Tags:
Journalism of Courage
A Shia militia disarmament plan that could end weeks of fighting in Baghdad got slowly under way on Monday as Iraq’s interim government pursued peace talks with the rebel-held Sunni Muslim city of Falluja.
The US-backed government aims to retake control of rebel-held areas throughout Iraq by political or military means ahead of National Assembly elections due in January. Mehdi Army fighters led by Moqtada Al Sadr began handing in weapons at the start of a five-day period in which they have agreed to disarm in the flashpoint Sadr City district.
Insecurity is rife even in Iraqi cities nominally under control of the security forces. A suicide car bomber attacked a US convoy in the northern city of Mosul, killing two civilians and a US soldier, and wounding 17, the US military said. In a statement, the military said nine of those wounded were soldiers but six had already been returned to duty.
The beheaded bodies of two Iraqis were also found in the city. There was no word on the motive for their killings. Separately, a militant group said it beheaded a Turkish contractor and his Iraqi translator for working with US forces, Al Jazeera television said, citing an Islamist website.
In western Iraq, US Marines clashed with scores of guerrillas near the town of Hit, 170 km (100 miles) west of Baghdad. Some insurgents took up positions inside a mosque, the US military said, prompting troops to call in Air support.
Subsequent air strikes damaged the mosque and left it ablaze, the military said. The marines said the shrine had lost its privileged status as soon as insurgents took cover there.
At Habibiya police station, the biggest of three designated collection points in Sadr City, cameramen were allowed to film only one batch of arms police said had been delivered earlier in a civilian vehicle. The weaponry included RPGs, rusty mortars and artillery shells, anti-tank landmines and assault rifles.
Mehdi Army fighter, Kamel Hussein, walked off later with $14,500 for delivering a big stash of RPGs and mortars. Another man brought in a Sam-7 anti-aircraft missile. But there were only three handovers at Habibiya in three hours. Karim Bakhati, a Shia tribal leader who helped negotiate the weapons exchange, said he hoped it would bring peace to the slum district. —Reuters
