Iraq - further chaos ahead of new elections

Iyad Allawi runs from shoe throwing crowd.
The situation in Iraq, far from developing into a controlled peaceful democracy, is spiralling out of control day by day. Today, former interim prime-minister Iyad Allawi was the latest target of insurgents. His car was hit by gunfire on Sunday as he made his way to a Shia mosque in Najaf. Earlier his convoy was pelted with rocks and shoes [BBC]. Correspondent Nick Robertson described a scene of chaos as an exclusive video, shot by CNN, showed Allawi running from the mosque chased by a mob throwing shoes. The crowd surged out of the mosque and shots were fired at his escaping convoy. Allawi accused Shias of being responsible for torture and death squads in recent press reports and speculation has been made that today’s attacks were in response to his political posturing. His appeal is said to be amongst the ‘intellectual elite’ in Iraq.
On Saturday an attack by insurgents killed 19 in north Baghdad and further insurgent attacks took the lives of 10 US marines in Fallujah earlier in the week. Alleged footage of the earlier attack was released to Arab TV networks Saturday but the Pentagon and US authorities refused to be drawn as to its authenticity. The footage showed a humvee destroyed by a roadside bomb. The release of such footage is the latest in an ongoing propaganda war being fought by both the US military and insurgents. The US military was accused in the week of ‘planting’ stories in Iraqi newspapers. Stories ‘favourable to the coalition’ were printed in Iraqi newspapers in exchange for money, but one US General said the stories were intended to “put the truth out there”. John Warner, a Republican from Virginia, said “Things like this happen. It's a war. The disinformation that's going on in that country is really affecting the effectiveness of what we're achieving, and we have no recourse but to try and do some rebuttal information." Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, added that, "We want to get the facts out. We want to get the truth out." [CNN]
And propaganda from the other side is coming thick and fast. Several kidnappings throughout the week have brought with it the release of video tapes of the abductees. And as efforts are made to release then hostages, deadlines and ultimatums have been issued by the insurgents. One deadline has come and gone. In previews of articles due to appear on Monday, magazines Der Spiegel and Focus said the ultimatum made in a video that archaeologist Susanne Osthoff would be killed if Germany did not end all support for the Iraqi government had run out on Friday. The German archaeologist was kidnapped last weekend along with her driver. [CNN] And the group holding a Briton, an American and two Canadians has issued a demand that all prisoners held by coalition forces be released by Thursday. Relatives of the Briton, Norman Kember, and the Canadians have both released video tapes pleading for their release. The insurgent group holding them have threatened to kill them on Thursday if their demands are not met.
And the CIA is in for criticism after reports suggest they have secretly used German airports to ‘smuggle’ terror suspects to ‘secret camps’. [BBC]
[23:30 GMT 04/12/2005]