THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 11, 2006
WORLD
IRAQ
5A
Violence, poisoning disrupt Iraq Officials condemn sectarian clashes
SINAN SALAHEDDIN ASSOCIATED PRESS
BAGHDAD, Iraq — The brother of Iraq's Sunni Arab vice president was assassinated Monday by gunmen who broke into his home, the third of the politician's four siblings to be slain this year. Sunnis blamed Shiite militias and demanded a crackdown to stop the capital's raging sectarian violence.
Iraki authorities, meanwhile, arrested the head of the mess hall at a base where up to 400 mainly Shite policemen suffered food poisoning during a Ramadan meal amid concerns it may have been the first known attempt by insurgents to carry out a mass poisoning against police.
A military spokesman, Brig. Qassim al-Moussawi, said the poisoning likely was intentional, though he did not rule out that spoiled food was used in the meal as part of a scheme by contractors or officers to skim off money from food funds.
The policemen fell ill after eating their iftar, the mar that ends the sunrise-to-sunset fast during the Islamic holy month, at their base in the southern town of Numaniyah.
Also detained for questioning was the Iraqi contractor hired to provide food for the base and a number of other people, al-Moussaawi said, without providing details.
Authorities were still investigating what substance may have been used in the case of a poisoning.
Baghdad was torn by new violence. A car bomb ripped through a market in a Shite district, killing at least 10 people and wounding 23 — an attack likely carried out by Sunni insurgents.
Gunmen also kidnapped 11 policemen in a brazen assault on their checkpoint in Sadr City, a Baghdad neighborhood dominated by the Mahdi Army, the country's most powerful Shite militia.
Elsewhere in Iraq, the U.S. military announced that three Marines died Sunday after fighting in the western region of Anbar, a hotbed of Sunni insurgents, bringing to 32 the number of American service members who have died in Iraq this month.
The death of the brother of Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi — the country's most prominent Sunni Arab politician — alarmed Sunnis and fueled their demands that the government crack down on Shiite militias.
Critics of Prime Minister Nouri al-Malki accuse the Shiite leader of hesitating on reining in the militias because many of them — like the Mahdi Army — belong to parties in his government.
"The clock is starting to strike after today's events," Khalaf al-Alayan, a Sunni parliament member told The Associated Press. "They (Shiite militias) consider Sunnis terrorists who must be killed. If the zero hour is coming, we will take the decisions needed to defend ourselves."
Al-Maliki condemned Monday's killing as an "ugly, terrorist crime."
In western Baghdad, the Iraqi army arrested an al-Qaida in Iraq suspect identified as Sabah Ireimit al-Issawi, according to the Defense Ministry. It said the man is a high-ranking member of the terror group but did not provide further details.
Explosions from fire rock U.S. base in Iraq
IRAQ
LEE KEATH ASSOCIATED PRESS
BAGHDAD, Iraq — A fire broke out at an ammunition depot at a U.S. base in southern Baghdad on Tuesday night, setting off a series of explosions from detonating tank and artillery shells that shook buildings miles away. The U.S. military said there were no immediate reports of casualties.
It was not clear whether the depot at Forward Operating Base Falcon was hit by an attack. The cause of the fire was not immediately known, said Lt. Col, Christopher C, Garver, a military spokesman.
Explosions from detonating tank and artillery ordinance and small-arms ammunition stored at the site went off for hours afterward.
Large flames and smoke rose from the region, and flashes from the blasts and showers of sparks were visible on the horizon visible several miles away in central Baghdad, where the force of the blasts could be felt. The blasts came at time sporadically, at times in
rapid succession, lesing into the night. Helicopters were seen in the night sky flying over the area.
The blaze broke out in an ammunition holding area, where material is kept temporarily before distribution to the units at Falcon, said Lt. Col. Jonathan Withington, a spokesman at the base. He said more than three battalions are located at the base but he would not give a specific number of troops.
"There is a lot of ammunition there, but it's not a full storage depot," he said. "This does not degrade our operational ability at all." He would not give exact figures on the amount of ammunition or the number of troops at the base, saying only that "more than three battalions" were stationed there at the time of the fire.
Iraqi military officials said no evacuations of residents were ordered from the Dora area.
Iraki Interior Minister Jawad al-Bolani went on television to reassure residents of the capital.
"The situation is under control" he said.
Dusan Vranic/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Huge explosions illuminate the sky over the Iraqi capital of Baghdad Tuesday night. An ammunition depot at a U.S. base in southern Baghdad sustained a series of explosions from detonating tank and artillery shells after a fire broke out. The U.S. military said there were no immediate reports of casualties.
RUSSIA
Ivan Solretarev/ASSOCIATED PRESS
A woman holds a candle and a portrait of Anna, Politkovskaya as she and others rally in front of the Russian Embassy in Kiev, Ukraine, on Tuesday. Several dozen people gathered to commemorate the memory of killed Russian reporter Anna Politkovska, a critic of President Vladimir Putin.
World honors slain reporter
MARIA DANILOVA
ASSOCIATED PRESS
MOSCOW — Hundreds of Russians, journalists and Western diplomats filed past an open casket Tuesday to pay their respects to a slain investigative reporter who had criticized President Vladimir Putin and Russia's conduct in Chechnya.
In Germany, Putin called the killing of Anna Politkovskaya a "disgustingly cruel" crime that cannot go unpunished, but he also played down her influence on Russian political life as "very minor."
No high-ranking government officials attended the funeral of the award-winning journalist, who made her name fearlessly exposing abductions and torture in the war in Chechnya.
"The authorities are cowards. Why didn't they come? Are they afraid even of a dead Politikovskaya?" asks Boris Nemtsov, a 1990 reformer who served as deputy prime minister under former President Boris Yeltsin.
Politkovskaya, 48, was gunned down in her apartment building Saturday. The killing threw a new spotlight on the risks faced by journalists who criticize Russian authorities and dig deep to expose abuses.
At home and abroad, her slaying drew widespread concern about dwindling media freedom in Russia since Putin came to power nearly seven years ago. Prosecursors have said she was probably killed because of her journalistic work, but there are no immediate leads.
More than 1,000 mourners who had gathered under the drizzle filed past the open casket where Politkovskaya lay in a funeral hall on the outskirts of Moscow, her forehead covered with a white ribbon according to Russian Orthodox tradition.
Prosecutor-General Yuri Chaika has taken personal charge of the investigation, but Politkovskaya's colleagues have expressed doubts that her slaying will be solved. Her newspaper, Novaya Gazeta, has pledged to conduct an independent investigation and offered a nearly $1 million reward for information that would help solve the crime.
U. S. Ambassador William Burns, who attended the ceremony, said he hoped "this tragic death will lead to greater respect for freedom of speech, for the importance of speaking the truth and achieving fairness and truth."
Putin, who was in Dresden to meet with German Chancellor
Angela Merkel, suggested the murder could have been aimed at discrediting Russia's image.
The family of Paul Klebnikov, a U.S. journalist whose 2004 slaying in Moscow remains unresolved, said Politkovskaya's death sent yet another worrying signal.
"Who's next?" Klebnikov's widow, Musa asked in a statement. "Without journalists such as Anna Politkovskaya and Paul Klebnikov, as well as many others who say truths some find uncomfortable — you cannot build civil society in Russia."
Russia is the third most deadly country for journalists, after Iraq and Algeria, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, which says Politkovskaya was at least the 43rd reporter killed for her work in Russia since 1993.
Colleagues said Politkovskaya had been working on a story about torture and abductions in Chechnya, abuses she blamed on Moscow-backed Chechen Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov.
In a newspaper interview published Monday, Kadyrov expressed condolences over Politkovskaya's death, and denied any "Chechen trace" in the killing.
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