Rory Carroll

'Gunmen surrounded us, firing into the windscreen. The dreaded moment had arrived: kidnap'

Rory Carroll — 2005-10-22T13:11:50Z

Rory Carroll, the Guardian's Baghdad correspondent was abducted for 36 hours before being freed on Thursday. This is his story

We finished the interviews, deep in the Baghdad slum known as Sadr City, and the Guardian's two vehicles started heading back to the hotel. The street was deserted until three cars, including a police Land Cruiser, sliced around a corner and into our path. Gunmen piled out and surrounded us.

One pistol-whipped Safa'a, the driver, spraying his blood on to my lap. Another wrestled the translator, Qais, out of the door on to the ground. Another pumped three bullets into the windscreen of the follow-up vehicle, narrowly missing the driver, Omar.

It was 2.15pm on Wednesday, and a moment I had dreaded since moving to Iraq nine months earlier had arrived: kidnap. A potential death sentence for Iraqi staff as well as the foreign correspondents who are the targets. Since hostages started having their heads sawn off we have all been obsessed by it. (...)

[page 1 and 3 | UK News]

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Dictator on trial for his life as Iraqi court faces ultimate test

Rory Carroll — 2005-10-19T06:20:00Z

7 other Ba'athists charged with killing of 143 villagers

Criticism of decision to try case in Iraq

Baghdad

Saddam Hussein goes on trial for his life today charged with crimes against humanity in a historic but controversial effort by Iraq to confront its former dictator. Almost two years after his capture, Saddam will be taken to a special tribunal in Baghdad for the first of a series of trials spanning a career which turned Iraq into a republic of fear.

The 68-year-old will be tried along with seven members of his Ba'ath party amid tight security in a courtroom deep in the green zone, a fortified complex containing government buildings and embassies.

Televised proceedings are expected to divide the country along communal lines, with Shias and Kurds cheering the sight of Saddam in the dock and Sunni Arabs angry or ambivalent. The hearing will be a test of a tribunal whose competence, fairness and legitimacy have been questioned by human rights groups and legal watchdogs. Political interference and infighting have dogged it since its inception. (...)

[page 19 | International]

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Trial of the century? Not for Iraqis

Rory Carroll — 2005-10-18T06:30:00Z

Baghdad

The stage is set, the actors are ready, but the audience is distracted. Saddam Hussein's trial starts tomorrow, trailing words such as momentous and historic, a courtroom drama with a gallows in the wings. The former president is expected to play his part, defiant and confident even if denied a tie lest he make a premature noose. The prosecution and defence have studied transcripts from Nuremberg and The Hague and rehearsed their lines. Five judges will determine the final act.

Iraq, however, does not quite fit the bill of a nation thirsting for justice. The man who ruled like an Arab Stalin for two decades, whose persona invaded his citizens' thoughts more effectively than his troops invaded neighbouring countries, has shrunk. The ragged fugitive dragged from a spider hole near Tikrit in December 2003 was physically diminished - Saddam lost weight on the run - and the subsequent incarceration and near invisibility whittled his relevance. (...)

[pages 1 and 2 | Column five]

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US air strikes kill civilians in Iraq, say witnesses

Rory Carroll — 2005-10-18T06:25:00Z

Baghdad

American air strikes have killed more than 70 people in western Iraq, including dozens of women and children, witnesses said yesterday.

Staff at a hospital in Ramadi, a provincial capital west of Baghdad, said they treated numerous civilians injured in Sunday's bombing of two nearby villages. Television pictures showed women and children among bandaged patients. The US military confirmed that warplanes and helicopters had fired missiles and killed more than 70 people but said the dead were insurgents engaged in operations.

The reports of civilian casualties overshadowed news of indications that a draft constitution had survived Saturday's referendum, setting Iraq on the road to elections in December and a permanent government. Iraq's independent electoral commission said national turnout exceeded 61% and that Shias and Kurds overwhelmingly supported the charter, fighting off an attempted veto by Sunnis.

However, the commission said that it intended to audit "unusually high" numbers from numerous provinces. It did not specify which provinces, nor whether the outcome was in the balance. The statement followed complaints from some Sunni politicians of vote-rigging. (...)

[page 14 | International]

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Iraq bombings and shootings leave 150 dead

Rory Carroll — 2005-09-15T05:34:00Z

Car bomb in Baghdad kills 88 seeking a day's work

Al-Qaida group says it is avenging US-Iraqi assault

A car bomb tore into a crowd of labourers in central Baghdad yesterday, killing at least 88 in Iraq's worst single attack since February. A fireball engulfed men who gathered in Khadhimiya, a poor Shia district with high unemployment, hoping for a day's work gardening or building.

Police at the scene said the bomb was detonated remotely, but some survivors claimed a suicide bomber had lured a crowd to his minivan.

It was the bloodiest attack in a wave of bombings and shootings yesterday that left more than 150 people dead and 500 wounded. More than a dozen bombs shook the capital in a series of apparently coordinated blasts which started at dawn with the slaughter in Khadhimiya.

Health ministry officials said 88 died, while the interior ministry put the toll at 114, not far off the 125 killed in a suicide attack in Hilla in February. Police said 220kg (nearly 500lb) of explosives were used.

Another car bomb, thought to have been detonated by a suicide bomber, immolated 11 people in a queue to refill gas canisters. In the town of Taji just north of Baghdad 17 Shia men were dragged from their homes and executed by gunmen in military uniform.

An internet statement purportedly from al-Qaida in Iraq claimed responsibility for the carnage and said it was a reprisal for the joint American and Iraqi army offensive in the town of Tal Afar near the Syrian border. Thousands of troops swept through the insurgent stronghold this week, killing and capturing more than 300 suspected militants. The government trumpeted the operation as a major victory over the resistance. (...)

[page 17 | International]

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Iraqi troops in airport spat with British security firm

Rory Carroll — 2005-09-10T11:25:00Z

in Baghdad

Iraqi troops were ordered to reopen Baghdad airport yesterday after a British security company halted commercial flights in a pay dispute, cutting one of the country's few outside links.

The government threatened a showdown with Global Strategies Group, saying the London-based firm overstepped its powers when private guards shut the airport at dawn.

"My forces have entered the airport," the acting transport minister, Esmat Amer, told Reuters. "We are taking some technical measures now and will soon resume the flights, maybe in the next few hours. We will not let the airport be closed in any way. It is a matter of sovereignty for us."

Alaa Abdul Ghani, the airport's flight control chief, said the national carrier Iraqi Airways would fly, but passengers were left guessing whether flights would resume.

Global did not confirm whether the government had seized control and it was unclear who was in charge.

The company said soldiers were not trained in airport security to the standards required by international airlines.

The London-based company said it was forced to suspend operations because the transport ministry, which owns the airport, had not paid it for seven months.

A similar dispute in June shut the facility for two days. (...)

[page 16 | International]

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Iraq rebuilding under threat as US runs out of money

Julian Borger, Rory Carroll — 2005-09-09T13:55:00Z

Key rebuilding projects in Iraq are grinding to a halt because American money is running out and security has diverted funds intended for electricity, water and sanitation, according to US officials.

Plans to overhaul the country's infrastructure have been downsized, postponed or abandoned because the $24bn (£13bn) budget approved by Congress has been dwarfed by the scale of the task.

"We have scaled back our projects in many areas," James Jeffrey, a senior state department adviser on Iraq, told a congressional committee in Washington, in remarks quoted by the Los Angeles Times. "We do not have the money."

Water and sanitation have been particularly badly hit. According to a report published this week by Government Accountability Office, the investigative branch of Congress, $2.6bn has been spent on water projects, half the original budget, after the rest was diverted to security and other uses.

The report said "attacks, threats and intimidation against project contractors and subcontractors" were to blame. A quarter of the $200m-worth of completed US-funded water projects handed over to the Iraqi authorities no longer worked properly because of "looting, unreliable electricity or inadequate Iraqi staff and supplies", the report found.

Both Democrats and Republicans in Congress also said administrative bungling had played a part. (...)

[page 14 | International]

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Iraqi talks head for deadlock

Rory Carroll — 2005-08-24T14:44:00Z

in Baghdad

Iraq's leaders conceded yesterday that they were unlikely to win Sunni Arab approval for a new constitution by tomorrow's deadline.

The ruling coalition of Shias and Kurds said the disputed text could be pushed through parliament despite warnings from Sunnis that it was a charter for civil war.

The government ruled out major changes to a draft presented to parliament on Monday and said the restive Sunni minority had to accept that Iraq would become a federal state.

"The draft that was submitted is approximately the draft that will be implemented," said a spokesman for the prime minister, Ibrahim al-Jaafari.

Approval of the text was delayed until tomorrow to give negotiators a last chance to clinch the consensus widely deemed crucial to the constitution's success. "The only possible change now is that the Sunnis become convinced on federalism," said Jalal al-Din al-Sagheer, a Shia member of the drafting committee. (...)

[page 12 | International]

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Sunnis get last chance for deal

Rory Carroll — 2005-08-23T12:38:00Z

in Baghdad

Iraq's ruling coalition submitted a new constitution to parliament last night but delayed a vote for three days to try to win over Sunni Arabs who said it could lead to civil war.

Shia and Kurdish leaders said they had reached a compromise between themselves and delivered a thinly veiled ultimatum to the Sunni minority to sign up to the deal by Thursday or retreat deeper into the political wilderness.

The document was submitted eight minutes before midnight, meeting a deadline mandated by the current constitution, but then withdrawn to give negotiators a last chance to forge consensus. (...)

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US relents on Islamic law to reach Iraq deal

Julian Borger, Rory Carroll — 2005-08-22T12:08:00Z

The United States has eased its opposition to an Islamic Iraqi state to help clinch a deal on a draft constitution before tonight's deadline.

American diplomats backed religious conservatives who threatened to torpedo talks over the shape of the new Iraq unless Islam was a primary source of law. Secular and liberal groups were dismayed at the move, branding it a betrayal of Washington's promise to advocate equal rights in a free and tolerant society.

Stalemate over the role of Islam, among other issues, meant last week's deadline was extended for a week. Outstanding disputes could produce another cliffhanger tonight, triggering a further extension. (...)

[page 11 | International]

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Under US noses, brutal insurgents rule Sunni citadel

Rory Carroll, Omer Mahdi — 2005-08-22T12:06:00Z

The executions are carried out at dawn on Haqlania bridge, the entrance to Haditha. A small crowd usually turns up to watch even though the killings are filmed and made available on DVD in the market the same afternoon.

One of last week's victims was a young man in a black tracksuit. Like the others he was left on his belly by the blue iron railings at the bridge's southern end. His severed head rested on his back, facing Baghdad. Children cheered when they heard that the next day's spectacle would be a double bill: two decapitations. A man named Watban and his brother had been found guilty of spying.

With so many alleged American agents dying here Haqlania bridge was renamed Agents' bridge. Then a local wag dubbed it Agents' fridge, evoking a mortuary, and that name has stuck.

A three-day visit by a reporter working for the Guardian last week established what neither the Iraqi government nor the US military has admitted: Haditha, a farming town of 90,000 people by the Euphrates river, is an insurgent citadel.

That Islamist guerrillas were active in the area was no secret but only now has the extent of their control been revealed. They are the sole authority, running the town's security, administration and communications. (...)

[page 1 and 2 | News]

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Baghdad hit by bloodiest bombings for month

Rory Carroll — 2005-08-18T12:12:00Z

Rory Carroll and agencies in Baghdad

Two car bombs turned a Baghdad bus station into a slaughterhouse yesterday and a third bomb ambushed emergency services, killing at least 38 people and wounding dozens.

The coordinated strikes during the morning rush hour shattered a relative lull in the violence and were intended to maximise sectarian tension as politicians resumed talks on a draft constitution.

The first bomb exploded just before 8am local time outside the Nahda bus station, a main transit point in central Baghdad, followed minutes later by an explosion at an open-air depot filled with coaches, minibuses and taxis.

More than a dozen vehicles were incinerated. Survivors scrambled through the smouldering wreckage, some trying to flee, others seeking friends and relatives. The station serviced southern cities such as Najaf and Basra, and most passengers were Shia.

The third bomb detonated 15 minutes later between the depot and the nearby Kindi hospital as medics and police ferried the wounded to treatment, a familiar tactic by the insurgents, which spreads terror and panic. (...)

[page 2 | News]

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Iraq: Arab champion or cauldron of civil war?

Rory Carroll — 2005-08-16T11:28:00Z

in Baghdad

From the swirl of political drama in Baghdad last night one stark fact emerged: the new constitution will not settle the question of what is Iraq.

Regardless of whether a draft was agreed before the midnight deadline, or parliament extended the timetable to give negotiators another few weeks, the document will mark another stage, not the end, of the answer to that question.

The country is too fluid, and too much is at stake, for the losers to accept the draft as the final word. Even those who think they emerge as winners from the marathon talks are likely to view the constitution as one more round in an ongoing contest.

Is Iraq a strong, centralised state keen to revive its role as an Arab champion? Is it another Yugoslavia, a cauldron of ethnic and religious tensions destined for civil war? Is it a western-oriented democracy heralding reform in the Middle East? Is it a failed experiment on the road to autocracy and theocracy?

The draft constitution cannot answer these questions because Iraqis themselvesare unable to. What it does give is a snapshot of the current balance of power between Kurds, Shias and Arab Sunnis. (...)

[page 12 | International]

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Iraq extends constitution deadline

Rory Carroll — 2005-08-16T11:26:00Z

in Baghdad

Iraq's parliament extended a deadline for a new constitution last night after marathon talks failed to bridge differences between the main ethnic and sectarian groups.

Deputies amended the existing interim constitution with a show of hands 27 minutes before midnight to give negotiators another week to try to reach agreement on the future of the Iraqi state.

A day of political drama ended in the emergency sitting after negotiators admitted they could not find a compromise on federalism and the role of Islam.

Participants appeared drained by a drama played for the highest stakes.

Two explosions in central Baghdad, followed by sirens, were audible inside the convention centre in the green zone, the capital's fortified complex.

Parliament's speaker, Hashim al-Hassani, said that agreement had been reached on many topics.

"Some matters are still pending. Despite all efforts, we have not been able to reach agreements that please everyone."

Just an hour earlier a spokesman for the prime minister, Ibrahim Jaafari, said a draft shorn of its most con tentious parts would be presented. (...)

[page 2 | News]

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Women battle for rights in new Iraq

Rory Carroll — 2005-08-15T14:26:00Z

in Baghdad

Iraq's women's rights advocates mounted an 11th-hour push last night to dilute the role of Islam and safeguard their freedoms in a draft constitution expected today.

They mobilised in Baghdad to steel liberal and secular members of the drafting committee for a showdown against religious conservatives.

With crucial parts of the draft still undecided, it was unclear whether Islamic law, or sharia, would override the civil law that governs areas such as marriage, divorce, child custody and inheritance.

Shia clerics and politicians vowed to make Islam one of the main sources of law, moving Iraq closer to the theocracies of Iran and Saudi Arabia.

If they succeed, the consequences will be dire, said Yonadam Kanna, a Christian member of the drafting committee. "For women it would be a disaster."

Female members of parliament and non-governmental organisations lobbied potential allies at the convention centre in Baghdad's green zone, a fortified complex host ing most of the negotiations. (...)

[page 14 | International]

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