Updated at 10:35 p.m. EST, Dec. 22, 2008
Debate over the journalist shoe-thrower forced parliament to postpone voting on the fate of foreign troops in Iraq and instead focus on the removal of its speaker. Meanwhile, two Iraqis were found dead and six more were wounded during a quiet day in Iraq. A U.S. soldier died in a non-combat incident as well. Also, a U.S. official admitted that over 10,000 detainees are being held without evidence against them.
Heated debate over shoe-thrower Muntazer al-Zaidi disrupted parliament to the point that lawmakers are calling for the removal of Speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani. Parliament was forced to postpone voting on a law that would govern foreign troops after a U.N. mandate ends next week. The U.S. has already worked out an agreement separately.
Meanwhile, al-Zaidi’s brother saw him and reiterated claims of torture. He also said that al-Zaidi was under duress when he wrote an apology letter. Al-Zaidi’s trial date was set for Dec. 31 and is charged with “assaulting a foreign head of state visiting Iraq.”
In Mosul, shelling left one person dead. Two people were wounded in a small arms attack. Gunmen stole $1.1 million and weapons from an oil company.
A body was found in the al-Kifl River near Hilla.
Gunmen injured a girl who was on the roof of a home in Iskandariya.
In Kirkuk, gunmen injured a policeman in the Wasiti neighborhood. Last night, a missile struck the Hamzali neighborhood, but no casualties were reported.
Two civilians were wounded in Kut when a roadside bomb blasted them and their car.
In Baghdad, Iraqi forces arrested two suspected leaders of armed groups.
Police arrested 89 suspects in an area west of Diwaniya.
Six suspects were arrested in Basra. About another dozen were arrested for killing civilians, many of them women.
Thirteen al-Qaeda suspects were detained in Jazeera.
In Bajwan, U.S. forces arrested 15 suspects and confiscated weapons.
Eighty policewomen graduated from a U.S.-supervised training program in Diyala.
A Iranian carrying a sharp weapon was arrested at the border.
A U.S. official said that over 10,000 prisoners currently in U.S. detention in Iraq were held without evidence against them. They do have evidence against about 2,000 detainees however. He added that 350 detainees were convicted of crimes. At the end of the month, the U.S.-Iraqi security agreement comes into effect and the U.S. will be forced to handover these detainees to Iraq.
Compiled by Margaret Griffis
