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IRAQ WARS
Iraq forces raid Baghdad nightclubs: officials
by Staff Writers
Baghdad (AFP) Sept 5, 2012


Owners and employees at Baghdad nightclubs and bars voiced frustration on Wednesday after their establishments were raided by troops who allegedly beat customers and staff a day earlier.

The raids, the first of their kind in several months, come as the Iraqi capital takes tentative steps to emerge from years of conflict and violence, with a limited nightlife having slowly returned.

Army special forces carried out raids of venues serving alcohol at around 8:00 pm (1700 GMT) on Tuesday "at dozens of nightclubs in Karrada and Arasat, and beat up customers with the butts of their guns and batons," said an interior ministry official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"Artists who were performing at the clubs were also beaten," the official said. The reason for the raids was not immediately clear.

Another security official, who also declined to be identified, said the raids were ordered by Lieutenant General Faruq al-Araji, the top security official in Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's office, but he did not say why.

Araji commands the army's elite 56th Brigade, which is charged with security for Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone, home to parliament, government buildings and the US and British embassies.

"The men of the 56th Brigade were ordered to close the bars, nightclubs and shops where alcohol is served, but they also vandalised those places," the official said.

In the aftermath of the raids, many of the clubs and bars were closed.

Lazim, who works at an alcohol shop on Arasat street in central Baghdad, said he received a phone call at around 8:00 pm from a friend who was working at another liquor shop nearby.

"There, the soldier destroyed everything," said Lazim who, like all the employees and shop owners interviewed by AFP, did not want to give his name for fear of reprisal.

"Before leaving, they told my friend, 'You have 10 minutes to close, or something very bad will happen to you'."

As a result of the warning, Lazim quickly shuttered his shop just before "big black SUVs filled with soldiers came past my shop. You cannot argue with them. But thank God, nothing happened to my shop."

Though increasing numbers of Baghdad residents have begun to venture out to restaurants and nightclubs after sunset, a decision that would have been seen as crazy during the worst of Iraq's violence from 2006 to 2008, revelry has been held back by persistent power shortages and an overnight curfew.

"There were dozens of them," said a restaurant manager who gave his name as Abu Leopardo, or father of Leopardo. "Without saying anything, they began to destroy the restaurant."

"They beat my customers with cables, and afterwards, in the kitchen, they broke bottles of beer and whiskey. Some of my employees are in hospital," said the 27-year-old, who runs the Jannat al-Ahlam (Paradise Dreams) restaurant on Arasat street.

In the restaurant's kitchen, Bangladeshi and Pakistani staff wearing sandals were cleaning up the shattered glass that was all that was left of the broken bottles of alcohol.

"This is a five-star establishment," complained Abu Leopardo.

"I am a Christian and an Iraqi. But I have had enough. I want to leave Iraq on the next plane."

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Three dead in Iraq attacks
Baghdad (AFP) Sept 5, 2012 - Attacks on Iraqi officials and security forces killed three people and wounded four others on Wednesday, security and medical officials said.

In the northern town of Tuz Khurmatu, 175 kilometres (110 miles) north of Baghdad, two people -- a female judicial investigator and a police sergeant -- were shot dead as they left the town's court, a local police lieutenant colonel and a doctor at the nearby hospital said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Also north of the capital, an anti-Qaeda militiaman was shot dead and another was wounded in a gun attack on a checkpoint in Samarra, according to a police officer and a doctor at the city's hospital.

Three other militiamen were wounded by a bombing targeting their car in the town of Baladruz, 75 kilometres (45 miles) north of Baghdad, security and medical officials said.

The fighters were all members of the Sahwa, or Awakening movement, a collection of Sunni tribal militias that began siding with US forces against Al-Qaeda from late 2006 onwards, helping turn the tide of Iraq's violent insurgency.

Wednesday's attacks came a day after violence north of Baghdad left eight people dead -- six soldiers, a police general and a teenager whose corpse was mutilated.

Violence in Iraq is down dramatically from its peaks from 2006 to 2008, but attacks remain common -- 278 people were killed in August, according to an AFP tally based on reports from security and medical officials.



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IRAQ WARS
Eight dead in north Iraq attacks
Kirkuk, Iraq (AFP) Sept 4, 2012
Bombings and shootings in northern Iraq, mostly targeting security forces, left eight people dead on Tuesday, including six soldiers and a police general, security and medical officials said. In the deadliest attack, two near-simultaneous roadside bombs detonated as a military convoy was passing along the road between the town of Tuz Khurmatu, 175 kilometres (110 miles) north of Baghdad, and ... read more


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