Update - Ongoing democratic work after the Makhmur bomb

Update - Ongoing democratic work after the Makhmur bomb

We were recently at the hospital in Hewler to visit our dear friend Abdul Rahman Belaf. He was in great mood and eager about the work towards democracy. We admire him a lot.

Mayor Abdul Rahman Belaf and minister Taha Barwary, and in the background stands the authour Reidar Sabir.






"...fortunately the democratic process and work will not stop with this terrorist attack. And there are thousands of Abdul Rahman Belaf to replace the first Abdul Rahman [meaning himself]. Our work and democratic process will never stop."

A relative young guy who was wouded.

A badly wounded young guy. He also lost his brother.

This guy had got hit by splinter from the bomb in his stomache.


During the day there were two terrorist bomb attacks in Kirkuk also.

But the work goes on....

New terrorist attack - But the democratic work never stops

There has been a new bomb in South Kurdistan today. This time in Makhmur. The bomb exploded during a big meeting outside of the city hall and the nearbying local KDP office branch 23. At this time 32-35 persons has been killed and 120 people are injured, as reported, in this act of terrorism.

The Mayor of Makhmur and the local national hero Abdulrahman Belaf was hit in the explosion and is injured. He gave anyway an interview to TV and radio regarding the terrorist attack.

Makhmur is today not under Kurdistan Regional Government administration.



This is a picture with Fredrik Malm and the mayor Abdulrahman Belaf. This picture was taken 2007-04-03 during Fredrik Malms visit to Kurdistan. Fredrik Malm is memeber of the parliament in Sweden and is a true friend of the Kurds.

The mayor on TV after the terrorist attack. He said: "...fortunately the democratic process and work will not stop with this terrorist attack. And there are thousands of Abdul Rahman Belaf to replace the first Abdul Rahman [meaning himself]. Our work will never stop."

The mayor of Mekhmur here seen with a girl and her father in Makhmur refugee camp.



These pictures below are from the emergency in Hewler after the terrorist attack.
























Today 2007-05-13 at 11.25 o clock a truck, coverd as a truck loaded with metal for construction work, exploded between the city hall and the local KDP office branch 23. It was an suicide attack and the truck exploded when it was close to the KDP office.

The explosion was so powerful that 100 cars has been blown out around the explosion.

There has been appeal from the minister for care that the people shall not load the care institutions and the care personell. This so they can do their job better. But it seems not unresonable that relatives want to know what has happened or to be close to the hurted.

There are huge mass of people seeking towards where help is needed to provide help in which way it may be. The democratic work will never stop in Kurdistan . It has not been stopped in history and will never be stopped in future... This is very obvious here in Kurdistan.

The scene of the terrorist action. Special Kurdish peshmerga forces.

Barzan travel and Hewler bomb

Yesterway it was a terrorist attack in Hewler. It led to 12 persons death and 70 injured. It will also cause severe damage to the democratic work and the safety work that has been built up in the area. but hopefully it will work as a ringing bell to never stop the decmoratic work and to always be aware of the safety and to develop it.

Yesterday our staff had a work travel to Barzani area amongst them Mergasur, Sherwan and Piran. We left hewler 6 in the morning so we were not there during the terrorist attack. However we got aware of it immediately but could not interrupt our plans.




I will update the blog with picture from yesterdays Barzan travel later on today. But here is a picture i took today on the Interior Ministry building. A big misstake in the planning was to have the Asaish (secret service) and the Interior Ministry located beside each other and located on a big comon road in the middle in the city.

The reconstruction work has already begun as you can see on the road. The situation is calm and there are less peopole outside, today in Hewler.

Rahimawa travel station

The travel station in Kirkuk, Rahimawa is soon rebuilt again. It was not many days ago since it was all blown up by terrorist car bombings. But people in Kirkuk do not give up and see this as an period that will end like it has done in the other cities in Kurdistan.

The new building can be seen rise in front of the police car. It is not much of a travel station but this is the reality of Kirkuk.

Kirkuk bomb

Today (yesterday since it is past midnight at sending this post) we traveled to Kirkuk. Soon before our arrival we got updated that we should go by another way because of car bomb explosions close to one of our location that was our destiny. We took another way and also that one was partly closed with trucks in front of the road. When we had parked our car we heard a big explosion and a chaos started.

Kurdish security forces immediately searched through our car. At let us continue to our location.

The smoke was immediately visible behind this mosque.

At our way to our location we saw the area of the explosion. American and Kurdish Iraqi security forces were there.








When we arrived we found out that these explosions were actually cars placed out by terrorist that the people had been suspect about and they had sent out an alarm. With this American forces blew up the cars that were strategically placed out to kill as many people as possible in a very crowded Kurdish area of Kirkuk. They are heroes for this action but it is first and most the people in Kirkuk that are the real heroes that has to live with this situation. It is mostly them selves that catch terrorists and reveal their networks and their car bombs. Last week a police car was circulating around one of our sensitive locations. The people in the area got suspicious and overmanned the lone police officer in his car. It showed out that the car was adapted and full with explosives. It was an Iraqi ING police officer. In the explosions of today there was again an adapted police car.



The americans leaving with their gigantic vehicles and this special truck after an special effort.

The inhabitants of this city have to decide about their destiny through a democratic election instead of letting terrorist plan their dark future. And this should be done as soon as possible before it is too late.

Travel Station

Yesterday I traveled to Slemani to pick up an oscilloscope. It is a necessary measurements instrument that I have been without for a time.

There are two garages in Kirkuk where you travel from, either by bus or taxi. One is for travels to Slemani and the other for travel to Hewler, the later is in Rahimawa quarter. I melt in among the citizens pretty good as long as I do not talk. So I went to the Slemani garage to take a cab.

You have to be careful and be ware for the signs, risk for abductions are very high. What the signs are you will learn with time and hopefully not too late. I sat down in the backseat of a cab to Slemani. The guy beside me had a Kalashnikov on the floor. I also saw that he was wearing “klash” which is Kurdish folklore shoes. I was feeling pretty safe then because he were probably Peshmerga in civil clothes, along with his colleagues. They went off at a Peshmerga headquarter when we were close to Slemani.

Last time I traveled from Kirkuk I traveled from Rahimawa station. There were no cabs so we had to wait for a half hour but at last we got one. One week ago on the 17:th February the Rahimawa travel station were blown up by terrorists. Approximated 12 persons were killed in the blast and 86 persons were injured. We passed by the Rahimawa travel center and it was not much left of it. It was a Kurdish area that in many peoples mind was the last place for a terrorist bomb.

Rahimawa travel station a week after the explosion. On the corner there was a building that is now totally gone. This was the crowdy central and there were cars and busses all around the street. It is now desert empty lik many other parts of the city.


In Slemani I met up with some colleagues for some late evening work. I traveled back to Kirkuk the day after early in the morning and the colleagues were going to another place.


This is the monument in honour of "Mama Risha". He was a legendary Peshmerga originating from Kirkuk.


This blog should have been posted yesterday but was delayed because of terrible internet in this area.