March 19, 2013

A wave of deadly bombings in and around Baghdad, primarily in Shi’ite Muslim neighborhoods, left at least 48 people dead and hundreds injured on the 10th anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. The coordinated attacks included at least 15 car bombings, multiple roadside bombings, and shootings by snipers, all during the morning rush hour in the Iraqi capital. The deadliest of the attacks, which took place outside the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, killed 7 people and injured at least 20 others. Another 6 people were killed and 15 others wounded when a bomb exploded outside a restaurant near the main entrance to the heavily fortified Green Zone, where the U.S. embassy is located.

Baghdad (AP/Wide World)

A militant group known as the Islamic State of Iraq, which includes al-Qa’ida in Iraq, is known to have accelerated its attacks on Shi’ite targets in an attempt to revive the secular insurgency that left tens of thousands of people dead between 2005 and 2008. Their aim is to bring down the Shi’ite-dominated government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. The Iraqi government is largely deadlocked, with Maliki at odds with Kurds in the north, most Sunni groups, and even factions within his own Shi’ite community. Iraq was controlled for years by that country’s Sunni minority, under the Baath government of dictator Saddam Hussein, who was overthrown in 2003.

Additional World Book articles:

• Iraq history
• Iraq 2005 (a Back in Time article)
• Iraq 2006 (a Back in Time article)
• Iraq 2007 (a Back in Time article)
• Iraq 2008 (a Back in Time article)
• The War in Iraq: the Military Campaign and Aftermath (a special report)
• The War in Iraq: Shifting Alliances on the World Stage (a special report)
• Iraq: a Quest for Political Identity in a Second Year of War (a special report)
• The Middle East: From Fall to Spring (a special report)

February 18, 2013

A wave of car bombings in Shi’ite neighborhoods in and around Baghdad yesterday left 37 people dead and some 125 others wounded. Al-Qa’ida in Iraq has claimed responsibility for the attacks, and al-Qa’ida and other Sunni extremist groups have ramped up attacks on Shi’ite Muslims as a way of bringing down the Shi’ite-led government. At least 200 Iraqis have been killed in attacks targeting Shi’ites since January.

Iraq’s Sunni minority claims that Prime Minister Nouri Kamel al-Maliki and his political allies have undermined Sunni politicians to monopolize power. In November, an Iraqi court sentenced Iraqi Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi to death for the third time on charges that he instigated terrorist attacks on Shi’ite pilgrims. All verdicts were delivered in absentia because Hashemi fled Iraq in 2011 and is living in exile in Turkey. Al-Hashemi claims that his long-time rival Prime Minister Maliki is behind the charges, which he alleges are politically motivated.

On February 15, tens of thousands of Sunni Muslims rallied in several Iraqi cities to protest what they describe as unfair treatment by the Shi’ite-led government. In a Sunni neighborhood in Baghdad, some 3,000 lawyers recently took to the streets, demanding an end to judicial corruption and prisoner abuse in Iraq’s prisons.

Iraqis pull down a statue of Saddam Hussein after U.S. forces entered Baghdad in 2003. Iraqis had high hopes after the U.S. military deposed Hussein in 2003, but 10 years later, many Iraqis are living in deplorable conditions. (AP/Wide World)

In recent weeks, both Sunni and Shit’te Iraqis alike have begun to openly protest the wretched conditions and bitter sectarian conflict they have endured since the United States invaded Iraq in 2003 and overthrew the Saddam Hussein government. Demonstrators have stormed government buildings in several cities to protest political corruption and shortages of food, electric power, and jobs. The Reuters news agency reported: “. . .  years after the U.S.-led invasion, Iraq’s infrastructure remains severely damaged. The country suffers a chronic water shortage, electricity supply is intermittent and sewage collects in the streets.”

Additional World Book articles:

• Iraq 2006 (a Back in Time article)
• Iraq 2007 (a Back in Time article)
• Iraq 2010 (a Back in Time article)
• Iraq 2011 (a Back in Time article)
• Iraq: a Quest for Political Identity in a Second Year of War (a special report)
• The War in Iraq: the Military Campaign and Aftermath (a special report)
• The war in Iraq: Shifting Alliances on the World Stage (a special report)

February 4, 2013

French President François Hollande paid a triumphant visit on February 2 to the fabled city of Timbuktu, where he received a rapturous welcome from crowds chanting “Vive la France!” and waving banners stating “Papa François, the mysterious city welcomes you.” French and Malian forces drove Islamist jihadists out of the city on January 27 and into the vast desert to the north. (Mali was once a French colony.) However, residents of Timbuktu worry that the rebels will return as soon as the French withdraw their troops. “These Islamists, they have not been defeated,” Moustapha Ben Essayouti, a member of a locally prominent family, told French correspondents. “Hardly any of them have been killed. . . . If France leaves, they will come back.” While praising French and Malian troops for the “exceptional mission,” President Hollande acknowledged that “the fight is not over.” In a later speech in Mali’s capital, Bamako, he declared, “We will be with you to the end, all the way to northern Mali.”

President Hollande’s government announced on January 12 that it was sending troops into Mali to help wrest the nation back from Islamic jihadist expansion. Some 1,900 African troops–including soldiers from Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad, Niger, Nigeria,  Senegal, and Togo–were deployed to Mali as part of a United Nations-backed African intervention force to drive the insurgents northward.

Franch and Malian troops have driven Islamist rebels out of Timbuktu and into the desert to the north. (World Book map; map data © MapQuest.com, Inc.)

Islamist rebels gained control of much of the north in 2012 after a military coup in Mali’s capital, Bamako, created a power vacuum. At the core of the Islamist insurgency are the remnants of a now-defunct Algerian rebel group that was largely driven out of Algeria and into the unpoliced desert land in northern Mali sometime after the Algerian civil war was settled in 1999. A loose alliance of Algerian and Mauritanian  fighters, they are believed to be connected to an al-Qa’ida offshoot known as “al-Qa’ida in the Islamic Maghreb.” (Maghreb refers to northern Africa west of Egypt). The group aims to overthrow the Algerian government and institute an Islamic state under Shar’iah law. The group operates in Algeria, Mauritania, Niger, and other ungoverned areas of the Sahel region.

Additional World Book articles:

• Algeria 1991 (a Back in Time article)
• Algeria 1992 (a Back in Time article)
• Algeria 1999 (a Back in Time article)

January 21, 2013

On January 19, Algerian forces launched a final assault on the BP (British Petroleum) natural gas field in the Sahara Desert seized by Islamist terrorists on January 16. According to the Algerian government, the assault was made after officers received a report that the hostage-takers were killing their captives. In all, 37 foreign workers died during the four-day hostage crisis, including 9 Japanese, 6 Filipinos, 3 Britons, and 3 Americans; 32 of the militants were killed, and 3 were captured alive. A number of the hostages remain unaccounted for.

The Algerian government staged an initial military assault on the plant on January 17, during which helicopter gunships bombed four trucks carrying both terrorists and captives. BP officials in London simultaneously announced that hundreds of workers from international oil companies were being evacuated from Algeria.

The Islamists initially took some 130 people of 9 nationalities hostage. The group that claimed responsibility for the attack, Al Mulathameen, issued a statement to Mauritanian news outlets that foreign citizens were explicitly targeted. The terrorists claimed the attack was made in retaliation for French intervention against the militant Islamist group al-Qa’ida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) in neighboring Mali. (The Maghreb refers to all of northwest Africa west of Egypt.) The Algerian government disputes this claim, stating that the attacks had been planned weeks before France first deployed troops in Mali on January 12. (French troops are fighting alongside Malian soldiers, attempting to push back AQIM fighters bent on seizing the entire country.)

Algeria is a major producer of petroleum and natural gas. (AP/Wide World)

At the core of the Islamist insurgency in the region are the remnants of a now-defunct Algerian rebel group that was largely driven out of Algeria and into the unpoliced desert land in northern Mali sometime after the Algerian civil war was settled in 1999. AQIM, a loose alliance of Algerian and Mauritanian fighters, aims to overthrow the Algerian government and establish an Islamic state under Shar’iah law. The group operates in Algeria, Mauritania, Niger, and other ungoverned areas of the Sahel region. The insurgents are known for their extreme cruelty and barbarity.

Additional World Book articles:

• Algeria 1991 (a Back in Time article)
• Algeria 1992 (a Back in Time article)
• Algeria 1999 (a Back in Time article)

January 16, 2013

French troops fighting alongside Malian troops are engaged in their first ground battle with rebel forces in Mali. According to British sources in Mali, French troops are fighting the Islamist rebels in street battles in the town of Diabaly, which the rebels seized on January 14. Diabaly is 250 miles (400 kilometers) from the capital, Bamako, and the French and Malian forces are attempting to halt the insurgents’ advance on the capital. The rebels gained control of much of the north in 2012 after a military coup in Bamako created a power vacuum. Mali was once a French colony.

Islamist rebels who control the northern half of Mali are advancing south on the capital, Bamako. (World Book map; map data © MapQuest.com, Inc)

The government of French President François Hollande announced on January 12 that it was sending troops into Mali to help wrest the nation back from Islamic jihadist expansion. Mali’s neighbors, including Burkina Faso, Niger, and Nigeria, have also agreed to send soldiers into Mali, and the United Kingdom is supplying planes to transport them.

Despite massive aerial bombardment by French air force jets, the insurgents have continued to advance south. French military officers acknowledge that the rebels are better armed than expected, with AK-47′s, rocket-propelled grenades, and heavy machine guns mounted on vehicles. American intelligence agents have traced at least some of their ammunition to Iran.

A number of historic structures, similar to the pyramid-shaped Sankore Mosque in Timbuktu, Mali, have been damaged or destroyed by Malian rebels, who claim the structures are idolatrous. ((c) Aldona Sabalis, Photo Researchers)

At the core of the Islamist insurgency are the remnants of a now-defunct Algerian rebel group that was largely driven out of Algeria and into the unpoliced desert land in northern Mali sometime after the Algerian civil war was settled in 1999. A loose alliance of Algerian and Mauritanian fighters, they are believed to be connected to an al-Qa’ida offshoot known as “al-Qa’ida in the Islamic Maghreb” (Aqim). Aqim aims to overthrow the Algerian government and institute an Islamic state under Shar’iah law. The group operates in Algeria, Mauritania, Niger, and other ungoverned areas of the Sahel region. The insurgents are known for their extreme cruelty and barbarity. Since seizing the northern half of Mali, they have destroyed a number of historic and religious landmarks in Timbuktu, claiming the landmarks are idolatrous. Any behavior deemed an affront to their interpretation of Islam has been zealously punished. They also actively recruit children for armed conflict.

Additional World Book articles:

• Algeria 1991 (a Back in Time article)
• Algeria 1992 (a Back in Time article)
• Algeria 1999 (a Back in Time article)

September 27, 2012

United States Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton announced yesterday that U.S. intelligence officials have uncovered an explicit link between al-Qa`ida terrorist groups in North Africa and the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, on Sept. 11, 2012. That attack resulted in the deaths of four Americans, including the ambassador, Chris Stevens.

Secretary Clinton’s announcement was made at a special United Nations meeting on the current crisis in northern Mali, which has been overrun by Islamic extremists. According to the secretary, the extremists are allowing al-Qa’ida cells to operate out of Mali. “Now, with a larger safe haven and increased freedom to maneuver, terrorists are seeking to extend their reach and their networks in multiple directions,” she informed world leaders attending the meeting. “And they are working with other violent extremists to undermine the democratic transitions under way in North Africa, as we tragically saw in Benghazi.” Intelligence officials have reported that al-Qa’ida cells are also operating in Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, and possibly Pakistan.

Hillary Rodham Clinton became secretary of state of the United States in 2009. Prior to taking the post, Clinton, the wife of former President Bill Clinton, had represented New York in the United States Senate. (U.S. Department of State)

Sept. 11, 2012, was the 11th anniversary of the al-Qa’ida terrorist attacks on the United States that resulted in the deaths of nearly 3,000 people. At that time,  al-Qa`ida was an Afghanistan-based terrorist organization headed by Osama bin Laden. After hijacking four commercial airliners, the terrorists flew two jets into the World Trade Center twin towers, which subsequently collapsed. Terrorists crashed a third airliner into the Pentagon, the U.S. armed services headquarters in Arlington, Virginia. The attackers in the fourth airliner were overtaken by passengers, preventing them from crashing the plane into another Washington, D.C., landmark, possibly the White House or Capitol. The jet went down in an open field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, killing all aboard. The September 11 terrorist attacks prompted the administration of President George W. Bush to send forces into Afghanistan in October 2001 to clean out terrorist camps. That war continues in 2012.

Additional World Book articles:

• Afghanistan War
• Arab Spring
• National September 11 Memorial and Museum
• Afghanistan 2001 (a Back in Time article)
• New York City 2001 (a Back in Time article)
• Washington, D.C. 2001 (a Back in Time article)
• The Middle East: From Fall to Spring (a special report)
• Terrorism: America’s New Enemy (a special report)
• Passport to Reform: The INS and Homeland Security (a special report)

September 11, 2012

The 11th anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks was observed today in New York City; Arlington, Virginia; and Shanksville, Pennsylvania. In New York, relatives of the victims of the World Trade Center attacks read out the names of the dead. Governor Andrew M. Cuomo of New York, Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey, New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, and former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani attended the observance but did not speak.

In Arlington, President Barack Obama addressed survivors and relatives of the 184 people killed at the Pentagon, the U.S. Department of Defense headquarters. He declared that their loved ones would never be forgotten and that the dead had “helped us make the America we are today.”

Vice-President Joe Biden was the principal speaker at the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville. In remembrance of the dead, President Obama and Vice-President Biden and their Republican challengers, Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan, set aside campaigning for the day.

The World Trade Center towers billowed flames and smoke on Sept. 11, 2001, after terrorists crashed hijacked airliners into the two buildings. (AP/Wide World)

Nearly 3,000 people were killed on Sept. 11, 2001, in attacks by members of al-Qa`ida, the Afghanistan-based terrorist organization headed by Osama bin Laden. After hijacking four commercial airliners, the terrorists flew two jets into the Trade Center twin towers, which subsequently collapsed. Terrorists crashed a third airliner into the Pentagon. The attackers in the fourth airliner were overtaken by passengers, preventing them from crashing the plane into another Washington, D.C., landmark, possibly the White House or Capitol. The jet went down in an open field near Shanksville, killing all aboard. The September 11 terrorist attacks prompted the administration of President George W. Bush to send forces into Afghanistan in October 2001 to clean out terrorist camps. That war continues in 2012.

Additional World Book articles:

• Afghanistan War
• National September 11 Memorial and Museum
• Afghanistan 2001 (a Back in Time article)
• New York City 2001 (a Back in Time article)
• Washington, D.C. 2001 (a Back in Time article)
• Terrorism: America’s New Enemy (a special report)
• Passport to Reform: The INS and Homeland Security (a special report)

May 22, 2012

An historic plan for winding down NATO combat operations in Afghanistan was approved on May 21 by leaders of the 28-member military bloc meeting in Chicago. The plan, advanced by United States President Barack Obama, maps out an “irreversible” transition under which Afghan forces are to take control of all security operations in their country during 2013 and most NATO forces are to withdraw by the end of 2014. After 2014, any remaining NATO personnel will serve only in  training, advisory, or assistance roles. The pact marks a major milestone in the Afghanistan War, which began in 2001 in response to attacks on the United States by al-Qa`ida. At that time, al-Qa`ida was based in Afghanistan, which was controlled by the Taliban, a militant Islamic group.

Questions about long-term funding for Afghan security forces remain unresolved. The United States is pressing its allies to contribute at least $1.3 billion of the $4 billion needed annually to support a replacement army of 230,000 Afghans. However, the current European Union economic crisis is constraining Europe’s ability–and willingness–to contribute funds to sustain both the Afghan military and NATO security backup. Newly elected French President Francois Hollande said France would not contribute additional funds to compensate for the early withdrawal of its troops by the end of 2012, two years earlier than originally planned.

Afghans cheered the arrival of Northern Alliance rebel troops in Kabul, Afghanistan's capital, on Nov. 13, 2001. Northern Alliance and United States military forces drove the oppressive Taliban regime out of the city. (Koji Harada, Kyodo News International)

Military and political leaders at the summit expressed concerns about the ability of an independent Afghan military to resist the Taliban, which President Obama admitted remains a “robust enemy.” An advisor to British Prime Minister David Cameron also commented on the risk that al-Qa`ida could replace NATO troops in regions where the Afghan government has little control.

Additional World Book articles:

• Afghanistan 2001 (a Back in Time article)
• Afghanistan 2002 (a Back in Time article)
• Crisis in the Eurozone (a special report)

March 13, 2012

Militants in Afghanistan launched an attack on a delegation of Afghan government officials visiting the site in Panjwai in Kandahar province where an American soldier killed 16 civilians on March 11. The attack on the delegation was made “from several directions,” and Afghan forces returned fire. An Afghan soldier and three militants were killed in the melee. The delegation, which was there to offer condolences to villagers and meet tribal elders, included Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s brothers and several top security officials.

The U.S. soldier said to have carried out Sunday’s attacks–38-year-old staff sergeant–is under arrest. After leaving his base in the early hours, the soldier went on a rampage through village homes, killing as he moved from house to house. Among the 16 dead were 9 children. The sergeant had served three tours of duty in Iraq before being deployed to Afghanistan in December.

In the eastern city of Jalalabad, some 600 students took part today in a rally, condemning the Kandahar attack and chanting “Death to America! Death to Obama!” In Kabul, the capital, the U.S. embassy issued warnings of possible new anti-American reprisals. Anti-U.S. sentiment was already high in Afghanistan in the wake of an incident in February in which Qur’ans were accidentally desecrated by American troops. Although American officials, including President Barack Obama apologized for that incident, they failed to quell a series of protests and attacks that left at least 30 people dead, including 6 U.S. troops.

United States forces in Afghanistan. (Warren Zinn, Getty Images)

On Sept. 11, 2001, members of a terrorist organization called al-Qa’ida launched a series of terrorist attacks against the United States. The United States accused Afghanistan, then under the control of the Taliban, of harboring and assisting al-Qa’ida, which was led by a Saudi national, Osama bin Laden. The United States demanded that the Taliban arrest bin Laden and other Qa’ida leaders and shut down their training camps. When the Taliban refused, the United States and its allies launched a military campaign against the Taliban. In 2006, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) took over peacekeeping and security duties for Afghanistan from the U.S.-led alliance. In 2012, NATO and the U.S.-led alliance continues to fight Taliban and Qa’ida forces in Afghanistan.

Additional World Book articles

• Afghanistan War
• In Harm’s Way: Reporting from the Front Lines (a special report)
• Terrorism: America’s New Enemy (a special report)
• Afghanistan 2001 (Back in Time article)
• United States, government of the 2001 (Back in Time article)

Feb. 23, 2012

A coordinated wave of car bombings and shootings in Baghdad and across Iraq leave more than 50 people dead and some 200 others wounded. There were nine bombings in Baghdad alone. At one point, multiple gunmen appeared and mowed down commuters at the height of the morning rush hour. Outside the capital, terrorists carried out deadly bombings in the cities of Mosul and Kirkuk and in Salah ad Din province, northwest of Baghdad.

According to Iraqi police, the attacks represent the most widespread operation yet mounted by suspected Sunni insurgents in what officials describe as a “frantic race” to undermine people’s faith in the government. They suggest that al-Qa’ida in Iraq is most likely responsible. The resurgent terrorist organization has in the past carried out similar complex, coordinated operations.

The latest wave of violence in Iraq began after Shi’ite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki issued a warrant for the arrest of Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi, the most senior Sunni politician in the Iraqi government. The warrant, on charges that he was financing death squads, was issued the day after the last U.S. troops withdrew in late December 2011. Hashemi, who denies the charges, has avoided arrest by staying in Iraq’s semiautonomous (partially self-governing) Kurdish region in the north.

Additional World Book articles

• Iraq War
• The War in Iraq: the Military Campaign and Aftermath
• The War in Iraq: Shifting Alliances on the World Stage
• Iraq: a Quest for Political Identity in a Second Year of War
• Iraq 2009 (Back in Time article)