Iraq declares 60-day
state of emergency

Move comes amid dramatic upsurge in violence, ahead of elections
A U.S. Army soldier and a civilian escort a wounded Iraqi woman away from the scene of a car bomb blast outside the house of the Iraqi Finance Minister in Baghdad, Sunday.
The Associated Press
Updated: 10:30 a.m. ET Nov. 7, 2004

BAGHDAD, Iraq - The government declared a 60-day state of emergency throughout most of the country Sunday, as U.S. and Iraqi forces prepared for an expected all-out assault on rebels in Fallujah. Insurgents escalated a wave of violence that has killed more than 50 people the past two days.

Heavy explosions were heard in Baghdad as government spokesman Thair Hassan al-Naqeeb announced the state of emergency over the entire country except Kurdish areas in the north.

"It is going to be a curfew. It is going to be so many things, but tomorrow the prime minister will mention it," he said. Interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi will give more details Monday, he said.

Al-Naqeeb declined to say whether the announcement signaled an imminent attack on the insurgent stronghold Fallujah, saying, "We have seen the situation is worsening in this area. Any obstacle will be removed."

The statement came as insurgents carried out a second day of assaults in central Iraq, attacking police stations, gunning down government officials and setting off bombs.

Wave of violence
Two attacks on U.S. convoys in and around Baghdad killed one American soldier and wounded another Sunday, the military said. Residents reported grenades setting police cars aflame on Haifa Street in the heart of the city.

A car bomb also exploded near the Baghdad home of Iraq's finance minister, Adil Abdel-Mahdi, a leading Shiite politician, the Interior Ministry said.

Reda Jawad Taqqi, a spokesman for a major Shiite political party, said that neither Abdel-Mahdi nor any of his family were in his house at the time. "They are all safe, thank God, the minister and his family," Taqqi told the Associated Press.

The U.S. military said the bomb killed one Iraqi bystander and wounded another. A U.S. patrol came under small-arms fire as it responded, wounding one soldier, a statement said.

The wave of violence sweeping the troubled Sunni Triangle north and west of Baghdad, may be aimed at relieving pressure on Fallujah, where about 10,000 American troops are massing for a major assault if Allawi gives the green light.

At dawn Sunday, armed rebels launched deadly attacks against police stations in western Anbar province, killing 22 people according to police and hospital officials. At least seven of those killed were policemen, who were lined up and shot execution style.

Using bombs and small arms fire, insurgents hit three police stations in the neighboring towns of Haditha and Haqlaniyah, 137 miles northwest of Baghdad, said Capt. Nasser Abdullah of the K3 police station in Haqlaniyah.

Also Sunday, three Diyala provincial officials were gunned down south of Baghdad as they were on their way to a funeral in Karbala for a fourth colleague assassinated earlier this week. Governor's aide Jassim Mohammed was killed along with Diyala provincial council members, Shihab Ahmed and Dureid Mohammed, an Iraqi official said.

The attacks came a day after insurgents in Samarra stormed a police station, triggered at least two suicide car bombs and fired mortars at government installations. Twenty-nine people, including 17 police and 12 Iraqi civilians, were killed throughout the city, the U.S. military said. Forty others were injured.

A suicide bomber using an explosive-packed Iraqi police car rammed a U.S. convoy in Ramadi, wounding 16 American soldiers, according to the military.

On Thursday, militants dressed as policemen abducted and executed a group of 12 Iraqi National Guardsmen who driving home in a convoy to Najad, a top Shiite political party said Sunday.

Early Sunday, Marines fired a barrage of artillery at rebel positions inside Fallujah and clashed with insurgents carrying AK-47s, killing at least 16. Two U.S. soldiers were wounded at midnight at a checkpoint near Fallujah, the U.S. military said.

U.S. jets have been pounding the rebel bastion for days, launching its heaviest airstrikes in six months on Saturday -- including five 500-pound bombs dropped on insurgent targets. Warplanes destroyed five weapons caches after nightfall Saturday.
© 2004 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.



Fucked up. Has this happened before in Iraq?

God I love war

But I thought everything was just fine in Iraq.
I feel bad for whoever is elected president in that country. He'll probably be taken out in a fashion worse than JFK.

Honestly? The proverbial fecal matter has merely began its course towards the fan...

All of you that own a dictionary should probably look up what the word "war" means, drop some sack, and quit acting shocked at how we've fucked everything up. Get over it. You have four more years of this. Sit back. Iran is next. Just watch.

The Middle East deserved this 10 years ago. Can you imagine if America or Europe systemically and governmentally committed atrocities on its own people daily?


Try it.

The Middle East deserved this 10 years ago. Can you imagine if America or Europe systemically and governmentally committed atrocities on its own people daily?


Try it.[/quote]

It's easier to imagine America and Europe systematically committing attrocities on other countries, I don't know, for some reason those images come easier.

And lets stop pretending that this was about removing Saddam...if so what the fuck are we still doing there? If it really was about removing Saddam, which it wasn't, then shame on us for taking 10 years. We're still there and it's chaos because the Iraqi's didn't roll over and play dead for us and kiss our asses when we "freed" them. Mission "Control The Oil" isn't going as smoothly as we had hoped.

Saying the middle east deserved this is as ignorant as saying the US deserved 9/11.

Sit back and watch as more troops and civillians are killed in the next 4 years. God War is sexy.

Iraq an emergency?

No way.

I don't believe it.

Pinch me because I must be having a bad dream.

Never in a million years.

I wonder how campaigning is going. And voter registration? So I guess ll alawi will win because the only people who will get to vote will be the reps. that will elect him PM. How is that different from Saddam? And that government will create the constitution which then will never be seen as legitimate by the people because of the conditions during the elections and the only thing that will solve that is a dismantling and creatation of a constitutuion under the direction of a representative government. Fuck that will take forever and will our millitary have to remain ? And what if everyone votes ( never nits a democracy supposedly) and a real nutcase is elected by the people, will this guy be directing the millitary actions within Iraqs borders like allawi, would that be cool with anybody? I didn't think so.
So who wwould you guess is going to win the election?
I say why bother becaquse it sounds like regardless what happen it a clusterfuck. if everyone can't vote because of security the insurgency will grow stronger because the promise of democracy will be empty and if they elect an anti- american it will cause too many problems. For example, we stopped recognizing Arafat when he was democratically elected. IT IS TRUELY fucked up beyond belief
Iraq is not a quagmire. We have no idea what Iraq is.