"We've tried different ways to survive in a dignified way but we've reached the end of the road now. We need to leave the country but we don't have money for that.

"For the past seven months, I've been selling half of our monthly food rations to raise some money to flee to Syria. We don't need that much to get the whole family there - about US $400 for a taxi ride. I might soon have enough money.

"On average, I get about US $20 a month from the half a food ration that I sell. . The supermarkets are the best buyers as they pay from $15 to $20.

"Abdya earns about $30 per month as a housekeeper. She gives me that to add to our funds for leaving Iraq.

"I have taken my children out of school to save money and, in any case, with this level of violence in the country, education is no longer important.

"I have now found another good way to get additional money. Some companies are buying empty cans so I spend all day collecting as many cans as I can from rubbish bins. I take my son Yehia along to help me so that we can finish early.

"Sometimes I'm lucky enough to pass near the scene of a recent attack or explosion and I don't waste time in picking up what I can from the remains that can be sold. I try to sell in markets where anything can be bought.

"I know all this sounds strange for a family that was once living in a nice house, good car and a good job. Unfortunately, we lost everything in the past year as sectarian violence increased and we ended up with thousands of other Iraqis who had become displaced.

"We are all tired of living without government support. We are on our own. My parents were assassinated during former president Saddam Hussein's regime and my wife's parents were killed by US troops in Najaf during the August 2004 attack.

"In the past, I used to pray every day for someone to invade Iraq and take Saddam away from us. These days, I ask God to forgive him because we are paying the consequences of our betrayal with more death, torture, hunger and thirst than was the case during his time."

Dia Hamid/AFP

Awja, IRAQ: Iraqis pray over the body of Taha Yassin Ramadan, Iraq's former vice president and Saddam Hussein aide, who was executed this morning, before his burial in Saddam's home village of Awja 20 March 2007.

The US military flew the body of former Iraqi vice-president Taha Yassin Ramadan, who was executed early this morning, to Tikrit today for burial near his former boss, Saddam Hussein. Ramadan reportedly dictated his wishes for his final resting place in his will.

After landing in Tikrit, the US military turned Ramadan's remains over to local Iraqi police, who then transported it to Awja, Saddam's hometown just north of Tikrit.

The AP reports that hundreds of people turned out to mourn Ramadan, following the flag-draped casket as it made its way to the burial yard.

Just outside the building in which the former dictator is entombed, the courtyard also holds the remains of Ramadan's former co-defendents, Awad Hamed al-Bandar and Saddam's half-brother, Barzan Ibrahim. Saddam's grandson, Mustafa, is also buried in the yard, and sons Uday and Qusai were recently relocated to be placed near their father.

Locals plan on holding a three-day wake to commemorate Ramadan's passing.

Sean Gallup/Getty

BERLIN - MARCH 19: German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Afghan President Hamid Karzai speak to the media after talks at the Chancellery on March 19, 2007 in Berlin, Germany.

As Germany awaits word on the fate of two citizens held hostage in Iraq, Chancellor Angela Merkel reaffirmed her government's refusal to bow to captors demands. Ten days ago, the kidnappers gave Angela Merkel 10 days to begin pulling German troops out of Afghanistan, under threat of execution of the two hostages.

The little-known "Swords of Righteousness" insurgent group released a video on March 10 showing a German woman and her son, who were kidnapped from their Baghdad home in early February.

The woman, Hannelore Marianne Krause, a longtime Iraq resident and German citizen married to an Iraqi physician, read the demand of their captors--that Germany withdraw the 3,000 troops it has in Afghanistan.

Merkel met with Hamid Karzai in Berlin on Monday, and Deutsche Welle reports that the German leader reassured him that Germany would not abandon Afghanistan.

"Naturally, given the situation, we are greatly concerned," Merkel said of the kidnapping victims. "We know what our commitment to the civilian rebuilding means to the Afghan government, and we should not be blackmailed by people who are terrorists."

Since al-Darraji has been the main negotiator with the US military in talks aimed to reign in Mahdi fighters, suspicions are that he was targeted by a more radical wing of Sadr's militia that has become disillusioned because of the cooperation with the Americans.

The AP reported that a local Mahdi Army commander "said suspicion fell on a group of disaffected militiamen who are angry about the deal. 'This is a faction that enjoys some weight,' the Mahdi Army commander said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject."

The relative calm that has fallen over Mahdi operations since the beginning of the Baghdad security sweep has been seen as one of the plan's most significant successes, but the attempted assassination of the Sadrist leader responsible for negotiating the temporary half-truce does not bode well for future security. The attack on Darraji may be the clearest indication yet that the fissures in the Mahdi militia could lead to the complete spin-off of an even more radical paramilitary unit.

“He’s a very significant part of this political process. We do continue to track his whereabouts,” he said.

Moqtada al-Sadr disappeared from public view a week or so prior to the US-Iraqi security sweep into Baghdad, and rumors have swirled about his whereabouts and reasons for lowering his profile.

Sadr's aides have denied reports that their leader fled the country for Iran, though Slogger sources indicated that even his closest associates may not have been aware of Sadr's plan.

Iranian officials have also denied Sadr is in-country, though there is no reason to take what they say at face value.

Doubts still remain about whether or not Sadr's disappearance resulted from a warning by Maliki.

Despite his absence, Sadr has remained outspoken about his views of the American security plan.

Celebratory gunfire is a chronic problem in Iraq, and it often kills.

Sabah Arar/AFP/Getty

Iran's deputy foreign minister for legal and international affairs Abbas Araghshi addresses the media at the end of the Baghdad peace conference 10 March 2007.

Zalmay Khalilzad, US ambassador to Iraq, and Abbas Aragachi, deputy foreign minister of Iran, had a brief but reportedly constructive exchange of words Saturday at the international peace talks in Baghdad.

Khalilzad "declined to give details of the contacts — calling them only 'constructive and businesslike and problem-solving' — but noted that he raised U.S. assertions that Shiite militias receive weapons and assistance across the border from Iran," acording to the AP.

Aragachi reportedly reiterated Iranian demands for a scheduled date of withdrawal of foreign troops from Iraq, which he insists makes the country a magnet for Islamic extremists.

"Violence in Iraq is good for no country in the region," said Araghchi, deputy foreign minister for legal and international affairs, at a post-meeting news conference.

Araghchi said he did not meet privately with Khalilzad, but that all dialogue "was within the framework of the meeting" — which he said had "very good interaction by all the delegations."

Khalilzad, too, called it a "first step."

Amidst the chaos and violence of US-occupied Iraq, the significance of widespread gender-based violence has been largely overlooked. Yet Iraqi women are enduring unprecedented levels of assault in the public sphere, "honor killings," torture in detention, and other forms of gender-based violence.

In honor of International Women's Day today, MADRE, a global women's human rights organization, has released a new report on the incidence, causes, and legalization of gender-based violence in Iraq since the US-led invasion.

Houzan Mahmoud, representative of the Organisation for Women's Freedom in Iraq (OWFI), said at a panel discussion at the UN launching the report:

"Women are not only being targeted because they are members of the civilian population, women--in particular those who are perceived to pose a challenge to the political aspirations of their attackers--have increasingly been targeted simply because they are women."

The report, Promising Democracy, Imposing Theocracy: Gender-Based Violence and the US War on Iraq, documents the use of gender-based violence by Islamists seeking to establish a theocratic state and makes the case that US policy decisions have empowered radicals at the expense of women's rights.

One of my favorite Iraq bloggers, Nibras Kazimi, now has a post up at Talisman's Gate exploring the background of Mashhadani. It looks like there might be some substance to claims that Baghdadi and Mashhadani are one and the same.

Kazimi makes a disclaimer that he has no absolute confirmation, but his digging into Mashhadani's background uncovers information that meshes with other rumored details of Baghdadi's past--namely that he is a Salifist who had been arrested under Saddam's regime, and that his Islamic pedigree claims descent from the Prophet's grandson, al-Hussein bin Ali. According to Kazimi:

"This is the best I could do to tie all this up together, according to my sources: al-Baghdadi’s full name is Khalid Khalil Ibrahim al-Mashhadani. He is in his early 40s, and is known as ‘Abu Zaid’. He had been a Salafist under Saddam, and was briefly detained then over some unknown infraction....

Khalid’s family belongs to the Albu Mu’alleg branch of the Mashhadanis. The Mashhadani’s believe that they are descended from Al-Hussein bin Ali, which would make them Hashemites."

Interestingly, Kazimi goes on to note:

"Both Iraq’s Vice President, Tariq al-Hashemi, and the Speaker of the Parliament, Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, who are the leading Sunnis in the Iraqi government, belong to the Mashhadabi tribe. I wonder how it would have passed their notice that one of their own is allegedly the head of the Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Qaeda’s candidate caliph."

"We have received reliable intelligence that militiamen planted explosives inside al-Nabaa primary school in Ur neighborhood," the source told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI).

The source added, "Pupils were dismissed unharmed while U.S. forces blew up the bombs."

There were no casualties but the school fence was damaged and some windows were broken in the operation, he added.

Slogger notes (Updated): The Arabic-language version of this story describes the explosives as "missile shells" that inside the school's front garden, and refers to them as "Austrian made." It is unknown at this time how the shells were delivered to the site, nor if they targeted the school or landed errantly.

In a major survey of the plight of Iraq's minorities, the report finds that these groups - some of whom have lived in Iraq for over two millennia - are being targeted by Sunni, Shia and Kurdish groups as the battle for power and territory in Iraq intensifies.

The report titled Assimilation, Exodus, Eradication: Iraq's minority communities since 2003 outlines the precarious position of the country's minorities - Armenian and Chaldo-Assyrian Christians, Bahá'ís, Faili Kurds, Jews, Mandaeans, Palestinians, Shabaks, Turkomans and Yazidis - who make up ten per cent of Iraq's population.

According to Mark Lattimer, Director of MRG, 'Every day we hear news about the carnage in Iraq, yet the desperate situation of minority communities is barely reported. Subject to a barrage of attacks, kidnappings and threats from all sides, some communities which have lived in Iraq for two thousand years now face extinction.'

Religious communities are being targeted because of their faith. Christians are attacked often because they are believed to be associated with the West, while the Mandaean and Yazidi religions have been dubbed "impure" by Islamic extremists.

The flight of minority groups is immense - it is estimated that they make up a third of the 1.8m Iraqi refugees now seeking sanctuary across the globe.

But says Lattimer, 'Despite the fact that many Iraqi Christians fled because they were accused of association with the American or British forces, hardly any Iraqis have been offered refuge in the US or the UK.' MRG is calling on the international community, especially the UK and US, to share the refugee burden and not leave it to fall disproportionately on neighbouring states.

In oil-rich Kirkuk, minorities also find themselves under pressure, in advance of a 2007 referendum on whether Kirkuk should become part of Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish region.

Minority representatives report that they are being pressured to support Kurdish political parties or to state their identity as Kurdish, which will strengthen Kurdish claims to land.

Preti Taneja, author of the report says, 'MRG is calling on the international community and the Iraqi government to recognize the special vulnerability of the country's minorities. This should be the basic starting point, if Iraq's minority groups are to survive the current onslaught.'

The full text of the report is available here.MRGIraqReport.pdf

WISSAM AL-OKAILI/AFP

Iraqis chant slogans as they carry the coffin of a member of Moqtada Sadr (poster) Mehdi militia during his funeral in Baghdad's impoverished district of Sadr City, 18 December 2006.

Moqtada al-Sadr has remained out of sight for the past weeks, and reports have indicated a drop in sectarian killings in his absence.

Newsweek's Rod Nordland reports that Sadr's low profile has resulted from Iranian pressure and the influence of Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.

Nordland cites the Iraqi human rights minister Wijdan Salim as saying that Iran has been withholding advice and aid to Sadrists and pressuring them to stop the sectarian massacres: "Sadr is convinced that there's no real outcome of this struggle, and backfired," he says.

Nordland also recounts a Sistani-Sadr meeting of about a month ago where the Ayatollah reportedly presented his underling with his options:

Alarmed at the U.S. crackdown, Sadr had an 11 p.m. meeting with Sistani about a month ago, according to an aide to the grand ayatollah, speaking on condition of anonymity in keeping with practice in the cleric's office. "He asked the sayyid what he should do about the attacks against him, and told him, 'You have two options: bear the consequences, on you and Shias in general, or withdraw into a corner'."

Essam al-Sudani/AFP

An oil tanker fills up at the port in Basra, southern Iraq, February 2007.

If a struggle for wealth and power lies at the heart of Iraq's sectarian violence, then a well-functioning oil industry and an equitable oil revenue policy may lie at the heart of national reconciliation. In the run-up to the 2003 invasion, U.S. officials predicted that oil finance the country's post-war development. That prospect languished as brain drain and insurgent sabotage eviscerated the oil sector.

Iraq's cabinet approved on Monday a draft law for the revival of Iraq's moribund oil industry, in a significant show of compromise among Kurdish, Shiite, and Sunni lawmakers. However, key issues such as the ability of the oil producing Kurdish and Shiite regions to enter into contracts with foreign companies, and the distribution of revenues have yet to be elaborated.

Privatization or State Control?

At the heart of the bill is the provision that the governments of Iraq's oil producing regions - located in the Kurdish north and Shiite-dominated south - will have the power to negotiate production-sharing agreements with foreign oil companies.

Prevalent in Central Asia, production-sharing agreements (PSAs) generally assign ownership of the physical oil to the host country, while allowing foreign companies to manage and operate oil fields. Revenues from the oil are shared by the government and the oil company on a pre-specified basis.

Allowing regional governments to contract with international oil companies, with their abundant capital and technical expertise, "would allow the country to rehabilitate its oil sector more quickly -- thereby enriching the national coffers -- than were it to go the nationalization route," reports Radio Free Europe.

Alternet reports that the draft law, by allowing for production-sharing agreements, "would represent a u-turn for Iraq's oil industry, which has been in the public sector for more than three decades."

PSAs generally shift all financial and operational risk to the foreign oil company, and do not require the host government to invest its share of profits in further development. Depending on how they are designed, PSAs may be canceled or terminated, or they may be enacted into law to give the oil company greater security.

Writing for The Nation, Christian Parenti characterizes the legislation as "re-creating a single Iraqi National Oil Company, which will in turn dole out oil income to the regions on a per-capita basis." He takes a dim view of a proposed Federal Oil and Gas Council that would have veto power over all production-sharing agreements, noting that it will be "controlled by the prime minister" and will "effectively bypass Parliament."

The law would have "disastrous effects" by allowing for regional autonomy, Fadil Chalabi of the Centre for Global Energy Studies in London tells Al-Jazeera. "It will lead to fragmentation, it will have no central planning, no central policy-making authority - and if this is going to be the case, this law could negative effects on the oil industry in Iraq."

Sharing the Wealth

"All revenue from oil sales would go into a single national account," reports the LA Times, "but all regions and provinces would have a seat on an energy policymaking body, and provinces would receive shares of revenue and have control over how they spent it."

Voice of America reports that a not-yet-drafted "revenue sharing agreement" will determine how oil revenues are to be distributed, but it will most likely be based on "population distribution." The Nation's Parenti notes that this per-capita arrangement "might help de-escalate sectarian conflict."

Parliament Vote

The bill now goes to the 275-member Parliament, where the likelihood of its passage is "unclear," the AP reports.

Iraq and Turkey may have removed a potential obstacle to the law's adoption last week by shelving plans last week for a referendum on the autonomy of the oil-rich city of Kirkuk for another two years (see Azzaman report here).

However, Sunni lawmakers will almost certainly scrutize the bill's still-vague revenue-sharing provisions, while Shiite and Kurdish lawmakers may question the power of the proposed Federal Oil and Gas Council, with its power to veto regional contracts with foreign oil companies.

If the oil law does pass, it will by no means end the violence, incompetence, and corruption that paralyzes the oil industry and makes Iraq an abysmal investment climate for foreign oil companies - and there is little question that Iraq will need the latter's vast resources of capital, security, and technical expertise.