Iraq Press Roundup

Al Taakhi newspaper reported Wednesday on the front page that youths from non-governmental organizations, student movements and unions protested the attacks by Iran and Turkey on Iraqi-Kurdish villages.

"Protesters carried Kurdish flags as well as banners with slogans condemning the attacks, and demanded a stop to the attacks and respect for Iraqi sovereignty," the paper said.

The protesters demanded that the central government show frank attitude toward these assaults, the newspaper reported.

Also on the front page was a report quoting Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki as telling Parliament in a statement that "Iraq has succeeded not being dragged into a civil war."

In the statement, Maliki assured lawmakers that violence fell 75 percent in Baghdad and Anbar provinces since the start of the security plan in February.

Some "14,000 armed men have split from al-Qaida and are now getting training in Iraqi military bases to join the Iraqi army and police."

He said 27,500 tribesmen volunteered to fight al-Qaida.

"Sectarian killings and displacement has stopped in all areas, terrorists cells have been broken up, al-Qaida have been arrested or left Iraq," he said.

The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan’s Al Itihad newspaper reported Wednesday that security forces announced the number of people killed and wounded in a car-bomb explosion west of Mosul increased to 82. Brig. Gen. Abdul Kareem al-Jibouri, police operations commanders, told the paper, "Fifteen cars were destroyed in the explosion and many houses were damaged."

"A security source," Al Itihad said, "announced that unknown armed men assassinated one of Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani's representatives north of Basra."

The paper also reported that witnesses from Al Muqdadiya city in Diyala province "saw a group of men dressed in army uniform kidnapping eight people as they stopped them in a fake checkpoint." Separately, the Iraqi army announced the killing of five alleged terrorists in the area.

Al Sabah newspaper reported Wednesday that according to a statement from the Defense Ministry Tuesday Samara operations leadership in Saladeen province announced an airstrike in Dhiloya killed 18 Arab terrorists; four al-Qaida members were also arrested, the statement said.