Iraqi Party Suspends Ties With U.S. Over Raid

October 25, 2008

BAGHDAD — Iraq’s biggest Sunni Arab political party suspended all dealings with U.S. civilian and military personnel on Saturday after U.S. and Iraqi forces carried out a raid in which a man was killed.

The incident could increase tension in a part of Iraq that was once the heartland of the insurgency against U.S. forces but has become among the quietest parts of the country over the past two years.

U.S. forces said one man had been arrested and one had been killed in a joint U.S.-Iraqi raid against a suspected militant on Friday in the town of Falluja.

The Iraqi Islamic Party, headed by Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi, said the targets of the raid were senior party officials. Five people had been detained and one killed “in his bed,” it said in a statement. …

Falluja, in Anbar province west of the capital, was the scene of the war’s two heaviest battles between U.S. forces and Sunni insurgents in 2004, but has become quiet after tribes began cooperating with American troops in late 2006. …

———

Security Developments in Iraq

Following are security developments in Iraq on Saturday, Oct. 25, 2008 as reported by Reuters.

BAGHDAD – One man was killed and 5 civilians were wounded in clashes between the Iraqi army and unknown armed men in Shaab district in northern parts of the city, police said.

BAGHDAD – A bomb stuck to a vehicle carrying an Iraqi army brigadier general killed the driver and wounded the general and a civilian in the central Karrada district, police said.

KIRKUK – A body of a women was found in the southwestern industrial district of the city of Kirkuk, 155 miles north of Baghdad, police said.

JURF AL-SAKHER – One man was wounded when a speeding car opened fire on a checkpoint of U.S.-backed patrols in Jurf al-Sakher, 25 miles south of Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD – Two Iraqi soldiers were killed and three wounded when a bomb exploded in Baghdad’s central Palestine Street district, police said.

NEAR KIRKUK – Iraqi police found the body of a man with signs of torture just south of Kirkuk, 155 miles north of Baghdad, police said.

FALLUJA – Gunmen killed an imam of a mosque and another man in a drive-by shooting northeast of Falluja, police said.

MOSUL – Gunmen killed two off-duty policemen in a drive-by shooting in eastern Mosul, 240 miles north of Baghdad, police said.

MOSUL – A roadside bomb wounded two women when it struck an Iraqi army vehicle in eastern Mosul, north of Baghdad, police said.

MOSUL – Gunmen killed a civilian in a drive-by shooting in eastern Mosul, north of Baghdad, police said.

NEAR KUT – Iraqi police arrested one gunman and wounded another in clashes on Friday just south of Kut, 95 miles southeast of Baghdad, Police Major Aziz Latif said.

NEAR KUT – Police said they found a dead body inside an abandoned house just south of Kut on Friday. The dead individual appeared to have been tortured and shot.

FALLUJA – Iraqi soldiers killed a suspected militant and arrested another one, believed to be responsible for training insurgents in producing and placing roadside bombs, on Friday in Falluja, 30 miles west of Baghdad, the U.S. military said.

———

ACADEMIC HAT

Personality profiles of presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama, with implications for their likely leadership style as president, developed at the Unit for the Study of Personality in Politics, which I direct.

McCain’s maverick nature is double-edged sword

Obama’s conciliatory tendency could be cause for concern