Iraq Watch: March 9, 2006

Attacks Continue; U.S. Announces Plans to Hand Over Abu Ghraib

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Militant attacks on Thursday killed nearly 20 people as the U.S. announced plans to transfer authority of the infamous Abu Ghraib prison to Iraqi authorities within the next three months.

The prison complex, located in Baghdad's western outskirts, was built by British contractors in the 1960s. Under Saddam Hussein's rule, the vast complex was used to house hundreds-of-thousands of political prisoners whom the Baath regime viewed as a potential threat. Thousands reportedly were systematically tortured and killed within its concrete corridors over Saddam's 24-year reign.

Following the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 the notorious facility was taken over by American forces and renamed Baghdad Central Confinement Facility (BCCF).

The U.S., as the previous regime did, used the facility — manned by some 24 odd guard towers — as a detention center for suspected insurgents. In 2004 pictures and video leaked out depicted grotesque abuses being committed by American prison guards against Iraqi detainees at the compound. The "Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal," as it became to be known, sparked furor and animosity towards the U.S. throughout Iraq and the Muslim world.

The more than 4,500 prisoners still being held at Abu Ghraib will be transferred to Camp Cropper once its construction is completed.

Despite the negative symbolic nature that Abu Ghraib holds in the minds of many, U.S. military officials insist that the decision to transfer authority of the prison to Iraqi authorities was primarily for security reasons. "Abu Ghraib prison is in a region that has been susceptible to attacks and it is difficult to support logistically, so there has always been the intention the move detainees to a more secure location," said Lt. Col. Barry Johnson.

Relentless violence persisted throughout Iraq on Thursday.

In the capital's Sunni Amariyah neighborhood a car bomb killed at least nine civilians and injured six others. A separate car bomb, exploding near eastern Baghdad's Al-Israa Walmiraj mosque, left five Iraqis dead and 12 wounded.

Also in the capital city — home to over seven million — a third car bomb detonated near Baghdad's central Yarmouk hospital killing two.

Meanwhile, two Iraqis who worked in the International Zone, or "Green Zone," were gunned down Thursday as they were waiting for a government shuttle.

Police near the former rebel-bastion of Fallujah made a grizzly discovery Thursday when they came across the executed bodies of three men. Two more bodies were found near the Shiite slum of Sadr City, located in eastern Baghdad.

Also, the U.S. military announced the death of a U.S. Marine who was killed Wednesday "due to enemy action" in the volatile Anbar province. The slain Marine was assigned to the 1st Marine Logistics Group.