Current News in Context
June 17, 2005
US military forces have launched a major new combat operation this morning in the region of Iraq bordering Syria. Air-power, tanks, amphibious assault units and Iraqi troops are being used. US forces are using powerful 500 pound bombs. During Operation Matador, the use of indiscriminate force was cited by Iraqi leaders as a reason they would not approach US forces for help in the future. Look for the article 'Marine-Led Campaign Killed Friends and Foe.'
Nancy A. Youssef with Knight-Ridder offers a profile of Farqad Mohammed Khinaisar, a high school Arabic teacher who was killed in her car by US soldiers in convoy, and Delphine Minoui, writing in Le Figaro addresses the ongoing fear and anxiety among Iraqis as a result of kidnappings for ransom.
Eyes Wide Open is returning to Philadelphia. Check out the web page for information about film showings, workshops, a panel presentation, a vigil and noon time activities.
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Operation Spear Launched: U.S. jets drop 500 lb bombs in Iraq operation
Luke Baker, Reuters
"Nine of the powerful bombs were dropped, the U.S. military said, two of them targeting suspected rebel safe houses near the town of Qaim, an insurgent stronghold on the Euphrates river about 20 km (12 miles) east of Iraq's border with Syria.
Four more were aimed at rebels as they fired mortars and assault rifles at U.S. ground forces near Qaim, and a further three were used to hit suspected weapons caches in the area.
The air power was in support of Operation Spear, the third major offensive U.S. forces have launched in western Iraq in the past six weeks with the aim of crushing insurgent activity in the Euphrates valley which stretches northwest to Syria."
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This profile of Farqad Mohammed Khinaisar, a high school Arabic teacher who was killed by US soldiers who were on a 'ride-about' to get to know the community. It is a reminder that the very presence of US troops is so often results in violence against Iraqi civilians.
Fatal shooting of teacher illustrates why Iraqis fear U.S. convoys
Nancy A. Youssef
"The usual crowd was gathered at the traffic circle - the shepherd and his 20 sheep, the kabob shop owner, the drivers waiting for someone to rent one of their trucks.
Everyone heard a gunshot from the third Humvee. The soldiers at the rear of the convoy thought they saw a suicide bomber, said Funk, and they'd fired a warning shot, then kept firing. The Iraqi men in the circle said they looked up and saw only a frightened woman in a careening car.
No one knows what Khinaisar saw or thought. She was shot once in the head, and she died five days later, on June 3. She spoke only once during that period, when her husband arrived at the hospital. When she heard him speak, she quietly called out his name: Mohsen.
In the car, the soldiers found only a purse and a Quran on the dashboard. They found no evidence that the 57-year-old teacher was a suicide bomber."
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Delphine Minoui, writing in Le Figaro reveals the reality of kidnappings, and the fear they cause. This is often an unseen aspect of life in Iraq that targets professional. It highlights not only the need for the rule of law, but the reconstruction of an operating judicial system that can start to enforce those laws.
Abductions, Iraq's Daily Lives
Delphine Minoui
Since the fall of the Baghdad regime in April 2003, abductions of foreigners have become a sad reality in the new Iraq. In the shade of alleys or on unprotected roads, however, dozens of Iraqi civilians are also kidnapped every week, without the local press's even having the time to relate the facts. According to semi-official statistics that are circulating, at least 5,000 Iraqis have been kidnapped during the year and a half that has gone by. Struck by these alarming figures, the new Iraqi satellite television channel, al-Sharqiya, has even made kidnappings the subject of a filmed series based on events from the daily news: televised confessions of kidnappers in the framework of a program entitled, "Terrorism in the Hands of Justice."
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