Iraq Watch: February 14, 2006

Violence Swells Throughout Country; Basra Severs Ties with Britain

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Bloodshed that has plagued the nation of Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003, aimed at toppling former strongman Saddam Hussein, continued unabated Tuesday with farm workers, coalition forces, and the Iraqi army all being targeted by militants.

In another development, the Basra Provincial Council announced that it has decided to sever all ties with the British military based in the area. The council's decision was in response to the release of a violent video on Sunday depicting British forces attacking protesting Iraqis. The video, first released by the British tabloid News of the World, was purportedly filmed by a British colonel during a January 10, 2004 protest by Iraqi citizens, angry over the lack of employment opportunities, in the southern city of Amarah, located in bordering Maysan province.

In Balad, a religiously mixed city 50 miles north of the capital, gunmen opened fire on a group of Shiite farm workers killing 11, including the farms' owner Sheik Hussein al-Hayali, and injuring two. The shooting occurred shortly before midday.

Meanwhile, two separate attacks in western Baghdad left one U.S. Marine dead and six coalition soldiers wounded. The first attack, near the Abu Ghraib area, took place around 10:30 a.m. when a roadside bomb exploded as a U.S. military convoy was passing by. The second guerilla attack occurred about an hour later when militants in Baghdad's Salaam district set off an IED and quickly followed the blast with small-arms fire.

Also in Baghdad, Iraqi police discovered the executed bodies of eight men scattered throughout the city of nearly six million. All the victims were found shot to death.

Elsewhere, north of the capital, an Iraqi army major was assassinated along with his son near Taji while a contractor working with the Iraqi army was gunned down in Tikrit.