Photographs From Iraq: December 2005

A selection of photos taken in Iraq, mostly from December 2005, depicting everything from insurgents running a polling station to massive protests against fraud in the election to a day of riots in Kirkuk.

Photos From Iraq: December 3, 2005 - January 1, 2006




From June 23, when a suicide bomb ambush killed six American soldiers in Fallujah - recently dug up by the NY Times.


Iraqi prisoners carry their children in Baghdad's women's prison, 03 December 2005. The children are living with their mothers inside the jail where dozens of women are being held without trial or sentence. Dozens of women are rotting away, imprisoned in a former royal palace without trial or sentence, penned up in cramped cells over charges of murder, kidnap and the new Iraq nasty: terrorism.


A Lieutentant Colonel in the Iraqi police was assassinated in Baghdad on the 4th.


Top U.S. agent Iyad Allawi was driven from the a shrine in Najaf on the 4th by a mob of people who pelted him and his guards with rocks, shoes, and tomotoes. On the same day, "unknown people" ransacked his office in Samawa.


Same day in the latter southern Shia city, a protest against the presence of Japanese soldiers was held - in the midst of Japesese military vehicles.


An American tank burns in Ramadi on the 5th.


A banner reading "we demand the immediate execution of tyrant Saddam Hussein and his aide" sits on a concrete block in Baghdad, with the walls of the Green Zone immediately behind. Recently many Iraqis have been demanding Saddam be killed without the farcical trial, while some others have demonstrated in his support.


Saleh Ahmed carries the body of his daughter Diar, who was 4, out of a hospital in Kirkuk on the 6th after she was killed by a stray bullet during a gunfight between unidentified persons.


Iyad Allawi's office in Najaf was hit with a rocket on the 6th, injuring no one.


Two suicide bombers penetrated a police academy in Baghdad on the same day, killing at least 40 people, and injuring many more.


The Mehdi Army in Basra on the 8th. Against the occupation but currently in a state of truce, al-Sadr's militia is widely known to have large weapons caches, and if the Shia turn against the Americans, they will be the first to fight.


Same day, a suicide bomber attacked a bus full of Shiites in Baghdad, killing at least 30 people.


Gas line in Baghdad, also same day.


December 9, in Baghdad


Same day a U.S. military vehicle burns in Ramadi.


Car-free streets in Baghdad are one of the most visible signs of elections under occupation on December 15


Stopped by the Occupier for "driving home on election day" - after voting.


Iraqi insurgents secure an election center in Ramadi, Iraq Thursday, Dec. 15, 2005. Iraqis voted in a historic parliamentary election Thursday and Sunnis appeared to be turning out in large numbers - even in insurgent bastions such as Ramadi and Haqlaniyah - in an effort to curb the power of Shiite clerical parties who now control the government.


Hospital workers in Baghdad react as casualties from the latest suicide bombing, this one targeting Iraqi police, arrive on December 19


Same day, "unknown gunmen" fired on two cars near Baqouba, killing four women and injuring four others including this kid.


Tyres burn as Iraqis protest against the increase in fuel prices, in the southern city of Basra, 500 kms from Baghdad. Thousands of angry Iraqis took to the streets to protest government-imposed gasoline price increases as the oil minister threatened to resign if the measure was not reversed. (AFP Dec 19)


A convoy of trucks carrying supplies for the U.S. military was attacked in Baghdad on the 20th.


On December 23, several hundred thousand (according to AP, or "as many as 3,000" according to Green Zone NYT journos) people, mostly Sunni Arabs, staged a rally in Baghdad denouncing the results of the election, calling it rigged and unfair and demanding a UN investigation.


Same day, thousands of Shiites rallied in another district of Baghdad to demand the release of political prisoners from the uprisings last year.


December 25, Baghdad


Karar Ali, 6, was wounded by a mortar, of unknown origin, in Baghdad on the 26th.


On the 28th, detainees at a prison run by Iraqi collaborators rioted, siezing weapons from the guards and attempting to escape. Four prisoners and four guards were reportedly killed, and a U.S. soldier was among the injured.


Jameela Abbas, rear, mourns the loss of her youngest son, Eissa, as his 6-year-old sister Tiba Rasul holds his pictures in Baghdad, Iraq, Sunday, Dec. 18, 2005. Three months ago she bathed him, helped him get dressed, combed his hair and sprayed him with perfume before the six-year-old left with his father for Syria. Nearly four hours later, her husband called to say their son was mistakenly killed by U.S. fire, becoming one of the many Iraqis who die simply for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. (AP)


People look at a row of cars after they were smashed by a U.S. tank during a pre-dawn raid in Baghdad on the 29th.


Riots broke out in Kirkuk on the first day of 2006 as thousands of people protested the IMF-imposed increase in the cost of gasoline. Four people were shot dead by "security forces" - either U.S. troops or the people they are training to replace them.


Gas stations and a state oil company building were torched.


Protests continued over the gas issue in Basra on the same day.


Also that day, Shiites in Baghdad commemorated the death of Mohammed al-Jawad (a long time ago), and used the occasion to demend an end to the occupation, as well as clean water and electricity, etc.


Freelancer Adam Nadel sought out some of the people who have suffered the most from the invasion, occupation, and resistance of Iraq. A few of the pictures he took (from the NYT website):


"I was at home with my sister. She asked me to buy some ice cream. So I thought: ‘Good idea. I’ll get one for you and one for me.’ I remember walking toward the market. Then, an explosion. I woke up at the hospital. Now I am burnt. My ankle is broken. My body is filled with shrapnel."
ALI KHALIL THEJEIL, 22. Wounded when a bomb ignited a fuel truck


Ahmed Muthafar, standing in his Emergency Room after it was trashed by collegues of an Iraqi policemen who he could not save.


"After the shooting stopped, the American convoy continued driving. I thought only the driver was hit. His injuries were serious but not life threatening. When I looked into the back seat, I found my wife and two children covered in blood. I realized my wife was dead. My daughter was dead. I tried to lift my daughter. Parts of her brain fell from the wound on the side of her head. My baby boy was covered with blood and wounds. He survived. I don’t know why the Americans shot at us."
- AHMED MOAYDA, WITH HIS SON, HAMZA Said his family was fired on by an American convoy as they were traveling by car from Baghdad to Jordan

Full series here



Cryptome: Iraq Kill and Maim Zone



News:
An Iraqi journalist traveled to al-Qaim, a city in western Iraq recently sacked by American marines, and filed a report and some pictures with Dahr Jamail.

Long gas lines have returned to Baghdad as the U.S.-installed government has begun to cut subsidies on gasoline as part of a deal with the International Monetary Fund (wherein Iraq will only have to repay $24 billion of Saddam's debts to rich nations). The oil minister refused to go along with the plan; he was fired and U.S. agent Ahmed Chalabi was installed in his place.

Seymour Hersh reports that U.S. commanders plan to shift their strategy in Iraq; Iraqi soldiers will replace Americans on the ground, while American bombs will massacre anyone who resists (and anyone unlucky enough to be targeted, or just blown up, erroneously) from the sky.

PFI needs a new host. If you know of a website that would host this archive, as well as new additions, with FTP access available to the author, please email dirtykaw at yahoo.com. Or if you have fancy webpage skills and would like to help develop a free-standing site, do the same.

Photos from Iraq Archives: (May not work to to constant outages at infoshop.org)

November 6 - 17>

October 27 - November 4>

October 11 - 25

September 23 - October 10

September 5 - 20

August 23 - September 3

August 12 – 22

July 30 - August 10

July 15 – 29

July 1 – 14

June 13 – 28

May 27 – June 12

May 12-25

May 4 – 11

April 26 – May 3

April 13 - 24

March 28—April 10

March 21--27

March 12--20

March 1–11

February 21--28

February 11--20

February 3--10

January 25 – Feb 1

January 15--24

January 3--14

November 23--Dec 6 (2004)

November 16 – 24

November 13–18
September 25--Nov 10

September 1-21


(some photos may be broken due to external sites moving images around)

selected sources:
Cryptome's Iraq-kill-maim.org, which has just started to archive AP photos from Iraq. High quality.

Yahoo Iraq photos
Getty Images> (type ‘Iraq’ and re-search)
Crisis pictures (Defunct)
TheNausea.com
Dahr Jamail
Please reply here if you know where more original Iraq photos, preferably with details, can be obtained.

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