IRAQ: IRAQ'S PM SAYS OCCUPATION WILL ONLY END WHEN SHI'ITE AND SUNNIS RECONCILE AS FRESH VIOLENCE CLAIMS MIRE LIVES
Record ID:
649141
IRAQ: IRAQ'S PM SAYS OCCUPATION WILL ONLY END WHEN SHI'ITE AND SUNNIS RECONCILE AS FRESH VIOLENCE CLAIMS MIRE LIVES
- Title: IRAQ: IRAQ'S PM SAYS OCCUPATION WILL ONLY END WHEN SHI'ITE AND SUNNIS RECONCILE AS FRESH VIOLENCE CLAIMS MIRE LIVES
- Date: 8th June 2005
- Summary: (W3) BAIJI, IRAQ (JUNE 8, 2005) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. VARIOUS OF FIRE TRUCKS EXTINGUISHING FIRE (5 SHOTS) 0.33 2. VARIOUS OF OIL PIPELINE ON FIRE (3 SHOTS) 0.48 (W3) SAQLAWIYA, IRAQ (JUNE 8, 2005) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 3. VARIOUS OF U.S. SOLDIERS NEAR A DAMAGED U.S. MILITARY VEHICLE (5 SHOTS) 1.11 (BN09) BAQUBA, IRAQ (JUNE 8, 2005) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 4. U.S. MILITARY VEHICLES NEAR PETROL STATION WHERE CAR BOMB EXPLODED (2 SHOTS) 1.21 5. PAN IRAQI POLICE NEAR BURNED OUT CAR 1.31 6. SLV WRECKAGE OF CAR 1.39 7. MCU (Arabic) AHMED KADHEM, EYEWITNESS, SAYING: "At approximately 10:20 or 10:30 o'clock and as cars were lining up to get fuel we heard the explosion. There were four cars behind me and I managed to get out with my son, and this is the blood (turning his back) There was no U.S. convoy, no police or National Guards only innocent civilians queuing up." 2.02 8. PAN U.S. TROOPS NEAR BURNED OUT CARS 2.09 9. SLV U.S. SOLDIER EXAMINING CAR WRECKAGE 2.15 10. LV U.S. MILITARY VEHICLES ON SCENE 2.18 (BN09) BAGHDAD, IRAQ (JUNE 8, 2005) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 11. LV U.S. MILITARY VEHICLES AND TROOPS ON SCENE (2 SHOTS) 2.30 12. LV DAMAGED U.S. HUMVEE BEING LIFTED FROM SCENE 2.37 13. LV U.S. TROOPS NEAR DAMAGED U.S. HUMVEE 2.43 (W3) BAGHDAD, IRAQ (JUNE 8, 2005) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 14. LV NEWS CONFERENCE OF BADR MILITIA, THE MILITARY WING OF THE SUPREME COUNCIL FOR ISLAMIC REVOLUTION IN IRAQ (SCIRI) 2.49 15. SV IBRAHIM AL-JAAFARI, THE IRAQI PRIME MINISTER AT NEWS CONFERENCE 2.56 16. SV AUDIENCE (2 SHOTS) 3.05 17. MCU (Arabic) JAAFARI, SAYING: "Our Sunni brothers and all the sects of Iraq should exert every effort to find a suitable security situation that will prove to the world that Iraq is capable of dealing with its own affairs. So, there will be no need for the presence of (foreign) troops here and whenever our security capabilities improve and we start to improve it, there will be no need for the presence of the foreign troops." 3.33 18. SLV OF AUDIENCE AT NEWS CONFERENCE 3.38 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 23rd June 2005 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: BAIJI, BAGHDAD, SAQLAWIYA, BAQUBA, IRAQ
- Country: Iraq
- Reuters ID: LVA43AHP65Y7B1TVDFPTGZ6Q702F
- Story Text: Iraq's prime minister says occupation will only end
when Shi'ite and Sunnis reconcile as fresh violence claims
more lives.
Saboteurs blew up a main oil pipeline in northern
Iraq early on Wednesday (June 8), an official at the
Northern Oil company said.
A Reuters correspondent at the scene, just north of the
refining town of Baiji, said smoke was pouring into the
sky. Firecrews and U.S. military personnel were in
attendance.
The Northern Oil official said the line affected was
used to export oil to Turkey from Iraq's vast northern oil
fields around Kirkuk. The company official said there had
been no exports at the time because of repeated attacks.
"This isn't the first time. They've targeted oil for a
long time even when there is no exporting," he said on
condition of anonymity.
Iraq says 95 percent of its national income comes from crude oil
ex
ports and says it aims to lessen its dependency
on them.
In Saqlawiya, northwest of Falluja, witnesses said a
roadside bomb went off near a U.S. convoy early on
Wednesday (June 8), damaging a U.S. military vehicle.
U.S. forces did not give an immediate report about the
attack.
In a separate attack, a U.S. Humvee was damaged when a
roadside bomb exploded near a U.S. convoy in the Rustamiya
area southeast Baghdad.
Witnesses said that they saw U.S. troops evacuating a
body from the crippled vehicle.
There was no immediate comment by the U.S. army on the
attack.
Insurgents frequently target U.S. convoys with roadside
and suicide car bomb attacks.
1,679 American soldiers have been killed in Iraq since
the March 2003 invasion.
In other violence on Wednesday, a car bomb exploded
near a petrol station in Baquba town northeast of Baghdad,
killing three civilians and wounding one other, witnesses
said.
They said that the vehicle was detonated near cars,
which were lining up at the station. Four cars were set on
fire.
"At approximately 10:20 or 10:30 o'clock and as cars
were lining up to get fuel we heard the explosion. There
were four cars behind me and I managed to get out with my
son. There was no U.S. convoy, no police or National
Guards, only innocent civilians queuing up," said Ahmed
Kadhem who was waiting his turn to fill his car.
Baquba, a mixed Sunni and Shi'ite town 65 km (40 miles)
northeast of Baghdad which is home to many former members
of the Iraqi army, has experienced frequent car-bombings
and attacks over the past year.
Iraq's new government has come under mounting pressure
to improve security since it was formed in late April.
Insurgents have stepped up attacks, killing more than 800
security forces, officials and civilians since then.
Operation Lightning, which officials said would employ
40,000 police, security forces and army troops, is designed
to drive rebels out of Baghdad. Officials say 887
guerrillas have been detained so far.
Iraqi security officials said the operation, described
as the biggest offensive since the fall of Saddam Hussein
in 2003, had pushed guerrillas to an area known as the
"triangle of death" for its insurgent attacks.
The Iraqi Prime Minister, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, has
stressed the importance of efforts to unify the country's
Sunnis and Shi'ites to help Iraq achieve self-sufficiency
in its battle with insurgents. Jaafari added that once Iraq
takes control of the situation, foreign troops would no
longer be needed.
"Our Sunni brothers and all the sects of Iraq should be
exert every effort to find a suitable security situation
that will prove to the world that Iraq is capable of
dealing with its own affairs. So, there will be no need for
the presence of (foreign) troops here and whenever our
security capabilities improve and we start to improve it,
there will be no need for the presence of the foreign
troops," Jaafari said in a press conference of the Badr
Militia, the military wing of the Islamic Revolution In
Iraq (SCIRI) in Baghdad on Wednesday (June 8).
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