Report: Israel kidnapped over 440 Palestinians last month
GAZA, (PIC)5 Apr — The Palestinian ministry of prisoners’ affairs said it documented more than 690 raids carried out last March by the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) on homes in the West Bank during which they kidnapped more than 440 Palestinians including 60 children. The youngest child kidnapped was Mohamed Al-Natsheh, an 11-year-old boy from occupied Jerusalem. 12 foreign activists were also detained by Israeli troops during anti-wall demonstrations held last month, according to the report….
6 more detained from Awarta in Itamar investigation
NABLUS (Ma‘an) 5 Apr — Israeli soldiers detained six residents of Awarta on Tuesday morning, the latest in a wave of arrests in the village said to be in relation to investigations of the Itamar murders. Village council head Qais Awwad said soldiers searched homes before detaining six men. Those detained were identified as Ahmad Maen, Hakim Mazen, Eliath Awwad and three brothers, all sons of a man identified as Tareq Al-Nammas. It is the third wave of detentions since an unknown assailant entered the Itamar settlement and stabbed to death five members of the Fogel family.
Israeli army detains 10 Palestinians overnight
JENIN (Ma‘an) 5 Apr — Israeli military officials handed out three summons to Jenin residents overnight, and detained 10 from other parts of the West Bank. Local officials said villagers in Kafr Ra‘i and Arraba were told to appear at the Salem military camp at the northern tip of the West Bank. Forces entered the villages before sunrise to hand out the papers, waking the families of Bassam Ardah, Muhammad Al-Shibani and Ahmad Milhem and conducting brief searches.
Protesters call for return of ex-Guantánamo detainee
KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza (Ma‘an) — Dozens of Palestinians demonstrated at the Red Cross headquarters in Khan Younis Monday, calling for the return of a former Guantánamo detainee from Spain. Walid Ibrahim Hijazi, from Gaza, was detained in America’s Guantánamo prison in 2001, and transferred to Spain in 2010 as part of a deal between the governments. Hijazi is not permitted to leave the country. Hilmi Hijazi, the detainee’s brother, said his brother used to work in Pakistan and was not known to be engaged in any terrorist activity.
Veronica Abu Sisi: I’ll sue Israel, Ukraine
Ynet 5 Apr — In interview with Ukraine’s Kommersant newspaper, Gaza engineer’s wife claims evidence against her husband was ‘fabricated’ to justify his kidnapping, arrest — Veronica Abu-Sisi, wife of Gaza engineer Dirar Abu-Sisi, who was kidnapped in Kiev and brought to Tel Aviv where he is being indicted, is threatening to sue the Ukraine and Israel in the European Court for Human Rights in Strasbourg.
And more news from Today in Palestine:
Land, property, resources theft & destruction / Ethnic cleansing / Settlers
High Court to hear petition challenging forced deportations
Tel Aviv (PNN) 4 Apr — On Wednesday morning the Israeli High Court will hear a petition that challenges both Israel’s control of the Palestinian population registry as well as its forced removal of citizens from the West Bank to Gaza. Control of the population registry has allowed Israel to designate 35,000 Palestinians, born in Gaza and living in the West Bank for up to 10 years, as “criminals.” This further allows the Israeli government to justify a policy of forced relocation from one section of the Palestinian Territories to another. Last year the Israeli military implemented a renewed policy of deporting Palestinians living in PA-controlled areas in the West Bank to Gaza, regardless of their personal or family history in West Bank. Sixteen human rights organizations, including the Center for the Defense of the Individual and Gisha, have submitted a petition challenging the policy of forced removal based on Israel’s definitions of citizens as “criminals.”
http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=9831&Itemid=63
Rabbi calls for sacrifice on Temple Mount
Ynet 5 Apr — The annual attempts to resume the Passover sacrifice received a first significant rabbinical backing recently. Safed’s Chief Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, a prominent religious Zionism leader, has called on the public to perform the sacrifice mitzvah on the eve of the Jewish holiday, in about two weeks … The Safed rabbi went on to say that the Passover sacrifice could be slaughtered in front of the Dome of the Rock plaza, although the Temple no longer exists and the people of Israel are defined as “tameh met” (in a status of impurity which comes from contact with a dead body). In order to overcome the greatest obstacle, beyond the political problem, an altar must be erected, the rabbi said.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4051918,00.html
UN condemns plans for East Jerusalem settler homes
JERUSALEM (AFP) 5 Apr — The UN’s Middle East envoy on Tuesday condemned plans by Jerusalem city council to build over 900 new Jewish-only homes in Gilo settlement. “Israeli settlement activity anywhere in occupied territory, including in east Jerusalem, is illegal and contrary to the roadmap,” said Richard Miron, spokesman for United Nations peace envoy Robert Serry, in reference to the peace roadmap adopted by the Middle East diplomatic Quartet.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=375869
US ‘deeply concerned’ about Israel settlement expansion
Haaretz 5 Apr — State Department issues statement calling on Israel to halt settlement building in light of possible building in East Jerusalem and the West Bank.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/u-s-deeply-concerned-about-israel-settlement-expansion-1.354174
Israeli police interrogate Information Center director Jawad Siyam’s wife
Silwan, Jerusalem (SILWANIC) 4 Apr — The wife of Wadi Hilweh Information Center Director Jawad Siyam was summoned by police for investigation yesterday, 3 April, for the second time in 4 days. Siyam’s wife was interrogated for two hours at the station. Police refused the request of Siyam’s lawyer for her to attend investigation the following day instead, so that he may accompany her. Officials also refused to release Siyam from police custody until his wife came in for investigation.
http://silwanic.net/?p=14417
Itamar settlers uproot tree saplings near Nablus
NABLUS (Ma‘an) 5 Apr — Residents of Itamar settlement who recently erected an illegal outpost destroyed dozens of tree saplings in the area, Palestinian farmers said Tuesday … The saplings had recently been planted through an initiative by the Union of Agricultural Work Committees, which has in the past supported farmers who cannot afford to seed fields. The initiative is meant to support farmers so they can continue to work their lands despite hardship. Villagers said this was the fourth time in recent weeks that agricultural products and equipment have been vandalized.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=375733
Settlers sabotage water spring of Palestinian village
NABLUS, (PIC) 5 Apr — Jewish settlers attacked the village of Madma on Tuesday and polluted and damaged its water spring, local sources said. They said that settlers from Yitzhar settlement attacked their almost only water well and deprived citizens from making use of it.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd8
Settlers seize Palestinian lands in Salfit
West Bank, (Pal Telegraph) 5 Apr — Settlers of the illegal settlement of Tafouh [Tapuah] surrounded yesterday about 600 Dunums belonging to Palestinian citizens with barbed wire around their settlement which was built on the territory of Yasuf town in Salfit city. The head of Yasuf village council, Abdul-Rahim Musleh, said that the fence was placed on Palestinian lands located along the main road that connects the northern and western areas with Za‘tara crossroad. Actions started as dozens of settlers supported by Israeli bulldozers razed large areas and set up 17 mobile homes in an attempt to include those lands to their settlement.
http://www.paltelegraph.com/palestine/west-bank/8850-settlers-size-palestinian-lands-in-salfit.html
Analysis: Evacuated from Gaza in 2004 but still ‘homeless’
RAMALLAH, 4 April 2011 (IRIN) – More than five years after 9,000 Israeli settlers were removed from the 22 settlements of the Gush Katif community in the Gaza Strip and from four smaller settlements in the West Bank, most evacuees are still living rough and are yet to rebuild their homes. [and of course the less the Israeli gov’t does for them, and the worse off they are, the less West Bank settlers are likely to take a chance on being evacuated themselves]
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportID=92358
IDF Violence / Incursions
Gaza man killed by Israeli artillery fire
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 5 Apr — Israeli soldiers on Tuesday shot and killed a Palestinian man near the border in the northern Gaza Strip. Witnesses said two others were injured by the artillery fire. They said the group of men were collecting cement particles for use in construction aggregates near the Erez crossing … Palestinian medical sources identified the man as 22-year-old Muhammad Ziad Shalha.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=375735
And the Israeli version:
IDF kills armed Palestinians approaching Gaza border fence
Haaretz 5 Apr — Israel Defense Forces’ tanks fired at and killed an armed Palestinian approaching the Gaza Strip’s border with Israel on Tuesday, as three mortar bombs exploded in Israeli soil. The incident took place after an IDF force spotted an armed Palestinian near the Erez crossing at the Strip’s north, later directing tank fire to the spot. No injuries were reported from among the soldiers.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/idf-kills-armed-palestinian-approaching-gaza-border-fence-1.354207
Israeli shelling destroys phone, Internet lines in Gaza
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 5 Apr — Israeli artillery fire that killed one man and injured two others in Gaza on Tuesday also cut the main fiber optic lines providing telephone and internet access to the northern Gaza Strip, government officials said.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=375815
Israeli soldiers storm Palestinian house near Hebron
West Bank, (Pal Telegraph) 5 Apr — Israeli occupation forces turned yesterday a house in the town of Tarusa in the west of Hebron to a military base and deployed a number of armed soldiers around it. Witnesses told SAFA News Agency that four Israeli soldiers stormed the house belonging to Saker Al-Masalma in Tarusa area. Witnesses added that dozens of settlers enhanced with five vehicles blockaded a mosque and school in the area and erected military checkpoints. Israeli soldiers obstructed citizens passing through the main road linking Dura town with the nearby villages, without detentions reported.
http://www.paltelegraph.com/palestine/west-bank/8851-israeli-soldiers-storm-palestinian-house-near-hebron.html
Israeli army breaks into several houses in Hebron
West Bank, (Pal Telegraph) 5 Apr — Israeli army conducted Tuesday morning intensified search operations to civilians’ homes in Hebron under the pretext of searching for wanted people. Security sources told WAFA News Agency that a Palestinian citizen identified as Ashraf al-Zeeb was detained after raiding several houses and shops in Al-Dahria in the south part of Hebron. The man was taken to an unknown destination. Israeli forces also stormed Bani Na‘im and Karma villages and shut the iron gate at the main entrance of Beit Ummer town, preventing citizens from passing to their destinations.
http://www.paltelegraph.com/palestine/west-bank/8852-israeli-army-breaks-into-several-homes-in-hebron.html
Siege
Calls for connecting Gaza to Egyptian electricity grid
GAZA, (PIC) 5 Apr — Suhail Sakik, the director of the power plant in Gaza, has called on Egypt to restart a project that would enable the Gaza Strip to buy its electricity from Egypt as the Strip falls under threat of crisis during an ongoing power shortage. “Gaza lives in a crisis exceeding 30 per cent of its electric power needs,” Sakik said during a conference staged by Pal Think for strategic studies titled “Two years since the Sharm al-Sheikh conference and the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip has not yet begun.”
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2b
Detention
Report: Israel kidnapped over 440 Palestinians last month
GAZA, (PIC)5 Apr — The Palestinian ministry of prisoners’ affairs said it documented more than 690 raids carried out last March by the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) on homes in the West Bank during which they kidnapped more than 440 Palestinians including 60 children. The youngest child kidnapped was Mohamed Al-Natsheh, an 11-year-old boy from occupied Jerusalem. 12 foreign activists were also detained by Israeli troops during anti-wall demonstrations held last month, according to the report….
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bc
6 more detained from Awarta in Itamar investigation
NABLUS (Ma‘an) 5 Apr — Israeli soldiers detained six residents of Awarta on Tuesday morning, the latest in a wave of arrests in the village said to be in relation to investigations of the Itamar murders. Village council head Qais Awwad said soldiers searched homes before detaining six men. Those detained were identified as Ahmad Maen, Hakim Mazen, Eliath Awwad and three brothers, all sons of a man identified as Tareq Al-Nammas. It is the third wave of detentions since an unknown assailant entered the Itamar settlement and stabbed to death five members of the Fogel family.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=375642
Israeli army detains 10 Palestinians overnight
JENIN (Ma‘an) 5 Apr — Israeli military officials handed out three summons to Jenin residents overnight, and detained 10 from other parts of the West Bank. Local officials said villagers in Kafr Ra‘i and Arraba were told to appear at the Salem military camp at the northern tip of the West Bank. Forces entered the villages before sunrise to hand out the papers, waking the families of Bassam Ardah, Muhammad Al-Shibani and Ahmad Milhem and conducting brief searches.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=375730
Protesters call for return of ex-Guantánamo detainee
KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza (Ma‘an) — Dozens of Palestinians demonstrated at the Red Cross headquarters in Khan Younis Monday, calling for the return of a former Guantánamo detainee from Spain. Walid Ibrahim Hijazi, from Gaza, was detained in America’s Guantánamo prison in 2001, and transferred to Spain in 2010 as part of a deal between the governments. Hijazi is not permitted to leave the country. Hilmi Hijazi, the detainee’s brother, said his brother used to work in Pakistan and was not known to be engaged in any terrorist activity.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=375461
Veronica Abu Sisi: I’ll sue Israel, Ukraine
Ynet 5 Apr — In interview with Ukraine’s Kommersant newspaper, Gaza engineer’s wife claims evidence against her husband was ‘fabricated’ to justify his kidnapping, arrest — Veronica Abu-Sisi, wife of Gaza engineer Dirar Abu-Sisi, who was kidnapped in Kiev and brought to Tel Aviv where he is being indicted, is threatening to sue the Ukraine and Israel in the European Court for Human Rights in Strasbourg.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4052683,00.html
War crimes
Jewish leftists disrupt Kadima MK speech at US university
Haaretz 5 Apr — Kadima MK Avi Dichter was interrupted by protesters as he stood up to speak to an audience of hundreds of students at Brandeis University near Boston on Wednesday. Several students got up out of their seats and called Dichter a war criminal, both in English and Hebrew. The incident was captured on video and uploaded to YouTube.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/jewish-leftists-disrupt-kadima-mk-speech-at-u-s-university-1.354195
US State Dept concludes Goldstone found no evidence of Israeli war crimes
Mondo 4 Apr — Haaretz says the State Department has clambered on to the Richard Goldstone statement in the Washington Post to say that Israel committed no war crimes in Gaza. Astonishing — a nullification of everything that Obama said about protecting civilians in Libya: … So is the outcome of all this that the Palestinians will be indicted for war crimes for actions that killed four civilians and the Israelis will be blessed for the killing of nearly 400 children?
https://mondoweiss.net/2011/04/u-s-state-dept-concludes-goldstone-found-no-evidence-of-israeli-war-crimes.html
Goldstone to visit Israel in July
Ynet 5 Apr — Accepting Interior Minister Eli Yishai’s invitation, South African judge says he would be honored to visit because he loves Israel, Jewish people .. Goldstone said he would tour the southern city of Sderot and towns in the Gaza vicinity. The announcement came after Interior Minister Eli Yishai invited Goldstone to visit Israel in a Monday evening telephone conversation
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4052402,00.html
Yishai under fire over Goldstone invitation
Ynet 5 Apr — Many state officials furious with interior minister over his decision to invite South African judge to Israel, which he made without any consultation. Yishai: I invited Goldstone as my personal guest
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4052663,00.html
UN Human Rights Council stands by Goldstone report
Ynet 5 Apr — Council spokesman claims op-ed article expresses judge’s personal views, not committee’s; maintains nixing report would take majority vote
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4052426,00.html
Gaza officials protest EU vote on Goldstone report
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 5 Apr — Over 100 Palestinian figures from the Gaza Strip sent a letter of protest to the EU Representative in Palestine, after delegates voted against moving forward on the recommendations of the Goldstone Report at the UN … EU representatives voted against a resolution which started a process that could lead allegations of war crimes during Israel’s 2008-2009 war on Gaza to the International Court of Justice … While member nations of the UNHRC passed the motion, Palestinian officials denounced “the fact that the majority of European countries did not vote in favor of the resolution.” … Britain voted against the resolution while other EU nations abstained.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=375688
Gaza families shocked after Goldstone retraction
GAZA, (PIC) 5 Apr — Families of some of the casualties laid to rest during the 2008-9 Israeli war on Gaza expressed shock over recent statements by Judge Richard Goldstone that he retracted his opinion that Israel had committed crimes during aggression … Muteea al-Selawi, who lost seven members of his family in the war, said that he has lost hope that international rights organizations would side with justice, as they have had a long track record of siding with Israel.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcO
Racism
This subject was extensively addressed in the Today in Palestine list for Sunday, 3 April, but that list was not posted to Mondoweiss because of the press of news that day. Anyone interested can access the list at the listserv groups.yahoo.com/group/f_shadi. All the lists are archived there.
Juliano Mer-Khamis
Thousands expected for commemoration of slain director
RAMALLAH (Ma‘an) 5 Apr — Jenin Freedom Theater director Juliano Mer-Khamis will be buried on Wednesday, in Kibbutz Ramot Menashe, following three funeral processions in Haifa, Jenin and Ramallah on Tuesday morning … Theater students released a statement on Tuesday morning, saying “Juliano, your mother’s children have passed away, your mother Arna has passed away and so did you – but your children are going to stay, following your path on the way to the freedom battle, and we will go on with your revolution’s promise, the Jasmine revolution….”
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=375691
…troops raid the Freedom Theater
Gaza (PNN) 5 Apr — …Also on Tuesday morning Israeli troops invaded Jenin refugee camp and raided the Freedom Theatre. Freedom Theatre Founder Juliano Mer-Khamis was shot dead near his home in Jenin on Monday afternoon. Witnesses told local media that troops stormed the theater in early hours of Tuesday morning, searched it, and took documents and photos form the site. Soldiers also searched nearby homes. Palestinian security sources said that since last night the Israeli army has installed military checkpoints on roads leading in and out of the city and are searching Palestinian cars. [so much for allowing the PA to investigate the murder]
http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=9830&Itemid=56
A stunning photo of Palestinians holding posters of Juliano Mer-Khamis, a map of Palestine targeted on his heart
http://twitpic.com/4h9wvb
Suspects arrested in Mer-Khamis murder probe
Ynet 5 Apr — A day after Arab-Israeli actor Juliano Mer-Khamis was shot to death in Jenin, Palestinian security forces continue their search for those responsible for the murder. In the past 24 hours, several Palestinians have been arrested, including a Hamas member. However, the investigation is more focused on the intelligence front. A Palestinian police spokesman told Ynet that a number of Palestinian suspects are currently being interrogated. He noted they do not have a main suspect.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4052643,00.html
Video: The Jenin Freedom Theatre today!
2010 — Produced by the Friends of the Jenin Freedom Theatre in NYC, this video provides an overview of the work being done at the Freedom Theatre in Jenin Refugee Camp, West Bank, Palestine. The Freedom Theatre grew out of the documentary film, “Arna’s Children.” For more information: www.thefreedomtheatre.org [where there are other videos on the theater]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=pQGqmLyunm0#at=23
Shock in Jenin after theater director’s murder
JENIN (AFP) 5 Apr — Jenin refugee camp was in shock on Tuesday after the brutal murder of its theater director, with co-workers refusing to believe he was killed for his work … “I cannot believe it, it’s like a nightmare,” said Samia Steti, director of programs at the theater, who told AFP she had been speaking to Mer-Khamis just minutes before he was murdered. “We met at 3:30 for about 15 minutes to prepare for a meeting about ‘Alice in Wonderland’ but then he left to take his baby son home with the babysitter,” she said. “About two minutes later we heard shooting and everybody started joking that they had killed him,” Steti told AFP, saying Mer-Khamis himself had always made a point of joking around that one day he would die in the camp. Then they went outside and realized what had happened. Police and medics said the shooter had fired five bullets at Mer-Khamis, one of which hit the arm of the babysitter who was also in the car. His 10-month-old son, who was sitting on his lap at the time, was unharmed, friends and co-workers said.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=375860
Israeli actor’s murder in Jenin most likely premeditated assassination
Haaretz 4 Apr — Zakariya Zubeidi, the Palestinian former militant who went on to co-manage the Freedom Theater with slain actor Juliano Mer-Khamis, tells Haaretz that the shooting was ‘not a simple operation’ … In 2006, Mer-Khamis opened the Freedom Theater. Zubeidi was appointed co-manager in an attempt to subdue the ongoing threats voiced against both the institution and Mer-Khamis. The theater itself was torched twice in the past, and the threats persisted despite Zubeidei’s appointment. Some of the criticism focused on the fact that the theater offered co-ed activities, despite prohibition in the Islamic moral code. Objectors were also outraged when Mer-Khamis staged the play “Animal Farm”, in which the young actors played the part of a pig, which Islam considers an impure animal.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/israeli-actor-s-murder-in-jenin-most-likely-pre-meditated-assassination-1.354081
Gideon Levy remembers Juliano Mer-Khamis: an Arab, a Jew, a human being
Haaretz 5 Apr — One of the most talented theater actors to ever emerge here was also the most courageous of them.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/gideon-levy-remembers-juliano-mer-khamis-an-arab-a-jew-a-human-being-1.354100
Politics / Diplomacy / International
Palestinian efforts to isolate Israel like ‘war’
JERUSALEM (AFP) 5 Apr — A senior Israeli defence official has warned that Palestinian efforts to isolate Israel and secure recognition of a state were as serious for the Jewish state as a “war,” media reports said. The comments, made by Amos Gilad during a private meeting but recorded and broadcast by Israel’s Channel 10 television on Monday, highlight Israeli fears about the Palestinians’ growing diplomatic successes.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110405/wl_mideast_afp/israelpalestiniansconflictundiplomacy
Zahhar: Hamas, Fatah have started unity talks in Gaza
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 5 Apr — Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahhar said Tuesday that Hamas and Fatah leaders had started reconciliation talks in Gaza, which Egypt would monitor without direct intervention.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=375673
Austrian foreign minister to visit Gaza
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 5 Apr — Austrian Foreign Minister Michael Spindelegger will visit Gaza City on Wednesday, the UNRWA media office in Gaza said … The minister will visit a school in An-Nuseirat refugee camp and a desalination plant in Deir Al-Balah.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=375823
Israel fears Turkey will reject next ambassador
Ynet 5 Apr — Israel’s Ambassador to Ankara Gabby Levy is expected to end his four-year term in three months as Israel prepares for the option the embassy will remain vacant in the backdrop of tensions with Turkey.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4052629,00.html
Other news
Gaza: Fatah military groups want rearmament
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 5 Apr — Fatah-affiliated militant groups in the Gaza Strip have asked the Hamas government to return the weapons seized from fighters in 2007 when the Islamist movement took control of the coastal enclave. Twelve divisions of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades asked to be rearmed in a letter to the government.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=375647
Iraq
Monday: 2 US soldiers, 18 Iraqis killed, 15 Iraqis wounded
At least 18 Iraqis were killed and 15 more were wounded in a number of attacks that focused on Baghdad and nearby cities. Two U.S. soldiers were killed in a non-hostile incident as well. Meanwhile, Iran shelled parts of Iraqi Kurdistan but no casualties were reported there.Demonstrations continued in Suleimaniya, where two Muslim clerics were arrested today for inciting violence. Gunmen in Yusufiya stormed the home of a college lecturer who had been killed two years ago. Today they killed six of his sons and wounded his wife and two daughters. A bomb killed six Sahwa members in Jurf al-Sakhar, who were digging the bomb up in the belief it was a half-buried body….
http://original.antiwar.com/updates/2011/04/04/monday-2-us-soldiers-18-iraqis-killed-15-iraqis-wounded/
