BETWEEN 1300 and 2000 gmt on Sunday 14 May, Baghdad Al-Sharqiyah Television in Arabic reported on ‘a new setback’ in the security situation in Baghdad and other areas across Iraq, saying that some 33 people were killed in ‘one of the most violent days in recent weeks’ in Iraq.
In its 1300 gmt 60-minute newscast, the station led its reporting on the security situation in Iraq – featuring mainly, the situation in Baghdad – with a statement citing the US Army.
The station says that ‘14 Iraqis were martyred when two suicide bombers blew up two vehicles’ near the main entrance of the civilians in the area of Baghdad Airport and the US Army Command in western Baghdad.
It adds: ‘Iraqi Police sources said that two other explosions targeted the motorcade of Electricity Minister Abd-al-Hasan Shalash near the main road leading to the airport, killing one person and wounding 11 others. According to other sources, the explosions targeted the nearby checkpoint.’
In another development, the channel says that the Baghdad International Airport came under mortar attack this morning. ‘Police sources said that 18 people, including three children, were taken to Al-Yarmuk hospital after sustaining wounds in the mortar attack.’
Reporting on another security incident, it says that Iraqi police forces found ‘the bodies of four martyrs with gunshot wounds in the area of Al-Bayya, southwest of Baghdad.’
The station adds that a booby-trapped car exploded near a store in Palestine Street in eastern Baghdad. No casualties were reported in the blast.
Citing Reuters about another explosion near Beirut square in Palestine street today, the station says that the blast occurred in a minivan and left four people dead and five others wounded.
Reporting on another bomb explosion within the same cast, the station says that another bomb exploded in Al-Tayaran square in the centre of Baghdad targeting a checkpoint manned by Interior Ministry personnel. The police sources said that the explosion left five civilians wounded and caused damage to a number of stores in the area.
It adds: ‘In the area of Al-Za’faraniyah in southern Baghdad, an explosive charge went off in a popular marketplace.’ Citing police sources, the station says that the explosion killed three civilians and wounded 15 others.
The channels also reports that a roadside bomb explosion targeted an Iraqi police patrol in Al-Maghrib street in the area of Al-A’zamiyah in northern Baghdad.
Citing police sources, it says that one member of the patrol was killed and others were wounded.
Reporting on other attacks, the station adds that armed men attacked a convoy of trucks transporting supplies to the US Army in the area of Abu Ghraib, west of Baghdad.
It goes on to say that Iraqi police sources said that the armed men opened fire on the trucks which were transporting pipes and set them on fire before escaping. ‘No information has yet been reported on the fate of the drivers and no comment by the US Army was made on the attack.’
In another report, the station cites Iraqi Army and police sources as saying that two bodyguards of Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari were killed and three others wounded when a roadside bomb hit their convoy in northern Baghdad.
Reporting on another security incident in Baghdad, it says that a US force raided the house of Isam Fityan al-Rawi in the area of Al-Ma’mun in western Baghdad and opened fire inside the house, killing the owner of the house and his son Ahmad.
‘A family member told Al-Sharqiyah that the raiding forces seized sums of money and jewellery from the house.
A spokesman for the US forces said in a phone call with Al-Sharqiyah that he did not know about this incident, the channel adds.
‘They broke into the house and blew up the main gate.
They broke into the house from the roof and from every window around the house.
‘They opened fire on my uncle from this window and later shot Ahmad. Both were martyred although they were unarmed.
‘They took jewellery, money, official documents as well as the bodies of the two martyrs,’ says an eyewitness cited by Al-Sharqiyah.
At 1330 gmt, the station reports that a bomb went off in Baladruz, a city in the governorate of Diyala, northeast of Baghdad, near an Iraqi military patrol today.
The explosion left five Iraqi security personnel wounded. The station correspondent adds the seven other explosive charges were defused in Baquba today.
He adds that the local authorities in Baladruz decided to extend the curfew until 1600 due to the security deterioration in the city, noting that an oil truck was set on fire, causing very serious burns to five workers.
‘Towards the end of its reports on today’s security developments in Iraq in its 1300 gmt newscast, the station says that ‘a child was martyred and two others were wounded’ when they came under fire during the abduction of Ma’adh al-Jumayli, son of the preacher and imam of Al-Zaytun mosque, in Diyala governorate.
It adds that ‘Iraqi police sources said that the abductors opened fire extensively and indiscriminately on the passers.’
It adds in another report that unidentified gunmen assassinated an officer in the Diyala Police Forces today.
Al-Sharqiyah correspondent says that the gunmen killed Captain Jabbar Abd-al-Karim and wounded his brother.
The correspondent adds that the gunmen attacked a family with the aim of kidnapping a family member.
He adds that the gunmen opened fire on the member of a nearby family who rushed to give help, killing a 20-year old youth and wounding his father and sister.
At 1340 gmt, the station says that a curfew was slapped on the city of Al-Samawah, the central city of Al-Muthanna Governorate, south of Baghdad following clashes between the Iraqi police and members of the Al-Mahdi Army.
Security sources said that Iraqi police forces are deployed in the streets of Baghdad.
The ‘violent clashes that erupted in the neighbourhoods of Al-Jumhuriyah, Al-Ummal, and Al-Askari’ left one member of the Al-Mahdi Army wounded.
The Al-Sadr office in Al-Samawah denied responsibility for an attack earlier on the Criminal Intelligence Directorate of Al-Muthanna in an attempt to release one of the members of the Al-Mahdi Army.
Citing British sources, the station says that two British soldiers were killed and a third was wounded in a bomb explosion in Basra today.
In its 1700 gmt news summary, the station reports that Karbala police forces found three bodies belonging to members of an Islamic movement known as the Islamic Mercy in Karbala.
A police source said that the three bodies were found in the centre of the city.
It adds: ‘A violent gunfight raged for over an hour between armed men and Iraqi police forces in Al-Nur neighbourhood in the western part of Mosul, the second largest city in Iraq.
A police source said the gunmen used mortar shell and light weapons, adding that the clash left one policeman killed and three others wounded.
In its 60-minute news feature ‘News Harvest’ at 1800 gmt, the station cites an Iraqi Interior Ministry source as saying that unidentified armed men kidnapped Muhib Abd-al-Razzaq, a director general at the Iraqi Finance Ministry, from his house and a trader in the Baghdad suburb of Al-Karradah today.
The news coverage concentrated on some of the incidents that took place in Baghdad, not really dealing with the rest of the country.
Their coverage is enough to explode the Bush and Blair ‘big lie’ that Iraq is a better place to live in than it was under the rule of the Ba’ath party, and that the country is on its way to becoming a US or British style ‘democracy’.
