Mortar bombings kill guards of Iraqi vice president

[Algorem]

Souce:Xinhua

http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90777/90854/6383036.html
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22:01, March 28, 2008


Mortar shelling on Friday hit central Baghdad, killing two of the guards of Iraq' vice president Tariq Al-Hashmi, a local TV station reported. The TV station affiliated with Al-Hashmi's party said two of the guards of the vice president were killed and four civilians were injured when mortar shells landed near his office in the international zone.

An Interior Ministry source said earlier that two of his guards were injured.

It is not immediately clear if his office was intentionally targeted.

The international zone, or Green Zone, hosts the Iraqi government facilities and the U.S. and British embassies. It has been under constant mortar or rocket attacks since clashes between the security troops and Shiite militias broke out four days ago...




Curfew in Baghdad

Prensa Latina

http://www.plenglish.com/article.asp?ID=%7B5A345504-39C0-49D7-8FE5-730D4591AF24%7D

Baghdad, Mar 28 (Prensa Latina) Iraqi authorities declared a curfew in this capital from Thursday at 11 pm to Sunday at 5 am, due to the deterioration of security in the country.

The measure was taken by the chiefs of the security plan, which has suffered a major setback over the past few days, after the Mahdi Army intensified its actions against national and occupation forces.

The news agency Aswat al Iraq reported that three US citizens, including a soldier, and an Iraqi army man were wounded during an attack by Iraqi insurgents on the Green Zone, in downtown Baghdad.

Aswat al Iraq noted that 16 rockets were shot in four rounds from near the Green Zone, and several buildings and a vehicle were seriously damaged...










Council on Foreign Relations - A Nonpartisan Resource for Information and Analysis


Seeing Iran’s Shadow in Iraq Unrest

http://www.cfr.org/publication/15858/seeing_irans_shadow_in_iraq_unrest.html?breadcrumb=%2Fpublication%2Fpublication_list%3Ftype%3Ddaily_analysis

March 28, 2008
Author:
Greg Bruno



Black smoke swirled over central Baghdad on March 23, disturbing the fragile calm of the Iraqi capital. The attack on the Green Zone, which killed at least 13 Iraqis (NYT), was followed by the eruption of internecine Shiite violence in Baghdad’s Sadr City and the southern oil port of Basra. Taken together the attacks renewed fears that a year of reduced violence, attributed in part to a beefed-up U.S. presence and a Shiite militia cease-fire, had ended. But in the eyes of U.S. military officials the attacks also highlighted another aspect of Iraq’s security roller coaster: Iran’s complicity in the conflict. After Iran reportedly vowed to cut off the flow of weapons and militants to Iraq in late 2007, and a subsequent wait-and-see attitude (CSMonitor) from Washington, U.S. officials have once again turned to blaming Tehran for Baghdad’s woes (BBC).

There’s little disagreement Iran has influence in Iraq, from political ties to economic links. Kenneth Katzman of the Congressional Research Service notes Iran’s strategy for achieving “strategic depth” (PDF) in Iraq has been to foster strong ties with Iraq’s Shiite-led government. Many in that government spent time exiled in Iran during the eight-year Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s.

Murkier are alleged Iranian ties to Iraqi militants. The Bush administration accuses Iran of supplying money, weapons, and training to Shiite insurgent groups in Iraq, a charge President Bush reiterated on March 27. U.S. military officials say much of the Shiite-on-Shiite violence in Iraq’s south can be attributed to criminal gangs and “special groups,” fighters that have broken ties with Muqtada al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army. But Rear Adm. Greg Smith, a U.S. military spokesman, says “Iran has influenced” the violence in recent months.

The Pentagon has repeated allegations of Iranian support for Shiite militias despite Iraqi and Iranian denials (Press TV). Aside from a trickle of alleged links—including labels on explosives and interrogations with captured operatives—much of the Defense Department’s evidence remains classified. Equally unclear is how involved the Iranian leadership might be in sanctioning strikes within Iraq. Nonetheless, independent media reports have corroborated some of the assertions. Iraqi fighters tell TIME that recruits from militant groups have traveled to Iran to attend forty-five-day training camps. The programs allegedly focused on the use of armor-piercing roadside bombs, sniper skills, and kidnapping tactics...