Chronology of Events in , October 2003*

October 1 Violence erupts at Iraqi unemployed protests in and Mousul (Reuters) Protests by frustrated jobless Iraqis in two cities turned violent as demonstrators threw rocks and set cars ablaze while local security forces responded with gunfire. In central Baghdad, a few dozen protesters looking for work at a U.S.-backed local security force hurled rocks at the building. Flames and black smoke poured from a police car and a civilian vehicle while gunfire echoed around the area. In the city of , a much larger crowd threw rocks at an employment office before marching to a local government building. Some storekeepers closed their shops. At the Baghdad protest, which took place near a hotel where many Western journalists and other foreign workers are based, police fired automatic rifles and pistols as demonstrators took cover behind nearby buildings. Protesters said they had come repeatedly to the office of a force set up to guard state property to look for work. US military shortens Baghdad curfew (Agence France-Presse/AFP) The US military, citing "recent improvements in security," has pushed back by an hour the 11:00 pm curfew imposed on Baghdad after the fall of . The spokesman said the midnight to 4:00 am curfew took effect in "another sign that conditions in Iraq continue to improve". "Recent improvements in security and the reduction of crime in the city of Baghdad have prompted military officials to scale back the curfew in effect throughout the city since the fall of the prior regime," he said. Mandaean community forms new grouping (London-based newspaper Al-Sharq al-Awsat) The formation of the Mandaean Democratic Grouping [MDG] has been announced in Baghdad. According to a statement it issued, the MDG will firmly and actively work to ensure that the Sabean-Mandaean community gets its voice heard in official forums. The statement called for affirming the rights of the Mandaean community in Iraq's permanent constitution and related man-made laws, particularly with regard to the personal statute law. It also called for the representation of the community in legislative and executive committees and the future parliament. Court reportedly issues warrant for arrest of Turkoman leader (Iraqi Kurdish newspaper Hawlati) The investigation judge in the city of has issued a warrant for the arrest of the new head of the Iraqi Turkoman Front, Faruq Abdallah Abd-al-Rahman, and another official of the front, Najm Oglu, on charges of killing the citizen Nasr-al-Din Qasim. The brother of the victim, Dawud Qasim, made an official complaint against the two aforementioned persons on September 24. He claims that a day earlier, an officer, a

* Disclaimer: Reports contained in this document are selected from publicly available sources and edited by country experts. The information provided here is not, and does not purport to be, either exhaustive with regard to conditions in the country of origin surveyed, or conclusive as to the merits of any particular claim. Further information may be obtained from BO Ankara.

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commissioner and a policeman came by a taxi, and took his brother to an unknown place. Before that, the head of the Turkoman Front allegedly threatened the family with revenge. The investigation judge issued the arrest warrant on the basis of Article 406 of the Iraqi Penal Law.

October 2 Shiites protest against US forces for detaining a cleric (Kuwait newspaper Kuwait Times) Tensions were running high at the Ali Kazem Al-Bayai mosque in southwestern Baghdad, where several dozen Shiites gathered to protest the brief detention of their preacher, Moayed Al-Khazraji. During the rally, several US military vehicles arrived but were driven off in a hail of stones. As one of the vehicles drove away, a US soldier fired a few warning shots in the air. Several mosque security guards returned fire with handguns, but there were no injuries. Shi'i fighters said killed ten Sunni Islamists in (London-based newspaper Al-Zaman) It was alleged that fighters belonging to the Shi'i Islamic Al-Da'wah Party are killing extremist Salafi Islamists (Sunni) who are regarded as Wahhabis. It was reported that at least ten Salafis were killed by unknown elements believed to be fighters belonging to the Islamic Al-Da'wah Party, on the pretext of attacking Shi'i mosques in Basra. It was alleged, for example, that a Shi'i mosque being bombed in the Abu-Khusayb region, southern Basra, pushing them to retaliate against the Salafi elements. A number of them were reportedly killed and buried in Al-Zubayr area, where there is a Sunni majority, close to the Iraq-Kuwait border.

October 4 Council of Judges begins work in Baghdad (Coalition Provisional Authority/CPA-Iraq website) Iraq's newly re-established Council of Judges began its work in Baghdad. The Council will supervise Iraq's judicial and prosecutorial systems. The Council will investigate allegations of professional misconduct and incompetence, take necessary disciplinary or administrative actions and nominate lawyers to fill judicial and prosecutorial vacancies. The Council will operate independently of the Ministry of Justice. "The Council of Judges assures the independence of the judiciary, away from any interference by any authority in the judicial or prosecutorial affairs," said Judge Mithat Al-Mahmood, Supreme Court Chief Justice and President of the Council. The Council was first established in 1963, but was abolished by the former regime in 1979. In addition to the chief justice, the Council consists of the deputy chief justices of the Supreme Court, the director-general of the State Council Assembly, the director-general of the Office of Public Prosecution, the director-general of the Legal Supervision Office, the director-general of administration and the presidents of the appellate courts. Iraqi killed by coalition fire in Basra (AFP)

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An Iraqi was shot dead by coalition forces when fighting broke out as army veterans awaited payments of back salary in the southern port of Basra, according to witnesses and a British military spokesman. An veteran, who witnessed the incident, said former soldiers had lined up to get their pay and some of them started to argue with the Coalition Provisional Authority employees handing out the money. British troops arrived and fired shots when they spotted a man with a gun, who was actually a security guard for a neighbouring school, witnesses said, adding three others were wounded by gun fire. Iraqi taxi driver wounded in Kirkuk blast (AFP) An Iraqi taxi driver was seriously wounded when a roadside bomb exploded as he drove along a road in northern Iraq frequently used by US troops, Iraqi police and medical officials said. Hatem Omar Jibburi, 40, suffered injuries to several parts of his body and his two legs were broken, a doctor at Kirkuk General Hospital said.

October 5 School heads go into hiding after Baghdad teacher is killed (UK newspaper The Sunday Telegraph) Several Iraqi head teachers were in hiding as schools reopened for the new term after they had received death threats for belonging to the former ruling Ba'ath party, even though membership was compulsory under the Ba’ath regime. In the rundown Baladiat district of eastern Baghdad, a note signed "the Penalty Committee" was posted on school gates this summer, naming 10 heads who would be killed if they returned to work. Widad Sa'ad, the head of Wahran girls' school and a mother-of- three, ignored the warning, even after armed men threatened her. [She was shot dead in September 2003]. The murder of the popular and conscientious 52-year-old has left others fearful. Rajha Abdul al-Jabar, 60, should have been starting her final year in work at the nearby school of Kimat. Instead, she has quit her job and gone into hiding after telling friends that she feared for her life. Another head teacher in the district has gone into hiding after receiving a live bullet in the post. Ms Sa'ad's counterpart at Wahran boys' school, Ahlam Salman, left Baghdad and is being protected by relatives. The education authorities have brought in a new headmaster from outside to supervise both schools. Although Baladiat is the worst-affected area, teachers have been threatened across the country. An education ministry official estimated that "dozens" were in hiding. As well as Ms Sa'ad, at least two other teachers have been killed recently. Owner killed in attack on shop "selling alcoholic drinks" (Iraqi Kurdistan Democratic Party newspaper Khabat) Armed men attacked a shop, selling alcoholic drinks, with hand grenades in Zuhur District in the city of Mosul. The owner of the shop, Safa Sabah Lora, a Christian citizen from Tilkef, was killed.

October 6 Notorious Baghdad prison camp closed (AFP)

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The US military said it had shut down Camp Cropper, a notorious makeshift prison facility at Baghdad airport where hundreds of Iraqis were held in tents. The camp, where prisoners were held in the scorching summer heat, had drawn sharp criticism from human rights groups, including Amnesty International, which protested what it termed the "degrading" treatment of prisoners. Krivo said the prisoners were moved to "superior facilities" and that most were taken to Baghdad Central prison.

October 9 Nine dead in suicide attack on Baghdad police station (AFP) Nine people were killed, including a suicide bomber and three Iraqi police officers, in a car bomb attack on a police station in Baghdad's neighbourhood, according to US military police. The blast occurred as police were heading to collect their monthly pay checks at the station, located near a crowded market in the neighbourhood previously called Saddam City. Spanish diplomat killed at gunpoint by three men in Baghdad (AFP) Spanish military attache and intelligence official Jose Antonio Bernal Gomez was shot dead at gunpoint by three men at his home in Baghdad. Eye-witnesses said the assailants did not have their faces covered, and one of them was wearing a traditional long robe and a turban around his head. Gomez, 34, was stationed in Baghdad since 2001, the Spanish foreign ministry said. Two Kurdish parties unite under Socialist Party (Iraqi Kurdish newspaper Hawlati) Following a meeting between the Toilers Party and the Kurdistan Socialist Democratic Party, which was attended by three political bureau members from each party, the two sides decided to name the new party the Socialist Party, with Qadir Aziz as secretary and Muhammad Haji Mahmud as the second man of this party. Two policemen, two civilians gunned down in Arbil (AFP) Two Iraqi policemen and two civilians were killed when they were shot by unidentified gunmen in the city of Arbil, police and witnesses said. Unknown assailants opened fire from a car on a police vehicle, killing two policemen and seriously injuring a third, Arbil's police chief said. The police chief and witnesses said three assailants fired machine guns at the police vehicle at around 8:30 am, also killing two Iraqi passers-by, including a woman. The two were identified as the area's deputy public prosecutor and his wife, an employee at Salaheddin University in Arbil province. Iraqi reported killed in clash between armed militia of Sadr and US troops (AFP) Members of a Muslim militia said one of their men was killed and two wounded in Baghdad's Sadr City neighbourhood. Following the reported clash, shells could be seen littering the ground outside the offices of Shiite Muslim cleric Moqtada Sadr's Mehdi Army, whose heavily armed members patrolled the area. Tension rose earlier in the day after US troops searched the compound used by the militia, according to Sheikh Kaiss al-Kazaly, who leads Sadr followers in the populous Baghdad neighbourhood named after the cleric's family. Militia members said the exchange of

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fire which killed one of their men and wounded two others started after US armoured vehicles entered Sadr City at night. After their offices were searched in the wake of the blast, about 200 Mehdi Army members, holding up AK-47 assault rifles and RPGs paraded in the street in a militant show of force. Furious at the search, the militiamen closed off streets around the office, and briefly detained several foreign journalists, while angry residents beat up photographers. Mehdi Army members blamed the suicide bomb attack at the police station on supporters of President Saddam Hussain, whose regime fell to the US-led coalition six months ago.

October 10 Shia cleric announces alternative government (AFP) Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr announced he had formed a Muslim-led government, in a clear challenge to the 25-member Governing Council. He said the government includes a ministry of religious affairs and another responsible for the "promotion of virtue and prevention of vice." The young cleric, who made the announcement during a sermon at Friday prayers, gave few details, but one of his spokesmen said the "alternative cabinet" would be led by Muslims but open to all. Project begins to restore the wetlands drained by the former regime () A project has begun to reverse one of the greatest ecological disasters of recent times, the draining of the wetlands that were home to Iraq's 250,000 Marsh . Two Iraqi policemen, "civil governor" reportedly killed in attack (Iran-based Iraqi Shi’a radio station Voice of the Mujahidin) A police detachment was attacked in Arbil. Two policemen and civil governor Abd- al-Qadir Abd-al-Rahman were killed in the incident. Abd-al-Rahman was hit by bullets in the head. The causes of the incident were still not known. A police source, however, said that the perpetrators of this operation have managed to escape. Roadside bomb kills two, injures four Iraq oil employees (AFP) Two employees of the Northern Oil Co. were killed and four wounded in a roadside bombing in northern Iraq, the NOC director general said. The explosion ripped a company bus on the road between and the town of , 40 kilometres west of Kirkuk, the company's director said. US told to avoid main Shia area in Baghdad (Financial Times) A powerful Shia Muslim movement warned US troops not to enter Baghdad's largest Shia neighbourhood after a gun battle there on October 9 night killed two US soldiers and two Iraqis. Dozens of armed Shia militiamen stood guard at the site of the battle, outside the headquarters of Muqtada al-Sadr, a popular Shia preacher. Seyd Hassan al-Mussawi, head of al-Sadr's Mahdi Army (Jaysh al-Mahdi) militia, said that his soldiers were not involved in the fighting, but the US troops were fired on by "ordinary citizens, who were defending the holy place [the headquarters]".

October 11 Four killed, seven wounded in grenade attack (Al-Jazeera TV)

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An attack with hand grenades on a police squad in the Khan al-Rubu area, 30 km southeast of Karbala, on the road between Al- and Karbala, killed a police captain and a civilian, who was among visitors coming to Karbala to mark imam Al- Mahdi's birthday anniversary. Moreover, two attackers were also killed when the hand grenades they were holding exploded. The police arrested at least three persons with more hand grenades in their possession. The attack also led to the wounding of seven to eight people, some seriously. All the wounded were transferred to a hospital in Karbala.

October 12 Man blows himself up, wounds two in attempted attack on Iraqi police (AFP) A man blew himself up and wounded a policeman and a civilian in an attempted grenade attack against a police checkpoint in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk. The attacker, identified as Ghaleb Nasreddin, 32, died when the grenade he evidently planned to hurl at the police post blew up in his hands, according to a local police chief. Several people killed in Baghdad twin car bombing (AFP) Several people were killed when two car bombs went off outside the Baghdad Hotel which houses some members of the US-installed interim Governing Council. At least seven people were killed and several more injured in the blast, according to council member Muwaffak al-Rubai. The blast occurred at a checkpoint outside the Baghdad Hotel. A car driven by a suicide bomber, and another packed with explosives and parked outside the hotel, blew up simultaneously, a police officer at the scene said. Ba’athists arrested in Dibs (Iraqi Kurdistan Democratic Party newspaper Al- Ta'akhi) An official spokesperson in the administrative subdistrict of Dibs said the Dibs Police Directorate arrested three Ba'athists named Husayn Mahmud, Muhsin Jasim and Abbas Khamis. It was alleged that the three Ba'athists were planning to launch attacks with 82 mm mortar shells on the KDP headquarters, a military barracks in Dibs and a number government employees from a position at Qara Chimah village. Shia official escapes assassination (Egyptian news agency MENA and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty RFE/RL Iraq Report) An Iraqi Shi'ite religious leader was targeted in a Baghdad explosion. The explosion occurred in the Al- area of Baghdad when a land mine attached to a lamppost was detonated as a convoy of vehicles passed by transporting Husayn al-Shami, an official of the Iraqi Awqaf Commission. Four people, including al-Shami, were injured in the incident.

October 13 Iraqi governor escapes assassination attempt (Al-Jazeera TV) A spokesman for the Iraqi police has stated that the Diyala governor survived an assassination attempt when a bomb that was planted on the road leading to his office exploded. Two policemen and a civilian were wounded in the explosion.

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Iraq oil minister escape assassination bid (AFP) Iraqi Oil Minister Ibrahim Bahr al-Uloom and an aide to Governing Council member Ahmad Chalabi escaped an assassination attempt in Baghdad. Bahr al-Uloom and Nabil al-Musawi, Chalabi's deputy on the Governing Council, escaped an assassination attempt in the Mansur district at around 7:30 pm. The two men were traveling in the same car in a five-vehicle convoy when the motorcade came under fire from a speeding car. Bodyguards in the convoy opened fire on the attacking car, in which three men armed with Kalashnikovs were travelling, but the car sped away. Bahr al-Uloom is a member of the interim cabinet appointed by the Governing Council, while Musawi sits in for Chalabi in the 25-member transitional council, which was installed by the US-led administration in July. Former Baathist killed in Najaf (AFP) A former Baath party official in Saddam Hussein's regime was killed in the holy city of Najaf. Abu Zainab was killed by two assailants who fired Kalashnikovs in the centre of the city before fleeing. "Abu Zainab was also working in the police" in Najaf, a witness said. Hundreds cry revenge in after US troops detain cleric, tribal chief (AFP) Hundreds of people cried for revenge at a demonstration in Fallujah after a series of US army raids that led to the arrest of a prominent cleric, a tribal chief, 15 other Iraqis and four Turkish nationals. "Revenge, revenge," chanted the crowd that gathered in and around the Great Mosque of Fallujah. Local clerics, tribal chiefs and residents raised banners calling for "the release of our imam." Sheikh Jamal Shaker Nazzal, 61, a popular cleric who has urged the faithful in his sermons not to cooperate with the occupying US forces. Along with Nazzal, the US troops also detained four Iraqi religious students and searched the mosque for one and a half hours in the overnight raid. The crowd performed dusk prayers before listening to a sermon by a Fallujah cleric, Sheikh Makki Hussein, who called on the crowd to "rush to the call of our religion." "We should not offer the Americans a chance to arrest our clerics and desecrate our mosques. We should stand in the face of those American infidels and their collaborators," he said. Earlier, US military vehicles roamed the streets of Fallujah to announce through loud-speakers the arrest of Nazzal and Barakat Saadun Aifan, the chief of the Boueitha local tribe. "We have arrested the terrorists Barakat Saadun Aifan and Jamal Shaker Nazzal," said the announcement. Mohammad Abdel Razek, a member of the Boueitha tribe, said US troops raided Aifan's home at dawn and arrested the tribal chief along with four Turkish nationals.

October 14 Bomber targets Baghdad's Turkish Embassy (AP) A suicide bomber detonated a car packed with explosives near the Turkish Embassy, wounding at least two people, the U.S. military said. The attack came amid widespread Iraqi anger over Turkish plans to deploy troops in the country. The car tried to approach the embassy in the mid-afternoon and suddenly exploded, witnesses said.

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Agence France Presse report on the same news: Police fired in the air and detained at least one protester as a few dozen people chanted pro-Saddam Hussain slogans shortly after a car bomb exploded outside the Turkish mission in Baghdad. The small crowd, which police said consisted of neighbors and art students, gathered near the site of the blast chanting: "With our soul, with our blood we shall redeem you, Saddam". Rival Shia forces fighting in Karbala (Financial Times) Clashes between rival Shia militias erupted on October 12 night and continued in the Shia holy city of Karbala, days after Muqtada al-Sadr declared the formation of a separate Iraqi government. Police in Karbala said two people were killed and up to two dozen injured during riots on October 13 night outside the Mukhayim mosque in Karbala, which al-Sadr uses as a headquarters in the city. The mosque was pock- marked with bullet holes and al-Sadr's supporters gathered behind barricades next to the mosque on October 14, shouting insults and threats at police and journalists trying to enter the area. Sheikh Mohammed Kinaani, a religious figure in Karbala, said that al-Sadr's forces, known as the Jaysh al-Mahdi, had tried to take over the shrine of Imam Hussein in the centre of town, one of the holiest shrines in . He said they had been repulsed by forces loyal to Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, spiritual leader of a majority of Iraqi Shia. Police had a different version, however. Mohammed Rida Hussein, a policeman standing guard in front of the shrine of Imam Hussein, said the dispute between backers of Seyd Akram Yasseri, the US-backed Karbala governor, and backers of al- Sadr had started over the latter's arrest of a prominent sheikh known as Maytham on October 11. A demonstration by the sheikh's backers outside al-Sadr's headquarters on October 13 had turned violent, they said. On October 14, unarmed Jaysh members patrolled downtown in military style formations, while police loyal to governor Yasseri cradled Kalashnikov assault rifles and eyed them warily. Al-Sadr tried to distance himself from the violence, telling journalists in Najaf that he blamed elements "acting in his name" for the violence. "Evil forces are co-operating to sow sectarian strife." Two oil engineers killed in explosion on Kirkuk-Beji road. (Iraqi Kurdistan Democratic Party newspaper Al-Ta'akhi) A quantity of TNT was detonated beneath a bus owned by Kirkuk Oil Company. The explosive was planted on the road between Kirkuk-Beji. The chief engineer of the company Ruf'il Silaywah and another engineer As'ad Hasan were killed and four other employees inside the bus were injured, including one who sustained serious injuries. reportedly attack Kurdish homes in Mosul (Iraqi Kurdistan Democratic Party newspaper Khabat) A number of Fedayeen Saddam reportedly opened fire with their kalashnikovs on a number of Kurdish houses at the Faysaliyah District in Mosul. In the ensuing fighting, one Fedayeen Saddam was reported killed and other Ba'athists fled the scene.

October 15

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Iraqis began exchanging their two old currencies for new Iraqi Dinar (CPA-Iraq website) Iraqis began exchanging their two old currencies for a single new Iraqi Dinar. The old Dinar (sometimes called the “Saddam Dinar”) was widely used only in the 250 denomination, equivalent to approximately 17 cents U.S. It was also easy to counterfeit, which contributed to its instability. The so-called Swiss Dinar was formerly used by the whole of the country prior to Saddam issuing a new currency in 1990. Since then, the Swiss Dinar has been used primarily by the Kurds in the north. The exchange, which will continue through January 15, 2004, will be carried out at no charge to the citizens. Exchange rates from the old currencies to the new will be uniform throughout the exchange period at each of the 250 exchange points. The new notes are durable, featuring multiple anti-counterfeiting features.

October 16 UN presents Jordan with plan for refugees from (AFP) The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) has presented Jordan with a plan to resolve the problem of more than 1,700 refugees from the Iraq war. "We developed a comprehensive plan that looks to all various refugee cases to see what solution is appropriate to these cases," Sten Bronee said. "The government has recognised the difficulties and we are now working together to see how we can find a solution by the end of the year." The UNCHR plan calls firstly for refugees to return voluntarily to their homes, although Bronee admitted this could only start happening "in several months" due to insecurity in Iraq. It also calls for some Iranian Kurd refugees who are unwanted by Tehran to be resettled in the northern Kurdish areas of Iraq. It lastly calls on third countries -- such as Syria, Lebanon and Egypt where some of the refugees have relatives -- to be open to accepting some of the refugees. "We had a positive response for some of the countries in the region saying they will look at some of these cases," Bronee said. He added that Jordan, keenly aware that winter is approaching, supported the multi-faceted approach. However, Bronee urged Amman to keep open a pair of camps housing the refugees until at least the end of the year so the agency's plan could be implemented gradually. "Our plan works on the assumptions that the government would continue to allow people who feel that they have justifiable needs on leaving Iraq to enter the camps and allow people to stay in the camps." Almost 400 people with Palestinian documents and a number of Somalis are living in Ruweished, while 1,200 others, mostly Iranian Kurds from Al-Tash camp in Iraq, are stranded in no-man's land.

October 17 Iraqi police, US forces regain Al-Sadr City municipal building, arrest 12 (Iran- based radio station Voice of the Mujahidin) Sources of the Iraqi police and US forces said that they had regained in a joint operation the municipal building of the city of Al-Sadr. An unidentified group was accused of seizing the building a week ago. The sources said that 12 persons were arrested inside the building. Iraqi imam reports mistreatment in custody (Al-Jazeera TV)

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Shaykh Abd-al-Karim al-Tikriti, a member of the Commission for Muslim Scholars in Iraq, has accused US forces of beating and insulting him while he was in their custody. In his first Friday sermon following his release, Al-Tikriti said that many Iraqis - Sunnis and Shi'is - are imprisoned for no reason.

October 18 Attack on a cultural organization in Kirkuk (Iraqi Kurdistan Democratic Party newspaper Khabat) On the night of 17-18 October, a group of armed persons attacked the Shafaq Cultural Organization in Kirkuk with RPG and machine guns. Bystander killed in attack on Kirkuk police chief (Iraqi Kurdish newspaper Hawlati) Kirkuk Police Chief Sherko Shakir Hakim was shot at while he was carrying out his official duty. A citizen was killed in the incident. The police chief had been pursuing a suspicious motorist. Several people fired at him from behind and the citizen Sami Salih Ahmad, who was in the vicinity, was killed.

October 19 US forces clash with bodyguards of Shia cleric in Karbala (AP) 13 persons were killed in the fighting between guards of Ayatollah Mahmoud al- Hassani and US forces and the Iraqi police, trying to enforce a nationwide ban on carrying weapons in public without a permit and a 9 p.m. curfew, imposed in Najaf recently after clashes between rival Shiite Muslim groups. Al-Hassani, a university- trained civil engineer, moved to Karbala after the collapse of Saddam's regime and attracted hundreds of followers who gathered outside his house every week to see his counsel. He studied at the holy city of Najaf under Mohammed Sadiq al-Sadr. Posters of the elder al-Sadr and al-Hassani himself were removed from the wall of the house. A coalition official said 40 people were arrested in Karbala after the clashes. The cleric al-Hassani, believed to be in his late 30's, went into hiding with his wife and three children soon after the deadly clash. Offices of two parties attacked in Kirkuk (Iraqi Kurdish newspaper Hawlati) Several militiamen launched attacks on the headquarters of the Assyrian Democratic Movement (ADM) and the Iraqi National Accord Movement (INA). The headquarters of the Assyrian Democratic Movement in Arafah District in the city of Kirkuk was attacked with RPG. Consequently, one of the headquarters guards called Jivan Dirparsh was injured. On the same day, a booby-trapped Nissan Patrol car exploded near the headquarters of the Iraqi National Accord Movement. It resulted in no casualties.

October 21 32 followers of defiant cleric are arrested in raid in Karbala ()

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American troops helping the Iraqi police during a raid on a mosque in Karbala in the morning arrested 32 supporters of a Shiite cleric who has openly defied the United States. The men, followers of Sheik Moktada al-Sadr, had sought refuge in the Al Mukayam mosque on October 14 after a gun battle with supporters of a rival cleric. No casualties were reported. Forty Iranians arrested for entering Iraq illegally (AFP) Iraqi police stated that they arrested 40 Iranians in al-Izhaqui (in the northern region of Dhuluiya) because they were not holding legal papers. "They said they were here to visit holy Shiite sites in Iraq," the police chief Owaid said, adding that those arrested will be returned to Iran "by bus." "Iraqi police have handed over the 40 people arrested to the coalition forces based in Dhuluyia," he said. Iranians were unable to carry out pilgrimages to Iraq before the US-led war in March. At the end of September, Iran officially reopened its border to pilgrims in an attempt to control an illegal influx across to Iraq. Pilgrims need to pay 120 to 180 dollars to travel to Iraq. But in a country where the average income is less than 200 dollars per month, Iranians will travel across the border illegally, and risk their lives. More than 200 pilgrims have been found dead, killed by land mines along the border, which were left over from the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war, while others died from the heat or accidents.

October 22 Former intelligence figures killed (Iraqi newspaper Al-Zaman) Five people suspected of being former members of the disbanded Iraqi intelligence services have been killed and another seriously injured, after having been subjected to an attack carried out by unidentified individuals who used silenced weapons. The attack was conducted at night in the intelligence quarter of Al-Amiriyah. The assailants used silenced machine guns, before escaping in a new car. It was reported that the people killed during this incident include Dr Isam Sharif al-Tikriti, former Iraqi ambassador to Tunisia until 2000. He later went into teaching at the Department of History in the Arts Faculty of Baghdad University, before his assassination. The victim was expelled from the Iraqi intelligence services, because he refused to carry out a death sentence against a Kurdish national, Hushtak Bawil, who was in charge of the Turkish section within the Iraqi intelligence. Bawil was executed in 1989. A second victim was Muhammad al-Sab'awi, who is believed to have worked in the intelligence services with the rank of general director in the clandestine operations department until 1989. The other victims include, Karim al-Hanshawi, former director of the intelligence services in the provinces of Basra and Kirkuk. He was expelled by Sab'awi Ibrahim al-Hasan, before being sentenced to seven years in prison in 1993. He spent more than five years of his sentence in the Abu-Gharib prison. As for the two remaining victims, they are Isam al-Darubi, who is believed to have worked as director of the account department at the intelligence services, and Thamir al-Filahi, member of the higher command of the intelligence section at the disbanded Ba'th Party. So far, no one has claimed responsibility for this attack. Ba’athists stage attack on Shiite group in Najaf (Associated Press/AP) A small band of gunmen staged a midnight attack on the headquarters of a leading Shiite Muslim political organization in the city of Najaf, but no casualties were reported in the firefight, a spokesman for the group, the Supreme Council for the

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Islamic Revolution (SCIRI) in Iraq, said. He said four of the six attackers were captured and they admitted to being loyalists of the Ba’ath Party of deposed President Saddam Hussain. Protestors in Khaldiyah demand release of arrested women (Al-Bawaba News) In Khaldiyah, west of Fallujah, hundreds of Iraqis protested to demand the release of two women arrested in raids this week. Demonstrators said U.S. troops raided the home of a former Iraqi army officer but when they failed to find him, they arrested his wife and mother.

October 24 Gunmen storm Iraqi police station; bomb defused near Journalists Union. (Iran- based Iraqi Shia radio Voice of the Mujahidin) Unknown gunmen stormed Hadithah police station and detained an officer in one of the station's rooms. They seized weapons and ammunition and released the prisoners who escaped. In another development, Iraqi explosives experts have foiled an attempt to blow up the building of the Iraqi Journalists Union. An Iraqi police officer said that the bomb was defused when it was discovered under a car, belonging to the Union, which was parked in front of the building. He said that a person suspected of involvement in the incident was arrested.

October 25 Clashes between pro- and anti-Saddam demonstrators in (Iraqi newspaper Al-Zaman) The city of Tikrit has witnessed confrontations between pro and anti-Saddam demonstrators. A number of people from both sides have been injured. It was reported that hand grenades had been thrown into the house of Hamzah al-Barrak, the brother of Fadil al-Barrak, former head of the intelligence services, who was executed in 1992 by the former regime. Following this attack, a number of Al-Barrak's sons have been injured, and the house windows destroyed. Also the house of Nazhan Sharif Shahnaq (the nephew of the former defence minister, Hammad Shihab, who was killed in 1973, in what was called at that time the Nazim Kazzar plot) has been attacked. The explosion of the grenades has caused injuries to a girl who was swimming in a bath. The house windows were destroyed. The house is located in Tikrit's Al-Ba'th quarter. Police chief’s home attacked in (Iraqi newspaper Al-Zaman) The home of the head of the police in Samarra, General Talib Shamil, has been attacked with RPG missiles. This attack is the second in two weeks. The attack damaged the house and injured a member of the Shamil family. General Shamil was a retired officer, recalled for service, following the invasion of Iraq by the coalition forces. Two children killed in attack on police station in Mosul (Iraqi Kurdistan Democratic Party newspaper Khabat)

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Militants threw a hand grenade at security guards stationed at the front gate of Al- Hadba Police Station. Two children aged 9 and 12 years were killed in the attack, and the culprit was arrested by policemen from the station. Eleven wounded in attack on Kurdish sports team in northern Iraq (AFP) Eleven members of a martial arts team were wounded, three of them seriously, when unknown gunmen opened fire on their bus near Kirkuk, the head of the Kurdistan Olympic Club said. The Kurdish taekwondo team was heading back to Kirkuk from a Baghdad tournament when their bus was raked with gunfire, seriously wounding Ibrahim Rashid, 19, Diyar Jabbar, 22, and Ribas Admor, 25. The eight others were in stable condition, with the majority of them suffering slight wounds.

October 26 Attack on Rashid hotel in Baghdad (AFP) US Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz escaped uninjured when six to eight heavy rockets hit the landmark Rashid hotel in Baghdad, home to US government personnel, a coalition official said. The hotel is in an area sealed off with heavy security inside the main centre of operation of the US-led coalition ruling Iraq. Baghdad curfew lifted (CPA-Iraq website) Coalition authorities have informed the Baghdad City Council that the curfew in Baghdad is lifted beginning at 4:00 AM on 26 October. The curfew can be lifted due to the reduction in the crime rate in the city and the overall improvement in the security situation, as noted recently by the Ministry of Interior. Assassins in Baghdad kill a Deputy Mayor () Faris Abdul Razzaq Assam, one of Baghdad's three deputy mayors, was working on water projects and set up neighborhood councils despite threats. After Assam returned from an international donors' conference in Madrid, two gunmen walked into an outdoor cafe where Assam was playing dominoes and shot him in the head at point- blank range. The assailants slipped into the night and remain at large.

October 27 Bombs on Red Cross and police kill 33 in Baghdad (Reuters) Bombers struck at least four times in Baghdad's morning rush hour, killing at least 33 people near the Red Cross headquarters and police stations. At least two of the morning explosions appeared to have been suicide bombings, with an ambulance used in the Red Cross bombing. The suicide attack on the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) headquarters in central Baghdad killed 10 people and wounded at least 15, an ICRC official said. In northeast Baghdad, eight people died in a blast near a police station, a U.S. military policeman said. "There are eight dead, several walking wounded,'' US military said at the scene in the Shaab district. Witnesses said the attack also appeared to have been a suicide bombing. Officials at one hospital said 15 people had been killed in attacks on other police stations in the southwestern Baya and western Khadra districts. A police official said bombs had gone off near three police stations, but police had foiled an

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attack on a fourth, killing one suspect bomber and wounding another. The official said unexploded ordnance had also been found at a fire station and a market area. AFP report on the same news: Five suicide bombings in the Iraqi capital killed 43 people. A survey of nine hospitals counted 43 dead from the blasts, including two children and 19 women, and 216 people wounded. Danish officials located Iraqi war crimes suspect (Dow Jones International News) Danish prosecutors said they located a former Iraqi army chief of staff, Gen. Nizar al- Khazraji, who was being investigated for war crimes before he slipped out of the country earlier this year. Al-Khazraji, the highest ranking officer to have defected under Saddam, was being investigated in Denmark amid allegations he oversaw poison gas attacks on Kurds in northern Iraq in 1988. He has repeatedly denied any involvement. Al-Khazraji stayed under a Danish policy that lets a person live in the country without social security, supplied housing or the right to work. A person can leave the country, but cannot return. Denmark began investigating in 2001 whether he could be charged with crimes against humanity.

October 28 At least six killed in Fallujah (AFP) At least six people, including children, were killed by a car bomb in the Iraqi town of Fallujah. The car bomb exploded near a police station in Fallujah. At least six severely charred and mutilated bodies lay on the ground after a pick-up truck blew up about 150 meters from the police station. Another eight people were wounded, according to hospital sources. Newspaper editor fatally shot in Mosul (AP) An editor of a weekly newspaper was fatally shot while making a phone call from the roof of his office's building, police said. His daughter said he had been threatened because of his writings. Two men followed Ahmed Shawkat, editor of the independent "Without Direction," to the roof and one shot him. Several weeks ago Shawkat received letters warning him to close his newspaper, the daughter, who also works at "Without Direction," said. "He used to write against the resistance, against the Americans, against the local government and the former government" the daughter said.

October 29 Former Ba’ath Party member shot dead in Basra (AP) A former Ba’ath Party member was shot dead as he headed for the education department to receive his teacher's salary, witnesses and officials said. Mohammed Shlash had been reinstated as a teacher despite his former membership in Saddam Hussain's party. As he arrived at the department, he was shot in the head by two assailants who escaped. Former Ba’athist killed in Basra (International Herald Tribune) Mohammed Abdul Nabi al-Gishi was killed by an unidentified a man who shot him as he stood in the street. Al-Gishi had been the principal of an elementary school but also

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a former senior Ba’ath Party official. He had been out of work since the war. He had gone to the Education Ministry to see if officials there would hire him back. As he stood on the street in front of the ministry building, a white Toyota sedan with no license plates pulled up. A man in the passenger seat opened the window and shot al- Gishi in the head with an AK-47 rifle, the police said. Since late September 2003, more than a dozen former senior members of the Ba’ath Party have been shot and killed in the streets of Basra, three of them the last week of October 2003 alone, all shot in the head at close range. The police said the first victim, in late September, was Dr. Abdullah al-Fadhil. Gunmen killed him in his car as he was leaving work at the College of Medicine. Al-Fadhil, they added, may have been selected as the first target because he filled a special need for Ba’ath Party enforcers. When they caught army deserters, they would haul them over to the doctor's office, where he would cut off their ears. Since his death, at least 12 more have been killed, all of them party leaders. "Vengeance Squad" announces hunting former Ba'athists (Iraqi Kurdistan Democratic Party satellite TV) In a statement, an armed group composed of Iraqi youths identified itself as the Vengeance Squad. The aim of the group is “to hunt down former Ba'athists and former intelligence [Mukhabarat] officials, particularly those who had committed grave crimes against innocent people at intelligence headquarters”. In the statement, the group claimed that so far they had hunted down Ba'athists in Baghdad and Tikrit, and that they had been able to punish many intelligence officials who were close to Saddam. Iraq's prominent Shiite cleric survived assassination (Chinese Xinhua News Agency) A prominent Shiite cleric in Iraq survived an assassination attempt after unknown gunmen attacked him with machine guns and hand grenades, the office affiliated with the faction announced. Sheikh al-Karbelai, a representative of the supreme Shiite leader Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, was injured in the head, al-Sistani's office said in a statement. Five of his bodyguards were also wounded in the assault, made when the cleric returned home after a night prayer in a mosque.

October 30 Deadly blast rocks Baghdad's old quarter (AP) An explosion shook Baghdad's old quarter, killing at least two people and triggering a large fire. An Iraqi police officer said that an explosive device, possibly a box packed with TNT, detonated next to a printing shop located near the intersection of Rashid street and al-Motanabi streets. The dead included a tea seller who owned a stall near the site, police and witnesses said. At least four other people were wounded. Al-Ba’ath leaflets circulating in Baghdad (Canadian news agency Broadcast News) Some leaflets circulating in the Iraqi capital have already-tense residents even more on edge. The leaflets are purported to be from the “Arab Ba’ath Socialist Party -- Regional Command”. They call for a three-day general strike starting on November 1, and also say the day will mark the start of some kind of uprising.

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UN withdraws Baghdad staff for consultations (Reuters) The United Nations is temporarily withdrawing its international staff from Baghdad to consult on the security situation in the Iraqi capital, a spokeswoman said. The decision follows a car bomb attack on the International Committee of the Red Cross, in which 12 people, including two ICRC guards, were killed. The United Nations has about 30 international staffers in Baghdad and some 2,000 local staff around Iraq. The measure does not affect U.N. staff in the north of Iraq, which is considered to be safer. The United Nations had already reduced its presence in Iraq following a massive bomb blast at its Baghdad headquarters in August, which killed 22 people, amongst them Sergio Vieira de Mello, the head of its operations there. Foreign aid workers set to leave Baghdad (AFP) Foreign aid workers prepared to leave Baghdad amid a surge of bloodshed in the war- ravaged country where increasingly organized anti-US forces target coalition troops, police and civilians. As violence surged in Iraq, the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said they were pulling out their expatriate staff from Baghdad, at least for the time being. Both organizations said the foreign employees would leave Iraq pending a decision on future staffing and operations. The ICRC staff were due to head to a neighboring country for about a week, a spokeswoman for the Geneva-based organization said. Aid agencies already had drastically reduced their presence in the country since a bomb attack on the United Nation's Baghdad headquarters on August 19.

October 31 Attack on Fallujah town hall leaves at least one dead (AFP) One person was killed when residents attacked the municipal offices in the town of Fallujah, the civil defense reported. Several men opened fire at around 1:45 pm with assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades on the building in Fallujah. The clash pitted assailants wearing traditional robes and policemen guarding the municipal offices. A civil defense worker said that after hearing an explosion at the municipal building, a number of neighbors came in to complain about repeated violent actions in the area. “But after a brawl broke out, a policeman opened fire and killed one of the residents, Shaker Hekmat. Then the neighbors went home, fetched arms and attacked the municipality," he said. Pro-Saddam Iraqis clash with troops (AP) U.S. troops battled Iraqi rioters when a dispute over a marketplace exploded into anti- American fury. Leaflets and rumored warnings called for a "Day of Resistance" on November 1 at the start of a three-day general strike to protest U.S. occupation. At least two Iraqis were killed, and 17 others and two U.S. soldiers were reported wounded at the marketplace clashes outside Baghdad, as Iraqi rioters waved portraits of Saddam Hussain and shouted "God is great!" CNN reported as many as 14 Iraqis were killed. US forces seal former President’s village in Tikrit (RFE/RL Iraq Report) U.S. soldiers sealed off deposed President Hussein's native village and ordered all adults living there to register for identification cards. Soldiers entered the village of

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Uja, located some 16 kilometres from Tikrit, in the early morning hours, established checkpoints, and strung concertina wire around the perimeter of the

UNHCR Ankara Country of Origin Information Team Revised January 2004

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