Iraq: Civil war, anarchy or comedy routine?
"Hardly a soul stirred on Thursday afternoon inside the warren of narrow dark alleys and side streets in Sanak, one of the Iraqi capital's busiest commercial districts.
. . . Gunmen in camouflage uniforms drove up in 11 cars at about 10 a.m. and surrounded the area, just around the corner from an Iraqi police checkpoint, witnesses said.
. . . 'They took Sunnis, Shiites and Christians,' said Ziad Ali, one of the shopkeepers. 'They did not differentiate. They even grabbed six boys.'
. . . 'This is very serious. This happened in the heart of Baghdad,' said Mohammed al-Askari, a Defense Ministry spokesman. 'This is to create a state of chaos, so they can say the government has failed, the political process has failed.'
. . . The assault occurred on a day when a U.S. congressional delegation, led by Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Joseph I. Lieberman (D-Conn.), visited Baghdad. McCain repeated his call to deploy more U.S. troops to Iraq.
. . . The American people are confused, they're frustrated, they're disappointed by the Iraq war, but they also want us to succeed if there's any way to do that,' McCain told reporters." [1]
"Gunmen in Iraqi army uniforms burst into Red Crescent offices [in Baghdad] on Sunday and kidnapped more than two dozen people at the humanitarian organization.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair, in Iraq on his sixth visit since the 2003 invasion, appealed for international support for Iraq's fragile government.
. . . The Red Crescent, which is part of the international Red Cross movement, has around 1,000 staff and some 200,000 volunteers in Iraq.
. . . Mazin Abdellaha, secretary-general of the Iraqi Red Crescent, appealed to the kidnappers to release the captives.
"They represent a humanitarian agency that works for the general good, and this agency helps all people regardless of their sect or ethnicity," Abdellaha said.
. . . The abduction comes just days after the organization's vice president, Dr. Jamal al-Karbouli, said American forces represented a greater danger to its work than insurgents.
'The insurgents, they are Iraqis, a lot of them are Iraqis, and they respect the Iraqis. And they respect our (the Red Crescent's) identity, which is neutrality,' al-Karbouli said Friday." [2]
sources
[1] The Washington Post. Gunmen Kidnap Baghdad Shopkeepers, Bystanders. December 15, 2006.
[2] The Associated Press. 28 Kidnapped From Aid Office in Baghdad. December 17, 2006.
posting: sunday, december 17, 2006, 3:39 PM ET
update: sunday, december 17, 2006, 3:43 PM ET
iraq kidnap civil war anarchy tony blair john mccain joseph lieberman red crescent comedy
. . . Gunmen in camouflage uniforms drove up in 11 cars at about 10 a.m. and surrounded the area, just around the corner from an Iraqi police checkpoint, witnesses said.
. . . 'They took Sunnis, Shiites and Christians,' said Ziad Ali, one of the shopkeepers. 'They did not differentiate. They even grabbed six boys.'
. . . 'This is very serious. This happened in the heart of Baghdad,' said Mohammed al-Askari, a Defense Ministry spokesman. 'This is to create a state of chaos, so they can say the government has failed, the political process has failed.'
. . . The assault occurred on a day when a U.S. congressional delegation, led by Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Joseph I. Lieberman (D-Conn.), visited Baghdad. McCain repeated his call to deploy more U.S. troops to Iraq.
. . . The American people are confused, they're frustrated, they're disappointed by the Iraq war, but they also want us to succeed if there's any way to do that,' McCain told reporters." [1]
"Gunmen in Iraqi army uniforms burst into Red Crescent offices [in Baghdad] on Sunday and kidnapped more than two dozen people at the humanitarian organization.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair, in Iraq on his sixth visit since the 2003 invasion, appealed for international support for Iraq's fragile government.
. . . The Red Crescent, which is part of the international Red Cross movement, has around 1,000 staff and some 200,000 volunteers in Iraq.
. . . Mazin Abdellaha, secretary-general of the Iraqi Red Crescent, appealed to the kidnappers to release the captives.
"They represent a humanitarian agency that works for the general good, and this agency helps all people regardless of their sect or ethnicity," Abdellaha said.
. . . The abduction comes just days after the organization's vice president, Dr. Jamal al-Karbouli, said American forces represented a greater danger to its work than insurgents.
'The insurgents, they are Iraqis, a lot of them are Iraqis, and they respect the Iraqis. And they respect our (the Red Crescent's) identity, which is neutrality,' al-Karbouli said Friday." [2]
sources
[1] The Washington Post. Gunmen Kidnap Baghdad Shopkeepers, Bystanders. December 15, 2006.
[2] The Associated Press. 28 Kidnapped From Aid Office in Baghdad. December 17, 2006.
posting: sunday, december 17, 2006, 3:39 PM ET
update: sunday, december 17, 2006, 3:43 PM ET
iraq kidnap civil war anarchy tony blair john mccain joseph lieberman red crescent comedy
Labels: anarchy, civil war, comedy, iraq, john mccain, joseph lieberman, kidnap, red crescent, red cross, tony blair
posted by eric at 3:02 PM
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