From the General Federation of Workers' Councils and Unions in Iraq (GFWCUI), Dec. 13:

Dear Brothers and Sisters in the global struggle for workers’ rights, peace and justice:

Plans are underway to hold an International Labor Conference in Iraq in February 13 & 14, 2009. We see this as an important and urgent step toward strengthening and unifying the labor movement in Iraq. Only through increased solidarity in Iraq, and with workers in the region and around the world can we hope to impact the fate not only of workers but of all Iraqis.

A female suicide bomber killed at least 35, including women and children, and wounded 65 others in an attack on a religious procession near the holy Kadhimiyah shrine in northern Baghdad Jan. 4. The woman blew herself up at a checkpoint as Shi'ite pilgrims commemorating the Muharram ceremonies converged on the mausoleum of Imam Mousa al-Kadhim, Baghdad's most important Shi'ite site shrine.

A suicide bomber on a bicycle in Iraq's northern city of Mosul targeted a protest against the Israeli air-raids on the Gaza Strip, killing one civilian and wounding 16 on Dec. 27. The protest was sponsored by the Sunni-backed Iraqi Islamic Party (IIP). (AFP, Dec. 28) The attack came days after raucous parliamentary sessions over the pending agreement allowing foreign troops to remain in Iraq.

A Jordan-based Iraqi rights group announced this week it has filed 200 lawsuits against former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and US security firms for their roles in torturing Iraqis. Ali Qeisi, head of the Society of Victims of the US Occupation in Iraq, said the cases, relating to abuse of prisoners, have been filed in federal courts in Virginia, Michigan and Maryland. "Around 30 lawsuits have been accepted so far," Qeisi told AFP. The others are still under consideration. "The torture was systemic, and those responsible for it should be punished and the victims should be compensated," he said. Qeisi said he himself was tortured by US troops in Iraq during a six-month detention.

Japanese and South Korean forces both ended their missions in Iraq this week. The approximately 200 Japanese troops in Kuwait for an air support mission in Iraq are to return home by the end of the year. Japan withdrew its 500 ground troops from a reconstruction mission to southern Iraq in 2006. About 520 South Korean soldiers have already returned from northern Iraq's Irbil province, marking the end of a four-year reconstruction mission that had about 3,600 troops at its height—the third-largest contingent after the US and Britain. Both missions were officially noncombatant. Tokyo withdrew its 600-strong force in southern Iraq in 2006 but continued to airlift equipment and troops. The deployment was Japan's first to a combat zone since World War II, and sparked considerable public opposition. (AlJazeera, Dec. 19; BBC, Dec. 18)

Reporter Muntadhar al-Zeidi notoriously hurled his shoes at Bush—a vile insult in the Muslim world—during a press conference in Baghdad, yelling "this is a farewell kiss, you dog. This is from the widows, the orphans and those who were killed in Iraq." He was arrested right after the toss. (Blast, Dec. 16) Predictably, like many journalists, he had been detained by US forces. But to the discomfiture of just about all sides in Iraq, he was also disgusted by the "insurgents" and Iranian influence in his country. Thus reports AP Dec. 16:

Samir Adil, president of the Iraq Freedom Congress (IFC), was among those wounded in a Dec. 11 suicide attack on a reconciliation meeting in the divided northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk. His wounds are not life-threatening, the IFC reports via e-mail. The IFC has been working across ethnic divides in Kirkuk to unite local communities against the US occupation and sectarian militias.

Here's a case study in what Iraq's besieged secular left calls the "two poles of terrorism." The news reports now are not recalling it, but we noted at the time of the attacks last year that the victims in this atrocity were Armenian Christians—and Iraq's indigenous Christians have also been massively targeted for "sectarian cleansing" by the jihadis (or, to use the too-flattering media term, "insurgents"). From the Washington Post, Dec. 6:

Iraqi security guards opened fire when a riot broke out Dec. 3 among 1,000 Asian migrant workers protesting poor treatment in Baghdad. The men work for Najlaa International Catering Services, a subcontractor to Houston-based KBR. The top US Defense Department contractor in Iraq, KBR is already the target of federal lawsuits over alleged human trafficking and other wrongdoing.

Suicide bombings in Baghdad and Mosul took the lives of at least 32 Iraqis Nov. 1. The following day, three separate attacks in Mosul—two car bombs, including one at a crowded market, and an armed assault on Sunni Arab political leaders—left at least 11 dead and 41 injured. The attacks come amid a power struggle between Iraq's Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki and the Kurdish regional government over al-Maliki's proposal to create new tribal councils that would answer to his government. Kurds are trying to expand their autonomous zone in the north, and Kurdish leaders fear the new councils could become local militias that the government could use against them in the north. (NYT, Dec. 3; DPA, Dec. 2; NYT, Dec. 1)