Iraq - over 50 dead in fresh attacks

As the Saddam Hussein trial resumed after nearly two weeks [BBC] fresh attacks in Iraq Sunday have killed at least 46 people in a mainly Shi’ite area. Six car bombs exploded in Baghdad’s largest Shi’ite neighbourhood, Sadr city, which is home to many poor residents and is often patrolled by militia members of the Medhi Army, loyal to Shi’ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. According to Baghdad’s police 204 people were killed in the almost simultaneous blasts. A seventh car bomb was found and defused. Some of the Baghdad blasts took place in markets. The attacks are believed to be further attempts to enflame the Shi’ite population and to spark a civil war [CNN]. The BBC reported the death toll as only 36. Meanwhile, a further two civilians were killed in Baquba by another bomb attack and earlier Sunday, a roadside bomb went off as a U.S. military patrol was passing through western Baghdad, killing six civilians and wounding 13 others. No US fatalities were reported. However further attacks in Afghanistan saw the deaths of 4 US marines when the convoy in which they were travelling in was hit by a roadside bomb [CNN]. At least 220 members of the U.S. military have died in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan as a result of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001, according to the Defense Department.
The US announced this week that they were to leave Abu Ghraib prison [BBC]. But the move is merely cosmetic as the military shift their operations to a new location near Baghdad’s International Airport. This in itself is likely to increase concern around the world following recent allegations of rendition flights being coordinated by US authorities. The some 4,500 inmates at Abu Ghraib will be transported to the new facility, called Camp Cropper, when its construction is complete. But as the US attempt to put the notorious abuse of Abu Ghraib behind then, fresh reports have emerged that paint a very different picture of Iraq. A US report [BBC] cites that there has been a huge increase of abuse and torture by newly formed Iraqi forces. The state department's annual report said Iraqi police abuses included threats, intimidation and beatings, as well as the use of electric shocks. The report highlighted abuse by Iraq's security forces, describing "a climate of extreme violence in which people were killed for political and other reasons". The report also said the worst abuses against prisoners were carried out by police but the military was also a violator. In particular, the document mentions "suspension by the arms or legs, as well as the reported use of electric drills and cords". It adds: "The ongoing insurgency, coupled with sectarian and criminal violence, seriously affected the government's human rights performance."
Although the report went on to criticize China, North Korea, Burma, Iran, Zimbabwe, Cuba and Belarus which were named as among the worst human rights offenders, it failed to mention the US treatment of detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan or Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.