Iraq: toward an Algerian-style strategy?

Iraq: Towards an Algerian-style strategy?

September 14, 2005

One might wonder whether the situation in Iraq is evolving in a manner similar to the two successive Algerian wars (the war against the French and the subsequent conflict that tore Algerians apart from each other, marked by the atrocities of the GIA). For the first time, the murders committed are no longer targeting American soldiers, Iraqi police officers, or one of the two rival communities, Shia or Sunni. See the text in red.

"Men dressed in military uniforms, traveling in military vehicles" (...) targeted members of a tribe (...). They gathered them in the village square and executed them by shooting.

It is necessary to understand why. It is important to note that there were both Shia and Sunni present. Therefore, this is not a settling of scores between religious communities. Is it a punishment of a tribe for some dispute? If so, why were these men "in military uniforms, traveling in army vehicles"?

One may venture a hypothesis: that this was a carefully calculated act, consisting of pushing civilian populations to "join the fight" by using terror established as a system. This is exactly what happened twice in Algeria, where the "lukewarm," "those who wanted to stay out," were massively slaughtered, village by village. This can only occur when the police authority (here American and Iraqi) has completely lost control. It is not impossible that the Iraqi conflict will model itself in the future on the Algerian conflicts, which were particularly bloody. Everything then centers on a dreadful strategy of terror, growing exponentially, against which practically nothing can be done, as the country sinks into fratricidal madness. Note that the Kamikaze did not charge towards a group of American soldiers or a police station, but towards a simple gathering of workers heading to work.

This policy of terror amounts to: "You choose. It's Jihad, with us, or death. It's simple." Algeria experienced this type of dreadful evolution. What was appalling in Algeria was that the civil war that followed the war to expel the French, the "pieds-noirs," was no less violent. We simply received very attenuated echoes of it across the Mediterranean. For years, the French simply knew that "on the other side of the Mediterranean," "they" were tearing each other apart, without people knowing very well who was fighting whom, and in the name of what. Pub comments invariably began with: "Since we left..." The appeals of Algerian intellectuals, journalists, and politicians, who were being massacred daily, went unheard in France, for years. As if the French were ultimately quite pleased to see the Algerians "punished for having kicked them out."

Films were broadcast (very late) in November 2004, retracing this dreadful era. Have readers recorded these broadcasts? Could they produce DivX copies?

When I think back to these broadcasts, they recount historical facts, systematic massacres beyond comprehension. The very late broadcast of these documents likely obeyed the concern of the channels not to increase the prevailing gloom. In fact, these facts must be kept in mind because it seems that this history is being repeated in Iraq, with the same driving force, which goes beyond the legitimate struggle against a colonial oppressor driven by greed. It involves hyper-violent fundamentalists who use terrorism targeting civilian populations to forcibly drag them into a conflict whose ultimate goal is the establishment of a hardline Islamic regime and Sharia law.

In Iraq, two histories intertwine. On one side, men are trying to reject American control over their energy resources, for that is what it is all about. On the other, extremist Islamists (acting on their own or manipulated) are trying to exploit the prevailing disorder and the weakness of the police forces, the inability to react to an attack perpetrated by a kamikaze, to implant a new Islamic state.

Where lie the chances for peace amidst all this? Highly problematic.

Christians have nothing to say, they who once said:

Kill them all. God will recognize his own.

In the genre of monstrosity, it is difficult to do better. The logic of extremist Islamism, which was at work in Algeria, is:

It does not matter if innocents are killed if, in the end, Islamic law triumphs.

To be watched closely.

BAGHDAD (AFP)

At least 92 people were killed and 162 others injured in a suicide bombing in Baghdad and an attack on civilians north of the capital on Wednesday morning, according to a security source.

The suicide bombing targeted a gathering of construction workers in a Shia neighborhood of the capital. At least 75 people died and 162 others were injured, a source from the Ministry of Interior said.

"According to the latest toll provided by five hospitals in the capital, there are 75 dead and 162 injured," this source said, who had initially reported 40 dead and 25 injured and then 73 killed and 109 injured.

"The kamikaze, in an Opel, charged at workers gathered in a neighborhood square around 07:00 (03:00 GMT)," this source specified. The workers used to gather early in the morning in a neighborhood square, called Ourouba, to wait to be hired for the day.

It was near this neighborhood that the massive stampede occurred on August 31 on a bridge, during a Shia pilgrimage, following rumors of the presence of kamikazes in the crowd. Nearly 1,000 pilgrims died.

The operation took place around 04:30 (00:30 GMT), this source added,

according to which the perpetrators of this execution went around several homes in the locality inhabited by Shia and Sunni and took men from their sleep, before gathering them and shooting them.

BAGHDAD (AFP)

At least 92 people were killed and 162 others injured in a suicide bombing in Baghdad and an attack on civilians north of the capital on Wednesday morning, according to a security source.

The operation took place around 04:30 (00:30 GMT), this source added,

according to which the perpetrators of this execution went around several homes in the locality inhabited by Shia and Sunni and took men from their sleep, before gathering them and shooting them.

September 17, 2005

Clarifications provided by a reader, Othman Benomar, regarding the Taji massacre of September 14, 2005.

Source. Associated Press. Here is this more precise text.

Nearly a hundred dead in Iraq, including 80 in a suicide bombing

BAGHDAD (AFP) - 8:29 am Paris time -

Nearly 100 people died on Wednesday in Iraq, including 80 in a suicide bombing in Baghdad, the deadliest in the capital in seven weeks, carried out against a backdrop of threats from extremists following an anti-rebel offensive in the northeast of the country.

At least 80 people were killed and 162 injured in the suicide bombing against a gathering of construction workers in a Shia neighborhood of the capital, that of Kazimiyah. Seventeen members of a Shia tribe were executed at dawn in Taji, north of Baghdad, by men in uniform.

"The kamikaze, in an Opel, charged at workers gathered in a neighborhood square around 07:00 (03:00 GMT)," a source from the Ministry of Interior specified. According to witnesses interviewed in the neighborhood, cordoned off by security forces, dozens of workers were surrounding the kamikaze's car, who had presented himself as a contractor wanting to recruit labor. "A man arrived in a car and called the workers to offer them work. He then blew up the vehicle," a witness recounted.

Satah Jihad, a 40-year-old merchant, was also a witness to the attack. "The explosion occurred while dozens of people were surrounding the kamikaze's car," he said. "Most of these workers are poor and come from the Shia provinces of the south to find work," he added. Large police forces were blocking access to the square called Ourouba where the attack took place, while ambulances continued to crisscross the area. Some victims were evacuated on wooden carts.

The facades of the shops on the square were damaged by the explosion and the street was littered with burned car wrecks, while firefighters who arrived quickly worked to extinguish the fires. It was near this neighborhood that the massive stampede occurred on August 31 on a bridge, during a Shia pilgrimage, following rumors of the presence of kamikazes in the crowd. Nearly 1,000 pilgrims died there. The Iraqi capital had not experienced such a deadly suicide bombing since July 24, when a truck bomb driven by a kamikaze exploded against a police station, killing 27 and injuring 33.

In Taji, 15 km north of Baghdad, seventeen Iraqi civilians were executed by armed men at dawn, according to the same source. "Armed men dressed as soldiers and traveling in military vehicles arrived in Taji, arrested several members of the Shia Bani Tamim tribe, before gathering them in a public square and executing them by shooting," it specified. The operation took place around 04:30 (00:30 GMT), the perpetrators of this execution went around several homes in the locality inhabited by Shia and Sunni and took men from their sleep, before gathering them and shooting them.

Furthermore, an American convoy was targeted by a suicide bombing in the southeast of the capital, which injured two soldiers, according to the US army.

These violences come after threats of attacks launched by Sunni extremist groups, including the Al-Qaeda network, following a military offensive in the city of Tall Afar, in northeastern Iraq, 60 km from the Syrian border. The offensive, led by the Iraqi army and American forces, allowed, according to the authorities in Baghdad, to drive the rebels and foreign fighters infiltrated from Syria out of the city.

Military operations killed some 150 rebels and more than 400 suspects were arrested, according to the US army.

September 17, 2005

Clarifications provided by a reader, Othman Benomar, regarding the Taji massacre of September 14, 2005.

Source. Associated Press. Here is this more precise text.

Nearly a hundred dead in Iraq, including 80 in a suicide bombing

BAGHDAD (AFP) - 8:29 am Paris time -

Furthermore, an American convoy was targeted by a suicide bombing in the southeast of the capital, which injured two soldiers, according to the US army.

Military operations killed some 150 rebels and more than 400 suspects were arrested, according to the US army.

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Chronology of the main attacks in Iraq as of September 14, 2005

Total

972 dead

and thousands of injured since the American invasion.

BAGHDAD (AP) - Here is the list of the main attacks committed in Iraq since the end of the American offensive:

2005

(438 dead as of September 14)

September 14: a suicide car bombing in the Shia neighborhood of Kazimiyah, in northern Baghdad, kills at least

152 and injures 542.

July 16: a kamikaze blows himself up at a gas station near a mosque in Moussayib (center), killing at least

54 and injuring 82.

May 4: a bomb explodes in front of a police recruitment center in the Kurdish city of Erbil, killing

60 and injuring about 150.

March 10: a kamikaze blows himself up in a mosque during a funeral in Mosul (north), killing at least

47 people and injuring about a hundred others.

February 28: a kamikaze driving a car bomb targets police and National Guard recruits in Hillah, south of Baghdad, killing

125 and injuring more than 140.

On its own, this attack is the deadliest since the fall of Saddam Hussein.

2004

(386 dead)

December 19: the explosion of a car bomb during a funeral procession in Najaf and another at the bus station in Kerbala kill at least

60 and injure more than 120.

September 30: a series of bombings in the Baghdad neighborhood of Al-Amel kill 42 people -

35 children and seven adults

during the inauguration of a sewage treatment plant.
September 14: a car bomb explodes in a shopping street in Baghdad near a police center, while a van transporting police officers in Baqouba is machine-gunned. The toll rises to

59 dead and at least 114 injured

in total.

July 29: a car bomb attack in a street in Baqouba kills

April 21: five attacks carried out near police stations and a police school in Basra (south) kill at least

March 2: a wave of suicide bombings, mortar fire, and bomb explosions targets Shia holy sites in Kerbala and Baghdad, killing at least 181 and injuring 573. This is the deadliest series of attacks carried out since the fall of Saddam Hussein.
February 11: a car bomb explodes near an Iraqi army recruitment center in Baghdad, killing

47 people

February 10: a kamikaze drives a truck loaded with explosives into a police station in Iskandariyah, south of Baghdad,

killing 53 people.

February 1: a simultaneous attack on the offices of the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan in Erbil (north) kills

2003

(148 dead)

October 27: four suicide bombings target the headquarters of the International Red Cross and police stations in Baghdad, killing at least

40 people.

August 29: a car bomb explodes in front of a mosque in the Shia holy city of Najaf, killing

more than 85 people, including Ayatollah Mohammed Bakr al-Hakim.

August 19: a truck bomb explodes in front of the UN headquarters at the Canal Hotel, killing

23 people, including UN representative Sergio Vieira de Mello.