A series of bomb attacks in close proximity to Baghdad’s Green Zone has killed at least four Iraqi people and injured fourteen others.

“Four explosions rocked the heavily fortified Green Zone in central Baghdad on Tuesday morning,” Press TV correspondent reported.

Three of the blasts were caused by car bombs and the other by a mortar shell, the report added.

Baghdad is currently reeling from multiple coordinated bombings on Tuesday, which killed 127 people and wounded more than 500 others. On Thursday al-Qaeda militants claimed responsibility for the bombings and warned of more strikes to come against the Iraqi government.

Iraqi security officials warn militants will probably continue high-profile attacks in an attempt to destabilize the Iraqi government in advance of the March 7 parliamentary elections.

An Al-Qaeda group in Iraq claimed responsibility Wednesday for five coordinated bombings that killed 127 people in Baghdad, US-based monitors said.

An Al-Qaeda group in Iraq claimed responsibility Wednesday for five coordinated bombings that killed 127 people in Baghdad, US-based monitors said.
  
The Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) issued a statement on a jihadist forum saying it carried out Tuesday’s string of car and truck bombings at ministries and courthouses in the Iraqi capital that also wounded 450 people, SITE said.
  
The Al-Qaeda statement, translated by the US monitoring group, threatened more attacks and said they were a “third-wave” after earlier deadly bombings on August 19 and October 25 that killed over 100 people.
  
“The list of targets will not end, with permission from Allah, until the flag of monotheism is raised once against on the land of Baghdad and the sharia of Allah rules the land and the worshippers,” it said.
  
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki sacked Baghdad’s security chief after the latest attacks, which police said were carried out by bombers backed by groups in Syria or Saudi Arabia.
  
Maliki’s intervention came as enraged MPs demanded answers from the country’s leaders over the blasts, which accounted for more dead than the total number killed by violence in all of November, and undermined the government’s claims of improved security ahead of March 7 elections.
  
Violence across Iraq dropped dramatically last month, with the fewest deaths in attacks recorded since the 2003 invasion. Official figures showed a total of 122 people were killed in November.
  
Both the Baghdad government and the US military have warned of a rise in attacks in the run-up to the election.
  
Despite Tuesday’s attacks, US forces remain on track to begin withdrawing from Iraq in large numbers next year, said Admiral Michael Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
  
The Search for International Terrorist Entities (SITE) Intelligence Group is a US-based organization that monitors extremist websites.

BAGHDAD: Five massive vehicle-borne bombs rocked Baghdad on Tuesday, killing 127 people, including women and students, and wounding hundreds in the third co-ordinated massacre to devastate the city since August.

The attacks shattered a month of calm in the Iraqi capital and came hours before an official said the war-torn country’s general election, the second since the US-led ouster of dictator Saddam Hussein, would be held on March 6.

A senior security spokesman said the attacks, four of which were conducted by suicide attackers driving cars or minibuses, and which targeted key government buildings, bore ‘the touch of Al-Qaeda.’

One of the suicide bombers detonated his payload at an office of the finance ministry, another attacker struck at a tunnel leading to the labour ministry, and a third drove a four-wheel-drive car into a court building.

‘The suicide bomber drove up to the court and the security forces tried to stop him by firing their Kalashnikovs, but they did not kill him before he exploded,’ police sergeant Emad Fadhil told AFP.

A fourth suicide bomber in a car struck a police patrol in Dora, in southern Baghdad, causing 15 deaths, 12 of them students at a nearby technical college, an interior ministry official said.
Another car bomb hit offices of the interior ministry in central Baghdad.

The first explosion in the centre of the capital was heard at 0725 GMT, another came within seconds and a third one minute later.

The bombing at the courthouse destroyed a large part of the building, with falling concrete killing several people, according to emergency service workers at the scene.

Mangled wrecks of cars, some of which had been flipped over, lined the street opposite the courthouse, and several vehicles in the parking lot were crushed by collapsed blast walls.

Although no group has yet claimed responsibility, the timing of the blasts and the fact that three of them targeted government buildings bears all the hallmarks of an Al-Qaeda operation.

The interior ministry official said 127 people had been killed and 448 wounded in the bombings, with the finger of blame pointed at Al-Qaeda.

‘The same black hand that was behind the attacks in August and October committed today’s bombings,’ Major General Qassim Atta, spokesman for security operations in Baghdad, told AFP.

‘This has the touch of Al-Qaeda and the Baathists,’ he said, referring to the outlawed Baath party of now executed dictator Saddam.

Both groups were blamed for bloody attacks, including truck bombings outside the finance, foreign and justice ministries, in Baghdad in August and October that killed more than 250 people and punctured confidence in the Iraqi security forces.

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said Tuesday’s attacks were a ‘cowardly’ attempt ‘to cause chaos… and hinder the election,’ and that the bombings were deliberately timed to come after MPs reached agreement on a law governing the election on Sunday.

He blamed ‘foreign elements’ who backed Al-Qaeda. Those caught up in Tuesday’s bombings described scenes of horror.

‘I heard the sound of the explosion, I fainted, then I found myself on this bed covered with blood,’ Um Saeed, whose arms and face were wounded in the court blast, told AFP at a local hospital, her clothes covered in blood.

An official at Medical City hospital in the centre of the capital said many of the 39 bodies they had received ‘had been blown apart,’ and some of them were women.

Violence across Iraq dropped dramatically last month, with the fewest deaths in attacks recorded since the US-led invasion of 2003. Official figures showed a total of 122 people were killed in November.

However the Baghdad government and the US military have warned of a rise in attacks in the run up to the election.

The presidency council, comprising President Jalal Talabani and his two deputies, are yet to officially announce the date but Qassim al-Abboudi of Iraq’s Independent High Electoral Commission said March 6 had been chosen.

US diplomats, most notably Christopher Hill, Washington’s ambassador to Baghdad, had pushed MPs to pass the law, seeking to avoid delays to the planned pullout of tens of thousands of American troops next year.

PARIS: A protester who presented himself as an Iraqi journalist in exile hurled a shoe Tuesday at the colleague who one year ago found fame hurling his own footwear at then US president George W. Bush.

Television reporter Muntazer al-Zaidi was in Paris to promote his campaign for the ‘victims of the US occupation in Iraq’ when a fellow Iraqi critic turned the tables on him, shouting: ‘Here’s another shoe for you.’

The thickset man with an Iraqi accent made a brief speech in Arabic during the question and answer session, defending US policy and accusing Zaidi of ‘working for dictatorship in Iraq,’ before throwing his shoe.

The missile was thrown hard at Zaidi’s head, but he managed to dodge it and it bounced harmlessly off a curtain erected behind the speakers by the event’s hosts, the Foreign Press Welcome Centre in Paris.

Zaidi’s brother grappled with and slapped the man, whom witnesses later described as an asylum-seeker they know only as ‘Khayat,’ before venue staff and bystanders separated them and the aggressor was hustled away.

‘When I used this method, it was against the occupation. I did not use it against a compatriot,’ Zaidi complained. ‘I always knew the occupier and his lackeys would stop at nothing to get to me.’

Following the commotion, the news conference continued with Zaidi taking questions about his famous assault on Bush on December 14 last year, which was shown around the world and made him a hero in the Arab world.

Zaidi, a journalist for Iraq’s Al-Baghdadia television, threw his shoes at Bush during the US leader’s final visit to Iraq, protesting the six-year-old occupation with a cry of: ‘This is the farewell kiss you dog.’

He was seized on the spot by Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s bodyguards and alleges he was tortured for three days: beaten with iron bars and chairs, tied up with cables and subjected to a mock drowning.

The 30-year-old member of Iraq’s Shia majority was jailed for nine months and was flown out of Iraq by his employers shortly after he was freed.

At his appearance in Paris, organised by the Arab Press Club, he said he is staying in Geneva for medical treatment for broken teeth, stomach complaints, fractures and torn back ligaments that he suffered.

After his treatment, he said, he would like to return to Iraq to found a charity to support those he called the ‘victims of the US occupation’ of his country, in particular the widows and orphans left by American attacks.

Zaidi’s shock action was rebroadcast repeatedly around the world and made him an instant hero among Iraqis and others who felt that Arab honour had been violated by the US occupation of Iraq.

Introducing his guest at the packed Paris press conference, the president of the local Arab Press Club, Kamal Tarabay, said Zaidi’s ‘audacious gesture’ made him a ‘hero of the resistance against the occupier.’

Some of those present applauded him, but several Arab reporters complained that while his protest was legitimate for an activist, a journalist should have behaved more professionally.

Zaidi was unrepentant, insisting that given the opportunity he would do the same again to Bush’s successor, US President Barack Obama ‘whatever the colour of his skin, his origin or his religion.’

Asked about the huge sums and even offers of marriage made by admirers during his jail term, Zaidi said he had asked his family to refuse all gifts ‘until I find a way that they can be passed on to the people of Iraq

November was the least bloody month in Iraq since the 2003 US-led occupation, official figures showed Tuesday.

According to AFP, official data compiled by the ministries of defense, interior and health indicated that a total of 122 people died last month, comprising 88 civilians, 22 policemen and 12 troops.

The figures are markedly lower compared to October, when violence killed a total of 410 people across Iraq. “We are delighted with the decrease in the number of victims of terrorism but we will only be happy when we eliminate all threats,” Ali Mussawi, an advisor to Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, told AFP.

In addition to those who died in attacks in November, 332 civilians were hurt along with 56 policemen and 44 soldiers. The previous lowest monthly death toll was in May, when 155 people were killed, including 124 civilians.

KARBALA, Iraq – Two bombs within minutes of each other exploded at a restaurant early Wednesday in Iraq’s shrine city of Karbala ahead of Arafa day and Eid al-Adha holiday to make insecurity, wounding at least 26 Shia, police and medical officials said.

The first bomb targeted diners inside the restaurant in the heart of the city, located 110 kilometres (69 miles) south of the capital Baghdad, around 9:00 am (0600 GMT), causing several injuries, police said.

They say a suicide bomber on a motorcycle then drove toward the crowd and detonated his explosives.

The officials spoke Wednesday on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

However, a second bomb minutes later, after an ambulance and medics had arrived to help the wounded, caused most of the casualties.

A senior health official for Karbala province said that at least 26 people had been wounded in the attacks.

The four-day holiday of Eid al-Adha begins in Iraq on Saturday.

A long-awaited public inquiry into Britain’s role in the Iraq war held its first hearing Tuesday, six and a half years after Tony Blair controversially led the country in backing the US-led conflict. Inquiry chairman John Chilcot, a former civil servant, said he would not shy away from criticizing the decision-making that led Britain to join the 2003 invasion despite strong opposition at home and abroad.

“What we are committed to, and what I believe the British general public can expect from us, is a guarantee to be thorough, to be impartial, to be objective and fair,” he said in opening remarks. “As I have said before, we are not a court of law nor are we an inquest nor indeed a statutory inquiry; and our processes will reflect that difference,” he added. “No-one is on trial here. We cannot determine guilt or innocence. Only a court can do that. But I make a commitment here that once we get to our final report, we will not shy away from making criticisms… where they are warranted.”

One-time top officials from the foreign and defense ministries will outline Britain’s policy towards Baghdad in the early 2000s as a five-member committee begins investigating what lessons can be learned from the US-led war. An appearance by former Prime Minister Blair, who took Britain into the conflict, is likely to be the highlight of the inquiry, although he and other Labor government figures are not due to give evidence until next year.

Iraq’s general election planned for January was thrown into doubt on Wednesday after Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi announced his veto of the election law. “On November 15, I sent a letter to parliament asking for the law to be amended. Parliament said I could veto the contested first article (of the law), which is what I have done today,” Hashemi said.

Parliament must now reopen debate on the proposed law, leading to a likely delay of the polling date. The war-torn country’s presidential council, composed of President Jalal Talabani and two vice presidents, has demanded a greater say in the election for minorities and nationals living abroad.

MPs had finally passed the electoral law for the contest earlier this month after several weeks of wrangling.
Hashemi said he believed the issue could be dealt with in one parliamentary session and need not delay the elections, although the Iraqi Independent Electoral Commission and the UN have warned time is running out.

No final date has been set for the election, but it is expected to be held close to 18 January. Constitutionally, it must be held before the end of that month.

On Tuesday, Kurdish lawmakers also threatened to boycott the election unless their demand for a greater share of parliamentary seats was met.

The radical Jewish rabbi who has given the thumbs-up to the killing of non-Jews reveals the true nature of the Israeli regime, says a human rights activist.

Salah Abdul Ati, director of the Independent Human Rights Center, told Al-Alam that the ruling by Yitzhak Shapira is based on “terrorist” Jewish views.

Shapira, in his book published this week and endorsed by prominent religious right-wing figures, suggests killing any non-Jew, including children and babies, who pose a threat to the occupying regime.

Abdul Ati said the book is not the first in its kind and won’t be the last, but warned of the dangerous consequences of the view, which “is against all international rules and regulations”.

Rabbi Shapira’s book also argues that revenge is a necessity under Jewish law.

Shapira is the head of an Orthodox Jewish school in Yitzhar, one of the territory’s most hardline settlements, located near Nablus.

The death toll from Sunday’s twin bombs in Baghdad, one of Iraq’s bloodiest attacks in years, has risen to 155 with more than 500 wounded, police said on Monday.

Despite a drop in overall violence in the country, insurgents, militants and others still carry out bombings and shootings, which observers say may increase in the lead up to a national election in January.

Sunday’s bombings, near the Justice Ministry and the Baghdad provincial government building ripping through cars and people, was the bloodiest in Iraqi capital since mid-2007.

World leaders condemned the attacks and Iraqi officials pointed a finger at al Qaeda and remnants of former dictator Saddam Hussein’s government. Opposition politicians blamed the security forces.

Iraq is trying to rebuild its economy and society after decades of repression, war and economic ruin. Security has remained elusive since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.

U.S. troops have begun pulling out in advance of a full withdrawal by the end of 2011, and ensuring security is now mainly the responsibility of Iraqi soldiers and police.

The fact that two government buildings were hit shows that the terrorists are still capable of launching major attacks, and many fear such attacks will only increase in the run-up to the parliamentary elections, which are scheduled to be held in January.

Many pundits say the terrorists’ double bombing was meant to paint the Iraqi leader as incapable of providing security to the beleaguered city and to undermine his political support.

Other analysts say the terrorists are trying to make Iraqis too afraid to vote in the parliamentary elections.

A senior Iraqi Shia cleric has called for the ouster of U.S. occupation troops and U.S. firms working in Iraq.

A senior Shia cleric has called for the ouster of U.S. occupation troops and U.S. firms working in Iraq.

Moqtada al-Sadr’s remarks came in a statement read by his Baghdad representative, Hazem al-Aaraji, to a large crowd of supporters.

Rallies were held in several Iraqi cities in commemoration of the martyrdom of Sadr’s father 11 years ago.

He was assassinated by agents of the former terrorist regime of Saddam Hussein.

Sadr’s statement said “American troops and American companies must leave” and urged the government and his supporters to force them to do so.

He also called for the immediate release of his movement’s detainees.

UNITED NATIONS : Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has formally asked the U.N. Security Council to launch an inquiry into a series of explosions that killed 95 people in Baghdad last month.
More than 1,000 people were also wounded on Aug. 19, Iraq’s bloodiest day this year, when at least six blasts struck near government ministries and other targets, weeks after U.S. combat troops withdrew from Iraqi urban centers in June.
In an Aug. 30 letter forwarded to the Security Council on Thursday by the office of U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Maliki asked for an independent international commission of inquiry to be set up.
“The scope and nature of these crimes calls for an investigation beyond Iraqi legal jurisdiction and prosecution of the perpetrators before a special international criminal tribunal,” said the letter, a copy of which was seen by Reuters.
“The magnitude of these crimes demands that they be addressed immediately by the international community.”
The explosions caused anger among ordinary Iraqis at the country’s security forces, with many blaming
political infighting as parliamentary elections near.
Iraq’s Shi’ite-led government has blamed supporters of Saddam Hussein’s outlawed Baath party, and Sunni Islamist al Qaeda, for recent attacks, and says Baath leaders plotted the bombings from neighboring Syria.
Baghdad last week demanded that Damascus hand over two alleged masterminds of the bombing. Both countries recalled their ambassadors for consultations.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad called Iraq’s accusations “immoral” and demanded Baghdad provide proof to back them up.
Maliki’s letter to the United Nations did not specifically name Syria, but said, “We believe that organized attacks of such size and complexity could not have been planned, funded and executed without the support of outside forces and parties.”
The attacks “rise to the level of crimes of genocide and crimes against humanity punishable under international law,” the Iraqi leader said.
The United States, this month’s president of the Security Council, confirmed receiving the letter which a U.S. official said would be circulated to the body’s 14 other members. The official declined to say what action the council might take.
The Iraqi request appeared similar to one that Lebanon put to the Security Council following the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri. The council launched an investigation and set up a tribunal in the Netherlands, but no one has so far been indicted and inquiries continue.

Official figures showed on Tuesday that the month of August witnessed the highest number of deaths from violence in Iraq for 13 months, with 456 people killed across the conflict-torn nation.
Statistics compiled by the defense, interior and health ministries showed that 393 civilians, 48 police and 15 soldiers were killed. The figures marked the highest monthly death toll since July 2008, when a total of 465 people were killed.

August saw two massive truck bombings at the ministries of finance and foreign affairs in Baghdad that killed at least 95 people. There were also 1,592 civilians, 129 police and 20 soldiers wounded in August, according to the figures.

The Executive Council of the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Assembly has elected Seyyed Amar Al-Hakim, the eldest son of the Seyyed Abdol-Aziz al-Hakim, as the movement’s new leader. In a statement issued by the Executive Council of the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Assembly, Seyyed Amar Al-Hakim was chosen with a unanimous vote as the best possible candidate to lead the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Assembly. The statement praised Seyyed Amar Al-Hakim’s political (and jihadi) background. It is expected that Seyyed Amar Al-Hakim will be formally approved by the full Supreme Islamic Assembly session which will be held on Tuesday. The former head of the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Assembly, Seyyed Abdol-Aziz al-Hakim, passed away last Wednesday after a prolonged and grueling fight with lung cancer.

The Iraqi Prime Minister, Nouri Al-Maliki, has said his government intends to initiate legal proceedings at international courts of justice against all those who are behind a wave of deadly terrorist attacks in Iraq. Nouri Al-Maliki made the comment in a meeting in Baghdad on Monday with the Turkish foreign minister, Ahmad Davoutouglou.
Maliki indicated that the Iraqi government will pursue this matter vigorously, and will insist that United Nations set up an international tribunal to try terrorists who have committed horrific crimes against innocent Iraqis.
Iraqi prime minister, Nouri Al-Maliki also stressed that all terrorists, including Baa’thists and “Takfiris”, should be expelled from Iraq.
For his part, Turkish foreign minister, Ahmad Davoutouglou, stressed that Turkey wants stability and security in neighbouring Iraq.

A statement by the US military said on Sunday that the US has released more than 5,000 Iraqi prisoners since the start of the year. However it adds that about 8,947 prisoners remain in US custody.

“Since January, 1,179 detainees have been transferred to the government of Iraq with a valid warrant or detention order, and 5,236 have been released,” a US military statement said.

In line with an interim security pact signed between Baghdad and Washington in 2008, the files of all detainees in US custody must be handed over to the Iraqi authorities.

According to the so-called Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) signed last November, the fate of the detainees will rest with the Iraqi officials.

The US military statement added that the prisoners in its custody are held in detention facilities run by US forces at Camp Cropper, Camp Taji, and Camp Bucca.

The military says the number of prisoners, 8,947, is the lowest it has been since March 2005 and is down from about 27,000 in 2007.

Sheikh Hamam Hamoudi, an official to the Iraqi Supreme Islamic Council (ISCI) in an interview with Aswat al-Iraq News Agency said the Council will introduce Sayyed Ammar al-Hakim as the new head of the Supreme Islamic Council in the next meeting soon. “All members of the Central Council of (ISCI) had agreed to select Sayyed Ammar al-Hakim as the head of the Council before the demise of Sayyed Abdul Aziz Hakim,” the Iraqi MP noted. He said that according to the regulations of the Islamic Supreme Council, Ammar Hakim is heading the council. Sheikh Hamam Hamoudi also rejected any difference in this regard.

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) — Tens of thousands converged Friday on the streets of Baghdad to pay final respects to one of Iraq’s top Shiite leaders.Security was tight for the funeral procession of Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, who died in Iran on Wednesday of lung cancer.

The streets leading to the Kadhimiya district were sealed off Friday, and Iraqi air force helicopters hovered overhead.

Sobbing mourners beat their chests and heads, a traditional Shiite way of mourning. They swarmed around the coffin trying to touch it as it was carried into the Kadhimiya shrine, one of Shiite Islam’s holiest.

The funeral procession began earlier Friday at Baghdad International Airport, where Al-Hakim‘s body arrived from Iran. Top Iraqi officials and Western diplomats, including Britain’s ambassador to Iraq, Christopher Prentice, were there, along with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.

The funeral procession then went to the Buratha mosque near Kadhimiya. At Buratha, Friday prayers were led by al-Hakim’s likely successor, his eldest son, Ammar. As people packed the party’s main mosque in the capital, many sat crying as they listened to Ammar al-Hakim talk about his father’s life and his final days in a Tehran, Iran, hospital.Al-Hakim had lived in exile in Iran for more than 20 years, finally returning to Iraq in 2003 after U.S.-led forces toppled Saddam Hussein and his regime.

“It was very emotional for me to meet with my people after Saddam fell,” the Shiite leader told CNN in 2006. “I was longing to see them. My goal in this life is to serve those great people, and I am very proud to be a part of them.”

Iraqi Shiites were suppressed under Hussein’s regime, which favored the country’s minority Sunni Muslims.

After his return, al-Hakim played a central role in shaping Iraq’s future. He urged Iraqis to shun bitter sectarian conflict after Hussein’s fall.

Al-Hakim, who was born in 1950, was considered one of Iraq’s most powerful men. Though he never held a government position, his political bloc won the most seats in the Iraqi parliament in 2005.

President Bush considered him an ally and called him when talks on the Iraqi Constitution stalled. He visited the United States three times during the Bush administration to discuss the situation in Iraq.

Ammar al-Hakim’s address and eulogy on Friday also had political messages. He described how his father, in an unconscious state Monday, signaled his approval for the newly formed mainly Shiite alliance ahead of Iraq’s elections.

The Iranian-backed alliance that was announced Monday included all of Iraq’s top Shiite parties, but excluded al-Maliki’s Dawa party.

In a not-so-subtle hint to the prime minister and his party, Ammar al-Hakim also used the occasion to send a message to parties that did not join the alliance, telling them to reconsider their decision.

Al-Hakim’s party, the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, lost much of its popularity in recent years. In January’s provincial elections, it lost much of its control in the south and Baghdad to al-Maliki’s candidates.

The Shiite leader’s death comes at a critical time in Iraq, with fractures in Shiite politics and an uncertain future for his party and for Iraq. Al-Maliki acknowledged as much when he spoke earlier Friday at the Baghdad airport.

Ammar al-Hakim, who has been groomed for years to take over party leadership, is the most likely successor. The senior members of the party, known as its Shura Council, will vote on leadership in the coming days.

Two truck bombs struck separate communities north of Iraq’s capital on Saturday, killing at least 16 people. According to AFP, Saturday’s deadliest attack came at about 8 a.m. local time when a truck bomber attacked a small police station in the remote village of Hamad north of Baghdad, killing at least 12 people, including six police.
Police at a checkpoint attempted to stop the truck, forcing the attacker to change direction and slam into a concrete barrier close to an open air market, they said. The police officials said twelve people were also wounded in the attack.

Memorials planned on Friday in Dearborn as local Shi’ite Muslims mourn the death of Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, an Iraqi religious and political leader who is well-known in metro Detroit’s Shi’ite communities.

Hakim, who once headed Iraq’s biggest political party, visited Michigan in December 2006, speaking at local Lebanese Shi’ite, Iraqi and Chaldean centers after meeting with then President George W. Bush. Hakim, 59, died Wednesday.

“It’s a great loss,” said Imam Husham Al-Husainy, head of the Karbalaa Islamic Education Center in Dearborn. “It’s very sad. People are crying and coming into the center.”

Hundreds are expected to attend the services at the Karbalaa center in Dearborn. And many are watching the funeral services in Iran on satellite TV stations, Al-Husainy said.

Hakim was head of the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council, formerly known as SCIRI, Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq. He hailed from a prominent Shi’ite family of scholars and teachers.

Many of Hakim’s family members were killed by the former regime of Saddam, and he spent his life trying to win freedom for Iraqis, Al-Husainy said.

In metro Detroit, Shi’ites of Iraqi descent admired him, as did Lebanese-American Shi’ites.

In December 2006, Hakim spoke to Shi’ite Muslims at Bint Jebail Cultural Center in Dearborn, a hall named after a town in southern Lebanon largely populated by Shi’ite Muslims.

He told the crowd that Al Qaeda and remnants of the former regime of Saddam Hussein are behind the terrorist violence in Iraq.

“It’s not the Shi’ites doing this,” Hakim said through a translator. “It’s not the Sunnis doing this. It’s the terrorists, the outsiders.”

Hakim also spoke to Chaldeans, Iraqi Catholics, in Southfield and West Bloomfield, and at the Karbalaa Islamic Education Center in Dearborn.

Hakim stressed religious and ethnic unity in his talk, noting that Shi’ites, Sunnis, Arabs, Kurds, Turkomen and Christians have long lived together in Iraq.

The recent violence between the groups is an aberration — not the historical norm — he said.

“We have nothing against each other,” Hakim said. “We go back hundreds of years, living together.”

Jafaria News : Majlese Tarheem for great irqi leader Ayatullah Syed Abdul Aziz Al Hakim will be held by Jafaria Alliance Pakistan on thursday  27 Aug at Baragah-e-Hussaini block 2 P.E.C.H Society after maghribain prayers & iftar you are requested attend

TEHRAN (ISNA)-Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council (SIIC) Head Abdul Aziz Hakim passed away in a hospital in Tehran.

The 54-year old Iraqi Shiite leader passed away due to lung cancer.

Hakim has been in hospital in Tehran since late March to cure his lung cancer.

Hakim led the SIIC for years after martyrdom of his brother Mohammad Bagher Hakim.

Since his hospitalization in Tehran, his elder son Ammar Hakim has taken control of the SIIC.

TEHRAN (ISNA)-Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council (SIIC) representative to Iran Mohsen Hakim said the SIIC Head Abdul Aziz al-Hakim’s physical condition is under control.

“Doctors believe that Abdul Aziz al-Hakim’s condition stabilized,” Mohsen Hakim told Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA).

Abdul Aziz al-Hakim has been in Tehran since last year to cure lung cancer.

BAGHDAD: Iraqi forces were on high alert Thursday after twin truck bombs killed 95 people and wounded almost 600 in Baghdad’s bloodiest day in 18 months.
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki late Wednesday vowed to overhaul the country’s security while Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, whose ministry compound was among the buildings targeted, said there had been “serious security breaches”.

The explosions came just minutes apart outside government ministries while a car bombing and spate of mortar attacks added to the carnage in the capital, which has been under Iraqi security control since US troops withdrew from towns and cities in the conflict-torn country at the end of June.
Maliki met with his security and intelligence officials Wednesday during which a number of “important decisions and fast measures” were agreed upon to sustain security and stability in Baghdad, his office said in a statement.
Baghdad military command announced the arrest of 10 officers from the army and police who were responsible for security in the two districts hit by the attacks. No details were given.

The international community, led by the UN security council, condemned the blasts, which came on the sixth anniversary of a bombing on the UN compound in Baghdad that killed special envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello and 21 others.
The White House described the attacks as “senseless violence” but the Pentagon noted that they would not affect the US military’s plans to withdraw from Iraq by the end of 2011.
NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen condemned the twin bombings as “cowardly and pointless attacks,” vowing to help fight the scourge of terrorism.
An Iraqi interior ministry official said 563 people were wounded in the truck bombs, one of which targeted the foreign ministry just outside the heavily fortified Green Zone and the other the nearby finance ministry, across the Tigris river.
“This was a calculated, deliberate attack on the restoration of normal life,” Zebari told reporters. “My assessment is it’s an attack on the normalisation of life in Baghdad.”
He acknowledged that there had been “some serious, serious security breaches,” and said that while he couldn’t say who was behind the attack, its timing was “archetypal of Al-Qaeda.”
In an earlier statement, Maliki said the bombings were “a desperate attempt to derail the political process and affect the parliamentary elections,” planned to take place in January 2010.
Analysts said that the attacks shattered attempts by Maliki to portray himself as a guardian of security ahead of the January elections.
“Maliki is clearly the man who wanted to be the symbol of increasing security and security capabilities, and that is clearly not the case,” International Crisis Group analyst Loulouwa al-Rachid said.

“If this trend (of violence) continues, yes, definitely it’s going to weaken Maliki. Practically, it will endanger the whole process. How can you run elections if security is an issue?”
Iraqis pointed the finger at their security forces, which in turn blamed members of executed former dictator Saddam Hussein’s regime.
“The government promised us security would return, but where is the security?” asked Hamid, 46, who lives a few hundred metres (yards) from the foreign ministry compound.
Major General Qassim Atta, the spokesman for the Iraqi Army’s Baghdad operations, blamed an alliance of Baathists loyal to Saddam and religious extremists for the attacks.
He added that security forces had arrested two senior Al-Qaeda leaders in western Baghdad, and that a truck carrying one tonne of explosives had been intercepted near a hospital in the centre of the capital.
A car bomb meanwhile hit a market in western Baghdad, while two mortar bombs landed in the Green Zone — an area of foreign embassies and government offices — and one exploded outside, a security official said.
It was the bloodiest day in Iraq since February 1, 2008, when bombs at Baghdad pet markets killed 98 people.
Recent attacks in the capital have appeared to target various ethnic groups in what is seen as a bid to reignite the sectarian violence which engulfed Iraq in 2006 and 2007.
Despite a reduction in violence across Iraq in the past year, attacks on security forces and civilians remain common in Baghdad, the restive northern city of Mosul and in the ethnically divided oil city of Kirkuk.

BAGHDAD: At least eight people were killed and nearly 50 wounded in bomb attacks in Iraq on Tuesday as a top US general said Al-Qaeda remained a potent force still capable of bloody attacks in the country.

In the worst attack, eight people were killed and 30 injured in consecutive car bombings in the eastern Baghdad neighbourhood of Al-Amin, an interior ministry official told AFP.

The first bomb tore into a cafe in the evening in the mixed Shiite-Christian neighbourhood while local residents smoked water pipes, and was followed five minutes later by a blast outside an apartment complex, the official said.

Nine people were wounded when a car bomb exploded in a market in the Shaab suburb of northeast Baghdad and four soldiers were wounded by a roadside bomb in the Shiite-majority slum of Sadr City.

In Baquba, north of the capital, a six-year-old boy was hurt when the car he was travelling in was hit by a roadside bomb, a local security official said.

Two soldiers were also wounded by a roadside bomb in Abara outside Baquba, north of Baghdad. Three traffic police were wounded by a roadside bomb planted outside the one-time insurgent stronghold of Fallujah, to the capital’s west.

The attacks came a day after 51 people were killed in bombings near the northern city of Mosul and in the capital — the deadliest day since US troops pulled out of urban centres across Iraq at the end of June.

Those bombings, largely targeting Shiites and members of the tiny Shabak sect, were the latest in a series of attacks apparently aimed at igniting a resumption of brutal Sunni-Shiite fighting that killed thousands in 2006 and 2007.

General Robert Caslen, who oversees US forces in northern Iraq, said the Monday attacks showed Al-Qaeda remained active in the north of the country and capable of spectacular attacks.

“I think Al-Qaeda of Iraq, which also has teamed up with Islamic State of Iraq, or ISI as we call it, still remains centered with its leadership and its financial capability in northern Iraq, primarily in Mosul,” Caslen said.

After six months of an aggressive campaign against the terror network in the region, attacks “dropped off significantly” shortly before the June 30 withdrawal of US forces from cities and towns, Caslen said.

However, “they remain, I would say, a resilient force that has the capability to regenerate their combat power as necessary,” he said.

The average number of attacks per week has dropped since June 30, from about 40 to 29, he said. But those that did occur were deadlier, with Al-Qaeda targeting Iraqi security forces.

Despite an overall drop in violence in recent months, attacks on security forces and civilians remain common in Baghdad, Mosul and in the ethnically divided northern oil hub of Kirkuk.

The number of violent deaths fell by a third last month to 275 from 437 in June, following the pullout of US forces from urban areas.

FALLUJA, Iraq (CNN) — Like many young boys, Khidir loves playing with toy cars and wants to be a policeman like his father when he grows up. But it was his father’s very job that caused the tiny child to suffer the unimaginable.Khidir was just 6 years old when he was savagely ripped away from his family, kidnapped by al Qaeda operatives in Iraq.

“They beat me with a shovel, they pulled my teeth out with pliers, they would go like this and pull it,” said Khidir, now 8, demonstrating with his hands. “And they would make me work on the farm gathering carrots.”

What followed was even more horrific, an ordeal that would last for two years in captivity. Khidir and his father spoke to CNN recently, more than half a year after his rescue by Iraqi police.  Watch boy describe torture »

“This is where they hammered a nail into my leg and then they pulled it out,” he says, lifting up his pant leg to show a tiny wound.

He says his captors also pulled out each of his tiny fingernails, broke both his arms, and beat him repeatedly on the side of the head with a shovel. He still suffers chronic headaches. He remembers them laughing as they inflicted the pain.

“I would think about my mommy and daddy,” he replies, when asked how he managed to get through the agony.

His father, Abdul Qader, struggles for words. “When he tells me about how they would torture him, I can’t tolerate it. I start crying,” he says. “What hurts me the most is when they hammered a nail into his leg.”

The father, a police officer, was sleeping at the police station in Falluja when his son was kidnapped. It was too dangerous to go home regularly. Although Falluja was no longer controlled by insurgents, assassinations against police were common.

“I woke up to the sound of a huge explosion … and then I heard my name on the radio. I ran outside and they came to me saying your house was blown up,” he says.”When the police patrol came back, they all started kissing and comforting me,” he continues. “I was asking, ‘What’s going on? Where is my family?’ They told me that they took my son. This was a disaster. I went mad that day, I wasn’t normal, I was hysterical.”

Khidir’s grandmother was at home with the family at the time.

“The kidnappers climbed the fence and kicked in the door,” she says.”They were screaming for Abdul Qader. I told them he’s not here. They called me a liar and said we want his son. His son was hiding behind me, clutching my clothes. I said this is not his son. They hit me on the back with a rifle and ripped him out of my arms.”

The last thing she remembers were his screams of “Granny, Granny!”

The attackers rigged the house with explosives and demolished it before taking off with the 6-year-old. The boy’s grandmother and seven other family members rushed out of the home before it exploded.

“The kidnappers called me on the phone and demanded that some prisoners that we had be released or they would slit his throat,” Khidir’s father says. “But I said no to the release. I would not put killers back out on the street that would hurt other Muslims. So I thought to myself, ‘Let my son be a martyr.’ ”

He even held a secret funeral for his little boy. He didn’t want to tell the rest of the family that he had refused the kidnappers’ ultimatum, allowing them to hope that he was still alive.

Last December, nearly two years later, police in Taji, about 45 miles (70 kilometers) away, received a tip that terrorists were holding kidnapped children.

“We thought that it was just a tip to ambush us, but we considered the mission as a sacrifice,” said Iraqi police Capt. Khalib Ali. “Either we find the children and free them or face the danger and take the risk.”

The tip led the Iraqi police to a rundown farm and a series of mud huts. Khidir’s tiny body was twisted abnormally. And in another hut, they found another child. Two children are still believed to be with the kidnappers.

Al Qaeda in Iraq has historically kidnapped children for money, to pressure officials, and even to use in terrorist attacks.

For Khidir’s father, it was as if his son had come back from the dead.

“He didn’t recognize his mother or his grandmother,” Abdul Qader says. “But then he saw me in uniform and ran to me. I went flying toward him to hug him. People said be careful; both his arms are broken. So I held him from his waist, and he hugged me, kissed me, smelled me, and then broke into a smile.”

BAGHDAD: A double truck bombing tore through a Shiite community near the northern city of Mosul, while a series of blasts struck Baghdad Monday in a wave of predawn violence that killed at least 40 people, according to Iraqi officials.
The deadliest blast on Monday was a double truck bombing in Khazna village, just east of Mosul, as the members of a Shiite minority ethnic group called the Shabak, who live there, were still sleeping.

Two explosives-laden trucks went off nearly simultaneously and less than 500 yards (meters) apart, killing at least 23 people and wounding 138, according to police and hospital officials.
Those killed were all civilians because the trucks were parked in an alley and not near such targets as a police station.
Nobody claimed responsibility for the attack, but it bore the hallmarks of al-Qaida in Iraq and other Sunni insurgents who remain active in Mosul and surrounding areas.
Witnesses described a chaotic scene where rescuers searched through rubble of at least 15 houses that were destroyed. Many of the dead and wounded were sleeping on their roofs because lack of electricity and the heat made it to hot to sleep inside.
The first bomb Monday was hidden in a pile of trash when it exploded about 5:50 a.m. near a group of construction workers drinking tea and looking for day jobs in the religiously mixed neighborhood of Amil, killing at least seven people and wounding 46, officials said.
About 10 minutes later a car bomb targeting construction workers elsewhere in western Baghdad, killing at least 10 people and wounding 35, according to police.
Three bombs also exploded in the mainly Sunni neighborhood of Azamiyah shortly before 7 a.m., wounding a member of a government-backed paramilitary group, an army official said.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to release the information.

At least 40 people were killed and 61 others were injured when a car bomb exploded as the faithful were leaving the mosque after Friday prayers,” a police official told AFP, requesting anonymity. The mosque targeted is a Shiite one used by members of the Turkmen minority in the mainly Sunni Muslim city, the police official said. He said worshippers were walking to an annexe of the mosque to offer condolences when the bombers detonated the explosives which had been hidden in a car parked nearby. Dr Hikmat Sobhi of Mosul’s Medical City hospital said the emergency room had received the bodies of 20 dead and was treating 61 wounded, some of them for serious injuries. The attack follows a bombing in Mosul late on Thursday in which two Christian women were wounded. The city — Iraq’s second largest — has remained the scene of frequent attacks despite a marked decline in violence elsewhere in the country. US commanders have said that it is the last urban bastion in Iraq of loyalists of Al-Qaeda. The Mosul bombing came as a string of attacks in the capital targeted Shiites returning from the central shrine city of Karbala after marking a key religious ceremony, an interior ministry official said. A roadside bomb at the entrance to the sprawling Baghdad Shiite district of Sadr City ripped through a bus, killing three pilgrims and wounding eight as they returned from the shrine city of Karbala in central Iraq, the official said. The bombers struck at around 9:00 am (0600 GMT), the official, who requested anonymity, told AFP. “I was inside my house when we heard an explosion, and all the windows of my house shattered,” local trader Abu Mohammed said. “The inside of the bus was covered in blood. The police took the wounded to Sadr City’s hospital for treatment,” he added. Local resident Abbas Jumaa, 27, said: “I saw women and old men, I don’t know why they attacked them. “They are only pilgrims and they don’t carry guns. So why would anyone attack them?” A second bombing at the edge of Sadr City an hour later wounded another five people, also travelling in a minibus from Karbala, 100 kilometres (60 miles), south of the capital. One person was killed and five wounded in a separate roadside bombing at around the same time on a minibus carrying pilgrims in the Zayune neighbourhood of central Baghdad, the official said. Roads to and from Karbala have been crowded with pilgrims in vehicles or on foot this week as Shiites commemorate the birth of the Twelfth Imam, a disappeared ninth century Muslim leader revered as a coming messiah. Pilgrims in the holy city held candle-lighting ceremonies from midnight to dawn at a mosque built on a site said to be the last place visited by the Mahdi before his disappearance. Streets in the city cleared out in the early hours of the morning with no reports of any violence. Violence in Iraq has dropped off markedly in recent months, but attacks against security forces and civilians remain common in Baghdad, Mosul and the ethnically divided northern oil city of Kirkuk. The number of violent deaths in Iraq fell by a third from the June figure of 437 to 275 in July, the first month local forces have been in charge of security in urban areas since the US-led invasion of 2003. The figure in May was 155, the lowest of any month since the invasion.

Iraq – An Iraqi provincial police chief denied reports on Wednesday that 11 pilgrims travelling to the holy Shia city of Karbala for a religious festival were kidnapped.

‘No such incident was registered, no accident like this happened and nothing like this was reported since the start of the security operation (four days ago),’ Babylon police chief Major General Fadl Raddad Al Sultani said.

‘We have deployed 18,000 security officers, and today, 2,000 more people arrived to protect pilgrims.’

Tens of thousand of Shias are expected to converge on Karbala, 110 kilometres (70 miles) south of Baghdad, for Friday’s ceremonies commemorating the birth of Imam Mahdi (a.s)

Hilla police Lieutenant Kadhim Al Salami earlier said 11 pilgrims and their minibus driver were kidnapped by gunmen in Babylon province on the way to Karbala.

BAGHDAD, Aug 3 (Reuters) – Iraqi police have arrested 36 Iranian exiles on rioting charges after clashes with Iraqi forces at their camp killed at least seven exiles, but an Iraqi official said on Monday they would not be repatriated to Iran.
Iraqi forces on Tuesday took control of Camp Ashraf on the Iranian border,
Residents said 13 people died in the clashes, many of them shot dead by police, and many others wounded. Iraq’s government said seven died, most of them because they threw themselves under police vehicles.
Abdul Nassir al-Mehdawi, governor of Diyala province, which has jurisdiction over Ashraf, confirmed 36 had been arrested the day after the clashes.
“Their cases are being investigated now. They are being charged with inciting trouble,” Mehdawi said. “We will deal with them according to Iraqi law; we won’t send them back to Iran.”
Iraq formally took charge of Camp Ashraf in January.
Some human rights groups and PMOI sympathisers in the West, who have been highly critical of the way Iraq has handled Ashraf, say closing the camp and driving residents out against their will would violate international human rights law.
“The arrested people didn’t commit any crime against anyone,” Ashraf spokesman Shahriar Kia said from the camp. “They just picked up some random people. It is just an excuse for their measures against Camp Ashraf. It’s a conspiracy.”

Four Iraqi police officers who were responsible for ensuring security of a group of Iranian pilgrims to Iraq and were blamed for failure to prevent a recent terrorist attack against Iranian pilgrims have been indicted by court. Head of the Police in Iraqi Dialah province, Abdulhossein Shemri, said after investigation over the terrorist attack on the Iranian pilgrims two weeks ago, the special investigation committee has identified the four Iraqi police officers as responsible for ensuring security of Iranian pilgrims. Five Iranian pilgrims were killed and 37 were injured in the terrorist attack.

Iraqi religious leader, Seyyed Moqtada as-Sadr, has warned of the conspiracy of certain western regimes to meddle in the upcoming parliamentary elections in Iraq.
According to the UAE daily “al-Khalij” he said the American occupiers are planning to rig the vote in order to put their allies in power, destabilize the country, and spread sedition.
He appealed to the Iraqi people to maintain unity and thwart the plots of the US and other western regimes.

Shia religious authority, Grand Ayatollah Sistani, issued Fatwa about Swine Flu:

Q: In spite of anxieties about expansion of swine flu among pilgrims in rituals of Hajj, which would lead to a big tragedy, what is your opinion about necessity of performing rituals of Hajj in this year?

Ans: it is obligatory to performing Hajj, but if its harms confirmed by wise people, after that it is not obligatory to performing it.

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said Iraqis remain at the option of forming a coalition in Iraq, said during his meeting with Vice President Dr. Adel Abdul-Mahdi said the Iraqi Alliance is a rescue ship for the Iraqis and that the option of an irreversible
He said I assure everyone that we are with the coalition the first place. Sir, referring to the direction of the coalition and the building of a common citizenship, justice and equality