Suicide bombings in Samawa, Iraq admist civil unrest

Suicide bombings in Iraq’s southern city of Samawa, 155 miles south of Baghdad, once again rocked the country this Sunday amidst already tense civil protests. The blast killed 32 people and wounded 73 others, including women and children. Shortly after, ISIS claimed responsibility for the attacks in a statement made on twitter. The statement included a detailed description of the execution of the attacks stating that the assailant “blew up his car in the middle of a gathering of the Shiite Ministry of Interior Special Forces (al-Maghaweer forces). He killed and wounded a number of them.” After Shiite firefighters and policemen arrived at the scene, a second car explosion went off and killed more victims.

The initial explosion was set off near government office buildings and the second followed some 60 meters away near a bus stop. The double car explosion set debris into the air and huge flames created smoke clouds in the sky. It is expected that the death toll should rise as firefighters continue to clear the scene. Unverified photographs show the remnants of the exploded cars as well as the burnt bodies of civilians on the ground.

The attack occurred in the midst of heated protests by civilians in Iraq’s Green Zone, the international zone of Baghdad that historically has been off limits to normal Iraqi’s. The protestors who had stormed the citadel retreated on Sunday after their Shiite cleric leader, Moktada al-Sadr, mandated it so as to preserve the honor of the 8^th century imam Moussa al-Kadhim. The protestors chanted for government transparency and an end to corruption through the resignation of the President, Prime Minister, and speaker.

Iraq’s internal turmoil and terrorist attacks were echoed in its northern neighbor Turkey, who on Sunday also suffered an ISIS-claimed car bomb attack that left two dead and 22 injured.

 

http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/01/middleeast/iraq-violence/index.html

http://www.ibtimes.com/after-isis-suicide-bombing-attack-iraq-samawa-death-toll-expected-grow-2362307

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/iraq-car-bombings-isis-claims-responsibility-after-two-blasts-latest-info-in-city-of-samawa-a7008811.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/02/world/middleeast/iraq-protesters-leave-baghdad-green-zone-on-clerics-order

http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/isis-terror/isis-attacks-kill-32-southern-iraq-bombing-turkey-kills-two-n565496

 

The Afghan Opium Trade: The Taliban and the Government

Although almost nearly two years ago, the capture and indictment of a Mullah Abdul Rashid Baluch once the Taliban shadow governor of the ‘Nimruz Province’, has cast a serious light on the evolution and rapidly changing nature of insurgency and its connections with the opium trade in Afghanistan.  Mullah Rashid who was captured after an Afghan special forces team descended on his convoy in July 2014 seizing nearly a metric ton of opium along with other light machine guns, assault rifles and munitions seems to have been just a glimpse of the Taliban’s further involvement in the production and distribution of drugs in and from Afghanistan.  Likewise,  increasingly more senior Taliban leaders are becoming involved directly in the illicit drug trade,  which has made it more difficult to distinguish the group from a drug cartel.  Even the most recent figure to claim leadership of the Taliban–Mullah Akhtar Muhammad Mansour, has seemingly deepening ties and a personal investment in the opium trade; where as head of the tribal Ishaqzai drug trafficking organization, he bought off fellow Taliban dissenters using his own sizable fortune in order to secure his position as leader of the Taliban.

This recent change in the nature and involvement of the Taliban in the heroin trade has also raised serious concerns in the international community, where the United Nations warned that the Taliban’s increasing involvement in drug trafficking “has real consequences for peace and security in Afghanistan, as it encourages those within the Taliban movement who have the greatest economic incentives to oppose any meaningful process of reconciliation with the new government.”  Notably this increasing Taliban involvement in drug smuggling has stemmed from the sheer profitability of the drug trade compared to other illegal operations such as the smuggling of precious gems and lumber.  Additionally, the lack of income from traditional donors in the Persian Gulf has ultimately forced the Taliban to become more self-reliant financially, which has undoubtedly pushed them more into the smuggling of opium.

However, the large financial incentives of the opium trade do not stop with the Taliban. In the district of Garmsir, Afghani poppy cultivation has become so lucrative that local government officials have imposed a tax on poppy farmers in order to raise revenue for the state.  This tax, similar to what the Taliban does to poppy farmers that it controls, casts an unwanted shadow on the U.S. attempts to establish counter-narcotics programs which have cost more than $8.4 billion over the past fourteen years in efforts to combat the increasing poppy production in Afghanistan which boasts roughly 780 square miles of opium growing operations.

 Overall it seems that with rising levels of heroin use both in the Afghanistan and in the U.S., the increasingly closer ties between the Taliban, Afghani state officials and their respective opium production and trafficking can only lead to more instability, violence and greater turmoil in the future; and when it comes to establishing a legitimate and stable system of governance in Afghanistan, much work is yet to be done.

 

• http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/17/world/asia/afghanistan-opium-taliban-drug-cartel.html
• http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/heroin-use-grows-u-s-poppy-crops-thrive-afghanistan-n388081
• http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/16/world/asia/afghanistan-opium-heroin-taliban-helmand.html?login=email&mtrref=www.nytimes.com&mtrref=www.nytimes.com
• http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/21/world/in-a-sorrowful-pastime-kabul-residents-watch-as-drug-addiction-climbs.html?action=click&contentCollection=Asia%20Pacific&module=RelatedCoverage&region=Marginalia&pgtype=article&mtrref=www.nytimes.com&assetType=nyt_now

Explosion near Damascus triggers large blackouts for Syria

Much of Syria was hit by a power cut late Wednesday following a blast near Damascus’s international airport. Syria’s electricity minister said, “A terrorist attack on a gas pipeline that feeds a power station in the south has led to a power outage.” According to the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, rebel fighters fired on a gas pipeline near the airport causing anexplosion. Residents and activists reported seeing a large fire, though it is unclear if there have been any casualties. Damascus and southern Syria have seen several blackouts since fighting erupted in 2011, and many rebel-held regions of the country have been without electricity for months. Meanwhile, the Syrian government is expected to deliver its disarmament plan by Thursday to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), in accordance with the U.S. and Russian-led deal for the elimination of Syria’s chemical arsenal. Additionally, Syrian authorities have released an estimated 61 female prisoners in the past two days in part of a three-way prisoner exchange.

http://mideast.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2013/10/24/explosion_near_damascus_triggers_large_blackouts_for_syria

Can Iraq ever escape cycle of violence?

By Jane Kinninmont, special for CNN

updated 4:22 AM EDT, Wed October 2, 2013

Violence in Iraq has spiked in the last year, according to the United Nations, but as has become the case with Syria, it’s rarely news if the day’s deaths are “only” in the tens. The same Western governments who led the invasion of Iraq in 2003 are now looking away, seeing Iraq as the problem of previous administrations, and being preoccupied with fresher crises in Syria and Egypt.

The impression of constant bad news belies the reality that violence in Iraq had for some time been reduced, but is rapidly becoming worse again. More than 1,000 civilians died in July, levels not seen since the dark days of 2006-2007. Such violence is not a permanent reality for Iraq, but is symptomatic of political failures.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/02/opinion/iraq-violence-opinion-kinninmont/index.html?iref=allsearch

Assad suggests Middle East terrorist groups could respond to strike with chemical weapons—Fox News

Syrian President Bashar Assad, warning to “expect everything” as a response to any U.S. strike against his country, appeared to be hoping to use veiled threats to influence a U. S. public already wary about taking action. His comments came in an interview with Charlie Rose on “CBS This Morning.” When asked if “everything” included chemical warfare, Assad replied, “That depends. If the rebels or the terrorists in this region, or any other group have it, it could happen, I don’t know. I am not a fortune teller.” The Syrian dictator could have been referring to a range of possibilities. One was perhaps Hezbollah in Lebanon, with its expanded arsenal of more than 60,000 rockets and missiles capable of striking Israel. According to the Israeli Defense Force, Hezbollah built up its missile stockpile after the 2006 conflict with Israel and now has missiles that could reach Eilat. In recent days, the leader of Hezbollah in neighboring Iraq threatened that Iraq’s Shi’ite groups, would attack U.S. targets in the Gulf, according to the Middle East Media Research Institute. Read more here.

Egypt minister warns of terrorism after assassination attempt-Reuters

(09-05-13) The Egyptian interior minister survived an assassination attempt unscathed on Thursday when a car bomb blew up his convoy and he said afterwards that a wave of terrorism by opponents of the military-installed government was just beginning. The minister, Mohamed Ibrahim, had been involved in overseeing a violent crackdown on supporters of Mohamed Mursi, the elected Islamist president who was overthrown two months ago by the army following mass protests against his rule. Read more.

Attack on Syria may trigger terrorists acts against U.S., Israel—WashTimes

(08-28-13) “With the White House closer to launching a surgical military strike on Syria, questions swirl over the extent to which such an attack could trigger a wave of terrorism directed at the U.S. and Israel. Some analysts say that Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Lebanese militia fighting in support of embattled Syrian President Bashar Assad, likely would be inspired to ramp up operations in Iran’s “shadow war” with the U.S. and its allies.” Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/aug/26/attack-on-syria-could-trigger-terrorists-acts-agai/#ixzz2dKBi1QFg