Party secretary delivers speech ahead of elections- Tariq al-Sha'b
Tariq al-Sha'b, Baghdad, political and cultural weekly, by the Iraqi Communist Party, 8 Jan 05: The Iraqi Communist Party leader, Hamid Majid Musa, told the party's sixth congress on 23-24 December that the party's objective was "to restore sovereignty and independence, end the occupation, and set up democratic institutions in a democratic, federal, and unified Iraq", Iraqi Communist Party newspaper Tariq al-Sha'b reported on 5 January. He said that "forces of evil" were "seeking, by all methods, to stop the political process and sabotage the elections" but called on his party to "prepare for the elections, as if we were certain that they would be held on schedule, without any change or delay".
Tikrit delegation kidnapped-IRAQ FOR ALL
Iraq For All News Network, , in Arabic 8 Jan 05: A delegation from Tikrit City, including the Tikrit deputy governor and chairman of Salah-al-Din governorate municipal council, was kidnapped after visiting the office of Ali al-Sistani to discuss the Iraqi elections on 30 January, Iraq For All News Network reported on 8 January.
Writer calls on Kurdish leaders to demand vote delay- Khabat, Arbil
(Khabat, Arbil, 8 Jan 05): An article in Iraqi Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) newspaper Khabat on 5 January called on Kurdish leaders to demand that the Iraqi elections scheduled for 30 January be postponed "with a clear and strong voice". "Holding them now would not help or bring any benefit to the Iraqi people, but would bring a great disadvantage, especially for the people of Kurdistan," the writer asserted.
Kurdistan Democratic Party newspaper comments on Armitage's visit to Kurdistan- Al-Ta'akhi
Al-Ta'akhi newspaper, by the Kurdistan Democratic Party, 8 Jan 05: Iraqi Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) newspaper Al-Ta'akhi said on 5 January that US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage's visit to the Kurdistan region at the beginning of January and his meeting with the KDP leader, Mas'ud Barzani, in Salah-al-Din, had paved the way for an agreement on "an appropriate though temporary" solution to the problem of Kirkuk. It said that complaints about "the negative performance of some US administration representatives" and about the failure to apply Article 58 of the provisional constitution on "the rectification of the conditions in Kirkuk" and "getting rid of the traces of Arabization" were "the core of the current volatile political crisis that drove many Kurdistani political centres to signal the possibility of boycotting the general Iraqi elections". The paper urged an end to the bloodshed in Kirkuk, speeding up the elimination of the consequences of the Arabization campaign and apologies by the UK and US governments for their Iraqi policies in the 20th century.
IRAQI PRESS QUOTES, 8 JAN 05
Iraq's neighbouring countries;'' Are they really mean to end their interference''? - Al-Dustur
Al-Dustur [Baghdad, daily independent newspaper in Arabic] [From editorial by Basim al-Shaykh]: "The resolutions emerging from the last Amman meeting of Iraq's neighbouring countries will not be worth the paper they are printed on unless the countries in question seek to implement them earnestly and in good faith. Without seeing fast and decisive measures by these countries to stop the influx of human and material support for anti-Iraq operations passing across their borders into Iraq, we can hardly persuade ourselves that they really mean to put an end to their interference, especially as we know for a fact that some of these states have considerable residues of active organizations contributing to the joint effort of stoking up violence in Iraq depending on supply lines that extend beyond the borders deep into their respective territories."
``Political entities activeties in the Iraqi arena, a lack of wide popular support''-Al-Adalah
Al-Adalah [From commentary by Abd-al-Basit al-Jawari]: "Some political entities active in the Iraqi arena may have deemed it fit to make up for their lack of wide popular support by taking volatile stances, fluctuating with the ebb and flow of events and singing alone on their own perch tunes that are sometimes more in harmony with what is harped on by terror groups than what has been agreed on by most of the country's ethnic, religious and political forces. It is in this light that the recent calls by some to postpone elections should be seen, for they run counter to the general national consensus on the absolute urgency of voting at this stage as the only means of giving the Iraqi people the legitimate leadership they have always wanted."
The current argument over the elections - Al-Sharq al-Awsat
Al-Sharq al-Awsat [From commentary by Sa'ad Bin-Tuflah]: "A lot of those who are anti-Iraq and anti-freedom are rubbing their hands with glee as they watch the current argument over the election date getting ever more heated. It is only natural for them to gloat about the growing differences over an issue so basic to democracy among the very Iraqis who were so unanimous on the pursuit of democracy in the immediate aftermath of Saddam's fall. To any fair observer, this is a new worry, hardly detectable in the Iraqi scene over the past months. I can only imagine the consternation of the average Iraqi at this ominous schism and it gives me a shudder to imagine myself in his shoes."
The missile launched on Arbil university students; political message ' - Al-Zaman
Al-Zaman [From commentary by Fatih Abd-al-Salam]: "More than anything, the missile launched by a US warplane on a university students' dormitory in Arbil recently seems to have been an ill-conceived political message coming at a very inopportune moment, barely a few hours after a visit by Armitage to the region, unless, of course, it was meant to signal a sudden change of priorities on Washington's agenda. On second thoughts, with Iraq 'ascending' so fast to the brink of the precipice, one can hardly feel justified in blaming the Americans for just another little mistake. It would not make much difference, anyway."
