Editorial Note: The following news reports are summaries from original sources. They may also include corrections of Arabic names and political terminology. Comments are in parentheses. Share the link of this article with your facebook friends

 

Snow in Baghdad, About 700 Iraqi Protesters Killed, About 25,000 in Four Months

February 12, 2020

Editor's Note:

Iraqis, both Sunnis and Shi'is, are fed-up with the US-installed corrupt regime, they are in full revolt against it, demanding it to be thrown out (regime change by people).

 

Iraq’s capital of Baghdad was carpeted with a rare snowfall Tuesday, February 11, 2020 (protesters mending their tent).	Iraq’s capital Baghdad has woken up to snow for the first time in more than a decade, February 11, 2020

 

The following are news stories from the independent Iraqi Arabic news agency, Yaqein ( http://yaqein.net/ ):

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One Iraqi protester killed, 2 Injured, 2 Abducted One protester was killed, two were injured by Iraqi security forces in Nassiriya. Moreover, two activists were abducted in Baghdad and Najaf. In addition, two security officers were injured in Baghdad when protesters threw Molotov bottles on them. So far, about 700 protesters were killed and about 25,000 injured since October 2019.  حقوق الإنسان: مقتل متظاهر واختطاف ناشطين اثنين بالساعات الـ 48 الأخيرة 11 فبراير 2020 ، يقين أعلنت مفوضية حقوق الإنسان في العراق اليوم الثلاثاء عن حصيلة جديدة لضحايا التظاهرات في بغداد والعديد من المحافظات خلال اليومين الماضيين. وقالت المفوضية في بيان: إن “فرقها تواصل رصد ما رافق التظاهرات خلال اليومين الماضيين في بغداد وباقي المحافظات وتعرب عن أسفها الشديد لاستمرار العنف والتصادمات بين القوات الامنية والمتظاهرين في بعضها”. وأكد بيان المفوضية مقتل متظاهر واصابة اثنين آخرين بنيران القوات الأمنية في محافظة ذي قار، وذلك بأحداث جامعة العين في مدينة الناصرية. وسجلت المفوضية اختطاف اثنين من الناشطين في العاصمة بغداد ومحافظة النجف، مبينة أن اثنين من القوات الامنية أصيبوا في منطقة ساحة الوثبة في بغداد اثر قيام عدد من الأشخاص باستخدام قنابل المولوتوف والقنابل ضد القوات الامنية. وطالبت المفوضية القوات الأمنية والمتظاهرين إلى التعاون والتنسيق وفرز المسيئين الذين يحاولون حرف التظاهرات عن سلميتها والبقاء في الاماكن المحددة للتظاهر وتجنب الاحتكاك مع القوات الأمنية وحماية الممتلكات العامة والخاصة. وبحسب المركز العراقي لتوثيق جرائم الحرب فإن عدد ضحايا التظاهرات العراقية منذ انطلاقها تجاوز الـ 700 قتيل وأكثر من 25 ألف مصاب. https://yaqein.net/politics/2435

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The following are news stories from the independent Iraqi English news site, (https://www.thebaghdadpost.com/en):

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More than 100 US soldiers suffer brain injury after Iran attacks on US bases in Iraq

The Baghdad Post, February 10, 2020

 The US military is preparing to report a more than 50 percent jump in the number of cases of traumatic brain injury stemming from Iran's missile attack on a base in Iraq last month, US officials told Reuters on Monday.

The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said there were now over 100 cases of TBI, up from the 64 that had been previously reported last month.
The Pentagon declined to comment.

Militant group targets supply convoy south of Baghdad: military statement

The Baghdad Post, February 10, 2020

Militants on Monday targeted a convoy carrying food supplies south of Baghdad using an explosive device, the Iraqi military said in a statement, leading to only material losses. 

Lebanese pro-Iranian TV channel al-Mayadeen reported that the explosion targeted a convoy carrying military equipment to a base hosting U.S. forces south of the capital. The channel said there was damage to one vehicle but no casualties. 

The report comes amid heightened tension between (Iraqi paramiliament) and the United States in Iraq. Washington killed top Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani in a drone strike last month and Tehran fired missiles at two bases hosting U.S. forces in retaliation days later.

Iraqi Forces Capture IS Commander near Mosul

The Baghdad Post, February 11, 2020  

Iraqi intelligence and security forces on Monday captured a commander of the Islamic State (IS) in north of the country, near the city of Mosul in Nineveh province.

Department of Military Intelligence of Iraq issued a statement to confirm the arrest of the commander of Islamic State’s air defense division.

According to the statement, the IS commander was captured at a security checkpoint near Mosul after days of monitoring his movements.

The unnamed IS commander was previously issued an arrest warrant by a court in Baghdad.

NATO willing to expand Iraqi training mission to meet Trump demand

The Baghdad Post, February 11, 2020

NATO is considering an increase to its training mission in Iraq to relieve the burden on the U.S.-led coalition against ISIS, senior officials and diplomats said on Tuesday.

NATO defense ministers including U.S. Secretary of State Mark Esper will discuss options for non-combat operations in the Middle East at a two-day meeting in Brussels starting on Wednesday, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said. 

“We are discussing what more NATO can do,” he told reporters, adding that the alliance would first seek to restart the training with the Iraqi government’s blessing. 

U.S. Ambassador to NATO Kay Bailey Hutchison said the alliance was also seeking military advice, both from NATO and Iraq, on how to increase the mission, but gave no details. 

“I think it will definitely be the answer to what President Trump has requested,” she said.
 
NATO and the coalition have non-combat “train-and-advise” missions which aim to develop Iraqi security forces but both are suspended over fears for regional stability after a U.S. drone strike killed a top Iranian commander in Baghdad on Jan. 3. 

After the killing, U.S. President Donald Trump called on NATO - founded in 1949 to contain a military threat from the Soviet Union - to do more in the Middle East but he has not specified publicly what that might entail. 

Why Iraq's youthful protests endure

The Baghdad Post, February 12, 2020

Iraq’s capital of Baghdad was carpeted with a rare snowfall Tuesday.
 
It brought people onto the streets to make snowmen together and join in friendly snowball fights.
 
The collective experience was an apt reflection of the past four months in Iraq. Since Oct. 1, tens of thousands of young people have maintained nonviolent and leaderless protests in major cities, hoping to redefine the meaning of community for Iraq.
So far, despite the killing of more than 500 demonstrators, neither the protesters nor their shared vision has melted away.
 
With nearly half of Iraqis under age 21, the protesters are as difficult to ignore as are their idealistic aims.
 
They focus on creating a secular state that respects civic rights and an end to a type of government in which power and oil wealth are divvied up by religious and ethnic groups. They also want foreign powers (namely Iran) to stop meddling in Iraqi affairs.

Such aims are similar to those raised during months of protests in nearby Lebanon. In both countries, the uprising has led to the downfall of a prime minister and an uneasy tension with the political elite over who will run government.
 
In Iraq, the protesters have a powerful ally, the revered Shiite cleric Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. He has called for an end to the killing of protesters and for free and fair elections “as soon as possible.” A new government, he says, must earn the people’s trust.
 
Because of Iraq’s pivotal position in the Middle East, its protests may be the most significant of the many youthful protests that erupted worldwide in 2019 from Chile to Algeria to Hong Kong.
 
If one element binds these grassroots movements, it has been the rejection of how governments have been organized and an embrace of inclusive democracy based on universal principles.

In a speech Monday, Achim Steiner, administrator of the United Nations Development Program, described this global trend in its broadest meaning:

“From the grassroots, to the business communities, to people voting with their feet in protest, mature democracies and autocracies alike are experiencing a new form of community today – a new form of people power – representing a profound shift in the global landscape of collaboration and dissent....
“We once thought of a community as a group of people who live in the same geographic area, or who share socio-economic, ethnic, linguistic, or religious characteristics.
 
The evolving global context, including the extent to which new technologies have empowered communication and information-sharing at the individual-level, requires us to embrace a far wider definition.

“Many communities that drive change now cut across the boundaries of class, geography, language, religion, political orientation, and identity. They do not ‘respect’ the typologies of the past.
 
“What binds them together is shared experience, understanding, belief, and common visions and ways of working.”

His explanation helps justify the close attention to the protests in Iraq. A new meaning of community may be forming, one that could reshape a troubled region. Like a blanket of snow, young Iraqis are bringing a country together in a way it rarely experiences.

https://www.thebaghdadpost.com/en/Story/46033/Why-Iraq-s-youthful-protests-endure

Iraqis in Baghdad wake up to snow for first time in over a decade

The Baghdad Post, February 12, 2020  

The last time Iraq’s capital experienced snow was in 2008.

Iraq’s capital Baghdad has woken up to snow for the first time in more than a decade.

Iraq has grappled with months of unrest, beginning with an anti-government protest movement which engulfed the country in October, and the US killing of a top Iranian general in Baghdad in early January, which brought the region close to war amid soaring US-Iran tensions.

Over 500 people have died in the protests as security forces used live rounds and tear gas to disperse crowds in Baghdad and southern Iraq.

The movement is entering a critical phase, after influential Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who initially threw his weight behind demonstrators, withdrew it. Tensions have since seethed between protesters and Mr al-Sadr’s followers.

In the city’s central Tahrir Square, the epicentre of the protest movement, protesters took a moment to observe the snowfall and dusted the flakes off their sit-in tents.

Annual snowfall is common in the mountainous northern region of Iraq, but very rare in Baghdad. The last time the capital saw snow was in 2008.

https://www.thebaghdadpost.com/en/Story/46028/Iraqis-in-Baghdad-wake-up-to-snow-for-first-time-in-over-a-decade

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